B2B commercial prospecting: to find customers effectively Article summary What is commercial prospecting? (sales, prospects, etc.) Prospecting
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Prospecting is the process of finding new customers for a company. It is an essential business activity for the company's sustainability. In B2B, the buying process can be long and complex. It is also necessary to mobilize several channels to get in touch with prospects.
A prospecting software allows you to centralize information and automate part of the process to generate qualified commercial leads and transform them into customers.
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What is a sales prospecting software?
A prospecting software is a tool that facilitates the search for new customers for a company. It is used to continuously feed the commercial pipeline and to identify short-term customer projects. It also allows you to collect and centralize information about prospects, so that salespeople can contextualize the contact and maximize their performance.
Today, prospecting is done using many different tools and sales channels. Companies prospect on the web, on social media, by phone, by email, at trade shows. A prospecting solution allows you to adopt an omnichannel management of your prospecting actions. In other words, it guarantees the coherence of actions thanks to the centralization of data and the global management of the commercial activity.
Prospecting well: The features of a prospecting tool
Contact and customer management
The first feature of a prospecting software is the construction of a prospect database. Regardless of the prospecting methods used by the company, the tool centralizes the contact data.
It contains both profile information (identity of the contact, position held, company, email address, phone number,…) and behavioral data (history of interactions, evaluation of the level of maturity, lead scoring,…).
The centralization of this information in a single tool then allows:
- Segment the database according to the criteria of your choice (position, geographical area, level of maturity, etc.)
- Perform simple or advanced searches in the contact database
- Manage prospecting actions (teleprospecting, email campaigns, etc.)
Marketing campaign management
Prospecting is not just about sales teams taking care of prospects. Upstream, you need to create a continuous flow of leads, a sales pipeline. The prospecting software covers all the steps of the conversion tunnel, from the first contact to the closing. These software programs are real tools that also act as marketing facilitators.
Email marketing automation
When prospects are cold or still in the discovery phase, they don't know the company and are just beginning to identify their problem. At this stage, their purchase intention is low. Therefore, they are not ready for immediate commercial support. Your salespeople will be better employed doing what they do best: closing sales with hot prospects.
Marketing automation (and particularly email marketing automation ) will allow you to automatically process leads that are not yet mature. In your prospecting tool, you will be able to program automated email sequences to mature prospects and evaluate their purchase intent.
Lead scoring
By using a dedicated sales software to prospect, you will also benefit from the lead scoring functionality. Lead scoring consists of assigning a score to the prospect, corresponding to its level of maturity. For each interaction with your emails or content on your website, the prospect receives points. For example, +10 if they click on a link in an emailing or -5 if they did not open the message.
When the lead reaches a predefined score, it is considered mature enough for a sales qualification call. The prospecting tool automatically triggers the relay between marketing and sales.
Management of commercial actions
The use of a B2B prospecting tool facilitates the management of the commercial activity. Indeed, it allows sales representatives to quickly identify mature prospects, to be contacted in priority.
In addition, each prospect record summarizes the history of interactions. When the salesperson prepares the call, he or she knows exactly what marketing messages the prospect has reacted to. This information is very useful to personalize and contextualize the contact.
Reporting and management of the commercial activity
The interest of the prospecting software also lies in its functionalities and reporting tools. Indeed, a commercial strategy is based on precise objectives. When implementing the strategy, sales managers also determine KPIs to monitor the performance of the actions taken.
The prospecting tool generates reports and dashboards to monitor campaign results in real time and, if necessary, readjust the action plan.
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Why use prospecting software?
Generate sales leads from prospects
For most companies, generating sales leads is the number one marketing issue. The goal, of course, is to feed qualified leads to the sales team on a continuous basis. A prospecting solution meets this challenge.
Automated marketing and/or sales emails help to mature leads. Thanks to this type of campaign, you can obtain very good conversion rates even when working on a cold emailing logic. To do this, it is important to have an updated contact base and to segment it according to your business objectives and your target customer typologies.
Second, automated workflows are used to:
- Gather additional information on prospects
- Qualify sales leads by assessing their maturity level
- Provide relevant information to prospects to increase their engagement
Once a prospect's buying intent has been detected, through the lead scoring functionality, the lead can be passed on to the sales team at the right time and in the best conditions.
Reduce sales cycles
In B2B, sales cycles can be long and complex. The advantage of software is that it allows you to shorten the cycle.
Automated email scripts save time for marketing and sales teams. Leads that can't be handled immediately by sales remain in the pipeline and the conversation continues with them. The hottest leads are handled immediately by the sales team, with no latency.
Thus, the conversion mechanism is continuous. Sales people can focus on closing. But at the same time, marketing efforts are constantly generating new business opportunities.
Why use software like Magileads in B2B?
The Magileads solution covers all the needs of companies in terms of B2B sales prospecting . Indeed, its many features include:
- Access to a database of qualified, up-to-date and easily segmentable professional contacts based on multiple criteria
- Email marketing automation to create smart email campaigns and generate lead engagement
- Lead scoring to evaluate the maturity level of a lead and facilitate the relay between marketing and sales
- Integrated CRM to track interested prospects and turn them into customers
With a single tool, you can manage all stages of the customer journey, from first contact to purchase.
Need more leads?
Try Magileads!
Why use Magileads in B2B?
The Magileads solution covers all the needs of companies in terms of B2B prospecting. Indeed, its many features include:
- Access to a database of qualified, up-to-date and easily segmentable professional contacts based on multiple criteria
- Email marketing automation to create smart email campaigns and generate lead engagement
- Lead scoring to evaluate the maturity level of a lead and facilitate the relay between marketing and sales
- Integrated PRM CRM to track interested prospects and turn them into customers
With a single tool, you can manage all stages of the customer journey, from first contact to purchase
Need more leads?
Try Magileads!
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