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,…)
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.