So much time and money can be lost or gained based on how you handle your prospects. Therefore, it’s crucial to have a good system with effective tools to keep your pipeline full of real prospects.
Today, there are amazing automated and time-efficient sales prospecting tools that are invaluable for building a bigger, more engaged sales pipeline.
And having worked and experimented with the best tools for prospecting, we know of some solid tools that can help you generate more leads. These are eight of our favorites that you should try if you haven't already.
Tool #1 - Hunter.io
Have you ever tried scraping contacts from LinkedIn? It’s one of the easiest ways to search for new leads! With 40% of LinkedIn users checking their LinkedIn daily, it’s one of the top social networks for getting the most up to date information on prospects. But the only way to contact them directly is through LinkedIn’s website.
This is where Hunter.io comes in. By using the Chrome Extension, you can open a prospect’s public LinkedIn profile and pull their email information.
There are many tools on the market to help you with this process, but we’ve found that Hunter.io has been reliably the best way to pull email information from LinkedIn. They also include 150 free email tracking searches per month if you sign up on their website.
Tool #2 - Datanyze Insider
Similar to Hunter but with a few additional features, Datanyze Insider guesses the email for you from their contact information and their company’s web address.
You can use it when you find a prospect from a Google search result or if you are given a verbal referral from another contact at the target company. Their Google Chrome extension offers 10 free email credits per month, which isn't a lot, but enough to sample the tool and see if it would be useful for you.
Tool #3 - ZoomInfo
ZoomInfo is a comprehensive platform that offers a deep dive into the profiles of over 100 million businesses and professionals, helping your sales team to make informed decisions and connect with the right leads.
ZoomInfo's advanced search options streamline the prospecting process, enabling you to pinpoint your ideal leads based on specific factors. Plus, their unique intent data feature identifies prospects already interested in your products or services, giving you a competitive edge.
While there may be a slight learning curve to fully utilize ZoomInfo's features, the depth and quality of information provided make it an invaluable tool for any sales prospecting arsenal.
Tool #4 - Sales Navigator for Gmail
Sales Navigator for Gmail is a wonderful tool that consolidates your contact's info in your Gmail account. It’s a LinkedIn product that works with Gmail to make the connection between a LinkedIn profile and an email address.
It can show you your contact's:
- Photo
- Job title
- Website
- Social media profiles and updates
You can even take notes with it and see their location. And since it lives right in Gmail, you'll see your prospects information every time you send or respond to an email from them.
Tool #5 - PhoneBurner & SmartSender
PhoneBurner is a powerful tool. You can use it to:
- Import leads from spreadsheets and other sources
- Pre-record voice messages when you land on a prospect’s voicemail (and choose the one you want to deliver)
- Create emails to send in one click to contacts based on the outcome of a call
- Track email opens, attachment views, video views, and link clicks
- Choose the people you want to contact based on your own specific criteria
- Blaze through call list at a pace of up to 80 contacts per hour
It’s also extremely mobile. You can log in from any computer and make calls from any phone.
Plus, PhoneBurner’s SmartSender feature gives you the ability to upload and bundle resources (ie. links, videos, documents, etc.) into email-delivered “SmartPacks” that alert you in real time when your prospects interact with them.
Knowing which prospects are engaged and what they are engaging with presents you with powerful follow-up and conversion opportunities that can really help you close more deals.
Tool #6 - WiseStamp
Can an email signature be awesome? Yes, it can!
WiseStamp is a neat little tool that helps you create highly engaging and attractive email signatures that incorporate dynamic content.
How would you like a signature that links to your latest Tweet, recent blog content, company news, or newest deals?
WiseStamp can connect your signature to your social media or company website and create a more engaging prospecting email that will help produce more replies.
Tool #7 - BriteVerify
Need to verify lead lists and other email data that you’ve collected? BriteVerify has you covered.
By simply uploading a CSV file with the emails you wish to verify, BriteVerify will tell you whether they are valid emails or not. This will help you keep your bounce rate down when doing cold email outreach.
If you are paying for email marketing based on the number of emails you have, this is a great way to lower the number of emails (and the amount you pay) without losing any real prospects.
Tool #8 - Calendly
You: Does Tuesday work for our call?
Me: No. How about Wednesday?
You: Sorry… Wednesday is no good. What does next week look like?
Me: I’m on vacation next week.
Avoid conversations like these with Calendly and have a clean, simple link that allows people to self-select a time that works for you and them.
Benefits to using Calendly:
- It connects with popular calendar programs like Google Calendar and iCal
- It’s automated, so your meetings are up-to-date without you doing a single thing
- You can use Zapier connections to integrate this with your CRM.
Hopefully, these tools help you find more prospects, connect better with your leads, and close more sales.
Now we’re curious, what are some of your favorite tools for improving your sales prospecting?
