Sales people spend less than a quarter of their time actually engaged in selling activities.Â
This is because they spend a lot of time on background activities likeÂ
- tapping into social networks to find promising leads,Â
- sending cold emails and setting up follow-up email campaigns, andÂ
- studying target accounts for actionable insightsÂ
when they could be focusing more on direct customer interaction.
While systematic discovery, qualification, and outreach are essential to the sales prospecting process, not all the substeps involved require the hours of manual labor that go into it.
This is where sales intelligence platforms come in.Â
This article will familiarize you with the best sales tools with a wide range of features that can help you convert your target audience. You’re sure to find something that suits your business’ needs!
Before we dive in, let’s understand what a sales prospecting tool actually does.
What is a Sales Prospecting Tool?
A sales prospecting tool optimizes, simplifies and automates various steps in the sales prospecting process. It is a software with niche tools designed specifically to facilitate the hassle free execution of at least one crucial step in your B2B sales prospecting efforts.
Some common sales prospecting steps that your B2B sales prospecting tool can help you automate include:
High-quality lead identification
Sales prospecting tools can help you sift through hoards of data and identify the best profiles for your sales strategy to target based on several factors such as the type of industry, revenue, company size, and tech stack.
Prospect prioritization
These tools can then help you segment prospects according to their importance based on a thorough analysis of buyer intent and your ideal customer profile.
Finding accurate contact data for your prospects
Features such as auto-enrich on some prospecting tools can help you gain access to the right information to reach out to your targeted businesses at the perfect time with the perfect pitch.
Scale appropriate outreach strategizing
Outreach tools can also strategically plan and execute reaching out to your prospect using different touchpoints!
But how exactly do sales prospecting tools help improve productivity? Read on to find out!
How Does a Sales Prospecting Tool Help to Improve Productivity
Why should you convert from manual sales prospecting to automated sales prospecting? Will it improve your business’ efficiency? If you have similar questions, they will be answered below.
The main benefits of automating parts of the sales prospecting process are:
You Can Reach Greater Efficiency
Sales reps can spend a lot of time on identifying and qualifying leads. This time could be spent putting more hours into active outreach that forms the most important part of the selling process.
More and more sales professionals report that their companies plan to invest in sales prospecting tools to aid their efforts, and this is clearly a trend that’s on the rise.
You Can Get Access to Better Prospects
Manual lead generation may not always provide your company with prospects that are a good fit. WIthout a sales prospecting software, your sales team is likely to spend a lot of time nurturing leads that may not work out in the end.
With an automated understanding of your prospects’ history, you have a better chance of finding qualified leads who are the prime target for your B2B solution!
Getting access to the relevant contact information, as mentioned above, is only an added perk to an already efficient mechanism which helps you directly engage the decision makers in your targeted companies.
You Can Execute Sales Prospecting at Scale
For every stage of the sales prospecting process that is automated, you save an equivalent amount of time spent by your sales team on discovery or qualification or outreach activities.Â
The more steps you automate, the more time you can save, the more leads you can generate and nurture! If your company is midsize or large, this can be especially beneficial for your ROI.
Sales prospecting tools can also get you access to prospect databases, which can then be segmented according to your ideal customer profile, further streamlining your sales funnel.
To make the process of automating your sales process easier, we’ve compiled a list of the top sales prospecting tools in 2024!
Top Sales Prospecting Tools in 2024
1. Adapt.io
Adapt.io is a top tier sales prospecting tool, offering businesses access to a substantial and properly vetted database of B2B contacts. Adapt has an extensive database of over 150 million contacts and 30 million companies, equipping sellers and marketers with the means to generate new leads, personalize engagements, and implement a robust go-to-market strategy!
Beyond data, Adapt’s core features include:
Lead Enrichment
This adds over 20 data points and enhances your existing lead database.
Contact APIs
Contact APIs can greatly boost your prospecting and enrichment processes.
Alerts
You can easily stay updated on changes in job titles of key decision makers from your prospect list!
You can use this tool to build your target list and find data on multiple stakeholders from specific organizations through Adapt’s incredibly intuitive ‘company search’ feature. You can also filter your search by department and level.
Thus, you can facilitate the effective execution of your sales campaign by automating multiple steps in the sales pipeline and saving your sales reps’ precious time.Â
ProsÂ
You get access to email addresses of potential clients and company information in terms of revenue and number of employees. Adapt also aids in discovery and segmentation by role, location and industry.
Cons
Some users have cited that the number of credits are less, and that the software’s industry filters can be more specific. However, Adapt is the preferred tool for contact discovery and prospecting by making outreach activities targeted to specific roles in specific industries a seamless process!
PricingÂ
Usually, the inflexible pricing of prospecting tools is a major drawback for subscription based services. However, Adapt offers flexible pricing, tailored to your exact specifications, based on the features, credits, number of licenses on the table.Â
You can even sign on for a period of just one month to begin with! So what are you waiting for? Request a demo today!
2. LinkedIn Sales Navigator
LinkedIn Sales Navigator has a huge user base of over 850 million members worldwide, and many of them are high income earners who are looking to buy B2B products or services.
In addition to this, nearly 16 million of these people form the C-suite at their respective organizations, which gives you an edge when conducting active outreach!Â
How does LinkedIn Sales Navigator actually work? This tool offers:
Detailed Prospect Information
Goes through LinkedIn profiles, bringing users the most accurate and detailed information on prospects,
Personalized Algorithm
This helps you unearth potential prospects and generate leads who match your ideal customer profile
TeamLink
You can easily share content with your prospects through combined networks via TeamLink
Pros
A huge database sourced from the biggest social media platform for B2B businesses is definitely the best feature of the LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
Cons
Users have complained about the limitations of their InMail messaging quota as well as some glitches in the lead finding process.
Pricing
Available upon request
3. Cognism
Cognism is a popular sales intelligence tool that prides itself on procuring relevant and accurate prospect data and empower sales and marketing teams by finetuning their sales process.
Cognism grants you access to a suite of products including:Â
A Prospector
This allows you to build prospect lists and gain access to verified phone numbers and email addresses based on your ideal customer profile.
A Chrome Extension
This can be used to export contacts from huge databases such as LinkedIn and transfer them to your company’s CRM via sales navigator.
Intent Data Monitoring
Cognism allows you to identify prospects based on buyer intent, ensuring that your sales professionals can prioritize which qualified leads to target.
Pros
Cognism provides contact information of over 70 million prospects and boasts a whopping accuracy rate of 98 percent. It can access contacts from Europe and across NAM, APAC, and EMEA regions!
Cons
This tool might not be the best choice if your main focus is the Asian market, since users have complained about data being outdated and inaccurate in those regions.
Pricing
Available upon request
4. Apollo.io
Apollo enables prospect discovery, outreach, and management by incorporating AI powered engagement which includes core features like:
A Vast Prospect Database
With a database of over 270 million contacts including verified phone numbers and email addresses, Apollo offers you over 200 possible attributes to filter data by, including job title.
Prospect Monitoring Functionality
You can get notified when important decision makers switch jobs and keep tabs on crucial funding developments and hiring decisions at your targeted companies.
Artificial Intelligence
Apollo has a ‘persona lookalike’ feature that automatically suggests prospects according to your ideal customer profile. Prioritization is also automated with the use of demographic, firmographic, and behavioral data from first party CRMs.
Pros
Like Cognism, Apollo too offers a chrome extension that allows you to import contacts from LinkedIn connections and integrate your CRM seamlessly.
Cons
Some users have complained about significant delays and performance issues while exporting data, thus compromising one of Apollo’s best features as mentioned above.
Pricing
The limited version is available for free. Apollo has a three-tier pricing segmentation with the starter pack available for $49 per month, the professional pack priced at $99 per month, and the complete organizational pack available at $79 per month.
5. CIENCE GO Data
GO Data by CIENCE is an advanced tool that is home to over 200 million frequently updated and verified records. The platform aids in the B2B sales teams’ list building process and allows for what is essentially a limitless configuration of your ideal customer profiles.
Some key features of CIENCE GO Data include:
Data Compliance
This is definitely a priority for CIENCE, and they regularly cross-check mobile numbers in their database with global ‘do not call’ lists, validate emails, and also ensure that all the data they deal with complies with B2B best practices and specific country-wise laws.
Precision Targeting
You can get direct access to their meticulously validated contact information for your company’s sales reps’ personalized outreach!
Advanced Search Capabilities
You can filter prospects based on their seniority level, job titles, revenue, and various other criteria which streamlines your outreach activities through lead segmentation.
Pros
CIENCE has been praised for its high quality work ethic and prompt attention to service related grievances. CIENCE is also known for its wide sector knowledge and access to high-level management contacts.
Cons
Users have noticed a lack of aligned benchmark data, which makes it difficult to compare your campaign performance to established industry standards.
Pricing
Available upon request
6. Crunchbase
A useful prospecting tool that gives you insights on both private and public domain information, Crunchbase segments potential leads on the basis of company size, investors, and funding data.Â
Crunchbase has helpful key features like:
CRM Integration
This allows you to use CRMs such as salesforce which can bring you qualified leads and provide you with the tools to revive stale leads.
Market Monitoring
Market monitoring enables you to identify industry trends early on, and you can then track buying signals and recognize trigger events, thus streamlining your sales funnel.
In-built Email Templates
Crunchbase’s pre-built email templates can save you a lot of time and optimize your outreach personalization efforts.
Pros
Crunchbase offers access to key financial data and insights that indicate buyer intent and buying power, which allows your sales representatives to target potential customers accordingly. Funding related news, information about funding type, and identities of financial backers are all just one click away!
Cons
Users have found that Crunchbase might not have enough data on UK companies. Additionally, users are unable to manage or update the contacts listed on their profile, making it inconvenient to filter ideal prospects for personalized outreach.
Pricing
For $348 a month you can get a starter pack, and for $588 per month the pro version. Information about the two remaining pricing plans – enterprise and data licensing is available upon request.
7. Lusha
Lusha is the best at performing advanced searches and aiding you in finding high quality leads in a short time frame. You can get access to up to 1000 contacts in a single search!
Lusha’s core features include:
Chrome Extension
Multichannel integration enables users to reach out to leads within Lusha itself.
GDPR and CCPA Compliance
Data privacy comes first and foremost as Lush adheres to stringent GDPR and CCPA guidelines.
Easily Allocation of Credits
Lusha not only allows you to seamlessly allot credits between members, it also enables you to limit those credits and maximize your sales team’s performance!
Pros
Lusha lets users score leads and segment them quickly and accurately. Its integration features are known for their smooth functionality and easy operability.
Cons
Users have noticed that contact information is sometimes inaccurate. Lusha’s email outreach process could also use some improvement.Â
Pricing
Lusha’s limited version is available for free. Three pricing tiers are offered, with the pro version priced at $29 monthly, the premium version costing $51 per month, and more information about customized versions available upon request.
8. Vainu
Vainu is a powerful tool that provides valuable insights into your target market, enabling you to finesse your sales prospecting techniques throughout the sales cycle.
Its core features are:
Workflow Triggers
Automated trigger points are used to build prospect lists according to your ideal customer profiles. Vainu also includes contact details such as email lists and cell phone numbers.
Automated List Building
This enables you to quickly sort through thousands of B2B companies with the use of Vainu’s exhaustive filtration options.
Artificial Intelligence
The incorporation of AI eases the process of email outreach once potential customers have been shortlisted from your target market.Â
Pros
Vainu is known for its easy functionality and accessibility. It allows direct access to potential buyers’ contact details and users can use its offered extension to channel their outreach efforts and boost conversion rates.Â
Cons
Users have expressed frustration with Vainu’s communication and service quality. This B2B prospecting tool also lacks the functionality needed by larger businesses.Â
Pricing
Vainu offers a limited version for free. It has four pricing tiers: Nordic Team, Nordic Business, Global, and Enterprise available at $4603, $10851, $13153 per year respectively. The Enterprise pack pricing is disclosed upon request.
9. Bombora
Bombora helps users access and monitor intent data by collecting information from content based data cooperatives formed by B2B publishers.Â
Core features of Bombora which are helpful for outreach efforts are:Â
GDPR and CCPA Compliance
Users don’t need to worry about the integrity of sourced data gathered about promising prospects.
Prospect Prioritization
Bombora allows users to score and prioritize prospects based on their readiness and interest.
Competitor Tracking
You can also identify at risk accounts by discovering whether your prospects are simultaneously researching competitors!
Pros
Bombora’s ‘automatic surge reports’ are a great way to introduce contacts who have buying intent to your integrated CRM for the best qualified prospects.
Cons
Users have complained about the lack of ease in integrating softwares and new keywords. Bombora’s overall functionality could use some smoothing.
Pricing
Available upon request.
10. Leadfeeder by Dealfront
Leadfeeder by Dealfront helps sales prospecting efforts by tracking visitors on your website and using their contact info to prioritize prospects.
Its core features are:
Use of Intent Data
Tracking account activity in real-time enables you to aim for higher conversion rates since potential leads have already interacted with your website.
33 Trigger Events
Tracking contacts and their activities can be set off by multiple trigger events. Leadfeeder alerts you any time a relevant event is triggered so that your sales prospects are promptly targeted.
Use of Behavioral and Firmographic Filters
These filters can help you find and identify accounts that showcase high intent so you only engage with high quality leads!
Pros
Leadfeeder caters to businesses of all sizes, and specializes in tracking and monitoring website traffic. This niche service is perfect for your sales prospecting efforts!
Cons
Users have complained about some difficulties in reaching out to specific contacts from larger companies or governments.
Pricing
Leadfeeder offers a 14 day free trial. Paid plans begin at $152 per month. Information about customized packages is available upon request.
11. Owler
Owler is the perfect sales prospecting software for you if you care about quality over quantity.Â
Its core features include:
Accessing Obscure and Niche Prospect Information
Executives, funding history, and employee count are only some examples of the kind of information Owler can procure for your prospect segmentation needs.
Gauging Competitor Landscape
Owler’s competitor graph allows you to track competitors in real-time.Â
The Owler Community
The Owler Community shares with its members valuable prospecting insights including but not limited to industry trends, customer reviews, and product feedback, ensuring better deliverability for your sales endeavors!
Pros
You can find high quality prospects from over 15 million private and public companies which display buyer intent. Owler has a very niche database full of prospects that are otherwise hard to capture.
Cons
Users have expressed the desire for more detailed company profiles on Owler, since the current depth of information is insufficient.
Pricing
The limited version is available for free. Owler has two pricing tiers: Pro and Max. Pro costs $420 per year, while a quote on the pricing Max is available upon request.
Now that you are familiar with the tools of the trade, let’s learn how to choose the perfect sales prospecting tool for your business’ needs!
How to Choose the Best Sales Prospecting Tool
The tools suggested in this article are a good place to start when automating your sales process to improve your sales team’s efficiency. But how to pick the right one?
First, identify which part of your sales lifecycle is the most tedious and time consuming.Â
If finding and qualifying leads is the hard part, then go for a prospecting tool that can analyze buyer intent. If outreach proves to be taxing, get a service with inbuilt bulk email automation.
Next, make sure that the tool you choose is compatible with your existing CRM.Â
If your tool has a browser extension, remember to check if it is compatible with the service your company already uses, or consider the implications of switching to a compatible service.
Lastly, take into account the size of your company!
Not all tools are suited to small businesses. If you don’t have an extensive B2B database, you’re better off using multiple specialized services according to the steps
Adapt.io –The Best Sales Prospecting Tool
As mentioned above, Adapt.io is a sales prospecting tool that helps sales professionals get the most accurate and verified B2B contact data to get in touch with key decision makers.
With over 200 million B2B contacts and over 20 advanced filters, Adapt enables you to scale your growth by enriching your CRM.
If you choose Adapt, you can expect:
Streamlined Prospecting
Streamlined prospecting makes it easier to find and target potential leads. Filters allow you to search for prospects based on industry, job title, location, company size, and various other criteria which can aid in segmentation and prioritized outreach activities.
Improved Contact Data
Adapt offers data enrichment capabilities, including filling in missing information and updating obsolete contact details. Thus, salespersons can rest assured that their outreach activities are based on accurate and verified information.
Hyper Targeted List Building
Adapt lets you build targeted email lists based on factors like job function, industry, and geographic location. Segmenting your lists and customizing your messaging for multiple audience segments can improve the efficacy and relevance of your email campaigns.
Personalized Email Campaigns
Additionally, you can insert lead data into email templates and personalize your email campaigns based on additional insight and information that Adapt provides. Subject lines, salutations, and the targeted lead’s name, job title, and company are just some of the criteria that you can incorporate when setting up your outreach templates!
Account-Based Selling Support
Adapt provides detailed company profiles and insights into their functionality. You can easily identify high value target accounts, tap into their pain points, and orchestrate highly personalized marketing and sales campaigns tailored to each account, and increase conversion rates!
FAQs
Sales prospecting tools help your sales team automate and simplify one or more steps in the sales process. This not only saves you hours in human resources, but also enables your sales reps to focus on essential tasks while other mechanized tasks are automated.
Yes! According to the LinkedIn State of Sales Report, salespeople who actively integrate CRMs experience a 35 percent increase in sales revenue, on average. Exploring AI powered prospecting tools can greatly enhance the efficiency of your sales funnel.
Personalized emails are essential to building good customer relationships. Customized email subject lines can increase open rates by 42 percent. Similarly, a targeted email is more likely to capture your lead’s attention, thus increasing your chances of conversion!
