Sales intelligence is one of the most important aspects of the entire sales process. Sales reps need to have relevant information about prospective customers to be able to target them appropriately. Also, since personalized messaging is now in greater demand than ever, data becomes an integral part of the sales process.
Generally speaking, public web data has many use cases but today I’m going to cover how it can provide you with better sales intelligence. To simplify this process, let’s first break down sales intelligence into three main categories: company data, intent data, and contact data.
In this article, I’m going to deep-dive into two of these categories - company data and intent data - and explain to you in detail how both of them can help you boost your sales intelligence and increase your revenue.
I’ll also briefly mention contact data and why it’s not as essential to the whole sales process as company data and intent data.
What is company data?
In short, company data refers to the characteristics of a business or organization, such as its size, industry, location, and ownership structure. You can use this data to create a profile of a company's business and to better understand its customers, competitors, and market position.
Company data will help you better target your marketing and sales efforts, identify qualified leads, and evaluate the overall competitive landscape.
How does it help with sales intelligence?
I selected 4 main use cases to present how public web data can enhance your sales intelligence. Let’s delve into it:
- Target the right prospects. By analyzing company data, sales teams can identify the companies that are most likely to become clients. For example, if your company sells software for small businesses, you can use firmographics to target companies with fewer than 100 employees.
- Personalize sales pitches. Company data can also help sales teams tailor their sales pitches to individual prospects. For example, if you notice that the target company is growing rapidly in size, they may benefit from an HR software (that your company provides) to alleviate some of the responsibilities of the HR department. And since you know this information, you could reach out to them and offer your services at the right time, resulting in higher chances of success.
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Prioritize leads. Firmographic data can help sales teams prioritize their leads based on their potential value. For example, if you sell accounting software, you may want to prioritize leads from large companies with high revenue.
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Identify cross-selling opportunities. By analyzing firmographic data, sales teams can identify cross-selling opportunities with existing customers. For example, if your company sells IT services to a client, you may also offer cybersecurity services based on the client’s firmographic characteristics, such as industry and size.
What is intent data?
Intent data is information that helps you understand the buying intent of potential customers. There are many web data providers out there that collect and aggregate this data from a wide range of sources. Then, they provide it to businesses looking to improve their marketing and sales efforts. This way, you no longer have to collect such data yourself.
In terms of B2B markets, you could utilize job posting data to identify intent. For example, in the job descriptions, you can see what software a company is using and offer better alternatives.
Also, you can check what departments the company is looking to grow. If the target company is looking for additional members to the sales team, they might be interested in upgrading or replacing existing sales intelligence software. All you need to do is reach out and offer your services.
Or, you can use employee data to see if there is a new CMO in town. It’s highly likely that the new C-level employee will revise the tools the company uses, which gives you a chance to offer your cutting-edge technology as a better alternative.
How does it help with sales intelligence?
We talked about company data before, now let’s see how intent data can bring value to your business:
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Identify potential customers. Job postings often indicate when a company is looking to hire for a specific role, which can be a signal that the company is growing or expanding in that area. By tracking job postings in specific industries or regions, your sales team can identify potential new customers to target.
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Understand industry trends. By analyzing job postings across different industries, sales teams can gain insights into which sectors are growing, which roles are in high demand, and which skills are most valuable. This information can help them tailor their messaging to specific industries and customer needs.
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Determine pain points. Job postings often include information about the specific skills and qualifications required for a role, which can show you the challenges and pain points that companies are facing. By analyzing job postings for common requirements, sales teams can gain a better understanding of the specific pain points that potential customers are experiencing, and tailor solutions accordingly.
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Monitor customer activity. By tracking job postings from existing customers, sales teams can gain insights into their customers' growth plans and hiring needs, and identify potential upsell or cross-sell opportunities.
Coresignal’s data expert and head of the sales team Martynas Simanauskas also considers job posting data to be the most effective dataset for detecting buying intent.
“Job posting data is used as one the most common datasets in terms of buying intent: using the job postings data, you can identify and understand what technology is being used within the organization, what technology the organization is planning to start using, etc. Employee data can be used for similar purposes as well.”
- Martynas Simanauskas, Coresignal’s data expert
Is personal contact data crucial to the whole B2B sales intelligence process?
Contrary to the common belief, contact data isn’t necessarily as important in B2B sales as it may seem. The most important thing is identifying the company that has potential client qualities. After all, even if you unexpectedly contact someone on their home number or email, it’s highly unlikely that they will be interested. Furthermore, it’s not very ethical.
“Contact data is not crucial to the whole sales process in B2B as it really depends on what platform and way of connecting with the potential customer you'll choose. The first and most important part is to identify precisely which company could be the next potential buyer.”
- Martynas Simanauskas, Coresignal’s data expert
Conclusion
In conclusion, using public web data can help you enhance your sales intelligence and better understand your customers' needs and preferences. By gathering and analyzing relevant data, you can determine the pain points of potential clients, understand industry trends, and target the right prospects with a personalized approach.
But that’s only one way to utilize public web data. There are many more potential use cases that could improve business operations and performance, including, but not limited to
Also published here.