Your organization’s sales performance is only as good as your list of prospective leads. The right business data means sales team can quickly get in touch with key decision makers and initiate the sales cycle. Incorrect or outdated information can lead you on an expensive and time-consuming – not to mention frustrating – goose chase with no chance at a sale.
Having the right information to explore new leads has become critical to the success of companies in virtually every industry. That’s why more and more businesses are turning to data service providers to augment their sales and marketing eff orts. Business data providers not only collect the most up-to-date information for decision makers throughout an organization, they maintain the lists – sometimes several times a year – to ensure your sales staff is spending its time making the sale, not hunting for the right contact information.
This white paper will discuss how business owners and salespeople can source the freshest business data and what to look for when choosing a business data provider.
Guide to B2B Leads:
Ensure the Highest
Quality Business Data
Brought to you by JigsawGuide to B2B Leads: Ensure the Highest Quality Business Data
Your organization's sales performance is only as good as your list of prospective leads. The right business data means sales sta s can quickly get in touch with key decision makers and initiate the sales cycle. Incorrect or outdated information can lead you on an expensive and time-consuming - not to mention frustrating - goose chase with no chance at a sale.
Having the right information to explore new leads has become critical to the success of companies in virtually every industry. That's why more and more businesses are turning to data service providers to augment their sales and marketing e orts. Business data providers not only collect the most up-to-date information for decision makers throughout an organization, they update the lists - sometimes several times a year - to ensure your sales sta is spending its time making the sale, not hunting for contact information.
This white paper will discuss how business owners and salespeople can source the freshest business data and what to look for when choosing a business data provider.
Market driversWhat's driving the sales industry to need real-time contact data? The truth is, as soon as a contact list is printed, it's out of date - that's how fast the business landscape is changing.
High turnover leads to outdated informationThe last ve years have seen an upheaval in the business environment, from layo s and mergers to company reorganizations and failures. This means that the decision maker in place at a company last quarter may have moved into a di erent role, or may not be at the company at all today. This also means that a contact list becomes obsolete within a year or perhaps even a month after it's compiled.
Lead volume is criticalAnother reason companies are seeking fresh contact data is that the sales cycle is trending longer - customers are waiting longer intervals between the rst contact and the nal sale. Over the last 12 months, 72% of companies in the IT sector alone have reported an increase in buying cycles 1 . At the same time, many compa-nies are decreasing sales budgets and sta so that fewer salespeople must make more contacts and spend an increasing amount of time nurturing those contacts before making the sale. Because of the need to produce more leads with limited resources of budgeting and/or sta ng, 44% of B-to-B companies reported that gener-ating high volume of leads became a greater challenge in 2010, a 9% increase from 2009 2.
B2B marketing challenges becoming more pertinent to organizations
1 IDC 2010 Sales Barometer Study (http://blog.salesadvisorypractice.com/2010/04/idcs-2010-sales-barometer-study.html) Michael Gerard, VP, IDC's Sales Advisory Service2 MarketingSherpa B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?ident=31726 P.2GuidGeu itdoe B t2oB B L2eBa dLes:a dEsn:s uEnres uthree tHhieg hHeigsth Qesuta Qliutya lBituys Binuessisn eDsast Da ata
The problem with static contact listsContact lists that lack real-time data presents a huge obstacle in the sales process - one that must be overcome for the sales process to even begin. Problems stemming from missing or outdated contact data include:
. Wasted time - sales sta spend lots of time chasing leads that don't exist.
. Ine ective communications - if salesperson does get a name, it might not be someone in the organization who is a decision maker or has buying authority.
. Low moral - sales sta are under increasing pressure to perform with limited time and resources. Continually chasing false leads or not having access to the right information can cause frustration and could ultimately impact job performance.
. Compromised sales performance - Often the responsibility of maintaining the list with updated contact information falls to the sales sta - the same sta who are being asked to do more with less and generate an increasing volume of leads with longer sales cycles. List maintenance becomes another administrative activity salespeople must juggle along with the primary responsibilities.
According to IDC VP Michael Gerard, sales professionals spend an average of 20% of the work week on administrative tasks. He recommends optimizing sales sta time by dedicating more time to analyzin... [download for more]
