Five Sales Intelligence Must-Haves to Find the Right Ad Contacts (on the Right Accounts)

But do they actually workThe right sales intelligence tool for your company can turn prospects into leads faster shorten your sales cycle improve conversion rates and free you up from the tedious stuff so you can focus on the meat of what you do amp8211 building relationships and closing dealsFor those targeting national marketers andor their agencies there are specific features and functions that the highestperforming users consider musthaves amp8211 in other words the boxes that must be checked to make it a worthy investmentIn our 20 years working alongside media marketing and agency new business teams weamp8217ve cultivated an acute understanding of what these particular groups need to succeed After listening to our clients and conducting extensive research from surveys and focus groups to beta tests and everything in between these are the five musthaves our most successful clients tell us they need1 HumanVerified Data for ProspectingIf meaningful sales intelligence could be scraped from the internet your better bet would be to pay someone to write a script that could collect it for you The fact is that the information needed to engage the right people at the right companies is not something thatamp8217s conspicuously floating around the web or accurately crowdsourced in any other wayThatamp8217s not to say that technology and crowdbased collection canamp8217t provide a great starting point amp8211 it certainly can amp8211 but data sourced from anything other than a firstperson account still needs to be vetted verified and confirmed by humans preferably humans who understand how clients will use this information For that reason our company employs a team of USbased analysts who maintain relationships with our clients as this ensures they understand whatamp8217s at stake for the end user Their contribution is simply not something we can outsource or automate and when we talk with other highlyrated sales intelligence providers in other industries theyamp8217ve concluded this is a corner they cannot cut eitherData goes stale quickly Weamp8217ve found that over a fourmonth period 7 of people exit their current company and an additional 9 have job title changes So while no resource can provide 100 accuracy 100 of the time an update cycle of 36 months can provide you with something that comes pretty closeDonamp8217t be shy to ask direct questions about confirmation and research cycles Good vendors are proud of their teamamp8217s process and happy to tell you exactly how data is collected who collects it and how often itamp8217s verifiedEmail deliverability can shed additional light on accuracy For our clients in the media and marketing industry anything less than 80 is not acceptable and over 90 is ideal That bar may seem high but the idea of this investment is to save you timeRemember as difficult as it is to reach a prospect without sales intelligence sales intelligence that isnamp8217t humanverified can send you on an even more wasteful wild goose chase2 Intuitive Relationship MappingConsider the way that contacts brands parent companies and agencies are connected and the important role that those connections play in informing your outreach As an example Axe Body Spray is owned by Unilever Unilever owns many many other brands The Axe brand manager and marketing director will be different than Ben ampamp Jerryamp8217s marketing group Each brandamp8217s account may be staffed by different media planners at an agency and they may have different agencies altogetherAs a sales professional you donamp8217t want to have to guess which individuals work on which brands and which brands work with which agencies Your sales intelligence tool needs to get this delicate data structure right so youamp8217re able to access a complete view of everyone involved in making decisions budgetbybudgetConsider the following data relationships in particularMedia Spend If media spend is provided is it per company or per brand The most useful sales intelligence platforms will provide you with information on how much each brand within an organization is spending broken down by medium so that you can see all available budgets and who owns themBrandCompanyAgency Contacts Keep in mind that in many databases clientagency relationships may only be identified at the organizational level meaning that the contacts listed at a company or an agency may be generic and not specified according to the account on which they work An essential role of sales intelligence is to map these relationships at the contact level so that users can identify who oversees which account Want to look unprofessional Just have three people on your team call the same person to score some new business Thatamp8217s the kind of thing that happens when contacts arenamp8217t attached to their specific brands and something that can make your organization look less than organized3 A Business Contacts Database Targeted to Your NeedsYou want as many leads as you can get right Many people evaluating sales intelligence get caught up in the numbers they collect a few stats on the number of contacts and companies included and present that information to their bosses to persuade them to purchase the resourceSure numbers are important but thereamp8217s a lot more to consider Do the resources in question have high numbers of legitimate brands that you are interested in working with in regions you cover and with people you need to reach Or will they only produce a list of companies who will represent poor ROI for your company or ones youamp8217ll spend countless hours chasing only to find out they donamp8217t have the budget for the kind of work your company specializes inamp8230To best serve our clients our inhouse research team keeps a tight focus on which companies brands and agencies we include in our database honing in on major marketers spending 750000 or more in annual media and the agencies they work with Exceptions include brands working with several agencies of record and those that our research team has found are spending extensively in unmeasured channels such as sponsorships and events We keep that focus in order to make sure that our clients have consistent reliable access to the data they expect to find when they need to find it4 Smart Search FiltersYes itamp8217s fun to pull up target accounts by name and look at who works there and who they work with and how much they spend on digital campaigns But when evaluating a resource donamp8217t skip over features youamp8217ll need to rely on in the long run Your team will want to generate lists amp8211 for cold prospecting email campaigns and other efforts amp8211 by targeting the qualities that highvalue prospects share And to do that you need to be able to apply filters to the dataThe most basic listgenerating filters are industry geography title rank and role For professionals targeting advertisers and agencies however we find that many of the following are also necessaryAdvertiser Media SpendingPlanning Period amp8211 So you can prioritize outreach to brands planning upcoming campaignsCustomer or Audience Composition amp8211 Demographics and financial dataAgency Specialty Discipline ampamp Client IndustryAgency Media Dollars HeldWhatever qualities your highvalue prospects share make sure the platform has filters that enable you to capture them Here are a few popular searches our clients perform which you can use as a template to create your own list of important filtersCompanies spending 1MM in digital videoSponsorship contacts at brands targeting Hispanic consumersApparel Companies in the SoutheastOmnicom Group agencies handling CPG accountsIt should be noted as well that these filters should be easy to identify and use The cost of a tool you canamp8217t use is always too much even if itamp8217s the cheapest tool on the market A platform with an intuitive user interface is more likely to be usedamp8212if you have children and a smartphone or tablet you probably already know this5 Key IntegrationsYour sales team does not work in a vacuum They consult different resources including your CRM system email and LinkedIn and your sales intelligence solution should fit into the flow of how they do business Depending on the integrations that are most important to your sales team here are a few of the features you may want to inquire aboutLinkedInSee individual profiles so that you can crosscheck informationView network connections for companies to determine where or with whom you should begin your outreachCRM IntegrationOf course you should be able to export information to Excel and CSV files amp8211 thatamp8217s a given but you may want to save contact data directly to your CRM with an integration that hasSimple set up If the set up comes with several pages of instructions will the time spent be worth the time saved Will you end up using the integrationField mapping Your fields may not match the default fields of the platform amp8211 they say directdial you say phoneindividual amp8211 make sure you can route information to its proper destinationDuplicate detection You want to keep your CRM environment clean rightWhile the above integrations help connect to your existing resources you may also want to ask about integrations that incorporate resources you donamp8217t have providing you with new information you may otherwise not have access to includingAd creative Through API connections sales intelligence tools can incorporate ad creative from platforms such as MOAT or AdForum allowing you to see a prospectamp8217s latest digital or TV advertisementsMedia spend A popular resource providing media spend would be Kantar Media or for paid search spending SEMRushSo whatamp8217s next Now that youamp8217ve identified the features and functionalities that are most important to you and your sales team itamp8217s time to pair your list of musthaveamp8217s with a platform Based on your needs narrow your search down to sales intelligence platforms that look like they fit your criteria and request a demonstrationThe importance of a guided tour cannot be overstated Product specialists are experts on their resources and can show you the features youamp8217re looking for and help you determine the best fit After being shown a demonstration as long as you are a qualified potential customer most vendors are typically happy to set you up with temporary accessMy biggest recommendation here is to make that time count The due diligence that you put in during your trial will ensure the longterm success of your sales team and the ROI youamp8217re able to prove for your investmentReady for more predictive sales intelligence Request a Winmo trial Photo courtesy of WinmoClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Five Sales Intelligence Must-Haves to Find the Right Ad Contacts (on the Right Accounts)

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Marilyn Mead

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