New technologies, a return to account-based selling, and increasingly rich data sources are driving an outbound marketing comeback, but many inbound-minded marketers/salespeople feel ill-prepared to drive outbound demand.
Thankfully, there are more similarities between inbound and outbound than you might think. No matter the lead generation model, leads will always need to be qualified by a member of your sales/marketing team. But with an outbound model, some of that qualification process can take place before contact is ever made.
LinkedIn
Ask any salesperson at your organization the first place they go for prospect research. If less than 90 percent of them answer “LinkedIn,” it’s time to hire a new sales team. LinkedIn is an essential tool for any modern professional. With over 364 million members and counting, if you’re not on LinkedIn, you have no business being in sales. Seriously — go sign up right now. We’ll be here when you get back. Once you’re a member, the “Advanced People Search” (pictured below) lets you search for individuals based on keywords, first/last name, title, company name, school, or location. You can further filter the results based on your group memberships, whether they’re a first, second, or third-level connection, and much more. Even if you don’t sign up for a membership, you can still use LinkedIn to assist with your B2B prospect research. LinkedIn company profile pages are extremely useful, as the information on said pages is maintained by the companies themselves, so it should be fairly accurate. As you can see, companies can list their specialities, industry, size, and other information a salesperson can use to verify whether they’d be good prospect. LinkedIn is also a good place to keep up with current company news. Many businesses publish articles and updates (or at least link to them) via their LinkedIn page. As you can see in the bottom of the screenshot, at press time, TechnologyAdvice was looking to hire an SEO specialist. If you’re a salesperson at an SEO consulting firm, that might be a good indicator that TechnologyAdvice is a prospect. The benefits associated with the free LinkedIn membership are numerous, but the premium memberships offered (Business Plus, Sales Navigator, Job Seeker, and Recruiter Lite) supercharge your ability to use LinkedIn for sales prospect research. Namely, you get access to the Lead Builder and other advanced search tools that unlock information unavailable to free accounts. The Sales Navigator platform also provides “Lead Recommendations,” or additional contacts at organizations with which you’re connected and/or researching — which makes it far easier to identify those 5.4 decision-makers. For more LinkedIn-specific prospecting strategies, check out the helpful SlideShare our friends at HubSpot put together:Twitter
Twitter is another social platform that can be used for lead generation and B2B prospect research. Like LinkedIn, it offers an advanced search function (again, pictured below), and unlike LinkedIn, you don’t have to be “connected” to communicate — simply Tweet @ them. Another difference between the two platforms is the spirit with which they’re used, at least when it comes to B2B. Unspoken LinkedIn etiquette about how many times per day you should post (most say no more than once) or the content of said posts (most people exclusively post professional information) limits discovery. Twitter lacks similar restrictions, and the line between personal and professional is a bit more blurry. As a result, it’s easier to gain personal insights on Twitter than LinkedIn. For a more in-depth look at using Twitter Advanced Search, our friends at Hootsuite put together an extremely useful guide: “How to Use Twitter Advanced Search for Lead Generation”