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The Complete Guide to Sales Prospecting Tools and Software

Aleksandra Tadrzak

22 min read

Jul 30, 2024

The word “prospect” is like music to the ears of sales representatives. It’s a word full of possibility and the promise of good things to come. 

The act of searching for gold is called prospecting. It’s quite fitting, given that sales teams use prospecting techniques and tools to find metaphorical, rather than literal, gold. In sales prospecting, sales reps aren’t looking for golden nuggets but instead for potential customers who are likely to make a purchase. Without prospecting, your company might find it extremely difficult to generate reliable recurring revenue. 

If your sales team hasn’t yet taken up sales prospecting and lead generation activities with enthusiasm, it’s about time they did. This article is your primer to the art of sales prospecting, covering its various aspects and the available tools to make the task easier. 

If you would like to boost the productivity of your sales pipeline and increase the efficiency of your sales reps, then this complete guide to sales prospecting tools and software is for you.

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What is sales prospecting?

Every sales rep must be prepared to perform sales prospecting, the process by which leads are converted into prospects. Proper sales prospecting helps businesses learn about their potential customers’ needs, pain points, preferences, and purchasing behavior. With proper sales prospecting, your sales team can devote their time and energy to valuable prospects instead of chasing leads that will go nowhere. 

Between your sales and marketing teams, you will likely already have long prospect lists. However, not all of them will get to the end of the sales funnel. Through prospecting, your sales team can differentiate between those likely to make a purchase soon and those still unsure if your company’s products and services are for them. 

Sales prospecting is a multi-step process. The most effective sales prospecting framework will have the sales team and the marketing department working closely together. 

Four different sales prospecting methods

Having a steady stream of prospects is critical for your business's success, so it is essential to experiment with multiple methods to see what produces the best results. 

Each of these four sales prospecting methods has its own strengths and drawbacks. You must decide which method will work best for your company. 

What’s the difference between B2B and B2C prospecting?

The four different sales prospecting methods discussed above are applicable in both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) scenarios. 

In fact, there are more similarities between B2C prospecting and B2B prospecting than differences. They are both concerned with similar metrics (like revenue, budget, and timeline), and only the specific metrics under consideration vary from one company to the next. 

The biggest distinction between B2C and B2B sales prospecting is their target audiences, individual consumers and large organizations or companies, respectively. 

Importance of sales prospecting

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you are involved in B2C or B2B sales. Effective sales prospecting is an invaluable asset to your company, regardless of your target audience. 

When you have the right approach toward sales prospecting, it will lead to the following benefits for your business:

• Saves sales representatives’ time and effort
• Increases conversion rates
• Enhances the depth of customer data
• Increases customer engagement

Enhance your sales team’s performance with prospecting tools

Sales prospecting aims to increase the efficiency of your sales team. In order to do so, you need to equip them with the right tools. Unlike the time-consuming method of manual prospecting, modern sales prospecting is a streamlined, largely digital exercise. Several prospecting tools are available to help get the best results, like HubSpot Sales Hub and LinkedIn Sales Navigator. 

Sales prospecting tools come in many different forms. One thing they all have in common is that they are software designed to simplify and automate the prospecting process, whether they are comprehensive prospecting solutions or highly specialized, niche tools meant to address one particular issue. 

Imagine if your sales rep had to send out 20 individual emails at the end of a long day of calling prospects. Email automation software will complete this task in a few clicks, so your sales department can spend more time interacting with customers directly and moving them further along the pipeline. This is just one simple example of the many ways the sales prospecting process has a strong influence on overall performance.

Six main types of sales prospecting tools

Your B2C or B2B sales prospecting techniques will depend on the types of tools in your tech stack. There are many different options to choose from, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to identifying qualified leads for your company. 

Let’s take a look at the three main types of the best sales prospecting tools that you can use to take your operations to the next level:

1. CRM software

Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms are a key tool used in sales prospecting. After all, CRM platforms contain all of the valuable information about your existing customers and target audience. Because CRM software tracks every single customer interaction, it’s extremely useful for pinpointing where a prospect is in the sales pipeline. 

Robust CRM systems and sales engagement tools gather a wealth of information that helps sales reps manage their leads and nurture them into paying customers. This information also sparks data-driven insights about sales prospecting strategies, which can be used to refine an approach in every round of prospecting.

Some of the best sales prospecting tools for CRM: HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Zendesk.

2. Lead generation tools

This group of sales prospecting software can be huge time-savers for your sales team. Of course, it is possible to build prospect lists even without the help of prospecting software. However, automated processes deliver much more exciting results.

Lead generation software allows sales teams to find prospects faster than manual processes. This helps sellers stay engaged and keeps the pipeline wide open. Since many lead generation software solutions include features like advanced search filters, email verification, and databases for company data and contact details, finding high-value prospects is easier than ever. 

Some of the best sales prospecting tools for the lead generation process: OptinMonster, LeadFuze, and LeadPages.

3. Email outreach tools

For most consumers, their email inbox is their preferred platform for sales engagement. For sales departments, though, keeping track of dozens or hundreds of email conversations for various clients at different parts of the funnel can quickly become overwhelming. Email prospecting tools allow teams to automate their outreach and closely track how their sales messages are performing.

Email prospecting tools allow users to set up personalized scripts, monitor open rates and clicks, and prepare automated actions triggered by specific recipient behavior. It’s worthwhile to search for an email prospecting tool that integrates with all of the other enterprise software in your company’s tech stack. 

Some of the best sales prospecting tools for email outreach: Mailchimp, Drip, and Outreach.io.

4. Sales intelligence tools

When you provide your sales department with valuable and relevant information about your sales leads and potential clients, they will be able to close deals at a much higher rate. One of the best ways to do this is to start using sales intelligence tools for prospecting purposes. They can be used to gather and analyze data for novel, actionable insights into your company’s sales strategies.

Sales intelligence tools are used much more commonly in B2B prospecting. They are like databases that help sales leaders find potential customers by identifying decision-makers in target companies.

Some of the best sales prospecting tools for sales intelligence: LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Cognism, and ZoomInfo.

5. Social selling tools

Social media has become an online space where you can learn about consumers’ preferences from the consumers themselves. For the purpose of prospecting, people’s conversations and customer behavior on social media platforms can give you valuable information about whether they are likely to be interested in purchasing your company’s offerings. You can use a social sales prospecting tool to discover insights about your target audience.

These social selling tools can help your sales team identify interested customers and connect with them over their social media accounts. In addition to identifying prospects based on their online behavior and social media conversations, these tools also streamline customer outreach by collecting contact details.

Some of the best sales prospecting tools for social media: HootSuite, Sprout Social, and EveryoneSocial.

6. Cold calling and VoIP tools

No matter how far technology advances, the effect of an old-fashioned one-on-one sales call between a sales rep and potential prospects simply cannot be denied. In B2B and B2C scenarios, sales teams will probably have to engage in cold call campaigns to connect with prospects. But while a sales prospecting tool cannot replace these in-depth conversations, they can certainly make them much easier.

Calling and voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) tools can simplify the laborious process of talking to prospects. Some of these tools offer direct CRM integration, allowing sales departments to seamlessly nurture a potential customer to a closed deal through the sales pipeline. 

Some of the best sales prospecting tools for cold calling and VoIP: RingCentral, Aircall, and CloudTalk.

Three key features of sales prospecting tools

At least one sales prospecting tool is a must-have if you want to grow your business. In a digital, data-driven world, manual prospecting methods are outdated and ineffective in comparison. That’s why the sales intelligence platform and lead generation software market is experiencing a boom period at the moment. 

However, a byproduct of this industry-wide growth is that business owners are faced with a problem of plenty. There are hundreds of unique prospecting tools available on the market today. It’s up to you as a business owner to choose the ones that will add the most value to your business. 

There are three essential features of a sales prospecting tool that make it incredibly helpful:

1. Automation

If you consider the members of your sales team as the superheroes of your organization, then a sales prospecting tool is their trusty sidekick. The automation features of sales prospecting tools can help your business in the following key areas:

• Email outreach
• Lead qualification
• Follow-up communications
• Task management

With reliable software automating different key processes, your sales team is in a better position to close deals and increase sales prospecting efficiency. Thanks to the sales automation features in these tools, you are able to better organize your team and empower them to achieve higher levels of productivity. 

2. Integration

The whole point of using sales prospecting tools is to make selling easier. However, if they have to jump through hoops just to install and implement these tools, they can prove counterproductive. You must choose a prospecting tool that can seamlessly integrate with the rest of your tech stack.

Seamlessly recording interactions, sending out emails, tracking campaign performance, and more—integrating a sales prospecting tool can optimize the selling process in many ways. Integration with other tools is a critical feature that cannot be overlooked if you want to get the most out of your sales prospecting strategy. An integrated tool gives sales professionals a comprehensive overview of every prospect they interact with.  

3. Analytics

It’s quite clear that sales prospecting techniques and cutting-edge tools can significantly boost your sales process efficiency. The best part is that you can measure precisely how much of an impact they have had on your sales. This is because most sales tools also have robust analytical features that allow you to draw data-driven conclusions. 

Ideally, your prospecting tool should allow you to track these key metrics, among others:

• Conversion rate
• Click-through rate 
• Email open rate
• Total sales

The ability to measure your performance ensures you can make data-driven decisions and refine your prospecting strategy. You can more easily take note of what works and discard what doesn’t.

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Three steps to choosing the right sales prospecting tools for your sales team

Now that you know what features to look for, you’re ready to start shopping for the right mix of prospecting tools for your business. While automation, integration, and analytics are the most valuable features to look for, there are a few other important considerations to keep in mind when selecting prospecting tools for your business. 

You should use a tool that will help you save on costs, increase productivity, and grow your business in the long run. Follow these best practices to evaluate the suitability of a prospecting tool.

Step 1: Identify your business needs

Different companies have different requirements for their prospecting tools. Some might be looking for a more streamlined way to create inbound marketing opportunities and send leads to their sales department. In contrast, others might need automated software that enables reps to connect with outbound leads. 

While both companies will benefit from using sales prospecting tools, the actual software solutions for each will differ. You need to clearly understand what you want out of the software before investing in it. 

“What will the tool be used for?” is an important question, but it’s not the only one. You must also ask yourself, “Who will be using the tool?” It should be user-friendly enough so every member of the sales team—and all the new ones you will hire in the future—can take advantage of it. 

Step 2: Evaluate available features

With your business needs clearly outlined, selecting an appropriate tool to take sales prospecting to another level becomes much easier. At this stage, it’s simply checking that the software possesses the same features you require from your stated use case. 

For example, suppose you want to generate leads from website visitors. In that case, you should consider adding a live chat window where sales professionals can ask questions about people’s preferences and what products they are looking for. 

Sales prospecting tools are designed to support sales professionals. That’s why it’s so important to have sales leaders and representatives as stakeholders when making such a decision. There’s no point in opting for an expensive and feature-rich prospecting tool if your sales department cannot use it to its full potential. In such a case, it’s better to go for a more minimalist solution that more closely matches your sales strategy.

Step 3: Check user reviews and testimonials

After a selected tool has made it past the first two steps, it’s time to see if it works as advertised. The third step involves doing research and conducting a background check on the software and its provider. There are many reliable sources online to discover how a particular tool performs in real-world use cases. Online software review platforms like CapTerra and G2 or even Google reviews are a good starting point for this exercise. 

Another way to learn more about your chosen solution is to look up user reviews online or browse through the testimonials on its company website. If similar businesses (including your competitors) have posted positive reviews for a particular prospecting tool, it’s likely because it has been proven to deliver on its promises. 

After you’ve completed this final step of checking user reviews, you should have a shortlist of suitable prospecting tools ready. Now, all you need is to compare their specific offerings and go with the one that best matches your use case, has the requisite features, and comes with a proven track record of effectiveness.

Three main benefits of using sales prospecting tools

If you’ve noticed that your company’s sales have stagnated or even gone into a decline, it is a clear sign that you need to rethink your approach to B2C or B2B sales prospecting. Equipping your salespeople with the correct tools can mean the difference between growing your business further or dealing with disappointing revenue collection. 

1. Greater efficiency

When you apply the right prospecting strategy with the right tools, you will notice an increase in efficiency in your sales process. Sales prospecting widens the entrance to your pipeline, giving your sales department more opportunities to connect with high-value prospects. 

Prospecting tools also ensure your sales personnel spend more time connecting with potential clients because of their sales automation features.

2. Superior data quality

Once you’ve used sales prospecting tools, reverting to manual methods will feel like you’re running blind. With sales prospecting software, your salespeople find it much easier to find contact details and coordinate reaching out to prospects. With the increased access to information, the quality of your leads and prospects will also improve. 

Having a single source for all relevant client data helps salespeople nurture prospects more effectively along the sales lifecycle.

3. Scalable sales prospecting processes

As your business continues to grow, there will come a point when manual prospecting methods are simply unsustainable. Then, your sales team will struggle to meet its quotas, creating a snowball effect that could lead to shrinking revenue. Thankfully, modern sales tools don’t have these limitations.

Sales prospecting software can automate every stage of your sales process, from lead discovery and qualification all the way to customer outreach. This benefits your sales team, as it means they are free to pursue their targets without distractions. Prospecting tools simplify and optimize your company’s sales process, allowing you to scale up operations without losing effectiveness. 

Five best practices for proper use of prospecting tools

At this stage, you’re almost ready to start using sales prospecting tools to grow your business. We’ve covered the nature of sales prospecting, the different types of sales tools, their importance, and how to select the right tools. 

Now that you know the best tools for your business, let’s take a little time to go over how you should use them. Every prospecting tool is different and will boost sales prospecting efficiency in various ways.

To get the best results out of your selection of many sales prospecting tools, you need to keep these best practices in mind:

1. Employee training

What good is a car without a driver? In the same way, your tools will only be as effective as the sales representatives using them. Before anything else, set up an onboarding session for all the reps using these tools moving forward. Investing in such training may involve an extra expense, but the returns are worth it over time. 

When your sales team is comfortable with these tools, they can maximize their potential. These are software products, and mastering all their functionalities, from basic navigation to advanced features, ensures salespeople perform at a higher level. 

In most cases, the software provider should be ready to provide your employees with all the support they need to learn how to use the tool and troubleshoot common issues. Through user manuals, tutorials, and webinars, your sales team can achieve a high level of proficiency with the tools and be on their way to long-term success. 

2. Software updates and maintenance

Enterprise technology, including the best sales prospecting tools, is a dynamic, fast-moving field. Deciding to stick with a single configuration of these tools can do more harm than good in the long run because obsolescence is never far away. Instead, your company needs to move with the times and stay up-to-date regarding emerging technologies and the best tools for prospecting.

Many software products receive regular updates automatically. Unfortunately, with every update, the new changes could disrupt your workflow. Since these updates usually come with essential bug fixes, new features, and enhanced security measures, you cannot afford to ignore them entirely, either. Having an experienced IT professional to monitor and manage the updates is a viable solution.

3. Know your customers

When you know your customers well, you can select the best sales prospecting tools to use to maximum effect. Create an ICP that best represents your target audience and try to choose tools that would be very appealing to them. 

When you are familiar with your customers’ spending power, pain points, and preferences, converting leads into prospects becomes much simpler.

4. Grow your database

Your customer database is the nerve center of all prospecting operations. The more populated it is, the easier it will be for your sales department to identify prospects and approach them. 

When expanding your list of prospects, look for individuals who match your ICP or have otherwise indicated interest in buying from your company. There’s no need to be stringent with the criteria, either. Add as many leads as possible to your database, and let the tools with automated lead qualification figures do the rest for your sales team.

5. Track key metrics

Finally, measuring your company’s progress with the best sales prospecting tools is necessary to maintain its upward trajectory. Effective prospecting leads to stable, recurring revenue, so it's in your company’s best interest to track the performance of all the tools currently being used. 

There are various key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be tracked to measure the performance of your sales prospecting strategy, such as:

• Conversion rate
• Leads generated
• Call success rates

Every sales prospecting tool is equipped with its own analytical features, which will help evaluate how the tool performed through detailed reports. These reports are instrumental in refining your company’s sales process.

Five popular sales prospecting tools

As discussed earlier, you can use a sales prospecting tool in many different applications and functions. To illustrate the wide range of functionalities of these types of software, here is a selection of five of the most popular sales prospecting tools and their varied uses.

1. Zendesk Sell

This handy tool functions like a regular CRM platform, except with an added emphasis on selling. Its clean user interface is easy to navigate and use. With minimal training required, your sales team can easily generate high-quality leads and pursue prospects. 

Zendesk Sell comes with certain features explicitly geared toward driving sales, such as customized lead lists, customized and automated email campaigns, and bulk enrichment of existing leads in the database. 

The prices for Zendesk Sell’s plans range from $19 per agent/month to $115 per agent/month.

2. HubSpot Sales Hub

As part of HubSpot’s larger suite of enterprise technology, Sales Hub is a communication platform between sales personnel and their prospective customers. Whether you are making sales calls through VoIP or simply writing to customers via email, HubSpot Sales Hub is a fantastic sales prospecting tool with advanced features designed for your needs. 

For email users, there are key features like templates, tracking, and document management. For reps who prioritize sales calls, this tool makes it easy to connect via a web browser and record the conversation directly in CRM. 

HubSpot Sales Hub has a two-tiered pricing structure, the first being $90 per agent/month and the second being $150 per agent/month.

3. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn is the world’s foremost professional social network, so it stands to reason that the platform is also behind the pre-eminent social media sales prospecting tool, LinkedIn Sales Navigator. This tool lets you connect with high-value prospects who are important decision-makers in your target audience. With an advanced account search feature that has over 14 different filters, discovering leads on social media has never been simpler. 

LinkedIn Sales Navigator has three different payment plans: Core, Advanced, and Advanced Plus. Core is the basic plan that starts at $79.99 per month, and the higher tiers have prices available upon inquiry.

4. ZoomInfo

Sometimes, a prospecting tool doesn’t need to do anything too fancy. It just needs to connect your sales department with high-value prospects and provide enough information to maintain a productive conversation. That’s what makes ZoomInfo one of the best sales prospecting tools for building up your company database. 

With over 100 million companies and 130 million contact details, ZoomInfo is invaluable in building up a list of leads. With accurate email addresses and direct phone numbers, your sales reps will close deals much quicker, thanks to this unique prospecting and contact tracking tool. 

ZoomInfo’s price is available upon request.

5. Hunter

While every sales prospecting tool on this list helps users find contact details, Hunter takes the opposite approach. This sales prospecting tool has a singular focus, and that is contact data via email outreach. Users can access publicly available names and email addresses through Hunter. With a single click, you can add company and contact data to your prospect lists, giving you the ideal launch pad for an email campaign. 

Hunter has a free version available for anyone to use and paid versions with advanced features. The paid versions start at $34 per month and go up to $349 per month.

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Conclusion

With this list of diverse prospecting tools, your introduction to the world of sales prospecting is complete. Now, you know how to help your sales representatives smash past their current limitations and achieve a higher level of performance. 

Whether you are looking to enter a new market, gain an advantage over your competition, or simply turn around a period of slow sales, the right selection of the best sales prospecting tools paired with the knowledge of how to use them is all you need to achieve your goals!