How to source the right B2B data for your sales team to prospect to
A cleansed list of up-to-date information is the perfect foundation for a successful lead generation campaign. When you have the right prospects to call, you can be confident you’ll spend your time on genuine prospecting, and you have a far better chance of reaching relevant decision-makers with the power to purchase.
There are excellent B2B data providers in Australia, whose data is guaranteed to be more than 95% accurate, which is a fantastic jumping-off point. But if you don’t know how they segment and categorise their data, and how that will affect the data you receive, you could inadvertently purchase the wrong list for your campaign.
Our team are data buying experts; we run regular in-house training sessions to review what lists are available from which data houses and providers. They know how to guide our clients to get the most appropriate list for their campaign.
If you are thinking about ordering a B2B list for your sales team, here are some key points and tips to consider:
The size of the market may not be as big as you think it is:
Although there are 2.3 million registered businesses in Australia, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, a massive 62% of these organisations have zero staff. That means there are only around 850,000 businesses that are likely to be relevant to you, and most list providers only have a 50-60% coverage of this market. Of these 850,000 businesses, 72% have 1-4 staff, and only around 7% (or around 60,000) have more than 20 employees.
Where to start:
When choosing which companies you want on your list, the most usual criteria to select by are industry, company size, and location/geography. In most cases, this will allow you to focus on your exact market.
Industry:
List brokers use variations of the ANZSIC (Australian & New Zealand Standard Industry Classification) codes to classify companies into their respective industries. This means that you can select an entire Category (Manufacturing, for example), or hone in on a specific area within this (Hemp Manufacturing, for example)
Company Size:
Company size can be based on either annual turnover or the number of staff employed.
When selecting companies based on the number of staff they employ, you need to choose whether this is based on a company’s total number of employees nationally, or the number in each individual office or branch.
So if you want your list to include companies that have 500+ staff, but you don’t specify that this should be the number of staff employed nationally, you would only get companies who had 500+ staff all based in one office, missing out on companies who employ 500+ staff but over several locations.
Consider whether you want to approach companies at Head Office level, or at the Branch level. By adding this selection criteria to your list requirements, you can exclude or include either Head or Branch Offices to make your list far more effective.
When choosing companies based on their annual turnover, it is important to be aware that this data is modelled, rather than actual in most cases.
Location/Geography
Where are your sales team based? Where is the best market for your services? You can select the location of the companies that you want on your list by State, City Metro area, or a selection of postcodes
Other criteria to consider
You can include or exclude companies that have overseas parents, as well as those that are franchises, always mindful that the more defined you get, the smaller the target market and the list becomes.
It is also possible to source lists based on a company’s credit history or on the expiry date of their office lease. Some list providers can allow you to select larger companies based on the IT platforms or IT infrastructure they have in place. This is particularly helpful for businesses providing IT services. For example, a SaaS business with a new accounting software product, planning to run an outreach campaign.
Replicate existing success
If you have a sizable customer list, it is often possible to build a list based on companies that match or “look like” those on your existing customer list. It’s easier to sell to businesses where you already have a demonstrable track record with their competitors or firms with a similar profile.
We can help
When you work with us, our team will help you make your data-list buying budget work much harder, ensuring you have the best data for your campaign, aligned with your targets and goals. If you are looking for an outsourced partner to work with on a lead generation campaign, get in touch today by calling 1300 396 888 or sending us an email enquiries@forrestcontact.com.au.
