7 ways to fill the pipeline with data-driven prospecting

Finding new leads for your business is often very time-consuming. Without relevant data to help, it can sometimes feel like throwing darts at a wall, only to cross your fingers and hope one sticks.

But with the right data on hand, you can make your lead generation tactics much more streamlined, greatly improving your conversion rates and saving your sales team plenty of time and resources on wasted efforts.

In this webinar, Daniel discusses seven effective ways to fill your pipeline with data-driven prospects. Each of these techniques has been tried and tested by Upsales, using - you guessed it - data!

Top Three Takeaways

• Most approaches to defining your ICP are lovely academic and don’t get you anywhere.
• Leads are not either hot or cold. They should be seen on a much more detailed spectrum from very cold to very hot, and everything else in-between.
• Rather than seeing churned clients as a lost cause, Daniel encourages you to see them as hot leads for your business to pursue.

Step 1: Lookalikes

Using lookalikes is one of the most common ways to source similar prospects to your current clients and involves using your current customer's data as a benchmark for modelling your ideal customer, and trying to seek more very similar leads.

However, does have some specific advice for this form of prospecting. “Don’t think of it as using a spear; think of it as using a net,” he explains. “At Upsales, we have used the usual targeting measures, but we’ve also started using keywords from how the company describes itself, as this is a much more targetted approach.”

Step 2: Family Trees and Board Members

“Let’s say you have 100 customers,” states Daniel. “Some of these customers will belong to company groups, and just looking at the parent company of the company tree is an overlooked way to find new leads.”

Daniel also notes that many people who sit on company boards also sit on multiple company boards. So if you have a good relationship with the CEO, and you know the chairman sits on many boards, ask for an introduction to them.

Step 3: Increase Precision

Don’t try marketing without a target list and a highly selective message. As Daniel states, Upsales saw a significant improvement in success when they contacted fewer companies but with a much more precise message, rather than contacting more leads with generic marketing efforts.

Step 4: Career Changes

Referrals are a huge driver of revenue growth when you have product-market fit. Actively pursue them when customers change seats.

“People change jobs every couple of years,” Daniel explains. “We do a search on LinkedIn, searching for people who used to use at any of your current customers, asking them what software they use, and then using that as your way into the business.”

Step 5: News Notifications

By setting news notifications for all the companies in your customer base, you can stay up to date with your customer's latest news and be there when they are ready to buy more.

For example, a company may have declined to work with you because they had pricing issues. However, if you see a notification that they have just secured significant funding, you can use that as an opportunity to get back in touch,

Step 6: Winbacks & Lost Deals

Rather than seeing churned clients as a lost cause, Daniel encourages you to see them as hot leads for your business to pursue.

On average, as many as 26% of past clients return, thanks to smart and well-thought-out win-back campaigns.

“Most sales reps won’t call a potential or past client again after they have said no, and I think that is a terrible mistake,” states Daniel. “A lot of deals fall through because of a timing issue or something completely out of their control, so digging into lost deals in the pipeline or former clients, you will find a lot of easy wins.”

Step 7: Find Hidden Upsell Opportunities

Finally, Daniel recommends using your existing customers to find hidden upsell opportunities. For example, if you have multiple products available, try to promote your other features if the relationship is strong.