Sales research is the process that sales representatives go through before they do their client outreach. The goal is to remove unqualified leads from the sales process before more time is spent on them. Tools typically involve Google searches, LinkedIn, and company pages.
Sales Research Process and Tools
Here’s a quick process you can follow to get a good idea of your prospect, their company, and how they fit into the market. Not all these tools will yield results, but make sure you check through a few of them before removing a prospect. Many times, they’ll have a preferred social media platform so one or two could be silent.
- This by far the best spot for sales research. Be sure to check out these areas for your prospect: Current position and title, past positions and titles, and shared connections.
Company websites
- This is another great spot for sales research. You can typically find where your contact falls in the organization by checking out their “Team” or “About Us” pages. Their blog and press releases are also great sources of info on what the company has been up to recently. This will help with your rapport building portion.
Google results
- A quick Google search of the company and/or the contact’s name can reveal a lot about a firm. It’s Google’s job to find things relevant to the search term and they’re pretty dang good at it. Use this to find other potential information sources to dig into.
Indeed.com and Monster.com
- Sometimes, knowing what positions a company has open can reveal a lot about their future growth plans. This is often helpful for larger companies since it’s easier to spot hiring trends when there are a lot of postings. Use this to potentially uncover where the company’s moving near-term.
Glassdoor
- Knowing what employees think of a firm will give you a good idea of the kind of culture there. This can go a long way with shaping how you approach a prospect.
Sales Research and your Qualification Process
The best way to use your sales research is to have a detailed qualification process that this research is checked against. If you’re targeting a specific industry, or a certain size firm, or a firm within a single geography, then include that info in your sales research. The goal should be to get a tighter pool of prospects so you’re sales team is spending their time on potential buyers, not everyone under the sun.
