When a company hires a sales consultant, one of the most common recommendations they make is, “Your company needs to do more prospecting.” This immediately leads to the next step: Who? Finding the answer to this question can be confusing and costly. You can buy contact lists, but many have inaccuracies and outdated data. I have seen some companies’ burn thousands of dollars buying lists that are almost worthless.
Last month one of my clients was facing the “who?” question. She had some serious prospecting to do and could not afford to purchase a fancy contact list. I suggested she go to her local library and request access to a premium database. American Reference USA is a common one. There are others.
Jill got into the premium database and was able to target businesses in a certain zip code. She also was able to enter SIC codes. The result was a nice prospect list that gave vital company information such as:
# of employees
Gross annual revenue
Credit rating
Names to contact for various positions
Once Jill had her list, the next thing she did was call each company to affirm that the contact information was up-to-date. If not, she got the new contact name.
The next day she made her calls and set some key appointments. The library also provided her with remote access from her own computer. Nice!
If you are building a prospect list, remember the premium database available at your local library. You’ve already paid for it.
