A sales prospecting list is an essential for B2B sales teams. It contains information about potential customers, including names, contact details, and relevant demographics. You can compile this list from various sources, such as email marketing databases or social media platforms.
As a sales professional, you can use a B2B prospecting list to focus your efforts on leads that are more likely to convert. This reduces the time and resources spent on cold-calling random numbers.
However, creating a sales prospecting list is more than just collecting names and email addresses. Beyond researching information, you need to ensure you have high-quality, compliant B2B data. This data should be accurate, up-to-date, and relevant to your target market.
This article will walk you through everything you need to know about a sales prospecting list, from what it is to how to create it. Plus, it includes sales prospecting templates and examples for your inspiration.
What Is a Sales Prospect List?
So, what actually is a sales prospecting list?
A prospect list is more than just a collection of names and titles. In fact, it is a strategic roadmap to your sales success. Think of it as your personal “wanted” poster, outlining the ideal customer profile you’re seeking.
As a salesperson, your mission is to bring in revenue, just like a bounty hunter. Your prospect list serves as your map, guiding you toward the most promising targets.
Imagine a “wanted” poster that reads:
- WANTED: A Director-level marketer at Intel;
- BOUNTY: An enterprise-level deal.
A well-crafted prospect list, segmented by industry, job title, and other relevant factors, ensures you’re focusing your efforts on the right people. This targeted approach increases your chances of connecting with prospects who are genuinely interested in your solution.
In other words, instead of randomly reaching out to anyone and everyone, a prospecting list allows your team to focus on the prospects who are most likely to buy. This helps you save time, reduce costs, and increase the chances of closing deals.
Here’s how it fits into the broader sales process:
- Targeted Outreach: Having a well-defined sales prospect list means you can rest assured your outreach efforts are more strategic. Sales representatives can personalize their communication, meaning they can tailor messages to address the specific needs and pain points of each prospect. This increases the likelihood of engaging the prospect and moving them further down the sales funnel;
- Efficient Use of Resources: When you focus on prospects who are a good fit for your product or service, you ensure that your sales team is spending their time and resources on the most promising opportunities. This not only improves efficiency but also boosts morale, as sales reps are more likely to achieve success when they’re engaging with the right prospects;
- Better Forecasting and Reporting: A sales prospect list also helps in sales forecasting and reporting. For example, when you analyze the characteristics of your prospects and track their engagement, you can more accurately predict future sales and adapt your strategy.
What Should a Prospect List Include?
A successful sales prospecting list will include a range of details that can help your sales team tailor their outreach.
Here’s what your B2B prospecting list should include:
1. Contact Information
This includes the prospect’s name, email address, phone number, and LinkedIn profile. Make sure that all information is accurate and updated.
2. Company Information
Include the company’s name, industry, size, and location. These details allow you to personalize your outreach and demonstrate that you understand the prospect’s business.
3. Job Title and Role
Your list should also include information on the prospect’s role within their organization. For B2B sales, you typically want to target decision-makers or influencers within the company.
4. Pain Points and Challenges
Document any pain points or challenges the prospect’s company might be facing. This information can help you directly address their needs.
5. Purchase History
If the prospect has interacted with your company before, you can include their purchase history in your prospect list. This can provide insights into their buying behavior and help you identify upsell opportunities.
6. Engagement History
Track any previous interactions with the prospect, such as emails opened, links clicked, or meetings attended. This helps your sales team gauge the prospect’s level of interest.
7. Lead Scoring
Assign a lead score based on the prospect’s fit and engagement level. This score can help prioritize outreach efforts, ensuring that your team focuses on the most promising leads first.
How to Build a Sales Prospecting List
We all know the risks that come with bad data — it can lead to missed chances, wasted effort, and poor decisions. But the good news is that there are still plenty of smart ways to create an effective sales prospect list.
Below are the steps to help you build a B2B prospecting list that drives results.
Step 1: Know Your Product
First things first, it is vital to truly understand what you’re selling. You’ve got to know exactly how your product helps solve customer problems — this knowledge will naturally lead you to figure out who your ideal customers are.
Take a moment to think about your best customers: Who are they, and what do they love about your product?
Plus, it’s important to go deeper than just the basics of your product. Spend time exploring use cases, listen to Gong calls, and dig into success stories.
When you know your product inside and out, it won’t just make you a better salesperson but will also give you a clearer picture of why customers choose to buy.
Step 2: Define Your Ideal Customer Profile
The second step in building your prospect list is to define your ICP.
An ICP offers a broad strategic overview of the types of companies that would benefit most from your business. It outlines the general characteristics — such as industry, company size, and revenue — that define your target audience, helping you pinpoint the main market segments you want to pursue.
When creating an ICP, consider factors such as industry, company size, location, and revenue.
But don’t stop there — think about the finer details that make a company a perfect match.
What stage of growth are they in? What challenges are they facing? What technology are they using, and what’s their company culture like?
The more specific you can get, the better your prospecting will be, helping you focus on companies that are truly the best fit and most likely to become long-term, happy customers.
Here’s an example to help you understand an ICP:
Company Name: TechSolutions Inc.
Industry: Technology Consulting
Company Size: 200-500 employees
Location: North America (United States and Canada)
Annual Revenue: $20M – $50M
Key Characteristics:
- Business Model: B2B, providing technology consulting services to other businesses.
- Growth Stage: Established with a steady growth trajectory;
- Pain Points: Difficulty in scaling their technology infrastructure and staying ahead of industry innovations;
- Decision-Making Process: Typically involves multiple stakeholders including the CTO, CIO, and CFO.
Target Market Segments:
- Technology Startups: Companies in the early stages of development that require scalable technology solutions;
- Mid-Sized Enterprises: Companies looking to upgrade their technology stack or streamline operations.
Step 3: Develop Buyer Personas
After defining your ICP, the next step is to create detailed buyer personas.
A buyer persona represents the actual people within those companies who make purchasing decisions. It involves creating detailed, fictional profiles that capture the traits, preferences, and behaviors of typical representatives from your ICP.
Think about who these decision-makers are, their job titles, and their day-to-day responsibilities. What are their main pain points, goals, and challenges?
A well-defined buyer persona will help you personalize your messaging, speaking directly to the needs, concerns, and aspirations of your prospects.
Here’s an example of a buyer persona:
Name: Sarah Johnson
Job Title: Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
Company: TechSolutions Inc.
Age: 42
Education: Master’s Degree in Computer Science
Responsibilities:
- Overseeing the technology strategy and infrastructure for the company;
- Overseeing an IT team and collaborating with cross-functional departments;
- Evaluating and implementing new technology solutions to drive innovation and efficiency.
Pain Points:
- Struggles with integrating new technologies with existing systems;
- Concerns about the high cost of advanced technology solutions and their ROI;
- Difficulty in finding reliable technology partners who understand their unique needs.
Preferences:
- Prefers detailed case studies and testimonials from similar companies;
- Values clear, data-driven insights and ROI projections;
- Enjoys working with vendors who offer strong customer support and ongoing training.
Buying Behavior:
- Typically involved in lengthy decision-making processes, involving multiple rounds of evaluations and discussions with the finance team;
- Relies heavily on recommendations from industry peers and thorough product research before making a final decision.
Step 4: Use Data to Identify Prospects
Once you’ve your ICP and buyer persona ready, it’s time to tap into data to find prospects.
You may want to use tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo, or similar platforms to gather data on potential prospects.
In doing so, look for companies and individuals that match your ICP and buyer personas.
And don’t just stop at basic information. Instead, dig deeper to understand their current challenges and how your solution can help.
Step 5: Segment Your List
Segmenting your sales prospecting list will allow you to tailor your outreach. You can deliver more personalized and relevant messages, increasing the likelihood of engagement.
It is a good idea to segment your list based on factors like industry, company size, or location.
Step 6: Lead Scoring
The next step is to analyze and sort the leads you’ve collected. Lead scoring helps you identify and prioritize the most promising leads for your sales follow-up list.
Lead scoring involves assigning numbers to your leads based on things like their likelihood to purchase, the size of their company, the potential value of the account, and other relevant factors.
Step 7: Clean and Verify Your Data
Regularly clean and verify your data to remove duplicates, outdated information, and irrelevant contacts. This ensures that your sales team isn’t wasting time on dead-end leads.
Step 8: Use Automation Tools to Streamline the Process
Automation tools can help streamline the process of building and maintaining a sales prospecting list. These tools allow you to automate repetitive tasks like data entry, list segmentation, messages and follow-up emails.
As an example, we can take LinkedIn. Check the LinkedIn prospecting techniques including using the right automation tools. You can rest assured that your list is always up-to-date and your outreach efforts are consistent.
Prospecting List Template
To help you get started, here are two prospecting list templates that you can use to organize your data. These templates are easy to use and customize.
1. Basic Prospecting List Template
| Name | |
| Company | |
| Job Title | |
| Phone Number | |
| LinkedIn Profile | |
| Lead Score |
For smaller teams or companies that are just getting started with sales prospecting this prospecting list format is ideal. It includes all the essential information you need to reach out to prospects.
2. Advanced Prospecting List Template
| Name | |
| Company | |
| Job Title | |
| Location | |
| Industry | |
| Phone Number | |
| LinkedIn Profile | |
| Website | |
| Source | |
| Pain Points | |
| Lead Score | |
| Other info | |
| Notes |
This template is more elaborate and includes columns for more detailed information. It’s ideal for larger sales teams or companies with more complex sales processes. It is a good idea to create this prospecting list template excel and then tweak it to your needs.
Example of a Sales Prospecting List
| Name | Sarah Johnson |
| Company | TechWave Solutions |
| Job Title | CTO |
| Location | San Francisco, CA |
| Industry | Technology |
| [email protected] | |
| Phone Number | (415) 555-1234 |
| LinkedIn Profile | linkedin.com/in/sarahjohnson |
| Website | techwave.com |
| Source | Inbound Lead |
| Pain Points | Struggling with scalable cloud solutions. |
| Lead Score | 85 |
| Other info | Budget: $500K, High authority |
| Notes | Interested in a demo; prefers cloud-first strategy. |
How Octopus CRM Helps in Building a High-Quality Sales Prospect List
Building a sales prospecting list can be time-consuming, especially when it comes to finding leads. Remember, sales prospecting vs lead generation are two vital elements of a good prospecting plan and you get optimum results when these two work in tandem.
Thankfully, Octopus CRM LinkedIn automation tool makes it easy to find prospects for your list and reach out effectively.
Octopus CRM helps you find and reach out to leads and prospects by automating tasks like profile visits, connection requests, skill endorsements, and much more. This LinkedIn automation tool also allows you to scale your outreach efforts without sacrificing personalization.
You can export the data from Octopus CRM as a CSV file for further processing.
Conclusion
A well-thought-out sales prospect list will save you from spending time on leads that aren’t a good fit and let you focus on the people who are most likely to be interested and convert.
Follow the list-building techniques we’ve discussed above, stay on top of privacy regulations, and avoid common pitfalls. This way, you’ll not only create and maintain a solid prospect list but also achieve better engagement, stronger results, and ultimately, more revenue growth for you and your sales team.