Good sales depend on finding the right people at the right time.
In essence, this is the art of prospecting.
Technology has made this process a lot easier – rest assured that qualified leads are out there in a database somewhere. But with so much data to sift through, knowing which prospecting tools to use is half the battle.
This blog post will discuss 13 of the best prospecting tools available today.
We will also talk about what makes these tools so effective, and how you can use them to find more prospects for your business.
What are the Best Prospecting Tools?
Identifying the best prospecting tools can be difficult, as there are many options available and they all work slightly differently. However, there are a few features that you should look out for to make the decision easier.
First, consider what type of information you need to gather. If you’re looking for company profiles, then tools like Zoominfo or Owler will be right for you. If all you need is to find the email address of a specific prospect, then Hunter or Leadmine will do the trick.
Second, think about the reach that a prospecting tool will give you. The best features in the world won’t help unless you have a large pool of relevant prospects to choose from. Tools such as LinkedIn Navigator or Builtwith leverage some of the largest and most extensive prospect databases on the market.
Finally, consider integration capabilities with CRMs and other external applications. What good is a prospect list if you can’t easily action it? Using a tool such as Crunchbase or Leadfuze can easily insert qualified leads into the sales pipeline and streamline your prospecting process.
By keeping these factors in mind, you can narrow down your options and choose the best prospecting tool for your needs.
1. LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Overview
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is the sales prospecting tool on the backend of the LinkedIn social media platform. This robust prospecting tool harnesses the vast database of LinkedIn users to generate prospect lists based on business-specific criteria.
Highlights
- advanced search capabilities
- find leads and accounts using unique filters using company size, industry, job type, and more
- organize and manage prospect lists directly on the platform
- Reach out to leads using LinkedIn messages
- export lists using CRM integrations such as Salesforce and Microsoft 365
- embed LinkedIn profiles directly in the CRM for data validation purposes
- 1-month free trial
Pricing
- Core $65/month
- Advanced $108/month
- Advanced Plus contact sales for pricing
Bottom Line
The power of LinkedIn Sales Navigator lies in its ability to scrub the entire LinkedIn network. With 875 million users and counting, you have a wide selection of prospects to dig up information on. List management capabilities on the platform are sparse, but the ability to export to your CRM makes LinkedIn Sales Navigator an excellent prospecting tool for B2B businesses.
2. Crunchbase
Overview
Crunchbase is a powerful private company prospecting tool. Made up primarily of a network of 4000 + global investment firms, Crunchbase has a wide pool of potential prospects. The platform allows you to search for private companies and find the contact information for key decision-makers.
Highlights
- data from a network of 75M annual visitors, 4K + venture capital firms, 2K + news publications, and 75+ partners across sectors like B2B media, government, and academia.
- advanced search capabilities using criteria such as funding amount, company size, investors, acquisitions, and more
- set alerts for target companies to learn when they raise funding or hire new employees
- create custom prospecting lists of contacts within target companies.
- send emails directly from the platform with premade templates and personalized insights
- CRM integrations data exporting capabilities
- 7-day free trial
Pricing
- Starter $29/month
- Pro $49/month
- Enterprise Contact Sales for pricing
Bottom Line
Crunchbase has built a small empire around its portfolio of data partners. With insights on thousands of private companies, this prospecting tool gives you the power to generate lists that are highly relevant to your business. Advanced search, contact automation, and CRM integrations make Crunchbase a powerful arrow in the quiver for B2B sales and marketing.
3. Prelo
Overview
Prelo allows you to find well-funded, fast-growing startups that are flying under the radar. Their database of newly funded startups is highly dynamic and growing. Pick your filters, curated a list of key contacts, and use an email finder to send targeted email campaigns.
Highlights
- Highly curated list of startup contacts sent to your email box each week
- database of over 40,000 funded startups across 20 different industries and 1000s of locations
- contact and social info of over 200,000 targeted professionals within organizations
- Startups covered in the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa Asia, and the Middle East
- Outreach email automation and templates
- export contact list to your CRM
Pricing
- Basic Free
- Standard $23/month
Bottom Line
The Prelo prospecting platform is great for consulting teams, marketing agencies, and early-stage startups. Prelo helps you keep your finger on the pulse of the startup world and prospect promising companies that would otherwise slip between the cracks. If you are looking for a lead generation solution that can easily send drip campaigns in a few clicks, Prelo is your pick.
4. Emissary
Overview
Emissary is a prospecting network that facilitates interactions with “advisors” within your industry. By leveraging the advisory network, Emissary gives you access to valuable sales and product insights. Their platform helps you organize prospect interactions and advisor connections.
Highlights
- network of over 10,000 executive-level technology buyers
- filter and generate prospect lists based on role, recency, seniority, budgets, reporting structure, and more
- run email campaigns from a central platform
- generate and download engagement transcripts and recordings to share across your organization
- Salesforce CRM integrations
Pricing
- contact sales for pricing
Bottom Line
The Emissary network and prospecting tool is a great way to learn about product categories in your industry. The double benefit here is an intelligence-gathering system as well as a sales prospecting solution. For sales and marketing teams that need in-depth access and insights into a specific market, Emissary can help make those connections.
5. Zoominfo
Overview
Zoominfo is a B2B prospecting tool. It leverages a massive company profile database to offer a complete suite of sales, marketing, employee, and operation prospecting solutions.
Highlights
- database of more than 106 million company profiles, 60 million direct dials, and 5+ million C-Level contacts
- filter company prospect lists based on employee size, revenue, industry, buyer intent scores and more
- track customer interactions across multiple communication channels including calls, emails, and website chats.
- streamline customer interactions with data-powered phone and email automations
- vast integrations with external apps including CRMs, project management tools, email marketing, and more
- free trial
Pricing
Zoominfo offers flexible pricing for its suite of prospecting tools
- SalesOS
- MarketingOS
- TalentOS
Bottom Line
The Zoominfo network is one of the largest in the prospecting sphere. This massive 106 million profile database is also bolstered with an array of prospecting tools. Whether you want to cherry-pick company data for direct messaging or generate a complete list for export into external communications apps, Zoominfo has the data and the tools to get the job done.
6. Hunter
Overview
Hunter is a web tool that finds email addresses associated with website domains. Leveraging a massive database of over 100 million indexed email addresses, Hunter can find and verify actual email addresses or generate the most likely email address for a specific person.
Highlights
- 100+ million email addresses indexed
- search for company email addresses associated with website domains
- Export email addresses into a CSV file
- email address accuracy and deliverability verification
- Export lists directly to your CRM
- various integrations including browser extensions and email software
Pricing
- Free
- Starter $49/month
- Growth $99/month
- Pro $199/month
- Business $399/month
Bottom Line
The Hunter prospecting tool is a quick and easy way to find email addresses. The hunter domain search feature allows you to grab email addresses of specific people in a company by simply entering their website into the search bar. Generate contact lists and export them directly into a spreadsheet or into your CRM of choice for instant follow-up.
7. Vidyard
Overview
Vidyard is a video selling and sales prospecting tool that allows you to prospect virtually and sell remotely. The Vidyard solution includes a video recording, hosting, and messaging platform that integrates with external tools throughout every step of the sales cycle.
Highlights
- intuitive video recording, hosting, and messaging tool
- send videos by email, Linkedin, and more
- video templates for every stage in the sales cycle
- track who watches your videos so you can follow up right away
- Embed videos directly on your website, blog, landing pages, etc.
- browser extensions and app integrations such as Salesforce, Marketo, Outreach, and more
- create unique video CTAs to drive real customer actions
Pricing
- Free
- Pro $19/month
- Business $145/month
Bottom Line
If your sales team is highly involved with virtual selling, Vidyard can help with engaging prospects at every step of