Beyond Google and LinkedIn: 5 Lesser-Known Tools to Identify the Right Point of Contact at Any Target Account

As any seasoned sales professional knows, the first step to winning a deal is getting in front of the right decision-maker. But in today‘s noisy, competitive B2B landscape, buyers are harder than ever to reach. Swamped with generic cold outreach, they‘re unlikely to engage with reps who haven‘t done their homework.

In fact, a recent TOPO study found that prospects open less than 24% of sales emails and ultimately respond to less than 1 in 5. The key to standing out and earning attention? Deep personalization – demonstrating you understand their business, their role, their challenges and goals.

That requires going beyond basic Google and LinkedIn searches to truly understand your target account and identify the best point of contact. Below are 5 lesser-known tools and tactics to level up your research and ensure your outreach hits the mark.

1. Mine Company Websites for Deep Insight

A company‘s website may seem an obvious first stop in your research, but many reps fail to go beyond a cursory scan. In reality, the website can be an incredibly rich source of intel, especially for privately-held companies where data is harder to come by. The key is knowing where to look.

Start with the About Us and Leadership/Management Team pages to get a clear picture of the company‘s structure, business units, and key personnel. Carefully review exec bios and profiles, noting titles, roles, responsibilities, and reporting structures. Look for clues about strategic initiatives they may be spearheading. These pages are often your best bet for identifying the likely decision-maker and other influencers for your product or service.

For example, if you sell marketing software, the CMO is probably your ultimate target. But the VP of Demand Gen may be a better first contact. Knowing that the VP reports to the CMO and sits on the marketing leadership team gives you valuable context for your outreach.

Don‘t overlook the company newsroom or press release archives. These can yield crucial intel on new executive hires, product launches, geographic expansions, partnerships and other potential sales triggers. Customer stories and case studies may also reveal key decision-makers, strategic priorities, and incumbent vendors in your solution category.

If your target company is public, be sure to peruse their investor relations content as well. Annual reports and 10-Ks provide in-depth overviews of each business unit, growth plans, risk factors and budgets. Earnings call transcripts and investor presentations shed light on strategic initiatives, KPIs, competitive landscape and more – all valuable fodder for personalized outreach.

A Forrester study found that 62% of B2B buyers say they engage with reps who demonstrate knowledge of their business and articulate how they can help. So it‘s well worth the extra time to plumb the company website for those critical details that will make your message stand out.

2. Scour Twitter for Thought Leadership and Trigger Events

Twitter may not be the first platform that comes to mind for B2B prospecting, but it‘s a veritable gold mine for gathering intelligence on key decision-makers. A 2019 Brunswick Group study found that 55% of C-suite executives have active Twitter accounts, and many regularly share thought leadership and engage in industry conversations.

Start by following your target company‘s official Twitter handle as well as any key executives and employees you‘ve identified in relevant roles. Many companies maintain separate handles for support, HR/careers, investor relations and other functions, so be sure to follow those as well.

Twitter lists are your secret weapon for easily tracking and monitoring high-priority accounts and contacts. Build separate private lists for each of your target accounts, adding key executives and employees as you identify them. Then dedicate time each day to reviewing your lists for potential sales triggers and engagement opportunities.

For example, if the CEO tweets about an expansion into a new market, that could be a good opening to reach out to the head of that business unit. If the CIO shares an article on AI in healthcare, that‘s a chance to engage them in a conversation about how your solution fits into that trend.

In addition to the company handles, set up alerts for mentions of the company name, stock ticker, and relevant keywords. This will help you catch important news, events, and pain points in real-time. Twitter‘s advanced search lets you easily monitor industry terms, competitors, and even specific conference hashtags for opportunities to jump in and add value.

Of course, the key to success on Twitter is to engage authentically and add value, not just lurk and pounce. Like and retweet the content your prospects post. Thoughtfully reply to their questions. Share relevant 3rd party content and tag them. Building genuine rapport before pitching dramatically improves the likelihood your outreach will get a response.

3. Invest in Sales Intelligence to Scale Personalization

For companies pursuing account-based strategies and enterprise deals, sales intelligence solutions are an invaluable tool for surfacing key decision-makers and enabling personalization at scale. These platforms aggregate and analyze data from a wide array of sources to provide extremely detailed profiles of target accounts and contacts.

Leading providers like ZoomInfo, DiscoverOrg, and InsideView offer comprehensive databases of companies and contacts, with detailed information on:

• Firmographics – revenue, employee count, industry, location, etc.
• Org charts and reporting structures
• Contact details – email, phone, social profiles
• Installed technologies
• Hiring and buying signals
• Funding and M&A news

Advanced platforms like D&B Hoovers add additional layers of insight, with SWOT analyses, financial filings, SIC/NAICS codes, and corporate family trees. This enables you to quickly grasp the full context in which your target contact operates.

Sales intelligence tools eliminate much of the manual research required to build out your ideal customer profile (ICP), identify key buying committee members, and tailor your messaging. They ensure you have accurate, up-to-date information and save immense time compared to scouring websites and LinkedIn.

More sophisticated sales intelligence tools also offer powerful intent data – capturing online research activity to surface companies with active demand for your solution category. By monitoring a target account‘s searches, content downloads, and website visits, these tools identify decision-makers at the optimal time to reach out.

A 2020 Forrester study found that B2B companies leveraging intent data saw 40% growth in closed deals and 25% increase in win rates. Incorporating purchase intent insights into your prospecting can massively improve contact-to-meeting conversion rates.

Of course, sales intelligence doesn‘t come cheap. Tools can range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per user per year, depending on the depth of data and features. For smaller teams, that can be hard to swallow.

But the ROI in terms of productivity gains and performance improvements is undeniable. A Demand Gen Report study found that companies using sales intelligence tools reported 35% shorter sales cycles and 30% better lead-to-opportunity conversion rates. When evaluating providers, look for one that integrates with your CRM, provides your reps‘ most critical use cases, and offers hands-on support to drive adoption.

4. Tap Your Network for Warm Introductions

Even in our hyper-digital age, relationships are still the most valuable currency in sales. No matter how much research you‘ve done, a warm introduction from a trusted mutual connection is the most effective way to get a decision-maker‘s attention.

Start by mapping out your network – colleagues, customers, classmates, social connections – and cross-referencing against your target account list. LinkedIn Sales Navigator‘s TeamLink Extend feature is particularly handy for this, surfacing connection paths to key decision-makers based on your extended team‘s networks.

Once you‘ve identified potential introducers, be thoughtful in your approach. Get to know them and their business first. Look for ways to provide value to them. Ask about their experience with the account and gather intel that could inform your strategy.

When you‘ve built sufficient rapport, make the introduction request. Be clear and concise in communicating:

• Who you‘re hoping to connect with
• Why you think they would be interested in talking
• What‘s in it for them – how could your solution potentially help?
• What you‘re asking the introducer to do

Here‘s a sample message that puts these elements together:

"Hi Sarah, I saw that you used to work with John Smith, the VP Marketing at Acme Inc. John is in charge of demand gen strategy, and I think our predictive analytics platform could really help his team scale pipeline this year. Since you know John well, I‘m hoping you might be willing to introduce us via email so I can share a few ideas with him. I‘d be happy to return the favor if there are any contacts I can connect you with as well. Thoughts?"

If Sarah agrees, offer to draft a short blurb she can easily copy/paste into an email. Make sure to position the introduction as a win for all parties involved.

With a referral in hand, you‘ll typically see 2-3x higher connection and conversion rates compared to cold outreach. And if you execute the process well, you‘ll have the opportunity to pay it forward, strengthening the relationships in your network along the way.

5. Use Intent Data to Prioritize Outreach

Perhaps the newest frontier in sales intelligence is intent data – monitoring web activity to identify accounts exhibiting signs of purchase intent for your solution category. This enables you to focus your limited time and resources on prospects most likely to buy.

There are two main types of purchase intent data:

First-party intent is data that you capture from your own digital properties – website visits, content downloads, product sign-ups, marketing email clicks, etc. Many tools (e.g. Marketo, Pardot, Drift) now offer this natively or via integrations with your CRM.

By tracking which decision-makers are engaging with your content and solutions, you can infer their interest and tailor follow-up. For example, if a CMO downloads your whitepaper on ABM best practices and watches your product demo video, that‘s a strong buying signal to prioritize outreach.

Third-party intent is data captured from other websites and publisher networks that your target accounts visit. Top providers like Bombora, The Big Willow, and TechTarget monitor billions of web page views, using advanced analytics to identify companies researching particular keywords and topics relevant to your business.

Let‘s say you sell cloud security software. You could subscribe to a third-party intent feed tracking activity around terms like "cloud access security broker", "data loss prevention", and "SASE". Anytime a target account exhibits a surge in research around those topics, it‘s a good indication they have an active initiative in that area and may be evaluating vendors.

Incorporating intent data into your prospecting and prioritization can yield significant results. An Aberdeen study found that companies leveraging intent data saw 47% larger deal sizes, 12% shorter sales cycles, and 18% higher lead-to-opportunity conversion rates.

Of course, intent data is just one signal among many. Effective go-to-market teams triangulate intent with other attributes like firmographics, technographics, and relationship mapping to paint a holistic picture of an account‘s fit, interest, and buying stage. But intent is often the factor that tips an account from "we should reach out sometime" to "let‘s engage this account now, in this way".

To get started with intent data:

1. Define your ICP and key purchase intent topics/keywords
2. Evaluate intent data providers and integration with your CRM
3. Build intent-driven lead scoring, prioritization, and outreach plays
4. Test messaging and content alignment with intent topics
5. Analyze engagement and conversion rates to optimize

As with any data source, be mindful of privacy regulations like GDPR. Make sure you understand how an intent provider collects data and complies with opt-out requests.

Bringing It All Together

Engaging today‘s B2B decision-makers requires an account-based, highly personalized approach. Buyers expect you to know their business inside and out, and to tailor your outreach accordingly. The generic spam of yesteryear simply won‘t cut it.

Fortunately, modern sales reps have an unprecedented wealth of tools and data sources at their fingertips to identify and research key points of contact. By leveraging company websites, social networks, sales intelligence platforms, warm introductions, and intent data in concert, you can achieve personalization at scale, even when you have a large book of target accounts.

The key is being intentional in how you incorporate these tools into your workflow:

1. Clearly define your ICP and what personalization means for your business
2. Build a research process that balances depth and efficiency
3. Choose tools that integrate well and are easy for reps to use
4. Test and measure what personalization variables impact results
5. Incorporate learning into onboarding, training, and collateral
6. Continually iterate your approach as new data and tech emerges

It‘s a lot of work, but the payoff in more meetings booked, faster sales cycles, and larger deals closed is more than worth it. And as data and automation continues to advance, top sales organizations will be defined by their ability to deliver highly tailored experiences at every stage of the buyer‘s journey.

So go beyond the basics. Develop true mastery in mining insight to power your outreach. Your prospects – and your quota – will thank you.

What other secret weapons do you use to research prospects? Let me know in the comments!