Sales prospecting software is a tool that facilitates the search for new clients for a business. It serves to continuously feed the sales pipeline and identify short-term projects with clients. It also allows for the collection and centralization of information on prospects, so that salespeople can contextualize their initial contact and maximize their performance.

Today, prospecting takes place across numerous tools and sales channels . Companies prospect online, on social media, by phone, email, and at trade shows. A prospecting solution enables omnichannel management of prospecting activities. In other words, it ensures consistency through data centralization and comprehensive management of sales activity.

Effective prospecting: The features of a sales prospecting tool

Managing contacts and clients

The primary function of prospecting software is the creation of a prospect database . Regardless of the prospecting methods used by the company, the tool centralizes contact data.

It contains both profile information (contact identity, position held, company, email address, telephone number, etc.) and behavioral data (interaction history, maturity level assessment, lead scoring, etc.).

Centralizing this information in a single tool then allows us to:

• Segment the database according to criteria of your choice (position, geographical area, maturity level, etc.)
• Perform simple or advanced searches in the contact database
• Managing prospecting activities (telemarketing, email campaigns, etc.)

Marketing campaign management

Prospecting isn't just about sales teams handling leads. It's about creating a continuous flow of prospects, a sales pipeline. Prospecting software covers every stage of the conversion funnel, from initial contact to closing. These software programs are powerful tools that also facilitate marketing activities.

Email marketing automation

When prospects are cold or still in the discovery phase, they don't know the company and are only just beginning to identify their problem. At this stage, their buying intent is low. They are therefore not ready for immediate sales support. Your sales team will be better employed doing what they do best: closing deals with warm prospects.

Marketing automation (and particularly email marketing automation ) allows you to automatically process leads that are not yet ready to buy. Within your prospecting tool, you can schedule automated email sequences to nurture prospects and assess their purchase intent.

Lead scoring

By using dedicated sales software for prospecting, you'll also benefit from lead scoring functionality. Lead scoring involves assigning a score to each prospect, corresponding to their level of engagement. With each interaction with your emails or website content, the prospect receives points. For example, +10 if they click on a link in an email or -5 if they don't open the message. 

When a lead reaches a predefined score, it is considered sufficiently qualified for a sales qualification call. The prospecting tool automatically triggers the handover between marketing and sales.

Managing commercial activities

Using a B2B prospecting tool facilitates sales activity management. Indeed, it allows salespeople to quickly identify qualified prospects to contact as a priority. 

Furthermore, each prospect record summarizes the history of interactions. When the salesperson prepares their call, they therefore know exactly which marketing messages the prospect has responded to. This information is very useful for personalizing and contextualizing the initial contact.

Reporting and management of commercial activity

The value of prospecting software also lies in its features and reporting tools. Indeed, a sales strategy is based on specific objectives. When implementing the strategy, sales managers also define KPIs to track the performance of the actions taken.

The prospecting tool allows you to generate reports and dashboards to track campaign results in real time and, if necessary, readjust the action plan.