Responsible sales enablement: let web apps do the heavy lifting

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“Web scraping doesn’t have to be a dirty word when it’s done responsibly, but responsibility needs defining,” says the Ethical Web Data Collection Initiative (EWDCI). The EWDCI – an industry-led consortium of web data collectors – is on a mission to strengthen public trust, promote ethical guidelines, and help businesses make informed data aggregation choices. Today – even during a technology transition where Google’s dominance is being threatened by generative AI – search engines remain useful for gathering company details and navigating a path to key prospects. But they are not the only tools out there. Automated web apps can do much of the heavy lifting and let sales teams focus their efforts on building the perfect pitch. However, if you find yourself dumpster-diving the web for leads, then it’s time for a reset. Responsible sales enablement makes sure that business relationships get off on the right foot, and can reduce the number of unknowns that may be blocking a successful deal.

Tech layoffs or musical chairs?

Lead Genius is a popular tool for generating personalized datasets and is used by a wide range of companies. The firm pitches itself as being at the intersection of B2B data, robotic process automation, and data outsourcing. And clients include big names such as Paypal (to understand its total addressable market), Snowflake (to enrich its decision-maker intelligence) and Salesforce (to develop its account-based marketing capabilities).

Running its data through Flourish, an online data visualization tool, Lead Genius shows how it’s possible to look beyond the headlines and shine a different light on events such as the recent wave of tech layoffs. In this case, its analysis reveals how top executives laid off by Amazon, Meta, and Salesforce, have been snapped up by other major firms. And, in some cases, layoffs have simply resulted in musical chairs – for example, Meta (which according to Lead Genius data had a reduction in workforce of 1257) hired 296 employees that had become available as a result of the tech industry layoffs. And Google took the opportunity to recruit 823 staff.

Naturally, by keeping on top of these staff movements, which can be – as Lead Genius highlights – hidden behind the headlines, you’ll be a step ahead of your sales competitors when it comes to pitching deals to the right prospects. And if you want more data, one option is to simply use more tools. RocketReach, which can be launched via a browser extension, allows users to quickly discover leads on Google, AngelList, Crunchbase, and LinkedIn. According to the firm, RocketReach can provide real-time verified data for 700 million professionals across 35 million companies. Fields include not just name and job title, but also years of experience, social links, as well as company revenue and employee count.

RocketReach has an email automation and outreach tool, which can help to schedule and plan your email correspondence. And if you were doubtful about the power of email in an age of social media, RocketReach’s Staci Cretu has some stats that might convince you otherwise, particularly when it comes to retargeting campaigns, which can increase prospect engagement rates by a whopping 400%. Remarketing, too, can be remarkably effective. Ever been sent an email saying that you’ve left something in your online shopping cart? Nudging potential customers can convert as high as 60% of abandoned carts into sales, Cretu points out. Personalization is a big deal. If you make clients feel that their needs are recognized, your sales manager will thank you.

Another option for sales prospecting and gathering market intelligence is Apollo.io, which claims to have a database featuring over 250 million contacts at over 60 million companies. Apollo’s team emphasizes the need for good data housekeeping. Information goes out of date – especially during tech layoffs, as the Lead Genius study highlights. In fact, Apollo estimates that data decay could be as high as 20% per quarter. Its platform has some useful features to fix stale contacts, such as job change alerts, which make users aware of changes in target accounts.

Even after just a whistle-stop tour of what’s available to assist with responsible sales enablement, going back to using a regular search engine suddenly feels like hard work. And you don’t have the validation steps built in to save on wasted emails, calls, and research. Plus, if you combine contacts automation with other sales enablement tools such as email content optimizers and AI-powered writing tools then you are really starting to supercharge your chances of responsible sales enablement success. And that’s not forgetting the edge that can be gained through the use of presentation metrics. Responsible sales enablement opportunities are out there. Let the web apps do the heavy lifting.