B2B sales data matters most when you can quickly:
Analyze the datasets
And use it in your account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns
Approach it any other way, and you run the risk of failed campaigns, missed quota, and a disgruntled sales team. A great B2B sales intelligence process prevents this from happening. In this piece, we'll be sharing four ways you can take advantage of sales intelligence to maximize the results of your ABM campaigns.
First, a quick definition.
What is B2B sales intelligence?
B2B sales intelligence is data about your leads, job changes, funding rounds, intent signals, that tells you when and how to reach them. This information can be used to arm your sales and marketing teams with the relevant data they need when they need it to make the sale.
Sales intelligence software finds and enriches lead data, then helps you execute ABM strategies from targeted outreach to gifting campaigns.
Before we dive into some of the ways B2B sales intelligence makes this process easier, ensure you have product-market fit. ABM strategy requires a strong product that solves your ideal customer's pain points.
What sales intelligence data points are important for B2B companies?
Sales intelligence companies gather data from individuals and organizations alike. The type of data you have access to depends on the type of sales intelligence tool you use. The best sales intelligence software will provide real-time data on potential prospects including:
Name
Job title
Phone number
Email address
New business funding
Job title changes
Purchase intent
What are the key benefits of sales intelligence?
Sales intelligence gathers important data and showcases the information in an easily digestible way. Your sales and marketing teams will find key insights faster than before.
Provides fresh actionable data
Fresh data matters. When a champion changes jobs or a target company raises funding, you need to know within days, not months. These days people are changing jobs a lot more frequently and it pays off to know when a previous customer changes jobs or if a target company receives new funding. These triggers give your reps a reason to reach out when buyers are actually ready to talk.
Supplies prospect insights
Good sales intelligence tells you what prospects care about, what problems they're trying to solve, and when they're ready to buy. When you know a prospect's specific challenges, you can show them exactly how your product solves those problems.
Identifies customers most likely to convert
Knowing when a prospect remains in the research phase can save your team time. Having clear insight into a target’s buying intent allows your sales reps to spend time with the right prospects at the right time.
Helps optimize sales cycles
The result: Your reps spend time on prospects who are ready to buy, not on cold leads who aren't. If your teams know who to target, when to reach out, and how to personalize their communication the result is a shorter sales cycle.
How does B2B sales intelligence improve sales performance?
Sales intelligence automates the research work that slows down prospecting.
Increases productivity
Sales intelligence tools help automate processes to save time. Instead of spending time researching prospects, your sales reps can use their time on outreach. Automated sales intelligence is key to optimizing your sales rep’s time.
Helps personalize outreach
Personalization works. In fact, Epsilon Marketing found that 80% of consumers buy products or services more readily when they receive a tailored experience. Sales intelligence software makes it easy to add personalization to your sales process.
Optimizes prospecting process
Sales intelligence data helps highlight which strategies succeed and which fail. Your marketing and sales teams can use this data to improve their tactics.
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How B2B sales intelligence fuels ABM campaign
Sales intelligence is core to any ABM or ABE program. We run our own ABE campaigns this way, and we've seen what works.
1. Build background information on your ideal customer profile
The first step in running a successful ABM campaign is getting a clear idea of what your ideal customer profile is (ICP). The only way to do this is to invest in customer research, which may include:
Lining up customer interviews on the phone, Zoom, or in-person
Listening to recorded or live sales and support calls
Mining reviews on sites like G2 Crowd or Capterra
Reading and monitoring comments, reviews, and other customer communication on social media
Running market research surveys
Online research helps, but phone conversations with customers give you the real insights you need to build an accurate ICP.
The goal of all of this customer research is to understand and analyze it to the point where you can put together a detailed ICP, which includes:
Demographic Details: For example, information like job titles, locations, company size, organizational hierarchy, key decision-makers, revenue numbers, tech stack, etc.
Contact Details: Like the email addresses, phone numbers, LinkedIn profiles, and more, for key decision-makers you want to get in touch with.
Buying Triggers: Such as the key intent drivers that signal someone is in the market for the product or service you offer.
Your ICP isn't static. People change jobs, companies get funding, tech stacks evolve. Keep your data fresh or your targeting will drift.
2. Help you select the right prospects
Finding and enriching all available sales data requires strategic selection.
Targeting everyone dilutes your efforts and spreads resources too thin, causing your ABM or ABX campaigns to underperform.
A better approach is to prioritize and target the right prospects who are the most likely to convert. This requires a mindset shift for both sales and marketing, where you collectively decide on a list of strategic accounts to go after.
This approach works at any budget level, but we've found the economics work best when you target accounts worth at least $15K per year. Below that threshold, the effort rarely pays off.
3. Personalize conversations with prospects
While prioritizing who to target, how often to reach out, and when to do so is important in any ABM campaign, the most critical elements are which contact method you use and what you say.
Your messaging matters more than anything else in ABM. Get it right, and you can overcome targeting flaws. Get it wrong, and even perfect targeting won't save you.
Here are some tips that have helped us craft personalized messaging at scale:
Clearly communicate why you are reaching out: State why you're reaching out upfront. Vague or clever subject lines just make prospects distrust you. If you send unclear or insincere messages, it will be harder to get your ideal audience to trust you.
Find ways to signal that you know what you’re talking about: Sales and marketing professionals must understand what the product does thoroughly. Make sure you can speak and write intelligently about it, as well as answer any questions a prospect may have.
Demonstrate that you understand a key pain point your target audience has: Acknowledge the problem that they have, and then (once they’re invested in you or your product) show them how your product solves it.
Be interesting and concise: This is almost too obvious to include. You’re interrupting a prospect’s time and asking them to spend money. The least you can do is make sure your message is intriguing and relevant enough for them to respond to.
4. Encourage sales and marketing alignment
Sales and marketing alignment drives ABM success. We've seen this firsthand: alignment between sales and marketing determines whether your ABM program actually drives pipeline.
Yes, alignment starts with getting buy-in from the C-Suite.
But it also means having at least a couple of shared goals and open communication lines. Especially around target accounts and background information on your ideal customer profile(s). This requires the right sort of actionable sales intelligence to automate and streamline the process.
The end result of this approach is that you eliminate silos and hold everyone accountable for their individual roles in the campaign.
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The right B2B sales intelligence tools increase your odds
From understanding your ICP to getting alignment between sales and marketing and selecting the right prospects to target, it all starts with having access to the right sales intelligence data. B2B sales intelligence data should be a key part of your prospecting toolkit.
UserGems gives you this data—accurate contacts, job change alerts, intent signals—integrated directly into your existing workflow. Our software helps with everything from turning your calendar into a lead-generating machine to identifying when to reach out to your most likely buyers.
