What Makes A Good B2B Prospecting List? 5 Elements Of A Winning List

No matter the size of your sales department, what you have to sell, or what industries you serve, building a great B2B prospecting list is absolutely critical to your success. With the right prospecting list, you can save time by avoiding low-quality leads, connect with decision-makers more quickly, and sell your products or services more effectively. But what sets a great B2B prospecting list apart from a low-quality list? In this blog we’ll get into the details.

1. Aligns With Your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) And Buyer Personas

First, your B2B prospecting list should align with your Ideal Customer Profile, or ICP. As the name implies, ICPs are businesses that are the most likely to be interested in – and to benefit from – the products or services you sell. An ICP is usually based on metrics such as: 

• Industry

• Yearly revenue

• Budget

• Number of employees

• Size of customer base/market share

• Geographic location

While ICPs describe an entire company, buyer personas are more granular. They are used to identify a specific person who may be interested in your product or services. Buyer personas usually include demographic and professional information such as:

• Age

• Gender

• Income

• Job title/level of seniority

• Time spent at a company

• Professional goals

• Pain points

Together, ICPs and buyer personas help you make sure you reach the right companies and the right individuals. If you exclusively sell car parts in Nebraska, why would you bother sending an email or cold-calling the owner of a motorcycle dealership in Pennsylvania?

By making sure that your B2B prospecting list aligns with both your ICP and buyer personas, you can dramatically increase response rates and boost your chances of a sale. Not only that, but your sales team will spend less time chasing down unqualified leads.

2. Focuses On Hand-Raisers Who Are Actually Interested In Your Company

“Hand-raisers” are prospects who have indicated that they're interested in your company and what it has to offer. Maybe they’ve interacted with you on social media, come across one of your blog posts, or signed up for your email newsletter. Hand-raisers should always be a top priority when building a prospecting list.

Why? Because they have already shown interest in what you have to offer. Unlike interacting with a prospect through a cold call or a cold email, these people have shown an interest in your products or services. If you can identify people who are experiencing the pain point that your company can solve, you’ll dramatically increase your success rate.

3. Includes Up-To-Date Info With Multiple Contact Methods

This may be a bit obvious, but it’s important to note. Among the many other issues with buying a B2B prospect list from a third-party seller, one of the biggest problems is that it may be outdated. Phone numbers change. Employees leave. Offices move.

When you buy a B2B prospect list, you may have no idea whether or not the information is accurate. You and your sales team will waste time calling disconnected lines, emailing nonexistent inboxes, and crafting sales messages to abandoned LinkedIn profiles.

That’s why it’s important to build your own list, or to work with a company like Incept Grows. With up-to-date info and multiple contact methods, you can maximize your chances of reaching a potential prospect.

4. Targets Decision-Makers Who Have The Power To Take Action

Whenever possible, your B2B prospecting list should target decision-makers at each organization or company. These are the people who have power to make buying decisions – administrators, executives, managers, and so on. The specifics may vary a bit depending on your line of work.

Targeting these people directly helps you reduce the time you spend speaking with junior-level employees and administrative workers who do not have the power to make a buying decision.. Of course, it may not always be possible to reach a decision-maker directly, but that should always be your goal!

5. Includes Background Information To Help You Connect With Prospects

Beyond things like their title and workplace, it also helps to add a little more info to your B2B prospecting list that helps you make a better connection – particularly if you’re cold calling or cold emailing a prospect.

For example, if you find information about their alma mater on LinkedIn or find out that you have a mutual connection, this is a great icebreaker that you can use to start a deeper conversation. This may seem like a small thing, but it can really help you win over difficult prospects in the long term.

Don’t Just Buy A B2B Prospecting List – Get The Best ROI With Incept Grows

The best B2B prospecting lists aren’t just bought. They're created by pros like the team at Incept Grows. If you’re looking to expand your reach and need a prospecting list, you shouldn’t settle for an “off-the-shelf” list. We offer custom list creation services for a variety of different industries.

With our help, you can focus on making sales and connecting with potential customers – while we focus on creating a list of high-quality, qualified, and interested prospects. Interested in learning more? Schedule a consultation with our growth team online, or feel free to give us a call at 330-994-1349 to connect.