Sales intelligence: what it is

Blog · Partner: POLISH YELLOW PAGES® · since 1991

A post from the POLISH YELLOW PAGES® blog (formerly DATABOT.PL), originally published on 17.11.2022. Some information (tools, prices, regulations) may have changed since then.

What is sales intelligence and how does it help you succeed in sales?

Sales intelligence is the order of the day in sales right now. But as a sales rep or sales manager just knowing the term won’t get you far. The question is rather: where can sales intelligence be used? How can sales intelligence support you and your sales team? 

It is important to keep your goal in mind – using software aimlessly has never helped anyone. Yet there are sales reps who use sales intelligence but don’t know what their goal is and what they want to achieve with it. 

This article will help you understand the most important things about sales intelligence and how to use it to reach your sales goals. Let’s get started!

What is sales intelligence?

Sales intelligence usually refers to a range of technologies that help the sales and marketing department find, collect, analyse and evaluate data about prospects . What’s more: sales intelligence supports you in generating leads and also provides the latest information about your prospects. To do this, sales intelligence uses information already published online – on websites, social media etc. Such technologies are often used in the B2B sector , where they save a lot of research time.

Sales intelligence is a kind of energy drink for successful selling – it gives you everything you need to win over your market, target group and dream customer – especially in B2B! Sales intelligence doesn’t just scratch the surface! Such tools don’t simply provide contact details and nothing more. You often see specific financial data, company history, employee contact details and much more.

Sales intelligence refers to both software and tools

With sales intelligence you can define and narrow your group of target customers, enabling the software to offer more specific results. For this it can be very useful to create an ideal customer profile to query with such tools.

Sales intelligence can often also be integrated with CRM systems , which can make work even easier. In addition, data maintenance is often part of sales intelligence, which means data enrichment and lead qualification are also included in many tools. Sales intelligence can also extract and supplement additional data from social media or current news. Sometimes automatic generation of lead lists, website tracking and automatic alerts to your inbox are also included. Some programs also support your sales engagement and sales enablement , which in turn greatly improves overall sales performance.

Find out about other features of sales intelligence tools in the section “ What features do sales intelligence tools have?”

How does sales intelligence work?

In short, sales intelligence gives you a huge advantage thanks to high-quality, tailored data. But how exactly does the software or tool do it? These systems often work with artificial intelligence (AI). When AI meets sales, the result is growth . If you use it wisely, you can take your sales results to the next level.

Sales intelligence mainly uses crawler technology that scans the internet for publicly available information . This information then flows back into the software or tools. 

Sales intelligence is about data – lots of data ! Depending on the purpose, sales intelligence tools take over the collection, sorting, analysis, evaluation and enrichment of huge amounts of data from the internet. Anything your target customer has ever made public can be found by sales intelligence software. You can then check for yourself whether the target customer might need your product. In most cases you can recognise this by so-called sales signalsshown to you by Sales Intelligence.

This can be a website visitor downloading your white paper , a visit at a trade fair , a comment on LinkedIn, or attendance at one of your webinars . With such signals you can see fairly well how deep your prospect’s level of interest is. You will find out about all the features of sales intelligence in the chapter “What features do Sales Intelligencetools have?”

Source:  blog.hubspot.com

This means sales intelligence software draws data from several sources, such as:

• Your target customer’s website/social media profiles
• Publications/reports/reviews about the target customer on other sites
• Visitor tracking/cookies: how does someone move around your website?
• and much more.

That said, sales intelligence supports you by collecting lots of data from various sources. You can then see the results in the tool you have bought in a very neat, orderly way.

What features do sales intelligence tools have?

Sales intelligence software is not always identical. There are many different tools with different features, depending on the purpose or goal of the tool and its users.

Sales intelligence tools are available for:

1. Lead generation/lead lists

Sales intelligence tools can help with finding and generating leads . Based on the criteria you define, sales intelligence shows you exactly the companies and people likely to become your future customers .

You get lead lists containing your target customers, along with lots of important information such as address, company data, publicly available employee contact details and current news . 

A few clicks are enough for sales managers and sales reps to get hot leads immediately! Thanks to this additional information provided by sales intelligence software, you and your sales team can get straight to the point: talking to prospects.

You can often also find companies similar to existing customers . These so-called lookalikes immediately show which companies you can target with your product or service that exactly match your search profile. With similar companies you can also be 100% sure there is demand for your product or service.

Want more features? Here you go: alerts are another feature of many sales intelligence tools. This feature is particularly useful and saves time, because you will always be informed by email about the latest developments of your target group and target customers. That way you are kept up to date about new sales opportunities, changed data or a new entry – directly by email. It doesn’t get easier than that.

2. Lead qualification and lead tracking

In addition, sales intelligence helps your sales department find out which leads should be targeted and which are rather unsuitable. For example, some tools automatically prioritise lead lists based on predefined rules. 

Sales intelligence software often also provides the information you or your team need to create lead lists manually. In this respect you get help with lead qualification and prioritisation . It is then easier for the sales and marketing departments to estimate how many resources to invest in activating leads.

In addition, you can also use sales intelligence for sales forecasting . This means you can effectively track your team’s performance and better understand which processes and strategies can be refined. This helps to improve sales performance and processes sustainably, as well as forecast upcoming deals .

3. Data enrichment and maintenance

Of course you can also use sales intelligence software to enrich and complete customer data within your CRM. Most tools will add missing email addresses or phone numbers. Some also add company or industry data, organisational charts, technographic information and much more!

Sales intelligence provides a solid basis for qualifying leads and setting their priorities . In addition, it provides context for sales conversations and often a suitable conversation starter! 

It also supports your lead scoring , i.e. the way you score leads, and lead nurturing , i.e. continuously developing relationships with your leads. Ultimately you work only with error-free, high-quality data, don’t waste time and invest in relationships with these (potential) customers .

4. Sales enablement / sales engagement

Sales enablement aims to make sales more predictable. Its main goal is therefore better communication of sales teams regarding content, suitable tools and up-to-date information . 

This should mean sales teams can work in a more targeted, time-saving way, which ultimately should lead – as you can guess – to more deals ! Because customers are more likely to accept an offer if they feel understood and looked after throughout the buying process, the key is a customer journey with more interaction and valuable information.

Sales engagement in turn refers to the relationship between a salesperson and their customer. It can often be measured by time spent in conversations and the frequency of exchange (emails, phone calls etc.). Sales engagement aims to improve sales and marketing processes to optimise customer contact. A personalised, automated customer journey that increases emails, calls, social media posts and meetings saves time and keeps customers loyal. 

It also lets you track the success of specific messages and tactics while reducing the workload on sales reps.

Sometimes there is also overlap between sales intelligence software and CRM , tools for tracking sales emails and sales analytics tools. Many sales intelligence tools are designed to enter new prospect records into CRM systems and update them. Some CRM platforms even provide sales information such as company history or branch information.

How to get started with sales intelligence?

As we have already talked about the features of sales intelligence software and tools, you have surely wondered how to use them in your own case. Depending on the industry you work in or the services you offer, sales intelligence can help you at a very individual level. To get started, you can take the following steps:

1. Choose a sales intelligence provider

Here it is worth comparing which provider you like best, both in terms of product features and service (check comparison sites such as Capterra !).

2. Test different tools from different providers

You can usually book presentations with sales intelligence providers or watch webinars/product videos. Some also offer trial accounts, so you can try for yourself whether the tool suits you.

3. Buy a sales intelligence tool from their product portfolio

Different providers offer different tools and a variety of products. Most are billed as subscriptions.

4. Use the onboarding your sales intelligence provider offers

In the onboarding process for the new software you will be shown exactly how to use sales intelligence and how best to integrate it into your processes. The provider should also show you which possible integrations with other tools are available.

5. Use the product you have bought and analyse its benefits

Here you should measure whether you have saved time, booked more meetings or closed deals.

Using sales intelligence is as individual as the company itself . For example, if you offer coaching in your region, you will filter by different search criteria than a furniture company looking for buyers of office chairs all over Germany.

How to choose the right sales intelligence software for you?

Which sales intelligence software is best for you depends on your goals . Do you want to keep your data fresh, or clean it? Do you want to generate leads? Or are you interested in market monitoring?

Sales intelligence must fit your individual business!

As mentioned above, there are different tools with different features . So choose the tool that best meets your needs. This often depends on your industry and the users of your product or service. You may also be able to exchange information with customers and partners, or ask your network for help (e.g. on LinkedIn !) or find out which tools your competitors use.

Can sales intelligence be connected to your CRM?

Ideally you can connect your chosen sales intelligence software to your CRM. With such an integration it is important that the interface works without friction. In many cases sales intelligence takes the form of a plug-in that displays the software directly in the interface of your in-house CRM system.

Some well-known CRM systems at national but also international level are:

• Salesforce
• Zoho
• Pipedrive
• Hubspot
• SuperOffice
• Apollo
• Microsoft Dynamics
• SAP Sales Cloud
• SugarCRM and many more.

If you already use a CRM , it is worth asking whether integration with that tool is possible when buying a sales intelligence tool. That way you will save a lot of work, and your team will thank you for it later. If your chosen sales intelligence tool has no interface to your CRM system, you can also create one with other tools – e.g. Zapier .

What benefits do you get from sales intelligence?

Sales intelligence offers many new ways to discover new sales opportunities. As already mentioned, you will find lots of useful information you can use directly. But what exactly does sales intelligence do to help you? Here are 7 good reasons to use sales intelligence :

1. Discover your market potential with sales intelligence

Many companies don’t even know how many potential customers there are in their target market. Some only touch the tip of the iceberg, talking to just a few people from the target group. With sales intelligence you get a comprehensive, detailed overview of the market, so you don’t miss upcoming opportunities !

2. Find your target group with sales intelligence

No time-consuming searching – with the help of sales intelligence you will find exactly the target customers you were looking for! Combining static data such as company name, industry and address with dynamic data such as current news, awards and contracts makes choosing a target customer easier than ever!

3. Save research time

You made a contact at a trade fair. Great! But how does “and now you have to search manually for all further information about this contact” sound? Yes, right? With sales intelligence you can simply skip this step. You get all the data you need in one or two clicks and won’t waste time searching for information .

4. Monitor your competitors

You can often identify and monitor your competitors with sales intelligence tools. You probably already know many names in your industry, but who says you know them all? With sales intelligence you can find every competitor and automatically monitor their whole range.

5. Find decision-makers

With sales intelligence tools you will see at a glance who is the best contact person for you. You can often filter and search by hierarchy levels or job titles . This way you can address them directly and not get stuck with someone who doesn’t need your product and/or doesn’t have the right decision-making authority .

6. Recognise the best time to approach someone

When is the best time to make contact with prospects? Sales intelligence provides signals and news to identify current problems a company or its employees may have. With evaluated trigger events you can recognise urgent needs and respond to them directly.

7. Improve lead enrichment and lead qualification

Your contact form often asks only for a prospect’s name and email address. With the help of sales intelligence important data and information, such as industry, financial data etc., are added automatically . This makes searching easier and speeds up lead qualification before leads reach the sales department.

What sales intelligence tools are available?

Not all sales intelligence tools are the same. Different tools have different purposes. Here we would like to present our 10 best tools to help you accelerate sales and lead generation. It’s best to let the companies speak for themselves. Let’s start!

1. Clari

The revenue operations platform

Clari provides a lot of the information needed for effective sales forecasting. Using data from emails, CRM, call logs and much more, Clari will tell you everything you need to know about your future deals!

2. DataBot

The largest B2B database for current sales opportunities

DataBot supports your marketing and pre-sales in choosing the right target group and generating leads. The result? A selection of target groups with all the relevant company data and contacts. Combining address data and characteristics with current trigger events guarantees success! [Made in Germany]

Prospecting in DataBot

3. Showpad

Optimise collaboration between sales and marketing
Showpad  provides a sales enablement platform that combines the strengths of sales and marketing teams. By combining CRM, content management and marketing automation, Showpad enables your salespeople to sell better with tailored content, while your marketing team gains insight into your company’s day-to-day operations.

4. Autoklose

Close more deals faster and save time.

With Autoklose you have access to an extensive database of B2B companies, and you also take care of your mailings, reports, time management and customer data. The software also provides several easy-to-use templates.

5. Apollo

The data-first sales platform.

Apollo is more involved in prospecting and lead generation. To this end it provides a variety of information about decision-makers and companies. It also makes data enrichment easier with automatic alerts when customer data changes.

6. Gong

Revenue intelligence technology for sales teams

According to Gong , they provide “Deal Intelligence” and “People Intelligence”. The former means data on how deals were closed, so you can clearly see your success patterns. The latter analyses your sales team’s performance and identifies areas for improvement you can address specifically.

7. ZoomInfo

B2B data, prospects and contacts

The company ZoomInfo collects data through systematic surveys and research. This tool creates organisational charts and information about the target customer’s new projects. It is particularly useful for B2B sales in the IT sector!

8. Adapt

Sales acceleration platform / B2B contact database product portfolio

Adapt provides cross-industry B2B contacts and company data, guaranteeing more deals. Here you get millions of business contacts for qualified customers and accelerated pipeline building.

9. Outreach

Sales engagement platform, sales automation

Outreach supports you with sales engagement software and covers you with a functional app. Focus fully on meetings and deals! The main aspect here is clearly the personalisation of customer communication.

10. UpLead

B2B Database & Business Contact Data Provider

UpLead provides a platform for enrichment and lead generation. Strengthen your prospecting and find the right target customers. With little effort you will get the right contact person, enrich your data and close more deals.

Conclusion: sales intelligence is the future of sales

So now you know exactly what sales intelligence is, what exactly the software/tools do and how you can use them to increase sales.

One thing is certain: you can no longer get around sales intelligence – especially if you want the best for your sales! Want more leads? More high-quality data? Less time searching and simply more deals? Now you know what to do! Contact various providers and find the tool that meets your needs.

We wish you every success in getting started with digital selling!

Tags: B2B, CRM, Sales, Sales Intelligence, Tools, Vertrieb

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Source

• POLISH YELLOW PAGES® (databot.pl) – original blog post

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