How to implement an automated B2B prospecting strategy?

This article aims to highlight the advantages of automated B2B prospecting. 

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From saving time to making teams more efficient, automated prospecting aims to help companies increase productivity, without losing: 

• nor the quality of their relationships, 
• nor the confidence of their prospect, 
• or even the personalization of messages. 

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Yes, having it both ways is possible when it comes to automated B2B prospecting: we’ll explain how in this article 👇

Introduction to automated B2B prospecting

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Definition of automated B2B prospecting

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Automated prospecting is a technique that involves improving the efficiency of your customer search, while reducing costs and resources. 

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Automated B2B prospecting allows you to create a large-scale dialogue between your company and your prospects. 

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The goal is to automate as many tasks as possible, the most time-consuming for example, to concentrate on those that require strategic attention. Technology will take care of the repetitive part, while giving your teams the possibility to intervene at key moments. 

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In maximization mode of commercial and relational impact 🚀

Importance and benefits of automated B2B prospecting

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As you will have understood, automated B2B prospecting has many advantages: 

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• A huge time saver : Automation takes care of repetitive tasks while your sales team handles high-value interactions. The most important thing will be to properly brief and prepare this automation so that it can “manage itself” afterwards. 
• Who says saving time says efficiency : manually, you take 5 minutes per prospect to send your message. With automation, all your messages are sent in 5 minutes, while maintaining quality from the first to the last message. 
• A better management of your prospects : automation allows you to create automatic message sending sequences, for example emails or LinkedIn messages. You can track the journey and behavior of each prospect, or segment them more effectively, to improve the conversion rate. 
• With automated tracking, you can perform constant analysis of your actions and therefore optimizations : you now know the click rate, the opening rate, you can do tests with 2 different messages...better analysis = better results!
• Cost reduction : Automation reduces the need for large sales teams, which reduces operational costs. 
• The prospecting never stops : and yes, your tools do not sleep! If you operate internationally, it's ideal for sending the right message at the right time, no matter where your prospect is, and without having to move from your sofa! 
• The best for last: personalization of messages. It may go against what you imagine, but yes, automating the personalization of your messages is possible, and you will even be surprised by the quality! The personalization and quality of a relationship can be automated: that’s the beauty of prospecting

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If there is one thing to remember about automated B2B prospecting: anything is possible! 

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To carry out your automated prospecting, you will need a automation tool. 

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Discover them in the next part 👇

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The essential tools for effective automated B2B prospecting 

The key tools for successful automated B2B prospecting 

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For every step of the automation process, there is a perfect tool: 

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Database

Your database is the main element of your prospecting. Automation tools will help you identify prospects and extract a list of them based on specific criteria. 

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LinkedIn Sales navigator : 

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LinkedIn Sales Navigator is LinkedIn's advanced search tool. It is specially designed for sales teams. It allows you to identify and target your prospects on LinkedIn.

It also enriches your database of contacts and companies. This tool is ideal for creating lists of prospects or businesses.

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LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a very powerful tool as it is based on one of the largest B2B databases. LinkedIn has over a billion members worldwide. Chances are your target has an account.

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Some ccharacteristics:

• Advanced search with detailed filters to find relevant prospects and companies
• Lead suggestions based on LinkedIn's algorithm
• Integration with CRMs to synchronize contact data
• Monitoring prospect activities (position changes, publications, content shares, etc.)
• Save leads and create notes and tags for better organization

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The advantages:

• Large B2B database
• Precise search using filters that show exact results
• Smooth integration with CRMs (Hubspot and Salesforce)
• Detailed information about prospects and their activities
• InMail functionality to contact prospects directly on LinkedIn

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Recovery data

Once you have identified your prospects, it’s time to collect their data. For this, nothing better than the tool Phantombuster :

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This tool includes 3 main features: 

• Extracting prospect data from the Internet; 
• the enrichment of this data including telephone and email;
• management of automated prospecting campaigns on LinkedIn (sending messages, connection requests, etc.). 

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The advantages:

• High flexibility and customization of tasks
• Automation of repetitive and time-consuming tasks
• Wide range of ready-to-use scripts
• Seamless integration with other sales and data management tools
• Intuitive and easy-to-use interface

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Contact enrichment

Once the prospects have settled into your tool, you will have to check if all of them are relevant and if they are missing information (for example, the company's turnover, their location, the role in the company, etc.). For this, nothing better than Dropcontact : 

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Dropcontact is the tool that perfectly masters prospect enrichment. It can find you: title, sector of activity, a SIREN number... it also has the capacity to clean up in the event of a duplicate, and warns of updates to the prospect (change of company for example). 

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Some characteristics:

• The tool automatically enriches your contacts with emails, phone numbers and company information
• Advanced search and validation of legal information to ensure compliance
• Integration with CRMs to facilitate data synchronization
• Cleaning the database to remove duplicates and obsolete information
• Automatic contact updates in real time (in CRM)

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The advantages:

• Reliable data compliant with French legal standards
• High-quality enrichment for B2B databases
• Seamless integration with the most popular CRMs
• Automatic cleaning and updating of contacts
• Responsive customer support and technical assistance

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Automated sending of messages

It’s time to send them a message, to your famous prospects! This is where we will use and exploit personalization thanks to Humanlinker :

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Humanlinker is the most advanced tool on the market when it comes to Hyperpersonalization. It analyzes the personality of each prospect (yes I know, it's incredible) and automatically generates personalized messages based on the data retrieved. 

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Some characteristics:

• Personalize campaigns based on individual needs across multiple channels, including LinkedIn and email.
• Integrated database with detailed contact information
• Detection of purchasing signals for targeted prospecting
• Full integration with Hubspot, Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics for data synchronization
• Real-time tracking of campaign interactions and performance
• Automation of repetitive tasks to improve sales team efficiency

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The advantages:

• Advanced campaign personalization to maximize engagement
• Rich database containing relevant information for effective prospecting
• Proactive detection of buying signals for real-time sales opportunities
• Seamless integration with CRMs, simplifying contact data management
• Complete, self-contained tool, reducing the need for multiple separate solutions

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Customer management tool (CRM or Customer Relationship Management) 

This tool is essential for automated B2B prospecting. Without CRM, no organization, no monitoring, it’s a mess. Thanks to your CRM, you will be able to monitor the evolution of interactions with your prospects, analyze the different opening and click rates on your sent content, or even create content sequences to convert your prospect. 

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The perfect tool that will take on the role of CRM: Microsoft Dynamics. 

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Microsoft Dynamics is the last CRM on our list. It is popular with many businesses. They use it to manage their business and customer relationships. This helps them improve their efficiency. 

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Some characteristics:

• Integrated CRM to track contacts, opportunities and sales
• ERP for financial, operations, sales and service management
• Automation of sales and marketing processes
• Customer service tools to manage tickets and cases
• Advanced analytics and reporting to gain performance insights
• Integration with other Microsoft products (Office 365, Power BI, Azure, etc.)

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The advantages:

• Seamless integration into the Microsoft ecosystem, providing a consistent user experience
• Complete solution for managing customers and enterprise resources
• Customization capabilities to meet specific business needs
• Robust customer support and extensive training resources
• Scalability for Growing Businesses

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Email verification (= bounce checker) 

Last but not least: you will need a tool to check that your emails are sent to existing email addresses to avoid the bounce rate for example. 

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This step can be done directly on your CRM (Microsoft Dynamics or Hubspot). 

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PS : Humanlinker integrates all these tools 😀

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Humanlinker is the automated prospecting tool par excellence: it is all-in-one. It integrates the different steps essential to successful automated prospecting. Let's take a closer look 👇

The Humanlinker case

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Humanlinker is THE complete solution in the world of automated B2B prospecting. Beyond being a whole, it is above all the most relevant tool for personalization of messages. 

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To send the most effective messages to your prospects, there are 3 steps: 

• Create your account on Humanlinker 
• Carry out a prospect analysis and retrieve the data in the tool 
• Analyze prospects and prepare your message sequences 

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And the best for last: wait patiently (well, a few seconds) until the artificial intelligence has written the relevant, impactful and engaging messages.

Here are some examples: 

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And here is the result of the campaigns implemented by our systems:

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The opening rate is always between 60 and 80%, and the response rate does not go below 25%. Isn’t that beautiful? 

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Don't worry, it's very simple to set up. To help you get started with the tool, here is an explanatory video. 

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Try here, it costs €0 👇 

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How these tools can improve prospecting effectiveness

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As you will have understood, there are thousands of more or less efficient tools for your prospecting. They are not there by chance: they have helped thousands of businesses grow. 

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Thanks to them, your prospects are much more qualified: the information collected by the tools makes it possible to hold the key elements about your prospects, and to eliminate those who do not actually fit into your target.

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Thanks to them, the errors are reduced : data is updated, emails are personalized, email addresses are verified...with automation, the margin for error has greatly reduced - to the benefit of both the company and the prospect. 

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Thanks to them, the turnover increases, but not costs : prospecting has become almost autonomous, with a few people managing the strategy, preparation, and content sequences. For the rest, there is the tool. More conversion for fewer resources. 

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How automated B2B prospecting can increase your number of sales meetings

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The link between automated B2B prospecting and the increase in the number of sales meetings 

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One of the advantages of automated B2B prospecting is the volume. Rather than sending 5 messages per hour, you send thousands. 

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Logically, if your volume is higher, you will have to increase your number of sales meetings. But volume isn't everything. 

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It is in particular the personalization of your content that will increase your number of meetings: if you have a large volume of prospects, but your approach is unique for each of them, you will obtain a greater conversion rate. 

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This is what we call the large-scale customization. 

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Ways Automated B2B Prospecting Can Lead to More Meetings

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Volume and speed : as mentioned above, automated B2B prospecting makes it possible to contact a larger number of prospects in less time. Logically, you will have more appointments. 

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Personalized follow-up : Automation tools help to mechanically send personalized messages to prospects, then follow up or follow up with them based on their response, which creates a constant flow of potential appointments. 

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Lead qualification : automation identifies REALLY qualified leads – those who would benefit most from your product. In that case, why would they say no? 

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Improving copywriting

What makes automated prospecting great is that the tools don't just take care of sending messages: they also improve your speech. 

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By knowing the prospects inside out, these tools manage to generate the right message with the prospect's industry codes. If we take this example again: 

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Here, Humanlinker was able to learn about this prospect and generate a message using the vocabulary the prospect uses every day. 

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With these tools, your approach is completely personalized. 

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Tools never “don’t want” to follow a process

It happens that certain prospecting practices or methods are not accepted by your entire team: this becomes a problem and certain proposals fall through. 

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With automated prospecting, all ideas are worth testing: 

• The tool has a constant rigor and reliability : it is impossible for him to miss an element of the process, where humans can make mistakes; 
• They will always l’effort : no drop in motivation, each prospect is treated in the same way; 
• The tools are of great resilience : despite the large volumes, the quality of the shares will always be there. 

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Why is message personalization essential in automated B2B prospecting?

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Importance of personalizing prospecting emails

As a sales team, you probably receive tons of prospecting messages yourself. Which ones are you actually reading? Which ones do you answer? 

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I bet you engage with those who are the most personalized. It’s normal, personalization helps touch the heart of your prospect. 

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If your messages are personalized, this means that you must have understood and analyzed the specific needs of your prospect, and that affects them! You may also have added information about their industry or field, which shows that you've taken the time to get to know them - you've actually considered the prospect. 

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Finally, with the personalization of your messages, the prospect knows that the content received is unique and relevant, which increases your credibility to the recipient. 

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What are you waiting for to automatically send personalized messages? 

Try here, it’s free!

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How email personalization can improve the effectiveness of automated B2B prospecting

Personalization, carried out on a large scale using automated prospecting tools, maximizes the results of your prospecting campaigns. 🚀

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For what ? Here are 3 key points: 

• And open rate higher: as we said above, your prospects will be more likely to read your content if it is personalized: adding their name, information about their industry...all of this can help them consider your message. 
• And engagement higher: studies prove it: personalized messages greatly help prospects respond, observing that the content has been written specifically for them.  
• And conversion rate improved: the more personalized your messages are, the more prospects will feel concerned and understand the added value of what they read. 

Examples of personalization of prospecting emails

Here are some examples of messages Humanlinker sent and their responses 👇

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You can see it for yourself: personalization is a necessity in your prospecting messages. The result: an average opening rate of 70% and response rate of 25%, well above the average. 

Beware of bad B2B automated prospecting practices

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Doing automated B2B prospecting is an art! 

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Here are the 5 practices to avoid if you want to succeed in your automated prospecting: 

Using traditional methods on today's channels

Even if some outdated practices still work very well, current methods are revolutionizing the way we maintain our relationships! 

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If you continue to use the old methods without considering new channels, you risk not adapting to your prospects. 

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To succeed on digital channels, here are some tips: 

• Write like you speak 
• Be creative in your prospecting approach
• Embrace your difference 
• Use storytelling and emotion in your messages

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Do not personalize

Personalization is key in your commercial prospecting. Not personalizing amounts to: 

• Standardize your messages: no thank you ❌
• Do not consider your prospect: either ❌
• Not understanding your prospect's needs ❌

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We repeat: customizing a volume of messages is now an easy task: try Humanlinker, you will see 💙

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Selling too quickly

Having helped hundreds of clients find their clients (🚀), we have noticed that many of them rush into their prospecting. Certainly, your business must grow, but above all it must think about long terme. 

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Do you want to scare away your customer? Here are some tips:

• Send your first message and talk about your product 
• Rush in and don't build a lasting relationship
• Not educating your prospect around your product 

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Not creating a relationship with the prospect

We talked about it just above. The relationship, in prospecting, is the key! 

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During a physical exchange with your prospect, I imagine that selling your product is not the first thing you do. You probably ask him questions, both personal and professional. You probably make several meetings before discussing your product. 

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When you carry out automated prospecting, it's the same thing: you must create a relationship of trust with your prospect. This is truly the basis of a sale. 

Confusing quantity and quality

Mass commercial prospecting will not sell more of your product. It’s better to focus on 3 qualified leads than 100 unqualified ones. For what ? 

• You risk coming into contact with a wider audience who has no need: this can damage your reputation; 
• Your personalized approach falls through since you think you know the person - in the end, you do not meet their specific needs; 

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In all aspects of life, and even more so in commercial prospecting, always focus on quality. A strategy that is worth it, I assure you. 

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To conclude this article, I would like to say that automated prospecting is no longer a distant and complicated concept. With the right tools and preparation, your prospecting will be child's play. Under a few conditions: 

• Target the right people 
• Personalize your approach 
• Evolve according to the observations you make regularly. 

You are now ready to start this new road to success for your business, thanks to automated prospecting. So as not to take this road alone, there is Humanlinker !