9 Ideas to Help You Create Your Own Sales Lead Database & Tools You Can Use

9 Ideas to Help You Create Your Own Sales Lead Database & Tools You Can Use

One of the most important marketing weapons for every small business is to use and maintain different sales lead databases. This is a database where your business will store all collected information about your current and potential customers.

But the question is how to start when you want to create a sales leads database. What is a leads database? How to build a strong leads database to skyrocket your sales numbers?

Why a Sales Leads Database Matters

Before we dive into the strategies, it’s essential to understand the vital role of a sales leads database.

For your marketing people and your sales team seeking to demonstrate a strong return on investment (ROI) and drive meaningful customer engagement, a well-maintained sales leads database can really make a difference.

It allows you to understand your customers better, closely monitor your marketing activities, and measure the outcomes you get from those activities.

With such a leads database, you can effectively plan future marketing tactics to achieve maximum impact and optimize your overall marketing efforts. This comprehensive approach can ultimately improve your sales numbers and long-term business success.

What do You Want to Know About Your Customers After Your Marketing Efforts?

All marketing activities you implement in your business rely on your leads database quality. You send letters and e-mails, use telemarketing techniques, and many other marketing tactics to bring fresh customers into your sales funnel. Because of that, you want to know about each person that you have contacted in the past as a part of your marketing efforts

So, answer the following questions:

  • What type of marketing activity is conducted for each of your leads inside your sales leads database?
  • When is that specific activity completed?
  • What are the impressions or outcomes of that specific marketing activity?

What is a Sales Leads Database?

This marketing weapon is a tool for all other marketing weapons you will use for your business. If you use sales leads databases, they will help you to extract the maximum from all your other marketing efforts.

Now, we need to answer the question: what is a sales leads database?

The lead databases are simple tables in which you will record all your current and future ideal customers. But it is not everything. There, you will also record your customer’s behavior related to all of your marketing activities with them. In this table, you will need to note the date when they were contacted, their reaction, and everything that can increase the marketing performance of your business.

Building a list is the basis for your lead generation process and building a successful business. When you start growing your list or different sales leads databases, you will see positive growth in your sales numbers and your business.

RelatedUnlocking the Secrets to Lead Generation: A Beginner’s Comprehensive Guide

What Do You Need to Include in Your Sales Leads Databases?

The quality of your list of leads in your sales lead database will rely on what you will include in the list. What are the most important things you must include in your sales leads databases?

You must include at least these six elements, but be careful about data accuracy:

  • Name and Surname or Company Name if your business is B2B.
  • Contact data – Data about the company contacts or the company’s decision-makers for B2B sales, postal address, phone numbers, social accounts, and e-mail.
  • Outreach efforts – Marketing activities or tactics your enterprise has used for the persons.
  • Intent data – Your sales leads database records will quickly indicate potential customers’ intentions. In such a way, you can use your marketing and sales tactics based on customer intention.
  • Reaction of the person after implementation of specific marketing activity.
  • Is that person becoming a customer or buying something from your business after being contacted by your sales team?
  • What future marketing activities or sales steps will you need to take?

RelatedHow to Develop and Improve Your B2B Sales Processes

In such a way, you will have evidence about every person in your database. You will know what your business has done about them, what needs to be done, and your potential customer’s experience with your different marketing activities. This will help you to make the right decisions about every current and potential customer.

How to Start Building and Create Your Sales Lead Database?

Warning

Don’t ignore the power of content marketing and creating content that will produce sales for your company.

The most challenging part of building a list is starting to build a list with accurate data for current and potential customers you will have inside the list.

Here are eight different ideas for list building:

1. Conduct Market Research

Start with comprehensive market research because you want to learn as much as possible about your target customers on your target market.

Follow this complete guide to market research, and there you will find questions about your customers. There are 19 questions you must answer when it comes to your customers. It is important to conduct this step because you want to learn more details about your current and potential customers before you start building your leads database.

The end of this step aims to create customer personas important for you to understand your customer needs better.

Buyer Personas Example

2. Leverage Your Address Book

When it comes to finding business leads for your sales lead database, starting with what you already have can be a game-changer. Your address book, filled with contacts (including the phone numbers) you’ve accumulated over time, can be a great way to start building a sales lead database. However, it’s essential to approach these contacts ethically, respecting their privacy and sticking to data protection regulations.

Use your address book and put all your current into the database that you think will need your products and services. In such a way, you can leverage the power of your existing network while building trust and maintaining strong relationships for long-term success.

For example, when you get business contacts from someone, place these contact details into your sales leads database.

3. Utilize Online Directories for Your Sales Lead Database

Online directories are often overlooked and underestimated as a valuable resource for lead generation. These directories serve as a treasure of information, providing in-depth insights about various businesses and individuals.

So, use different online directories and find individuals or businesses from your target market. Put the contact details into the database.

When you use the extensive details available in online directories, you can unlock new ways for growth and establish profitable connections that force your success to new heights.

4. Don’t Underestimate the Power of Social Networks

Social media is not only a means of keeping up with friends and current events; it has become a crucial tool for marketing and sales teams who want to stay ahead of the digital landscape.

Platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram offer more than just social engagement – they are excellent sources of potential contacts for your sales leads database.

For example, as you browse LinkedIn profiles, company websites, and other related pages, you can then effortlessly find and add these details to your database for future reference.

To utilize the full potential of these platforms, it is crucial to actively engage with your audience, join relevant groups, and actively participate in discussions to build meaningful connections and establish your presence in the digital sphere.

Remember, today, most of the sales are done based on relationships.

5. Offer Incentives

It’s no secret that people go out of control for freebies and discounts. Something about the allure of getting something for nothing or at a discounted price captures our attention. That’s why offering incentives such as eBooks, discount codes, or access to exclusive content can be a game-changer when it comes to attracting business leads and your ideal customer.

For example, you can ask each person who will come to buy something from you to give you their contact details. If they do that, you need to give them specific benefits because they are unwilling to share personal data without benefits such as a free newsletter or discount for the following buying.

Also, you can give some awards to companies as a part of your B2B sales strategy when somebody from that company comes to you and gives you their contact details as a motivational weapon. You can use forms that must be filled out when people come to take their gifts.

In such a way, you create a sense of value for your audience and give them a reason to share their contact details with you. It’s a win-win situation: they get something of value, and you get a valuable lead to nurture and convert.

This strategy is a highly effective lead generation strategy for startups looking to make a splash in their respective industries and attract those all-important early customers.

So, don’t underestimate the power of freebies and discounts. They can be the secret weapon that sets your business apart and helps you build a loyal customer base.

6. Create High-Quality Content

Today, content marketing has become increasingly crucial. By consistently creating high-quality and relevant content, you have the power to attract and retain a clearly defined audience.

Publishing content that deeply resonates with your target audience can be a powerful tool to generate leads, increase engagement, and achieve business growth. You can also collect intent data regarding the forms and the place where that form is when you collect data.

With the right mix of creativity, storytelling, and strategic distribution, your content can establish your brand’s authority, build trust, and create lasting connections with your audience.

So, invest in content marketing today and unlock the potential to reach new heights in your industry!

7. Use Lead Generation Tools

When creating a sales leads database, lead generation tools and software specifically designed to simplify the process are essential.

These innovative solutions range from advanced web scraping tools that extract valuable data from websites to efficient email finders that quickly locate contact information for qualified leads.

Using such tools, you can save significant time and effort and optimize your lead-generation strategies for better results. It’s truly remarkable how technology has revolutionized how we generate leads and transformed the efficiency of this crucial aspect of business growth.

8. Run Webinars and Online Events

Webinars and online events are excellent platforms for collecting business contacts for qualified leads.

When you share valuable insights and knowledge with the attendees, you establish yourself as an expert in your field and build trust and credibility. These events provide an opportunity to engage with your target audience, answer their questions, and address their pain points, all while showcasing your expertise and fostering meaningful connections.

Additionally, webinars and online events allow for interactive sessions where participants can actively participate, share their experiences, and learn from one another. To participate in these events, all participants must leave their contact details.

For example, if they want to participate in the event, they must register with their email address. The registration will be complete after they confirm their email addresses. In such a way, you don’t need to worry about data accuracy for contact details you will get with this strategy inside your sales leads database.

9. Collaborate with Influencers

Today, social media has become an integral part of our lives. Influencers are persons who hold significant power over consumer behavior and brand perception. Collaborating with relevant and trusted influencers in your industry can be a strategic move to boost your brand’s visibility, reach a broader and more targeted audience, and generate more high-quality leads for your business.

Collaborating with influencers, you can tap into their engaged and loyal followers. These partnerships can unlock new growth opportunities for your business.

Related: 30 Places to Find Prospects & Leads for Your Business

What is an Ideal Sales Leads Database?

What is an Ideal Sales Leads Database

An ideal sales lead database is not just a list of names and contact details but is full of insights that can shape your marketing and sales strategies. But what does an ideal sales leads database look like?

Let’s delve into this crucial question for our target personas – entrepreneurs, managers, marketing professionals, and startup owners.

  1. Comprehensive Information. An ideal sales lead database should contain complete information about each lead. This includes basic details like name, contact information, and company, and more insightful data such as their industry, role, intent data, and interests. This information can help you tailor your marketing efforts to each lead’s unique needs and preferences, increasing the chances of conversion.
  2. Regularly updated with strong data accuracy.The markets are changing rapidly, and so do your leads. People change jobs, companies evolve, and people’s interests shift. An ideal sales leads database should be regularly updated to reflect these changes. This ensures that you will always have high data accuracy, your marketing efforts will always be targeted at the right people based on intent data, and your message will reach them at the right time.
  3. Segmented database. Segmentation is a powerful technique that can make your marketing efforts more effective. An ideal sales lead database should be segmented based on various factors like industry, role, location, intent data, and behavior. This allows you to create more personalized and relevant marketing campaigns, which can increase engagement and conversion rates.
  4. Integrated with your marketing tools. Whether you’re using email marketing software, a CRM platform, or social media tools, an ideal sales leads database should be integrated with your marketing tools. This simplifies your marketing processes and lets you track interactions with each lead, providing valuable real-time insights to inform future marketing strategies.
  5. Compliant with data protection regulations. Today, data protection is a crucial concern. An ideal sales lead database should comply with all relevant data protection regulations, such as GDPR. This means obtaining leads’ consent before collecting their data, using it ethically, and protecting it from unauthorized access.

Remember that it is not important how much large database you have, it is more important about data accuracy and quality.

Top Tools to Help You Create an Effective Sales Leads Database

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a premium tool designed for sales professionals that helps you find the right sales prospects and leads. It uses sophisticated algorithmic suggestions to help you discover people and companies you might not have found on your own.

Here is how LinkedIn Sales Navigator can help you create a sales leads database:

  1. Advanced Lead and Company Search: LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers you advanced search capabilities that allow you to find leads based on specific criteria such as industry, role, seniority level, and location. This means you can optimize your search for the exact type of potential customers you’re looking for, making your sales efforts more targeted and effective.
  2. InMail Messages: With this tool, you can send direct messages to leads even if they’re not in your network. This feature allows you to reach out to potential leads with personalized messages, making it easier for you to expand your sales leads database.
  3. Lead Recommendations: The tool provides lead recommendations tailored to your sales preferences. These recommendations can help you discover new leads that you might not have found otherwise, helping you continually expand your sales leads database.
  4. Real-Time Sales Updates: The tool gives you real-time updates about your saved leads, like job changes or recent posts. This feature can help you initiate a conversation with leads at the right time, increasing your chances of converting them into customers.
  5. CRM Integration: LinkedIn Sales Navigator can be integrated with many popular CRM platforms. This lets you import your existing contacts from your CRM into Sales Navigator, helping you gain better insights about those leads and find similar leads on LinkedIn.

As you can see, with Sales Navigator, you can focus on attracting leads who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer, setting yourself up for success.

LeadIQ

LeadIQ for collecting data for your sales lead database

LeadIQ is a lead capture tool that makes capturing prospects on LinkedIn super easy. The tool also enriches lead data with essential information, helping you understand your leads better and personalize your marketing efforts.

You can create a free account to test the tool and download their Chrome extension for free. Later if you need more options, go with a starting plan that will cost you $39 per month.

Hunter.io

Hunter.io

Hunter.io, formerly known as Email Hunter, has an intuitive interface that helps you find and verify email addresses associated with a particular domain. This tool is particularly useful when you have a comprehensive list of companies you want to target but lack contact information, especially decision-makers contacts.

You can use their Chrome extension to get verified email addresses when you visit the website. Also, you can start with their free plan, which gives you a free trial with a limited monthly search and email verification.

Their pricing plans start at 34 euros per month to 349 euros per month.

FindThatLead

FindThatLead for your sales lead database

FindThatLead is a tool for finding potential leads’ email addresses. It offers a Chrome extension to find email addresses while browsing LinkedIn or a company’s website.

This tool can significantly simplify your lead generation process, helping you build your sales leads database faster.

You can create a free account for a free trial with limited monthly credits and then use some of their pricing plans starting from $41 per month.

Reply Data

Reply Data collect data for leads database

Reply Data is a lead generation tool that provides high-quality data for B2B sales contacts. It offers advanced search filters, allowing you to find leads based on specific criteria like industry, role, location, and company size. There is also a Chrome extension that will simplify the process.

The AI Personalization feature in Reply generates unique messages for your contacts based on individual recipient parameters, increasing engagement and conversion.

With Reply Data, you can build a targeted sales leads database that aligns with your business goals. There is a free trial with limited monthly credits, and pricing plans start at $60 monthly.

DiscoverOrg

DiscoverOrg

DiscoverOrg is a B2B sales intelligence tool that provides detailed profiles of potential leads and companies.

It offers insights like technographic data, organizational charts, and buying signals, helping you understand your leads better and approach them with a personalized strategy.

AeroLeads

AeroLeads

AeroLeads is a powerful prospecting tool that lets you find business contacts like emails and phone numbers from LinkedIn, CrunchBase, AngelList, and Xing. It also integrates with CRM platforms, allowing you to quickly transfer the obtained data to your sales leads database.

If you have a name and company data, you can use our tool’s import feature to find emails for your data. You can enter some details like the first name, last name, full name, and the industry, and you will get the contact details, including phone numbers. Also, the Chrome extension can help you find your potential leads’ email addresses and phone numbers.

The tool also allows you a free trial, where you will have some limited options, but you can always choose one of the pricing plans starting from $29, where you will get 2,000 email credits and 2,000 email verifications.

Business Databases to Help You Find Leads

Business databases serve as a rich source of contact details, making it easier for you to create your own sales database and connect with potential customers.

A business database is a comprehensive collection of data about businesses, typically including accurate information such as company names, industries, locations, size, and key contacts. These databases gather data from various sources, including public records, corporate websites, social media platforms, and industry directories. They then organize this data into a searchable format, allowing you to find leads based on specific criteria like industry, location, and role.

Business databases can be either free or paid. Free databases generally offer basic information, while paid databases provide more detailed insights and advanced search capabilities. Regardless of the type, these databases can be valuable for building your sales leads database.

1. Crunchbase

Crunchbase

Crunchbase is a business database specializing in tech companies and can help you find contacts (including phone numbers) and prospecting. You can search for companies that match your ideal customer profile or intent data points to identify prospects ready to purchase and keep tabs on them with alerts.

Crunchbase Pro (a paid feature) offers more advanced search filters, capabilities, and personalized alerts about companies that interest you.

You have an option for a free trial, and then choose one of the options starting from $29 per user per month but billed annually.

2. ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo is a comprehensive B2B database that provides detailed profiles of businesses and professionals. It gathers data from various sources, including web research, social media, and direct interviews.

While it’s a paid service, it offers a free trial that allows you to test its features.

4. Kompass

Kompass

Kompass is a B2B database that offers information about companies in over 70 countries. It provides data on various industries, from agriculture to IT. It is a paid service you can use to find essential information about companies for your sales leads database.

5. Lead 411

Lead 411

Lead 411 is a B2B platform that provides access to verified professional contacts. It offers features like lead search, data enrichment, and sales triggers, helping you build a dynamic and insightful sales leads database.

The tool gives you one important option, “Buyer Intent Data,” which will automatically allow you to find the best prospects with specific needs related to your offering. 

You can try the tool before you buy with a 7-day free trial option, and then you can choose one of the options that starts at $899 per year per user.

Does the Quality of Leads Vary Between Providers?

When it comes to leads, hitting the right balance between quantity and quality is essential. Quantity-based collection process focuses on attracting as many leads as possible, while the quality-based process emphasizes fit, interest, and appeal.

The key difference lies in the potential for conversion. High-quality leads are those that have shown a genuine interest in your offerings and meet your criteria for a potential customer based on intent data. In contrast, low-quality leads may show initial interest but fall short of your qualifications or have a low likelihood of conversion.

The quality of leads can indeed vary between different sales lead contact providers. This variation arises from the different methods they use to gather and qualify leads, the industries they focus on, and the specific criteria they use to determine lead quality.

Some providers specialize in certain industries or types of businesses, which can influence the relevance and interest level of the leads they provide. Others may use advanced algorithms and data analysis techniques to qualify leads, potentially resulting in higher-quality leads.

However, it’s important to remember that the ‘quality’ of a lead can be subjective, depending on your business’s unique needs and goals.

A high-quality lead for one business may not be as valuable for another. Therefore, when choosing a sales leads contact provider, ensuring their approach aligns with your business objectives and target market is crucial.

Conclusion

Creating a sales leads database is critical to achieving your entrepreneurial goals. With these modern strategies, you can build a robust database that helps drive your marketing efforts and boost sales.

Remember, it’s not just about the quantity of leads; quality matters, too. Focus on attracting leads who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer, and you’ll set yourself up for success.