Ideally, every lead identified with industrial marketing automation software would be complete with a name, job title, and full contact details. While this happens on a regular basis, industrial marketers often tell us about the lists of companies their automation systems identify that are without any specific contact information. As a company returns to a website three or four times, understanding how to get in touch with the right people in these companies is important.  

The first thing to note in these cases is that industrial marketers with lists of identified companies are already doing something right.

Industrial marketing automation technology is only effective when implemented as part of a larger system and it is important to drive traffic towards a website before leads can be identified.  Marketers with full lists of companies who have visited their website are likely already running effective SEO, pay per click advertising and email campaigns.

Companies that offer no direct contact information are still highly valuable to sales teams. If a company has returned to your website on several occasions, they are showing their interest. Savvy sales teams in B2B industrial sectors should follow these steps to find contact details within a company and reach out to prospective buyers:

1. Research the Company- Is It a Fit?

The follow-up process starts with a simple Google search. It is important to determine the industry a company is in, and if it is the type of business your company normally works with. If you decide that they likely aren’t a fit with your products or services, move on to the next one. Most automation tools will allow you to flag or mark this company so that you recognize it in the future.Determine Company Size

2. Determine Company Size

Once you’ve identified a company as a fit with your business, it is important to figure out the size of the company. The number of employees in a company determines your approach to finding contact information. LinkedIn offers a broad company size range and LinkedIn company pages list the number of employees registered with the company. As general rule of thumb, there are usually more employees at a company than are registered on LinkedIn.

A company’s website offers some clues as well. Things such as a stock price ticker, global locations, dedicated marketing department, regular blogging, or consistent social media use are all signs of a larger company. tweet

3. Contacting a Smaller Company

Smaller companies are generally easier to contact. It is often as simple as picking up the phone and asking for the person most likely to be responsible for your area of business. For example, if you sell heavy equipment parts, ask for the procurement manager at the mechanical shop your marketing tool identified.

It is important to remember that this company has already expressed interest in your products or services due to their activity on your website, so this is not a cold call in the traditional sense of the word. tweet

While not guaranteed, in many cases the person you speak with will be the person who visited your website. Be sure to know what they were interested in, and have information ready to discuss.

Insider tip:  We highly recommend not starting the call with ‘I saw you on our website’. Besides being a bit creepy, it may not have been that person visiting your site. Instead, we would suggest mentioning the product(s) your prospect has been looking at as a sample product that might work well for their company, and ask into upcoming plans or needs for your type of service/product.

4. Contacting a Larger Company

In larger companies it is difficult to get through to decision makers on the phone and a little more digging is often required. The natural starting point is LinkedIn. Scroll through the company employee list and look for staff with job titles that may relate to your business.

Once you have identified potential contacts, try to get in touch through email. Check the main company website for information about their email naming conventions. Larger companies will often have contact details for key external teams such as public relations or human resources. Look at the email addresses listed for clues.

For example, if the head of PR is listed at jsmith@companyname.com and the HR person is mstewart@companyname.com, then it is likely that your contacts will have a first-initial, last-name@companyname.com email address as well. tweet

Taking it a step further, tools such as data.com or Hoovers can help you find a contact. Once you have identified the best point of contact in a company, searching their name on a contact database can be a quick way to get in that coveted email or phone number.

An identified company is a great starting point, since you know that there is already interest in the products or services your company offers.

The industrial marketing and sales process has always required a certain amount of practical knowledge and while automation software has given sales team’s access to more information about customers than ever before, it still requires a particular level of savvy and an ability to dig for details to use data to its full potential.