By Brett Farmiloe
In the digital age, sales technology plays a crucial role in bringing in new leads. We spoke to six business leaders about the specific tools they use to improve their lead generation efforts.
Sales tools to help businesses bring in new leads
1. Instantly.ai and Zapier: Automated email outreach and CRM integration
“A significant part of our lead generation comes from prospecting and email outreach, and to do this, we use automations: Instantly.ai for email outreach and Zapier to zap leads into our CRM for follow-up. This is very simple to set up, easy to use, and as an email-based process, offers huge scalability. We also link our web forms into the same system and push leads into the CRM for email and call follow-ups.”
—Ben Hilton, Switch Jam Digital
2. Lusha: Non-intrusive lead capture
“We were getting more traffic on our website, yet we still struggled with generating leads. The pop-up form that was supposed to enhance our lead generation was quickly turning into a form of missed opportunity. After analyzing the situation, we concluded that some visitors might find the form too intrusive, particularly those in the initial stages of their buying journey. There was a chance that the new visitors were interested in our solutions, but hesitant to commit to engaging with us.
“Instead of losing valuable leads, we decided to try Lusha to get the contact details of visitors who did not fill out the form. Lusha was a less-invasive and more personalized way to initiate contact with visitors. It turned their passive interest into active engagement, improving our lead-generation efforts.”
—Lev Tretyakov, Fortador
3. Calendly: Meeting scheduling and lead management
“Sales are very important in our business, and Calendly has made it easier to schedule meetings. Instead of having to send lots of emails to arrange a meeting time, clients can pick a time slot that works for them using a special link. Calendly also sends automatic reminders, which has helped cut down on missed meetings and keeps everything on track. This saves us time during the week to focus on more important tasks. Overall it has also helped us manage client meetings without hassle, improving our lead generation and overall success.”
—Nicholas Robb, Design Hero
4. Typeform: Online surveys
“We used Typeform to create an overhead mobility quiz for weightlifters which has brought us four times more email leads than our static web page. The quiz resulted in an 8% email capture rate, higher than the 2% email capture rate from our static page on overhead mobility. We had been looking for a more engaging way to interact with our potential customers, and the quiz offered this with minimal effort.
“By addressing overhead mobility in our quiz, a common issue for beginners in weightlifting, we attracted users who would be interested in our courses. As they took the quiz, they learned about the state of their mobility, their strengths, and their weaknesses, and it positioned us as a knowledgeable and credible resource they can rely on for their weightlifting goals. We gated the results and asked users for an email address to unlock their mobility assessment results. We targeted the right audience and captured more leads, and in three months our conversion rate was 23% higher.”
—Oleksiy Torokhtiy, Torokhtiy Weightlifting
5. Brandwatch: Social media monitoring
“Data is king in the market research industry, and sales technology helps us get the most out of it. Traditionally, identifying new clients involved a lot of manual prospecting—attending industry conferences, networking events, and cold calling. It was time-consuming and yielded mixed results.
“To improve our targeting, we implemented Brandwatch, which offers a social listening platform that tracks online conversations about specific industries or market trends. By analyzing these conversations, we are able to identify companies actively seeking market research or facing challenges that can be addressed with our expertise. It has allowed us to reach out to qualified leads with a warm introduction, highlighting how our research can address specific pain points. We’ve seen a significant increase in qualified leads and a much higher conversion rate compared to cold outreach methods.”
—Kalyani Vasa, ConsaInsights
6. Kameleoon: A/B testing
“In my experience, one of the most effective techniques for lead generation is A/B testing. It takes the guesswork out of decision-making and offers hard data to guide strategy. During a major campaign, I leveraged Kameleoon to boost our lead generation, recognizing that the key to our success lay not just in getting our message out, but also in understanding how it was received.
“Kameleoon allowed us to test different lead-generation tactics simultaneously with real-time analytics about user behavior. We tested multiple landing page designs, email marketing strategies, and call-to-action placements. The difference in performance between each option was stark and insightful, and gave us insight into which strategies resonated most with our audience. We saw a significant increase in leads by focusing on those winning strategies.”
—Tim Hanson, Penfriend
About the Author
Post by: Brett Farmiloe
Brett Farmiloe is the founder and CEO of Featured, a platform where business leaders can answer questions related to their expertise and get published in articles featuring their insights.
Company: Featured
Website: www.featured.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn.