Best Practices for Transcribing Business Cards and Contact Information
Companies struggle finding easy and fast ways to transcribe contact information from documents such as business cards, trade show badges, resumes, and handwritten notes. In this article we discuss these solutions and examine the trade-offs for why you would use one method over the other.
Lead liaison invented two proprietary methods of transcription which are far superior than traditional optical character recognition (also known as “OCR”) methods commonly used today. These methods are called:
Human AI and Pure AI
Both are very distinct methods that have their own advantages. Relative to standard OCR, the methods have a 63% higher accuracy rate. OCR is an older technology that does not learn from its mistakes (no machine learning) and uses hard-coded programmatic code that doesn’t adapt. It typically runs inside an app and on a device, making it inflexible. As a result, OCR is hard to update and has quickly become irrelevant when compared to other methods.
“I’ve used OCR apps from the App Stores and they always frustrate me. I tried dozens of them, over and over, really looking for the right solution. I determined they’re not very accurate, constantly require fixing and tweaking, lack integration with sales and marketing systems, and don’t fit the needs of marketing teams. They’re meant for individual sales people who have time on their hands to correct data – says nobody. Our engineering team pounded the innovation drums giving us industry-leading solutions that fit numerous use cases. We’re super excited to introduce our newest method, which we call Pure AI.”
Lead liaison CEO Ryan Schefke
Lead liaison’s study of 10,687 business cards and documents requiring transcription determined standard OCR was accurate 60.34% of the time. In comparison, Lead liaison’s methods were 98.6% accurate on average. That’s a 64% improvement in accuracy resulting in better quality contact information, more precise lead data, and improved lead management workflows.
HUMAN AI:
Lead liaison’s classic method, known as Human AI, uses an operations team of several hundred people. The workforce transcribes the contact information while artificial intelligence processes the data to find matching information and discards bad information. The result is a highly accurate process ideal for multiple use cases.
PURE AI:
The second, and newest method, is called Pure AI. Pure AI uses a sophisticated process that combines machine learning, image analysis, data intelligence, and artificial intelligence to perform its magic. The best method for your business depends on your use case.
In the tables below we’ve highlighted six (6) use cases for transcribing contact information from documents, all of which Lead liaison supports. If you need help transcribing business cards, badges, or handwritten notes at trade shows or marketing events Lead liaison can help. Similarly, if your company does door-to-door sales or has sales processes that use contact cards in any form, we can help. Whatever you use, ditch OCR as it’s a thing of the past. Use Human AI or Pure AI to leap into the next generation of transcription.
Lead liaison is a multifunctional event platform that provides: Universal Lead Capture, User Customizable Gamification, Marketing Automation, CRM, Lead Management, Sales Enablement, Leader Boards, Point Rewards & e-Gift Cards, Waypoints for Sessions & Scavenger Hunts, Player Profiles, and more with over 3,000 integrations for all common CRM and Marketing Automation platforms.
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Exhibitor Media Group reports that in 2023 companies expect to exhibit at an average of 47.2 in-person events per year (6% more than in 2019).
As trade shows and marketing events start to fill up the calendar, event organizers need creative solutions to bring in more attendees and drive value to sponsors and other stakeholders. In this article we outline five solutions for event organizers to bring life to their events.
Scavenger Hunts
The classic scavenger hunt, or treasure hunt, was historically run using a piece of paper and stamps. Attendees would visit booths or prime destinations in an effort to complete their card. It’s sort of like playing a lottery ticket or bingo. Tick off all the squares and you win! In an age where digital dominates, organizers have an opportunity to move a scavenger hunt experience from physical to digital, while going green at the same time. Solutions exist that leverage QR codes as the destinations while attendees load a progress report that tells them what stops they’ve completed and where they need to go next. This is an excellent way for event organizers to drive traffic to key areas, exhibitors, or sponsors – getting them to do what you want them to do. Event organizers can also monetize each stop thereby creating additional revenue streams for their event.
Two Truths and a Lie
This event experience encourages attendees to network with each other. I’ve been to many events in my career. Although the events industry is rather “clicky”, it never fails that I’m walking around the show floor introducing myself to people. Sometimes it feels awkward as people are almost suspicious of “nice guys”. Why should it be that way? Event organizers can give attendees a reason to connect with one another . Two truths and a Lie is one of the best ways to do that. Prior to the event attendees answer three questions about themselves, with two answers being truthful and one answer being a lie. Event organizers can program how the experience works, and whether one attendee needs to guess the truth or the lie of another attendee. If they get the correct answer the attendee earns points and a chance to be atop the leaderboard.
Speed Networking
We’ve all seen the popularity of dating websites grow over the past decade. The concept is great. Match people up, have them go on a date, and if there’s a good match then the rest is history. These concepts can also be applied to business through speed networking to help event organizers. Solutions exist where groups of people can join “rooms”, which might be dedicated to common interests. Attendees meet in the room at a specific time and are matched with another person where they have a time limit to network. Once the networking session is over, the attendees are matched to another person. This is a great opportunity to connect buyers and sellers together, like-minded buyers together, attendees with common interests, and more.
Digital Activations
Exhibitors spend lots of time and money hauling in giant spin the wheels, whack a moles, or Plinko to their live event hoping the aid acts like a minno to hungry fish, attracting attendees in swarms. Event organizers have enough to worry about and can’t spend the time bringing in physical activations. Instead, solutions exist for digital activations that can be run on tablets. Event organizers can brand digital activations, sell sponsorships, and use them to deliver a message or preview content. When attendees engage with the digital activations they earn points. Points accumulate over the course of the event as attendees vie for a spot on the top of the event leaderboard. Attendees can be incentivized to participate if prizes are awarded for people that finish in the top X position on the leaderboard.
Session Surveys
Event organizers often offer educational sessions at their event. Although, most organizers miss out on the opportunity to collect data, feedback, and further engage attendees with the use of surveys or polls. Surveys or polls can be displayed using a branded QR code at the beginning or end of a session – or even somewhere in between. Attendees can scan the QR code with their smartphone to take the quiz/poll. Data is aggregated for event organizers to use and provide feedback to the speaker while improving the experience for the following year. When attendees participate they can earn points and get a spot on the leaderboard – encouraging them to participate at deeper levels.
We hope these five creative solutions for event organizers give you some ideas for your next event! Contact Lead liaison at www.Leadliaison.com if you’d like our help in providing any of these five solutions. We can help!
Lead liaison is a multifunctional event platform that provides: Universal Lead Capture, User Customizable Gamification, Marketing Automation, CRM, Lead Management, Sales Enablement, Leader Boards, Point Rewards & e-Gift Cards, Waypoints for Sessions & Scavenger Hunts, Player Profiles, and more with over 3,000 integrations for all common CRM and Marketing Automation platforms.
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We have all been there. Your company has spent tens of thousands on your booth, staff presence, and extramentals.
How can you make sure you get the most of it?
Email.
From start to finish, Email can be the easiest to use, and also the best tool in your arsenal.
How, you ask? Let’s go into the details…
Pre-show
Many shows provide, either for purchase or as part of your registration, a list of attendees. Use this list to send out pre-show emails inviting people to a special experience or intentional meeting at your booth. If the show provider doesn’t provide such a list and you have been to the show previously, you can pick out previous attendees linked to that event in your database who are likely to return to the show based on previous years’ attendance.
If you’re running a contest or incentive to visit your booth experience, detail it in your pre-show email. It’s also a good idea to offer calendar scheduling for people to arrange time to meet with you.
Offer PDF documents teasing incentives, special offers, or explanations of your unique products and solutions to build interest. Pre-show email is your first touch, and provides a gateway to building interest. Be sure to include your booth number and a simple map or illustration so people can easily find you. This can even include downloading a show floor map indicating your location to make your booth easier to find.
During the Show
People will often request documentation about your products or solutions. Why burden them with paper they might lose or damage when you can offer digital content that they will receive right away in their inbox for them to preview at their convenience? This has a secondary effect of reminding them about the topic of your conversation, which can be handy as they speak with dozens of exhibitors throughout the day.
When to send such an email varies and is up to your professional discretion. Sending the email right away when prospects are still on the show floor indicates that you deliver what you promise while it is still fresh on their minds, but this approach may also result in reduced open rates since it is unlikely they will see the email until they get back to their hotel room, or return from the event to sort through – and delete unwanted emails. Our suggestion is to include follow up email timing as a key question that you ask when discussing the material you will send them.
If you’re using a Universal Lead Capture platform such as Lead Liaison, you can ask them if they want the documents immediately, at the end of the day, or after the show, or any other time frame as a qualifier for sending the email. This way prospects get the documentation exactly at the time they specify.
On average, trade show attendees spend 8.3 hours visiting booths and displays…
So the courtesy of showing that you value their time can go a very long way in building relationships.
End of Show
The post-show email is likely the most important email you can send out. Personalize it with discussion recaps and send out thank you messages for spending time at your exhibit. The work week following an event is generally the best time to send post-event emails, as people will be back in the office and a simple reminder can do wonders to keep the conversation alive.
If you did not schedule meetings during the show, make sure to offer a calendar link in post show follow up. Toss out a meeting link and invite the people you met to connect again and discuss in further detail how you can help them.
On average, event attendees will tell 6 other people about their experience at the event.
If you were memorable, this is a great way to increase word of mouth marketing.
Carefully planning pre-show, during the show, and post show emails is a vital step that is guaranteed to help increase those valuable post-show conversation, and overall show ROI; and will also help with brand awareness as they see – and remember – your company’s brand and solutions.
Lead Liaison is a multifunctional event platform that provides: Universal Lead Capture, User Customizable Gamification, Marketing Automation, CRM, Lead Management, Sales Enablement, Leader Boards, Point Rewards & e-Gift Cards, Waypoints for Sessions & Scavenger Hunts, Player Profiles, and more with over 3,000 integrations for all common CRM and Marketing Automation platforms.
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In the sales world, you have a lot to keep track of: new leads, existing leads, who needs follow-up, who still needs a touch, contracts sent, contract returned, and so much more! With multiple prospects and stages to track simultaneously, sales professionals need convenient ways to stay organized and focused on the target ahead. This is why Lead liaison has developed the new Lead Analyzer!
The primary function of the Lead Analyzer is to sort leads and keep track of sales stages from the point of lead assignment to deal closed.
Say you’ve just returned from a trade show. All of your leads are sent to the lead analyzer where they can start the journey through your sales funnel. The Lead Analyzer places leads in customizable stages. Leads travel from stage to stage based on what the sales professional deems most appropriate for follow-up.
For instance, after a recent trade show, we set these stages: Captured, Assigned, Outreach, Demo Booked, Demo Complete and Done. As we worked through qualified leads by priority (Urgent, Hot, Warm, Cold), we were able to move prospects visually through the sales funnel from stage to stage until either a demo was complete, or they completed all of the sales stages.
This alleviated the need for our sales team to keep track of leads on a spreadsheet, or a piece of paper! Using the Lead Analyzer, we are also able to understand what stage every lead is in at a glance, and we can quickly reassign prospects to the next stage with a simple drag and drop. From the lead analyzer, we can quickly view or play audio notes, and take actions such as:
Adding a note or task reminder to the prospect record in our CRM.
Adding prospects to automated workflows such as nurtures and rhythms or cadences.
Adding prospects to segments and lists.
Creating deals and tasks related to the lead.
Sending letters, emails and postcards to the prospect.
Another interesting use case for Lead liaison’s Lead Analyzer is to help me manage leads that haven’t come from a specific event (the best practice is to keep event leads separate so you can track ROI on each show).
I have different stages defined: First Outreach, Second Outreach, Demo Booked, First Follow-Up Post Demo, Second a Follow-Up Post Demo, Order Form Sent, and Order Form Received.
This helps in keeping my leads straight, So I can instantly see who needs an additional touch to get a demo booked, when I need to follow up post-demo, and it helps me keep track of those order forms I have sent out for a signature.
Lead Analyzer is part of Lead liaison’s Sales Enablement platform, which includes a free CRM called OneFocus. If you’d like more information about these topics, please Contact Us.
I’m sure once you experience the Lead Analyzer, you’ll figure out the best stages for your sales team. But overall, it’s going to make keeping track of where the leads are in the sales funnel much easier.
Lead liaison is a multifunctional event platform that provides:Universal Lead Capture, User Customizable Gamification, Marketing Automation, CRM, Lead Management, Sales Enablement, Leader Boards, Point Rewards & e-Gift Cards, Waypoints for Sessions & Scavenger Hunts, Player Profiles, and more with over 3,000 integrations for all common CRM and Marketing Automation platforms.
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Demystifying Engagement: How to Connect with Your Audience
Connecting with your audience is vital to demystifying any form of engagement when it comes to event management. Liz King graced InEvent’s 360° event to shed more light on how to connect with your audience.
Liz King Caruso started her business on Twitter, but after connecting with like-minded individuals via social media, her Twitter account blossomed into a fully-fledged events business. Liz has experience in virtual and hybrid events for about ten years. Her expertise in virtual platform strategy and the monetization of virtual events is well sought after in the industry.
At InEvent’s 360° event, Liz left us with pearls of wisdom to help event planners engage audiences in a way that better serves virtual and hybrid objectives. If you missed it, you could catch her session on-demand here.
360° Key Takeaways from Liz King Caruso – Events specialist and consultant at Liz King Eventsent
Event engagement has changed significantly over the past few years. According to Liz, a good starting point is to re-imagine what in-person, virtual and hybrid events will look like in the future.
“I believe that hybrid is the future, and it is critical that we get ourselves out there and try it.” – Liz King caruso
Sometimes hybrid events simply look like a live stream where the audience is watching remotely. There would be a great in-person event, and people are watching virtually, but the event’s main focus would always be the in-person event.
CTRL ALT DLT event in 2017
Liz King Events produced an event called CTRL ALT DLT a few years ago, where they had a virtual program and had hubs of people participating from all around the world. According to Liz, that was the closest example they had to the type of events being produced today in 2021, in 2017.
Liz reiterates that these event models have existed, and today we see that people want to interact with each other in a different way, which calls for a new way to look at the engagement at virtual and hybrid events.
While there is Zoom fatigue, there is no such thing as Netflix fatigue.
In Liz’s experience, she found that audiences are selective about what they spend their time virtually, which begs the question as to why people were getting tired of Zoom, but not of Netflix.
This is valuable insight for events planners because it suggests that event producers are doing something wrong.
“We have to be more entertaining. We have seen that people’s time attention span for anything virtual is really short unless you design a TV show. People don’t have the attention span to sit and watch educational content or to network for long periods,” says Liz.
Virtual events are great for introverts.
Whenever event planners talk about the engagement metric, they usually refer to how many people are on screen. In the beginning, event planners were asking questions like “are their videos on?” or “Are they participating in conversations?” To determine engagement, but in the last year and a half, she realized that maybe that approach is not the key to determining engagement anymore.
Different audiences
“A true hybrid event is an event with two different audiences, and they have all the perfect touchpoints.”
Liz King Caruso
Over this time, Liz has come to understand that the virtual audience and the in-person audience are two very different experiences and therefore should be treated as such, especially regarding engagement.
“When we are at a virtual event, we don’t have handshakes and hugs. The breaks are awkward because we don’t have a person to turn to on the right and introduce ourselves to. We are sitting in our home offices, and every second feels like 6 minutes”, says Liz.
With that in mind, event planners need to create two completely different engagement experiences for both audiences.
Ask yourself: To what extent do people want to connect when they are a part of two completely different audiences?
Think about the ways that you can connect your audiences to the content. Virtual event platform features like chat options, live Q&A, and upvoting questions are helpful for this purpose.
Liz suggests thinking about whether you can have your virtual attendees networking with each other in one way and your in-person attendees having a different networking experience with each other.
“I don’t think we should be that obsessed with these two audiences connecting with each other, but I do think we need to think about how those two experiences are and should be different.”
Liz King Caruso
Agenda
Does someone virtual want to attend an 8-hour day? Probably not. Event planners need to look at how we plan the agenda to be more meaningful for both audiences.
Think about how you can make the agenda about your attendees. With the TechsyTalk Global conference, most content was designed around what the attendees wanted to talk about. “We’re not even choosing topics until part of the event has started. We had a few sessions, and we asked attendees what they wanted to talk about. Then we had some breakouts where they became part of the conversation,” remarks Liz. “I think that’s critical, especially as people are getting tired of watching way too much content. Whether it’s live or pre-recorded, it’s too much content. They want to be part of that experience, so making the agenda about the attendees is really important.”
Shorter formats
Liz suggests having sessions of about 10-15 minutes long.
“People can get a ton of content in a small amount of time.”
Liz King Caruso
“Rethink the most important content for your session, make it a hitlist, and maybe do the Top 5 points. Those are always our best sessions,” says Liz. “We see even with in-person, people are there to network, they want to see each other, they want to experience all the things that they haven’t been able to experience. Content is not necessarily one of those things. They skip out on the mainstage sessions, so we may want to think about mixing up our agenda as well, to see how that works for the hybrid model.”
Production value
Better technical production is imperative, and investing in the right cameras and lighting will yield better results. “We have been talking in the events industry about TV production quality,” says Liz. “We have to be TV producers, we have to make events that flow and have an entertainment factor like survivor or whatever show that makes you wanna binge-watch, and we have been obsessed with that concept for a while now.”
Events are significantly different from TV because they are live, and they have a lot of other components.
“Access to better technology will make a big difference to your attendees when it comes to engaging them” – Liz King Caruso
Accessibility
The best way to engage our attendees is to make the event accessible so that they can attend. You can do this by offering:
Translations and ASL (American Sign Language) – there are many different tools and technologies at in-person or virtual events that can make our events easier to access, especially as we have audiences worldwide.
Different formats of events – people are tired of being online all the time, and with the increase of audiences on Clubhouse, there is a demand for other content formats.
A 365 experience – event planners have been talking about this concept more and more over the past few months. A 365 experience allows you to share content throughout the year and keep our audiences engaged by using fresh formats like on-demand content.
American Sign Language (ASL)
“It’s not just about this one-time experience, but thinking about how we can build that out.”
– Liz King Caruso
Entertainment
Offer entertainment breaks instead of coffee breaks. Try digital gamification experiences which might include virtual puzzles, trivia or jeopardy games with content relating to a presentation, company or solution, a fun game of BINGO, PacMan or Candy Crush with uniquely branded game elements to create excitement and really drive brand and message retention. “I recommend mixing that up in your agenda. Where an in-person audience will have lunch or bathroom breaks, fill that space with entertainment for virtual audiences, and that is how you will differentiate between audiences again,” suggests Liz.
Networking
People attend events for content and networking, but people want networking with the overload of content. InEvent has the new networking roulette feature for virtual audiences that allows attendees to be randomly paired with another event attendee.
But what does networking look like for an in-person audience? People want most of the event to be about connecting with other people, and we need to think about that for both audiences.
Engagement is constantly evolving, what one may understand by the word engagement may be different from another, but it comes down to really knowing your audience. Be more inventive with your event agendas. Think about the benefits for your event attendees and how you can facilitate the absolute best experience for them.
InEvent is a dynamic audio-video solution that has the ability to create, recreate and customize a variety of virtual interactions ranging from Webinars, to live broadcasts, panel discussions, summits, networking sessions, conferences, and spanning across the pharmaceutical, educational, corporate, and event tech industries.
The platform has cutting-edge mobile technology to make interactions and engagements with your attendee’s whole new levels with quizzes, gamification, interactive newsfeed questions, networking, and agenda.
Users can edit real-time videos in simultaneous collaboration without uploading files or using any external software. Its cloud-based platform will host your files and enable your access from anywhere.
Lead liaison is a multifunctional event platform that provides:Universal Lead Capture, User Customizable Gamification, Marketing Automation, CRM, Lead Management, Sales Enablement, Leader Boards, Point Rewards & e-Gift Cards,Waypoints for Sessions & Scavenger Hunts, Player Profiles, and more with over 3,000 integrations for all common CRM and Marketing Automation platforms.
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It’s 2022, we are a full two years out from the complete shut-down of our world with COVID-19. During that time, we were forced to change. The buzz words during the past few years have been “innovation” “new normal” “hybrid” “creative”. We saw the birth of virtual events, the growth of zoom meetings, the influx of Slack / chat between colleagues, and more.
Everything was digital, everything was convenient and accessible, but somehow, nobody felt truly satisfied with all this “innovation”.
Those of us in the event industry understood what was truly missing – authentic connection. The opportunity to build relationships with a handshake, the ability to read body language by standing in proximity to each other. Put plainly – We simply missed the warmth of another soul. The good news – Excitement around face-to-face events continues to build. Booths are being rebuilt, and attendance is growing. However, what seems to be missing during this time is perhaps the best idea that was generated during the shutdown… innovation.
While forced innovation did not necessarily excite us during 2020, truly inspired innovation, organic creativity, and a fiery passion to create something new is something that is needed in today’s society. Specifically, we need this “innovation” in today’s events and seminars. Speaking with clients from around the world, we hear stories of how clients are still dragging in clunky, heavy Prize Wheels, outdated logo’d swag, flimsy paper documents, collecting business cards in a fishbowl that are easily lost, and writing down leads on a sheet of paper and waiting weeks to finally receive leads from event organizers.
Hence Lead Liaison, a solution dripping with innovation that is changing the way we all experience and execute events. Since the return of in-person events, Lead Liaison has electrified exhibit spaces and entire event floors with activity, increased collaboration and event lead capture, and excitement around attending and participating in event activities including training sessions, presentations and educational courses for those working on event credentials.
Lead Liaison true SaaS platform provides everything event professionals need, from an uber flexible premium lead capture app that gives users complete control of their forms and data to the digital activations that launch on any device anywhere making everything from scavenger hunts to self guided tours and educational gamification an instant gratification for attendees, exhibitors and organizers alike. Bottom line – There is a better way to engage attendees and collect leads at trade shows. If you’d like to learn how LeadLiaison has been innovating the industry the past few years, we’d be glad to set up a time to speak with you. I know that the phrase “new normal” brings back tough memories, but together, as an industry, we can work to truly create a new normal that brings about positive change and provides room for continued growth.
Lead Liaison is a multifunctional event platform that provides: Universal Lead Capture, User Customizable Gamification, Marketing Automation, CRM, Lead Management, Sales Enablement, Leader Boards, Point Rewards & e-Gift Cards, Waypoints for Sessions & Scavenger Hunts, Player Profiles, and more with over 3,000 integrations for all common CRM and Marketing Automation platforms.
To see how Lead Liaison’s growing library of digital activations (games), universal lead capture, and reward-based solutions can help your company generate more leads at your trade shows, contact us today!
In the sales world, you have a lot to keep track of: new leads, existing leads, who needs follow-up, who still needs a touch, contracts sent, contract returned, and so much more! With multiple prospects and stages to track simultaneously, sales professionals need convenient ways to stay organized. This is why Lead Liaison has developed the new Lead Analyzer!
The primary function of the Lead Analyzer is to sort leads and keep track of sales stages from the point of lead assignment to deal closed.
Say you’ve just returned from a trade show. All of your leads are sent to the lead analyzer where they can start the journey through your sales funnel. The Lead Analyzer places leads in customizable stages. Leads travel from stage to stage based on what the sales professional deems most appropriate for follow-up.
For instance, after a recent trade show, we set these stages: Captured, Assigned, Outreach, Demo Booked, Demo Complete and Done. As we worked through qualified leads by priority (Urgent, Hot, Warm, Cold), we were able to move prospects visually through the sales funnel from stage to stage until either a demo was complete, or they completed all of the sales stages.
This alleviated the need for our sales team to keep track of leads on a spreadsheet, or a piece of paper! Using the Lead Analyzer, we are also able to understand what stage every lead is in at a glance, and we can quickly reassign prospects to the next stage with a simple drag and drop. From the lead analyzer, we can quickly view or play audio notes, and take actions such as:
Adding a note or task reminder to the prospect record in our CRM.
Adding prospects to automated workflows such as nurtures and rhythms or cadences.
Adding prospects to segments and lists.
Creating deals and tasks related to the lead.
Sending letters, emails and postcards to the prospect.
Another interesting use case for Lead Liaison’s Lead Analyzer is to help me manage leads that haven’t come from a specific event (the best practice is to keep event leads separate so you can track ROI on each show).
I have different stages defined: First Outreach, Second Outreach, Demo Booked, First Follow-Up Post Demo, Second a Follow-Up Post Demo, Order Form Sent, and Order Form Received.
This helps me keep my leads straight, and I can instantly see who needs an additional touch to get a demo booked, when I need to follow up post-demo, and it helps me keep track of those order forms I have sent out for a signature.
Lead Analyzer is part of Lead Liaison’s Sales Enablement platform, which includes a free CRM called OneFocus. If you’d like more information about these topics, please Contact Us.
I’m sure once you experience the Lead Analyzer, you’ll figure out the best stages for your sales team. But overall, it’s going to make keeping track of where the leads are in the sales funnel much easier.
https://www.leadliaison.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Lead-Liaison-Logo5.png00Lead Liaisonhttps://www.leadliaison.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Lead-Liaison-Logo5.pngLead Liaison2022-08-22 11:38:262022-08-22 11:40:23The Lead Analyzer: Get Your Leads In Order
To download the Sales Prospecting Manual: The Secret to B2B Sales white paper .pdf, click here.
Overview
This manual is a step-by-step guide to sales prospecting. The manual was curated through real-life experience with the sales team at Lead Liaison. By following this manual your B2B sales team should expect to have a smooth-running, well-oiled B2B prospecting engine that you can use to fill the top of the funnel for $.78 per lead!
Get Prepared
Step 1: Identify your Target Market
Look at your past successes and determine which markets/industries you’re getting the most traction in. For example, is it the finance industry, health industry, high-tech, etc. Keep your focus on a specific marketing or vertical and base it off of past wins.
Step 2: Build your Team
Your team will consist of a Business Development Representative (also known as an Inside Sales Representative, or “BDR”) and a Sales Representative. Your BDR can be an internal resource or external resource, such as a contractor or part-time hire. With the B2B prospecting methodology covered in this manual, we’ve used an external resource. Here’s how we did it:
Visit upwork.com. Upwork is a marketplace to hire contractors.
Post a new job (it’s free).
Here’s our post:
Title: Looking for an admin to help with data entry.
Description: Help with prospecting by following a guide to finding contacts using tools provided by our company. Enter the contacts into our sales automation system. Rinse and repeat.
Hire your BDR for $3 per hour! Yep, we’re not joking. Here’s proof:
5. Next, find your Sales Representatives. We suggest having Sales Representatives that work for your company. The Sales Reps will take leads from this process that engage (express interest or interact in some way) and follow up on them. They will also execute manual tasks that are combined with automated tasks as part of a sales plan that systematically, and intelligently, reaches out to your prospects.
Step 3: Build a Semi-Automated, Systematic Sales Plan
This step is a must if you want to build a prospecting machine. These systems are sometimes referred to as Sales Engagement, Sales Enablement, or Sales Automation. Regardless of the name, they all serve a similar purpose. That is, to make a salesperson’s job easier by making them more efficient with their day-to-day sales efforts. Enterprise systems will include a few key components:
Sales plan
Task manager
Integration with CRMs and marketing automation platforms
The Sales plan is a combination of various actions such as emails (automatic and manual), offline communication (handwritten letters, postcards, etc.), tasks, and digital communication (text messaging) that can be added into your plan. With the right system, there are two ways to manage your plan:
Create one plan that all of your Sales Reps can share.
Create individual plans for each of your Sales Reps.
In the process below, we’re using method #1. Your VP of Sales or someone leading your sales team could create the plan and your entire sales team can benefit from it. This results in consistent communication for your brand and overall messaging. Our system of choice in this example is a Sales Enablement system from Lead Liaison. Other providers call their Sales Plan “Sequences” or “Cadences”, while Lead Liaison calls them “Rhythms”.
In this part of the manual, these are the instructions you can provide to your BDR (the $3 resource).
Do not select more than two (2) people at the same company. It’s suggested you use only a single contact to avoid any issues with domain reputation.
Use these methods, in this order, to find the right person to target:
Search using LinkedIn Sales Navigator and a Saved Search: http://youtu.be/b4spMw3vC3w?hd=1. A LinkedIn Sales Navigator account will be shared with you. A Saved Search with key titles is already added in the Sales Navigator account, just switch the company name.
If LinkedIn Navigator doesn’t turn up anything, then:
Look for these people (you fill in the X, Y, and … in the section below to give your BDR specific instructions). Remember, you should create a Saved Search in LinkedIn Navigator to simplify this process for your BDR.
First, anyone with “X” in their title.
Next, anyone with “Y” in their title.
Finally, if there’s no match on the above look for these titles:
Install the top three (3) ranked tools below. Each tool has a video demonstrating how to install it and how to use it.
Since there is an average of 21 business days in a month, use two separate email addresses (personal email such as @gmail.com addresses are fine) and install Clearbit Connect with those email accounts. You can use the free version of Clearbit Connect to generate 10 new email addresses per day for each business day in the month. If you need more, open more Clearbit Connect accounts.
Share across users for paid plan. Also crawls web. Use web for single credit instead of browser plugin.
Step 6: Enter Data Into your Sales Automation System
In this step, your ISR will enter data into a Sales Automation system, in this case Lead Liaison’s Rhythms. After the BDR finds the contact, create the Prospect in Lead Liaison and add them into a Rhythm.
Now that your BDR engine is running full steam, and people are added to your Sales Plan, that’s where the hand-off from the BDR to the Sales Rep occurs. The Sales Rep simply has to execute all of the tasks created by your Sales Plan. Since we’re using Lead Liaison’s Rhythms for our Sales Plan, it also comes with a nice, built-in task manager. Every manual email or task used in your Rhythm will get populated in your task manager. Here’s how to manage your tasks with the task manager: http://youtu.be/0heTYixWjZ4?hd=1.
As you work through your tasks, make sure to do your research. If you’re selling to major accounts, in what’s referred to as Account-Based Sales or Account-Based Marketing, research is really important at this stage. In the section below, we cover our favorite tools for research and provide some videos on how to use each tool.
Step 8: Research
Identify Technographics (Datanyze)
If it’s important for you to know what technology (lead gen, marketing automation, content management system, email marketing program, etc.) your prospect is using use a system like Datanyze (now owned by ZoomInfo) or BuiltWith to search technographics.
Here’s a summary of what your company would need to invest in subscription services for the total prospecting stack. We broke up the stack into a BDR Stack and Sales Rep stack. We computed a Cost-Per-Lead, or CPL, for this prospecting effort based on 10,441 leads per year. Not bad for $.78 per lead!!!
BDR Prospecting Technology Stack
TOOL
ANNUAL COST
Clearbit Connect
Free
Voila Norbert
$468
Hunter
$408
LinkedIn Sales Navigator Professional
$779.88
Lead Liaison Sales Enablement User License
$900
TOTAL INVESTMENT
$2,555.58
Sales Representative Sales Technology Stack
TOOL
ANNUAL COST
Datanyze Insider
Free
Owler
Free
Crunchbase
$348
TOTAL INVESTMENT
$348
Total Investment and CPL
TOOL
ANNUAL COST
Clearbit Connect
Free
Voila Norbert
$468
Hunter
$408
Datanyze Insider
Free
Owler
Free
Crunchbase
$348
LinkedIn Sales Navigator Professional
$779.88
Lead Liaison Sales Enablement User License
$900
Research Labor ($3 per hour).
Based on 40 leads per day. 10 minutes per lead.
261 working days in a year.
$5,220
TOTAL TOOLS
$2,903.88
TOTAL LABOR
$5,220
TOTAL INVESTMENT
$8,123.88
COST PER QUALIFIED LEAD (CPQL). 10,440 per year.
$.78
https://www.leadliaison.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/rawpixel-570908-unsplash-e1550003508424.jpg11591920Ryan Schefkehttps://www.leadliaison.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Lead-Liaison-Logo5.pngRyan Schefke2019-02-12 15:04:062019-02-13 14:51:45Sales Prospecting Manual: The Secret to B2B Sales
If you’re in B2B sales then it’s important to know how to find email addresses. Lead Liaison did a study on 100 people to see if we could find their email address. We already had their correct email addresses (in other words, we knew the answer); but, wanted to tackle the project as if we were a sales person trying to find an email address.
We set out to figure out the best ways to do this. We scoured the web for the best tools, looked at using methods like Twitter, general web searches, guessing email patterns, etc. There’s really no easy and reliable way to find someone’s email by doing it on your own. Fortunately, there are some great software tools out there that took away all the hard work. Our study identified seven main software tools that can be used for free or for little to no charge ($.07 per lead). For our study, we took 100 people along with their domain names and manually entered them into each of the seven tools. It was a lot of work, but some really good results and learnings came from it.
The email addresses were sourced from prospects, address book contacts, and customers. Some of the tools allow bulk uploading, but we did it all by hand, one by one to save you the time! We ranked each of the seven tools based on price, quality, and user experience. The top three tools to find email addresses were Clearbit Connect, Norbert, and Hunter – in that order. In the analysis below, you’ll find a table that ranks each of the seven solutions. We created videos demonstrating how to install each tool and videos demonstrating how to find email addresses using each tool.
In the analysis of 100 email addresses, the top three tools were were Clearbit Connect, Norbert, and Hunter. The graph below shows a summary of the analysis. Here’s how to read it:
Blue (Success Match Rate): Percentage of attempts the provider was able to successfully find the correct email address for the person we were looking for.
Red (Wrong-Email Match Rate): Percentage of attempts the provider returned an incorrect email address for the person we were looking for.
Yellow (Not Available Rate): Percentage of attempts the provider returned an incorrect email address for the person we were looking for.
See the section on the Top 3 Ways to Find Email Addresses below for a deeper analysis on the top 3 tools.
Find Email Addresses 86% of the Time
When we began this analysis we were skeptical that there were accurate ways to find email addresses. However, after this study we found that were were able to successfully find someone’s email address 86% of the time! You can do the same! That’s really an incredible result, and very accurate. The method we describe below is a full-proof plan for any sales and marketing organization who wants to develop a consistent prospecting process.
To find email addresses 86% of the time, install the top three ranked tools below. In the “Ranking Ways to Find Email Addresses” section below, each tool we analyzed comes with a video demonstrating how to install it and how to use it.
Since Clearbit Connect had the lowest amount of incorrect email addresses returned and didn’t use a credit unless it found an email, start your searching by using Clearbit Connect first. If you can’t find the email address in Clearbit Connect, then use Norbert next. Norbert had the highest accuracy (same as Hunter) but also the 2nd lowest error-rate. If you can’t find your email in Norbert, then use Hunter. After trying each of these solutions we’re confident that across all three one of them will show you the correct email address.
The methods above are a sure way to find an email address 86% of the time. We’re sharing the details of our study with you. Download the complete analysis below:
Below is our analysis and rank of seven tools to find an email address. Each column is explained below:
Rank: Overall rank based on quality, price, and user experience.
Tool: Name of the tool to find someone’s email.
Installation: Video showing how to install the tool.
Usage: Video showing how to use the tool to find an email address.
Free Credits: Number of free credits the tool provides (noted one-time or per month).
Minimum Paid Plan: Cost per year if you subscribed to the tool.
Price per Email: Takes the total number of email addresses the tool provides in a 12 month period and divides that by the total paid plan amount in 12 months.
In our analysis there were three clear winners, Clearbit Connect, Norbert, and Hunter. We discuss the reasons for the ranking and our experience below in more detail.
1st Place: Clearbit Connect
Price: A+ (Free), C (Paid)
Quality: A+
User Experience: B+
Out of 100 names and domains in our test, Clearbit Connect had the least amount of incorrect email addresses returned (4%). In general, it’s fair to say that Clearbit Connect was either accurate or could not find an email. We loved Clearbit Connect for a few reasons:
Clearbit Connect also doesn’t charge a credit unless it successfully finds an email address for you.
They had the least amount of incorrect emails.
It’s free with 100 credits (100 correct emails) per month. You can install it on any email account.
Use their Chrome Browser plugin for your research. It starts by clicking their icon, then entering in the domain name for the person you’re searching for. To find the domain name, head to the website where the person works. The domain name will be the value before the “.com”. For example, in “https://www.google.com” the domain name is “google.com”. If Clearbit Connect returns a company match, select it, if not hit enter.
Reasons we didn’t like Clearbit Connect:
Price: For a solid prospecting stack, you can stick with the free version of Clearbit Connect. However, if you’re looking to pay for it then heads up – it was the 3rd most expensive price per contact out of the seven tools we analyzed.
User Experience: The Chrome Browser plugin loaded inside our email inbox. As a heads up, it also starts to collect all of your email addresses from your account. This is a bit invasive, but could be a good trade depending on your goals.
In the next screen, enter the person’s name.
2nd Place: Norbert
Price: C+ (Free), A (Paid)
Quality: A
User Experience: B-
Norbert was very accurate, and did not make a lot of mistakes. We found the Chrome Browser plugin was a nice (1st screenshot), but a little clunky at times. It seemed to have a few bugs in the User Interface. As a result, we switched over to their web application (2nd screenshot) which seemed a bit easier to use. The only tradeoff with Norber is that it took more time to find an email address. When compared with Clearbit Connect and Hunter, which were pretty much instant, it took up to several minutes at times to return a result. We didn’t mind this that much though, as we were playing the role of a B2B sales person. Queuing up searches in another top didn’t disrupt our workflow.
The other thing we didn’t like with Norbert is that it charged a credit for each request we made. Since Norbert either returned an incorrect result or no result at all 31% of the time, that means that 31% of the time you’ll get charged a credit and get no value in return. If you’re using the free version, it only gives you 50 email credits for one-time usage. Unlike Clearbit Connect and Hunter, the credits don’t reset every month. Once you’ve used your credits – you’re done, and you need to go for the paid plan. Fortunately, the paid plan is very affordable.
All things considered, the experience, the accuracy, low error rate, and cost per credit put Norbert in second place. Going for a paid plan here is worth considering as part of your prospecting stack.
3rd Place: Hunter
Price: A+ (Free), A+ (Paid)
Quality: B+
User Experience: B+
Hunter was also a nice tool for finding an email address. We didn’t like using the Chrome Browser plugin as we found ourselves using double credits most of the time. It would search for the company details when we put in the domain, charging a credit, then when we put in the person’s name it charged a second credit. Instead, we switched over to the web version. In the screenshots below we show how you put in the domain name and name of the person you’re looking for. Here’s why we liked Hunter:
It returned results almost instantly. Unlike Norbert, there was no waiting.
Cost was very competitive. They were the 2nd least expensive solution out of all seven providers we analyzed.
It returned the most number of accurate emails (tied at 69% with Norbert).
It also scrapes the web, and shows exactly where the email address was found. That gave us added confidence in the results.
It also showed a verification symbol, see the green icon below. This also gave us a confidence boost.
Based on quality, user experience, and price, Hunter was a close 2nd. The only reason why it came in third is because of the higher number of inaccurate emails that it returned. It was 6% more inaccurate than Norbert, and 12% more inaccurate than Clearbit. You can’t beat the price per email though!
My $876 B2B Email Finder Stack
Since our study was based on a B2B sales person researching email addresses, we wanted to make sure we have the right tools in our prospecting stack for finding an email address. We also have a budget to use as part of our sales enablement plan. Each of the top three tools offer free credits. However, if that’s not sustainable and you need a good set of tools to use for B2B marketing do the following:
Use the free version of Clearbit Connect to generate 100 new email addresses in a month. The paid version will set you back $6K in a year. That’s a bit rich for our blood, so the free version did the trick.
Buy a Norbert account. It’s gives you 50 free credits. However, a subscription is very affordable and worth the investment. At the time of this analysis, and annual subscription was $468.
Buy a Hunter account. You could use the free version and get 100 emails per month; however, similar to Norbert, it’s very affordable and worth the investment. At the time of this analysis, and annual subscription was $408.
For $876 a year, I’d feel comfortable going to my boss and asking him/her for the money. Assuming you used each of the three tools above for your stack, you’ll be able to find about 12,000 email addresses in a year. That’s 1,000 correct emails in a month. That’s more than enough for a single person. Depending on your individual capacity and your approach to B2B sales; this solution could cover one to 20 B2B sales reps. The bottom line is that your cost per lead (CPL) is $.073. That’s less than a dime for a prospect! Compare that CPL to the CPL of other sources, such as paid search, trade shows, etc. Sure – you can argue that other channels are more qualified prospects, but you can’t beat the cost as long as you work your leads.
Pro tip: Use Lead Liaison’s Rhythms to feed your new prospects into a step by step sales plan so you can stay ultra-organized and be efficient with your prospecting.
In conclusion, whether you’re looking for a free stack or a B2B sales stack to find email addresses, you can’t go wrong with the aforementioned tools. We hope this study is helpful and gives you the answer to how to find email addresses.
https://www.leadliaison.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/black-and-white-close-up-cubes-1591062-e1549753923331.jpg12631900Lead Liaisonhttps://www.leadliaison.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Lead-Liaison-Logo5.pngLead Liaison2019-02-09 17:50:532019-02-09 17:50:53How to Find Email Addresses
Dallas, TX – Lead Liaison officially opened for business in November 2013 with a clear vision: to help companies drive revenue by scaling sales and marketing. They made a splash with the introduction of a website visitor tracking solution. A few short months later, a fully integrated marketing automation solution was launched. Over the years, Lead Liaison has grown exponentially with last month marking five years in the industry.
Founder, Ryan Schefke, shares why he acted on his vision to create sales and marketing solutions that drive revenue. “I spent 15 years working for organizations, from large to small, that constantly had sales and marketing teams operating in silos. Most of my time was spent in the sales organization. I always wanted more leads, better quality leads, and software that could help me and my team do our jobs better.”
“I couldn’t handle the constant differences between sales and marketing teams and had to take action,” Schefke continues. “We first created a website visitor tracking solution because it’s an essential component that all businesses should have to support their sales and marketing. It’s the only way to close the loop on inbound and outbound activities as it ties it all together. We’ve evolved to be much more than that. When I reflect back over these five years on our progress, I’m blown away by the breadth of our portfolio and the number of businesses that have sought out our help to take them to the next level. We’re helping marketing teams, sales teams, and more importantly, we are helping both of them work better together – that’s the ultimate goal.”
From the beginning, Lead Liaison has focused on building a suite of solutions for marketing and sales teams. Last year they launched an event lead management solution, GoExhibit!™, which integrates seamlessly with almost any CRM or marketing automation platform – including their own marketing automation platform called Lead Management Automation (LMA)™ and their own CRM, aptly named OneFocus™. They’ve taken the market by storm, quickly becoming a leader in event lead management.
“Our focus on events started in October 2017 with our lead capture app, GoCapture!™. We’ve gone on to develop an end-to-end Event Lead Management (ELM) solution called GoExhibit!™, which is powered by our original app,” says Sam Darrell, VP Product Management at Lead Liaison. “We already provide incredible value to sales and marketing teams. Our enterprise customers were asking us for a solution that could replace antiquated badge scanners and poor quality OCR apps, while also integrating instantly with all other marketing and sales efforts.”
Also in recent months, Lead Liaison enabled advanced security features to support evolving online privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Their Sales Enablement solution debuted in December 2017.
Lead Liaison has not wavered in their core values of simplicity, personalized and intimate support, and flexibility. Clients continue to benefit from this clear focus, and that is represented in top ratings on esteemed software review sites such as Capterra and G2 Crowd. The company is forecasting 2018 revenue growth to be double that of 2017, another indicator of stability and growth for a company that plans to be a force in the sales and marketing automation industry for years to come.
To learn more about Lead Liaison’s innovative solutions, visit leadliaison.com.
About Lead Liaison Lead Liaison provides cloud-based sales and marketing automation solutions that helps businesses accelerate revenue by attracting, converting, closing and retaining more prospects. Filling a void in the small pool of marketing automation providers that focus on marketing-centric functionality, Lead Liaison gives equal focus to sales providing sophisticated visitor tracking and additional website engagement tools to boost sales effectiveness. Lead Liaison blends ease-of-use, a flexible business model, deep external integration, marketing across social, web, mobile, email and offline channels and powerful functionality, all specifically tailored for mid-sized businesses, into a single platform, called Revenue Generation Software®. Lead Liaison is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. For more information, visit http://www.leadliaison.com or call 1-800-89-LEADS (895-3237).
https://www.leadliaison.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Lead-Liaison-Press-Release-3-e1529957926800.png320700Lead Liaisonhttps://www.leadliaison.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Lead-Liaison-Logo5.pngLead Liaison2018-12-06 09:12:052018-12-06 09:12:23Sales and Marketing Automation Solutions Provider Lead Liaison Celebrates Major Milestone
Dallas, TX – Lead Liaison officially opened for business in November 2013 with a clear vision: to help companies drive revenue by scaling sales and marketing. They made a splash with the introduction of a website visitor tracking solution. A few short months later, a fully integrated marketing automation solution was launched. Over the years, Lead Liaison has grown exponentially with last month marking five years in the industry. 
