How to Build Good Lead Lists
Good lead lists are key for scoring better sales deals. Find out how to build a quality lead list.
What if you had a list of names of people you could contact whenever you wanted to try to close a new deal?
Luckily, this isn’t science fiction. All you need is a well-crafted lead list.
This is easier said than done though.
Buying a lead list can be a risky proposition if the data is inaccurate and out of date, yet building your own takes time.
That’s why we’ll dive deep into what a lead list is, how to build one, and the pros and cons of buying versus building a B2B lead list.
What’s a lead list?
A lead list is a large table or spreadsheet containing potential customers for your product or service.
It’s the list that marketers use to send mass emails and that sales managers use to call prospects. And since it’s their main source of clients to contact, the list needs to be high quality.
What are the components of a good lead list?
You can’t create a sound B2B lead list by throwing random names and contact information into a table.
If you create a list that way, you’ll waste hours contacting the wrong leads and trying to sell your product blindly.
But building these details into your lead list will help you reach out to the right people more efficiently.
Number of leads
Quality is important, but when you’re building a lead list, quantity is also critical. Besides, your lead scoring model will allow you to confirm quality before spending resources on outreach.
You should seek a healthy number of B2B leads to ensure you have enough prospects to work with, score, and prioritize. More sales leads mean more opportunities to convert contacts into paying customers.
Contact info
Make sure your lead list includes the correct email addresses, phone numbers, LinkedIn profiles, and any other contact information you might need.
You’ll want to double-check email addresses with a bounce checker. This way, you’ll avoid bounced emails, which could hurt your sales outreach.
Demographics
Knowing your leads’ demographics tells you which buttons to push (or not push) to convert them into customers.
Common demographics include job title, age, gender, and location, but you can expand this list as necessary. Demographics will also help you segment leads and personalize messages so that they resonate with readers.
Firmographics
Firmographics are similar to demographics but for companies.
Common firmographics include company size, industry, revenue, and location.
Firmographics are particularly useful for quickly qualifying leads and deciding which companies match your ideal customer profile.
Source of information
You’ll want to keep track of where you’re getting your data for each lead.
Reliable data sources include your CRM tool (such as HubSpot and Salesforce), reputable data providers and lead databases, industry events, and networking platforms like LinkedIn.
Knowing your source is also helpful if you connected with them at an event or over social media. In this case, you can reference how you met, which will in turn boost your trustworthiness.
Intent data
Intent data lets you know which B2B leads are actively showing interest in products or services similar to yours.
Common types of intent signals include:
- Search intent
- Engagement intent
- Firmographic intent
- Technographic intent
You can also monitor recent news and announcements for intent signals such as the closing of a successful funding round.
Using intent signals and recent news, you can assign a score to each lead and focus more effort and resources on leads who show a higher intent level.
Interaction history
Keep track of past interactions leads had with your brand, such as website visits, email opens, or previous inquiries. This helps you understand their engagement level and tailor your follow-up messaging.
Quick tip: Double-check data accuracy
A lead list is essentially a huge dataset. As a result, it’s absolutely critical to confirm the accuracy and validity of all data in the lead list.
Outdated or incorrect information ends up wasting your team’s time and effort.
How to build a lead list
While the components mentioned above are essential for a good sales lead list, you’ll want to expand on them with any other information you think might help your sales team.
Building lead lists isn’t rocket science, but it does require time, attention to detail, and good research skills.
Here are a few tips to ensure you do this job properly.
Nail down your ICP and sales persona
First, figure out who your ideal customer is with the help of customer profiles and sales personas.
Your ICP should include details like company size, industry, and revenue while sales personas consider people’s job titles, daily challenges, and goals.
For example, if you sell marketing software, your ICP might be tech companies operating in the SaaS industry with 50-200 employees, generating over $5M in annual revenue while your persona targets mid-level product managers.
Create a lead qualification checklist
Next, create a checklist to qualify your B2B leads. Look at demographics (like job title and location), sales triggers (such as whether a company just received new funding), and technographic data (which tech a company uses). This way, you’re not shooting in the dark.
For instance, if you’re targeting startups using specific software, your checklist might include “uses HubSpot” and “recently secured Series A funding.”
Segment and score leads
Now, break down your leads into segments and score them based on their likelihood of buying. You can segment by any factor, like industry, company size, and location. Lead scoring considers engagement level and the fit with your ICP.
For example, the highest score may go to a lead from a company that’s just expanded, where a manager actively engages with your emails. However, a lead from a similar company who only visited your website once may have an average or low score.
Decide which tools you’ll use
Building a list manually is possible, but it takes a lot of time. Tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Apollo, and AiSDR not only speed things up, they improve the overall list quality.
Sales Navigator helps you find B2B leads by providing advanced search filters and insights about your prospects directly from LinkedIn profiles, saving you hours of manual searching.
Apollo offers features to identify all key stakeholders, track website visitors, and flag job changes, which all help you score leads accurately and ensure you contact them at the right time.
AiSDR combines the best of both while adding features for building lead lists and doing bounce checks to confirm addresses and keep bounce rates under 5%.
Fine-tune and update your list regularly
Keep your list in top shape by regularly cleaning it and adding new information. Check for duplicates, invalid or incorrect data, and outdated information manually or using tools. This way, you ensure no leads get the same email twice and skew your outreach performance.
Identify decisive factors for assessing the list
Figure out how to measure whether your lead list is effective. Look at response rates and conversion rates. For example, if leads on your list have a high response rate, you’re on the right track. Regularly review these metrics to keep your list sharp.
Buying a lead list vs building your own
The easiest way to decide whether to buy or build a lead list is to compare the pros and cons of each option.
Pros and cons of buying lead lists
The main pro of buying lead lists is saving time, but you might enjoy a bit of budgetary savings.
Sales teams already spend just 2 hours a day actually selling. If they had to create a lead list, they’d spend even less on sales. Similarly, a purchased lead list means your budget is more efficiently used (if a sales rep makes ~$30/hour and spends 1 week building a list, the list costs $1,200).
And that’s just to build the list. Maintaining, updating, and cleaning the list also takes time.
When you buy a list, someone has already done the work building the list, which allows you to start outreach faster.
That’s where the drawbacks rear their head.
Pre-made lists will typically require you to commit time to double-checking the data for accuracy or accept the risk or unqualified leads. Or you can buy a custom list, which will increase accuracy but at a rather expensive price tag.
Pros and cons of building your own lead lists
Building your own lead list has its pros and cons.
The main con is the time required to build the list. Researching, data scraping, checking, and double-checking take a while, especially if you want a large lead list. Still, tools like AiSDR empower you to:
- Create lead lists
- Put intent-based prospecting on autopilot
- Tell the AI which campaigns to add any leads found
- Enrich lead data by scraping and finding lead info to fill in missing gaps
At the same time, you maintain full control of your data and the quality of your list. That means marketing and sales won’t lose precious time going on wild goose chases.
In the end, the decision of whether to buy or build a B2B lead list is up to you. If you have the time and desire, building your own will be a more sustainable in the long run. Alternatively, sales solutions like AiSDR make it easier to craft lists of prospects.
Frequently asked questions
Why is it important to have a good lead list?
A good lead list directly impacts your marketing and sales efforts. With a quality list, you target prospects more likely to convert while saving time and resources.
How often should I clean and update my lead list?
You should clean and update your lead list at least once per quarter. This means checking for duplicates, invalid or outdated contact information, and other errors.
Why do I need specialized tools to build a list?
Using specialized tools makes building a lead list faster and easier. For example, AiSDR has a huge database of over 700M leads, with addresses triple-checked to reduce bounce rates. Plus, AiSDR supports multiple languages, helping you reach a global audience and find leads who use non-English job titles.
