How Do I Build a List of Target Companies and Contacts?

* How do I build a list of targeted prospect names?
* Do I buy contact lists and cold call into targeted accounts?
- If so, who and what level do I call into? Where do I start?
* What other outbound techniques actually work?

Wait!! What's Your Lead Generation Strategy and Plan?
By planning a real strategy around preparation, execution and follow-through of your lead generation plans, you can avoid wasting big chunks of time, money and opportunity. There is a cost in clutter, distraction and time if you build a big list of unorganized and untargeted contacts. And especially in b2b, quality is better than quantity!

WHAT (do I want to accomplish?)
What is the list for? For example, are you making a long-term investment in your database, and can afford to spend more time and money really getting it right? Or do you have a one-shot need to get something out the door, and may not use your list again? This will change your process, which could affect the list you want to build and how much energy you should, or shouldn't, put into building it.

HOW (should my process flow?)
What's my lead generation process that is driving the need of this list? List-building is just a small piece of your sales or marketing process. How does that process puzzle piece fit with the others?

Example: a lead generation process around a conference:
http://salesmachine.blogspot.com/2006/09/how-to-generate-real-leads-from.html

Example: inside sales lead generation process:
http://salesmachine.blogspot.com/2005/09/manufacturing-new-business.html

Do I only use mass-market programs, or would inside telesales be valuable? This depends on the complexity or simplicity of your offering, and its economics. How clear is the value to the customer, and how much revenue is there per customer? Is there enough value or complexity that I should use inside telesales to generate leads and pipeline?

WHO (am I targeting?)
1) What is the profile of a "perfect customer" company? Industry?
- Just as important: what industries / kinds of companies are a waste of time to target, and would just clutter your list?
- For example, for an on-demand company, IT services could be a target industry, but you might exclude paranoid Aerospace/Defense IT firms in that industry as a waste of time.
2) Who is the typical decisionmaker?
3) Who is the typical recommender / influencer? If the decisionmaker is high level, many will refer you to someone on their team to vet new ideas. This person often is the best to get us in the door to meet with the decisionmaker.

WHEN (do I start? do things happen?)
How long will the steps in your process take? Start with your goals and work backwards, then add extra time, to make sure you don't get behind. Things will take longer than you expect.

OK - Some Example Vendors
There are probably about a million vendors offering list-building services, in a variety of markets. Here are a few. There are a lot of vendors out there that will build a list for you from scratch.

Example B2B (some are better for targeted inside telesales, some for mass-market)
Onesource*
Hoovers
Spoke.com*
Jigsaw.com*
D&B / Zapdata.com
Salesgenie.com
DemandBase

B2C / Small Business
InfoUSA.com

Example Services Firms
iNetProfit.com
Rainmaker (www.rmkr.com)

(* integrated to salesforce.com as of March 2006)
If you run across any you particularly like, please email me.

AND TRY BEFORE YOU BUY
There can be enormous differences in the quality of data and service you get from any companies in these spaces. Run a test program, experiment, try before you buy. And I would be VERY careful if you begin considering any kind of outsourcing:
http://salesmachine.blogspot.com/2005/03/can-outsourcing-lead-generation-make.html

The Last Last Word - A Source of Other Good Ideas
The article (link below) has some good ideas, but is more relevant to companies selling to demographic segments, regions or specific industries, rather than b2b companies that sell to broad segments:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,301022,00.html