A Guide to Prospecting with Owler
A guide to making prospecting a lot less daunting with Owler.com
Having spent many years cold calling and blind emailing leads, I think there is one thing we can all agree on - Prospecting is not fun! The largest challenge I have found with prospecting is finding a reason to reach out other than “HEY LOOK AT MY PRODUCT”. That is, until I started using Owler.
Now I know what you are thinking, “You work at Owler, so of course you are going to say that” and …. Yes you are correct, BUT the truth is, I started using Owler years before I worked here, and today I want to share with you my secret to prospecting using Owler’s platform.
Trick #1: Sell to those you know!
If you didn’t know, Owler has company data on over 15 million companies, but more importantly, we have a database of over 45 MILLION (with an M) competitive relationships between these companies. The benefit of this is that we have done your whitespace analysis for you. On every company profile page, as well as in our advanced search tool using the competitor filter, you have the ability to discover companies that compete with - as well as look like - your top customers. With the click of a few buttons, you can now find hundreds of companies that can benefit from the same value props, the same ROI examples, and let’s be honest, we all love using the line “Do you want to let your competitor have an advantage over you? Because they use us and have seen incredible results”
Hop on Owler right now and search for your top customer. Are their competitors’ customers too? Maybe they should be!
Trick #2: Advanced Search With Actionable Events
Discovering new companies should not be hard! That is why Owler is trying to think outside the box and deliver new ways to search for companies. Our new Advanced Search tool has a plethora of filters designed to help you find companies that are perfect for your products. We have recently launched 10 new filters including Leadership Hires, Fundings, Acquisitions, and Founded Dates! Which means you can finally run a search for all companies in California that have raised a Series A round, or perhaps all startups in the US that have recently hired a VP of Sales!
By expanding your ability to prospect not only by finding new companies, but by relating your search to an actionable event, you can now begin to personalize your focus and outreach to drive substantially better results!
Trick #3: Brings it all together: Discovering your ‘Why’
Now if you are anything like me, the WHY to reach out has always been the hardest thing to figure out. I mean of course we can send cool marketing emails, value props, and videos, but what good is any of that if you have not related your product to your prospects needs? Better yet, how do you even know what their needs are?
Using Owler, you can research the latest news about your prospects with a lot less work. Owler gives you the ability to “Follow” any company you would like. The act of following on Owler means we send you this company’s news, press releases, blogs, videos, and more in real time! Basically we set a pair of binoculars on them and whisper to you every time something happens. Think SUPER nosy neighbor, but you get to hear only the juicy intel!
Once you have followed some companies, Owler sends you intel about them in a few different ways. First we send you a daily snapshot email of news each morning to make sure that while you drink your coffee you don’t miss any news from the last 3 days on your focused accounts. Second under the “Email Settings” tab, you can select what we call Instant Insights. These will send you instantaneous updates via email if an event happens that you have chosen to track. We currently have 17 news event types available to track.
The benefit of this real time filtered news is the ability to personalize your messages and product pitches to what is happening with the business! For example - “ Woah John, is that your 10th award this year? How will you win next year?” or “ I love your rebrand, how are you planning to tell everyone?”. I have learned over the years, people love to talk about what they are doing, and Owler gives you the right information at the right time to nudge them to do so!
Last but certainly not least, we have our Newsfeed tab which collects all the news on the companies you are following and displays it like a live ticker of information that is also sortable by all 17 news types. You can select the filter “Event Type” and watch in awe as the list of news narrows down to exactly what you need to begin prospecting with actionable events.
Each article displayed in our Newsfeed also has two buttons on the right side that help you share the article with your prospects or internally with your coworkers!
To Wrap it Up
Owler has combined company information with news and events to deliver you the ultimate prospecting tool! We not only help you find the companies that best fit your target market, we then deliver you the reason to reach out and a way to tailor your message so it resonates with each company’s needs.
We hope that Owler will help you stop dreading prospecting, and discover new opportunities to connect.
- Nathan Steele, Head of Customer Success