It was already difficult to prospect during the economy’s post-COVID rollercoaster. But with the Great Resignation’s 4.5 million-person churn, it’s even more likely that you’ve lost valuable leads. Here’s how to cleanse your contact database, identify new prospects, and start more conversations.
Monitor Bounce Rates
As people resign, most employers are good about deactivating their work email accounts. That should translate into automated bounce alerts you’ll receive the next time you try to email them. And those bounce percentages are likely to go up, depending on whether the industries you’re targeting are those that have seen the greatest turnover.
What helps: email automation. Most automation tools take bounce reports very seriously. The higher your bounce rate, the more you appear like spam. To avoid potential blacklisting, these platforms will remove contacts from your email campaigns once they’ve bounced two or three times. If your software doesn’t do this by default, it’s important to have a data processing procedure in place that does.
Find Better Data
As you lose contacts to increased bounce rates, you’ll need to verify new ones to replace them. The only problem? Purchasing lead lists can be hit or miss. They’re pricey and often outdated — especially now.
What helps: prospecting automation. Instead of buying email addresses, all you need is basic contact information — first names, last names, company names, and company domains. Then, cycle that data through Prospecto to validate email addresses for those contacts. You’ll not only confirm whether those contacts still work for the companies you thought they did, you’ll get in front of them faster.
Ask Navigational Questions
Don’t be surprised if the people you target are no longer the best decision-makers. There are a couple reasons for this, aside from the workforce reshuffling:
- Job titles, roles, and responsibilities are often fluid between companies.
- It usually takes more than one decision-maker to close a high-profile deal.
What helps: start with navigational questions. The first email a newly verified contact receives should ask who the best person is to talk to about your services, rather than assume they’re the one. This tactic is particularly effective because it encourages the lead to refer you to a colleague, and that referral can give you clout for getting your digital foot in the door.
Need More Leads?
Whether you’re trying to cleanse your database, find new contacts, or improve your prospecting outreach, we can help. Click the link below to schedule a free lead nurturing discussion.
