B2B marketers spend tens of thousands of dollars every year purchasing prospect lists to “mine” for new customers when what they’re seeking may be right in front of them– in their own database. Here are some real-life examples of how a simple phone call uncovered several golden opportunities:

Data Cleansing—A distributor of products perfect for use in government stimulus projects recently did telephone prospecting to clean up an in-house list of municipal, county and state contacts. They not only obtained up-to-date info on key decision-makers, but during the process discovered several open bids and acted on them. 

No Customer Left Behind—A service provider found that a significant number of customers had opened accounts but were no longer purchasing from the company. An outbound call program uncovered and activated an astonishing number of these accounts.

Survey—A technology company used an old company list to conduct a survey. The information obtained regarding the prospects’ needs, budget and purchase timing was actionable, providing an opportunity to set many sales appointments.

Do you have an old prospect list? What do you do with all the leads you gather from advertising, direct mail, websites and tradeshows? Do you outsource calling programs?