BSUsing softwares like Salesloft
Hey guys,
I am coming from a B2C background where the first rule of engagement is that you only email people who signed up to your communication in some ways. Best practise. Easy.
I am just starting a job in B2B and I don't really know much yet about this environment. I am looking at softwares like Salesloft that B2B companies are using to gather people who might be interested in their services.
Salesloft won several awards being innovative, they pride themselves on building high-quality prospect lists. Big companies like IBM or Oracle are using them. Yet I couldn't find a single article, forum comment etc. on why is using a list building software like that is bad. I see the merit on collecting more information about prospects for a 1on1 sales talk, it just makes the work of every sales person easier if they have more intel.
But for email marketing...
Is it just me who thinks that this goes against the main principle of permission based email marketing? Is it technically illegal to send to a such list in most countries? (USA excluded as they have an opt-out policy)
Or is this different in the B2B scene? It feels this is more accepted or even encouraged.
What is your take on this?
As someone working B2B, the same principals apply here as they do in B2C. You're still a company offering a product/service to an end consumer. The only shift is in the type of audience.
I thought of a few things. Purchased lists generated by information scraped from the internet is always a bad idea. Not only do you get very poor conversion rates from the list, but you also run the risk of getting a lot of negative pushback from those contacts that had no wish to be. This in turn can affect your company reputation, and not in a good way.
While it is technically legal to use such a service (at least in the US), it's still dubious at best. You may even run into legal issues if you get international contacts (where it's illegal) or if you get contacts from states where they may have separate legislature in place to prevent this practice (California and Texas might? I'd have to do a search).
Speaking of your business, does list farming fall in line with the company's moral compass and business practices? If not, then you probably shouldn't be pursuing this as an answer.
One thing that you CAN do is passive tracking. A service like SalesLoft is built on active tracking - that of going out and combing through profiles to find a perfect lead. Instead, find a service that will track your current web presence and those visitors who are seeking you out. They don't have to fill out a form or download anything from your website, but at least if you cold contact them they know who you are and are comfortable speaking with you since they initiated the search first. For instance, we're currently using Hubspot and one of their features is Prospect Tracking.
Personally, I think these types of companies are going to eventually go the way of the phone telemarketer. So it would be best to avoid them now!