The 18 best B2B prospecting tools for 2023

A B2B prospecting tool is software designed to help salespeople automate the process of identifying potential buyers, reaching out to them, and converting them into customers. It does this by providing accurate, up-to-date, and compliant contact information, which comprises demographic, firmographic, technographic, and geographic data.

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Why should you get a B2B prospecting tool? | What are the most useful tools for B2B prospecting? | What is the best B2B prospecting tool? | Book a demo for Cognism’s B2B prospecting tool

Why should you get a B2B prospecting tool?

Salespeople only spend 23% of their time actually selling. This is because they spend hours researching and failing to connect with prospects, relying on outdated and incorrect free data. A B2B prospecting tool addresses this, allowing reps to build more pipeline for your business to close, driving more revenue. 

What are the most useful tools for B2B prospecting?

Here are 18 of the most useful B2B prospecting tools: 

 1 - Cognism | 2 - QuickMail | 3 - ZoomInfo | 4 - Lusha | 5 - Clearbit | 6 - Apollo.io | 7 - LeadIQ | 8 - SalesIntel | 9 - Seamless.AI | 10 - Outreach | 11 - LinkedIn Sales Nav | 12 - DiscoverOrg | 13 - Lead411 | 14 - Sales Leads | 15 - Lead Forensics | 16 - Ricochet | 17 - Bombora | 18 - Leadfeeder

Click on each tool to review their credentials and see which is the best fit for your organisation ☝️ Review the table below for a quick feature comparison 👇

1. Cognism

Cognism is a UK-headquartered B2B prospecting tool with global coverage, allowing B2B sales teams to prospect in multiple territories. 

SMB, mid-market, and enterprise users praise Cognism’s accuracy, alongside the coverage of global mobile numbers and the completeness of its European data. 

Compliance is also front of mind with Cognism. 

2. QuickMail

QuickMail is a cold email platform that makes it easy to reach out to your ideal prospects. 

You can collaborate with team members and add new sending inboxes all from one account, which makes it the ideal tool for growing teams.

G2 reviewers highlight that the tool has excellent email deliverability and people book 4x more meetings with QuickMail than they do with other cold outreach tools.

3. ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo is a US-headquartered B2B prospecting tool specialising in the AMER region.

G2 users prospecting in this territory praise the breadth of its B2B contact database as well as the accuracy of its emails and mobile numbers.

The platform has a Chrome Extension, is CCPA compliant, and provides bidstream data. 

4. Lusha

Lusha is a B2B prospecting tool that offers a Chrome extension and web app.

The tool’s data accuracy is highlighted as being great for email contacts throughout G2 reviews.

Lusha is CCPA-compliant and GDPR aligned.

5. Clearbit

Clearbit has US and European contacts and is used by marketers for API lead enrichment. 

G2 reviews praise the fact that it integrates directly with Salesforce and enriches lead, contact, and account records for incomplete or out-of-date data.

6. Apollo.io

Apollo.io is a US-headquartered B2B prospecting tool with a database consisting of over 220M contacts and 30M companies.

G2 reviews praise the strength of its data and friendly UI and the time it saves users. 

Apollo.io is GDPR and CCPA-compliant and provides a Chrome Extension. 

7. LeadIQ

US-headquartered LeadIQ is a B2B prospecting tool that aims to help salespeople prospect smarter.

LeadIQ’s ease of use and lead capturing capabilities have been praised by G2 users, particularly its lead capturing abilities from LinkedIn Sales Navigator. 

The platform provides a Chrome Extension and is CCPA and GDPR-compliant.

8. SalesIntel

SalesIntel is a US-centric B2B prospecting tool. The company has every direct dial number and email tested and re-verified every 90 days. 

Users praise the platform’s intent data, provided by industry leader, Bombora, and the swift support customers receive. 

9. Seamless.AI

Seamless.AI uses artificial intelligence to deliver sales leads for B2B prospecting. 

G2 reviews praise the platform’s SMB contact database when compared to ZoomInfo. Its ability to streamline the lead generation process was also applauded.

10. Outreach

Outreach is a well-rounded sales intelligence platform that helps B2B sales teams with prospecting.

It does this by integrating with a number of platforms on this list, including Cognism and ZoomInfo.

Many of the reviews of the platform on G2 stress how useful the platform’s email templates are. 

Outreach has a Chrome Extension, global compliance credentials and Bombora intent data. 

11. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is part of every salesperson’s workflow, allowing users to create lead and account lists. 

Typically, sales teams use other B2B prospecting tools alongside Sales Nav, as many get poor response rates from InMails. 

The platform’s search functionalities are widely applauded across many G2 reviews. 

12. DiscoverOrg

DiscoverOrg is a ZoomInfo company that provides direct dials and intent data to help with B2B prospecting. 

You can expect a similar offering to its parent company. In contrast to ZoomInfo, DiscoverOrg offers Bombora intent data, rather than bidstream data.

13. Lead411 

Lead411 boasts 450M contacts with 20M global companies, with G2 reviewers praising its lead quality and price point. 

The platform provides bidstream intent data, a Chrome Extension and CCPA/GDPR compliance.

14. Sales Leads

Sales Leads aims to help salespeople spend more time selling. They do this by ensuring that customers will not see leads that they haven’t verified. The company’s data is verified through its researchers or brief phone interviews.

Sales Leads uses firmographic data and live insights to deliver qualified leads to sales teams.

15. Lead Forensics

Lead Forensics claims to have “inbox response verified emails that are 96% accurate and the most direct-dial phone numbers in the Industry.”

The tool is widely praised on G2 for its insights into who is visiting your website.

16. Ricochet

Ricochet is a Cognism company that provides a free Chrome Extension, enabling B2B salespeople’s prospecting efforts. 

Its HubSpot integration helps salespeople to identify whether a deal is already in their pipeline. 

17. Bombora

While Cognism, SalesIntel, Outreach, and DiscoverOrg all give you access to Bombora’s intent data, purchasing the tool separately is also an option. 

The tool enables you to target companies who are in the market for your solution right now, rather than wasting time on prospects who aren’t ready to buy.

The platform is GDPR and CCPA compliant and yields high praise for its UX and integrations with other MarTech. 

18. Leadfeeder

Similar to Lead Forensics, Leadfeeder is website tracking software. It shows how visitors found you and what they’re interested in. 

This functionality is highly applauded throughout G2 reviews. 

It helps sales teams tailor their messaging to prospects according to where they’re at in the customer journey. 

Leadfeeder is best used alongside another B2B prospecting tool like Cognism or ZoomInfo. 

What is the best B2B prospecting tool?

Cognism provides: 

• Phone-verified Diamond Data®, confirming the identity of prospects and accuracy of their details
• Chrome Extension including up-to-date mobile data for Sales Nav prospects 
• Intent data allowing you to prioritise outreach to prospects who are ready to buy
• Records scrubbed against DNC lists to protect you from global non-compliance

What’s more, with a G2 rating of 4.7, real users rate Cognism as one of the leading B2B prospecting tools, outranking its main competitors ZoomInfo, Clearbit and Lusha.

Diamond Data®

By leveraging Diamond Data®, B2B sales teams can increase their speed-to-connect rates and start having 7x more live conversations with target accounts and prospects.

Crucially, Cognism focuses on Diamond-verifying mobile numbers, ensuring you can always connect with your ideal-fit prospects, whether they’re working from home or the office. 

By using factually correct mobile numbers, salespeople can significantly improve connect rates. This results in more conversations with fewer dials, plus huge efficiency and morale improvements in the sales team.

Want to see how much ROI you can get with Cognism? 

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Cognism customer, Keboola, can back this up: 

“A great example of the accuracy of Cognism’s data is a $50k deal we won. I simply rang the prospect, booked a demo and now they are a client.”

Diamonds-on-Demand® takes this one step further. If there’s a mobile number you need to find or confirm is correct - now you can ask Cognism’s data team to do it for you. This means misdialed numbers are a thing of the past and you’ll never hit a dead end again with high-value prospects.

Chrome Extension

Cognism’s Chrome Extension makes the data you find in LinkedIn and LinkedIn Sales Navigator actionable. 

It does this by providing direct dial, mobile, and email data for prospect leads, meaning you no longer have to rely on InMails to connect with prospects. 

Cognism customer, Ultima, notes: 

“LinkedIn Sales Navigator is one of the top prospect discovery tools out there. However, there’s one shortcoming.

While it gives you the ability to find a prospect’s LinkedIn profile and send an InMail, it doesn’t provide any actionable information like an email address or phone number.

And for sales, having a phone number is very important. That’s where Cognism really shines. It gives you all that information in one simple LinkedIn plugin. It’s genius.”

Most importantly, the Chrome Extension allows users to send data directly to their CRM and/or their sales engagement software, removing the need for manual data entry and admin.

Intent data

There are currently hundreds of buyers searching for your product or service. However, many of these buyers haven’t been in touch with a rep yet, and choose to do their research independently, online. 

Intent data helps companies cast a light on these hidden aspects of the buying process and intercept buyers earlier in their journey before they get in touch with a competitor. This gives sales reps the ability to prioritise their outreach and gain bigger control over sales conversations. 

Moreover, by engaging buyers who are already looking for a solution to a specific problem, reps are able to increase pipeline metrics and shorten their sales cycle. 

By embedding Bombora’s Surge® data, Cognism users benefit from best-in-class, fully blended intent data within the platform. This data can be immediately operationalised, enriching account information with mobile numbers and emails for the buying committee.

One G2 user calls the platform’s intent data its “most attractive feature”. 

Bidstream data is considered by some to be an alternative to intent data, but as Bombora puts it:

“Bidstream data is collected only from websites that auction off advertising, and is compiled from only the ad impressions that are available for auction.”

On the other hand, Surge® intent data:

“Monitors content consumption on a business level to detect when businesses are in market for a particular product or service.”

Compliance

Cognism is a premium sales intelligence platform, giving revenue teams access to globally compliant contact and contextual data to power up their new business pipeline. 

Review the infographic below to see how it achieves this status 👇 

Cognism customer, Devo, can attest to this: 

“Compliance was a big factor. Everything Cognism did here impressed us, from sending out emails to contacts, letting them know you have their data, plus giving them the choice to opt-in or opt-out. It was clear that Cognism took its compliance commitments very seriously. We didn’t see that same level of commitment from other companies.”

Test drive the best B2B prospecting tool on the market

You made it this far! So why not see how Cognism’s B2B prospecting tool could help your business. Book some time in with our sales team 👇