5 Ways AI Web Scraping Can Helps Sales Teams

“The only constant in the technology industry is change.”

– Marc Benioff

Several big players like Salesforce, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and IBM are embracing AI technology, indicating just how important it has become.

This is especially true for the sales world, where AI is unlocking new levels of automation and precision that before required manual efforts in a spreadsheet.

Just look at web scraping technology.

It has exploded in value recently because of advancements in AI and helps equip sales & marketing teams with the ability to automate research tasks, gather data faster, and gain deeper insight on prospects and accounts.

This makes web scraping a huge competitive advantage for companies in 2018, because today’s sales reps still only spend 33% of their time selling on average, with nearly 20% of their time focused on gathering information.

This brief overview takes a look at 5 ways your sales & marketing teams can start using web scraping tools today.

1) Keeping CRMs Up-to-Date

It’s important to keep CRMs fresh with accurate contact information and relevant insights on potential customers. This is especially important because sales data can quickly turn obsolete.

In fact, The U.S. Department of Labor estimates a 30% – 40% annual employee turnover rate, which wreaks havoc on databases nationwide each year.

Web scraping tools can quickly update your CRM on a regular basis. This helps fight the negative effects of data decay and prevent data inaccuracy while enabling a potential 66% revenue boost.

2) Grabbing Contact Information

Whether it be phone, email, or LinkedIn, sales teams need contact information to generate new business. However, your sales reps shouldn’t be wasting time gathering the data themselves and using data providers can be expensive and risk the cost of bad prospect data.

Leverage a web scraper instead. This makes it fast and easy to find accurate contact information without having to invest a lot of time and money in using data providers, internal teams, or outsourced prospecting teams.

3) Automating Company Research

It’s a good idea to stay informed on target accounts by performing regular company research. Sales & marketing team members click through links, check out articles, and scan for information day after day to support the company’s business development efforts.

When you add it all up, countless hours are spent finding information that artificial intelligence may be able to automate.

With web scraping technology, tasks like researching companies for an account list can be as easy as a few clicks of a button. This enables your team to make company research fast and painless while providing hundreds of data points on targeted companies for pennies on the dollar.

4) Enhanced Targeting Insights

Ideally, every company wants the ability to identify the highest value in-market accounts in their particular segment or territory.

However, reaching that level of precision requires the ability to collect, analyze, and compare companies in their segment. This can be a daunting time burden for teams that need a targeted list of key accounts for demand generation or account-based marketing (ABM) efforts.

Web scraping tools like SalesEngine.ai allow you to use technologies, keywords, and custom data points to help you identify and prioritize the highest value companies in a list or segment.

5) Supporting Sales Channels

Focus should be laser sharp when your team is implementing strategy across sales channels like phone, email, social, content, or even direct mail.

When a sales rep doesn’t have the information they need to support their efforts, they are forced to break rhythm and invest time supporting themselves.

Web scrapers provide support to help automate time-consuming tasks so they can stay focused on the task at hand. With the touch of a button, reps can gain valuable insight into potential accounts without losing creative focus.

It Only Gets Better From Here

Web scraping technology is positioned to create huge competitive advantages for early adopters in 2018 because it solves 2 of today’s biggest industry dilemmas: poor data quality and a lack of revenue-generating activities by sales reps.

As advancements in artificial intelligence open doors for new and existing technology, its impact on web scrapers will continue to help sales teams become faster, more efficient, and better equipped with the data they need to crush quota.

Want to see how SalesEngine.ai can impact your business using AI-powered web scraping technology? Get in touch!