Reduce Wasted Sales Time with Clean Data w/ Shawn Finder [Episode 469]

The value of an outbound prospecting strategy is only as effective as the data you use to build your lists.

Shawn Finder, CEO of ExchangeLeads, joins me on this episode.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Shawn is in Toronto, with teams also in the U.S. and Eastern Europe. ExchangeLeads is a B2B platform that allows sales and marketing reps in the U.S. and Canada to download targeted, validated, and filtered contacts.

The ExchangeLeads platform dashboard is available 24/7, to download new contacts, upload and validate existing contacts against threats, and exchange old contacts for new contacts. Exchange makes a spreadsheet of validated contacts.

ExchangeLeads subscriptions are $49 and $149 a month, for set numbers of contracts. Clients can also purchase additional credits at any time.

Each contact is validated for email and phone, and is checked against 52+ threats. Credit is provided for valid contacts, which go into the main database.

Shawn jumped into the field of lists because of dissatisfaction about the quality of databases available. The goal was 95+% quality contacts, with less than 5% error. ExchangeLeads checks contacts manually, and by automation.

Manual checks start with lists for the paying clients, and move out from there. Other verification processes are in development to replace manual checks. Shawn recommends companies validate their email and phone contacts monthly.

Even the largest companies do not have adequate data standardization in their existing lists. This is a service just launched by ExchangeLeads. When lists are validated, they can also be data-standardized, to make CRM searches simple.

ExchangeLeads clears out the database every quarter for bad emails and phones, for a bounce rate of under 5%.

Shawn has a wide range of client profiles. Many IT contacts, logistics, telecommunications, and computer software companies; many are looking for C-suite contacts.

ExchangeLeads is sold either by subscription or by custom service, building lists, and adding LinkedIn profiles.

ExchangeLeads offers freemium (50 contacts are free). The subscription model is sold by inside sales reps. Enterprise salespeople focus on the larger clients for custom service.

Shawn has an upcoming sister product planned to help solve the challenge of getting from contact to appointment.

The Sales Enablement Podcast with Andy Paul was formerly Accelerate! with Andy Paul.