What Makes A Great Lead Finder Tool?

In theory, scaling a business is as simple as getting more customers. That’s why many invest heavily in lead generation.

You’ve probably realized by now that the internet is a massive repository of lead information. Leads come in surplus. They’re there if we need them.

The tricky part is finding the right leads that fit your business. We do this through qualification, scoring, and looking at our buyer personas. Doing this manually takes a lot of time and money.

We need lead finder tools if we want this done sustainably and at scale. By the end of this guide, you’ll have a deeper understanding of:

  • Why lead finder tools are essential in every industry
  • What to look for in a lead finder tool
  • The best lead finder tools to look into

Why are Lead Finder Tools Essential?

Every business is different. Each customer is different. The element that binds all businesses together is the need for new leads. With the right tool to aid you in finding these leads, you get:

Quality Lead Sources

There are plenty of fish in the sea. But sometimes, people want to get specific fish from only a particular part of the ocean at an exact size and quality. This is obviously an analogy for leads.

We can generate leads in a variety of ways. Some buy leads on Facebook for everything from SaaS to B2B at dirt-cheap costs. The issue now becomes quality.

The right tools ensure you get verified leads from relevant and quality sources. When you don’t need to worry much about lead quality, the entire sales process is streamlined.

Streamlined Sales Process

A great sales process includes lead generation, qualification, and nurturing. Utilizing lead finders helps with all three.

You can generate a list of verified leads and use advanced filtering options to qualify immediately. With both taken care of, SDRs can focus on nurturing leads most likely to convert.

Streamlining sales processes means spending less time and resources on the wrong leads. This ultimately leads to more sustainable acquisition campaigns.

Sustainable Acquisition Campaigns

Finding leads can get expensive. Many businesses would often buy leads and immediately run outreach campaigns without verification. This often leads to poor conversions.

If buying leads doesn’t work out, others spend too much on inbound sales strategies like paid advertisements and don’t get enough ROI to sustain campaigns.

Lead finder tools help you create quality sales pipelines with verified and quality prospects. Most tools also cost less than outsourcing lead generation or paid ads.

So, how do you find the right tool that meets your needs?

What to Look for in a Lead Finder Tool?

Not all lead finders are created equal. Some features benefit others more than they do your business. However, the fundamental qualities that make a lead finder tool great are the same regardless of business model or industry. Here’s what you need to look out for:

Data Accuracy and Quality

Choose a lead finder with an updated, accurate, and quality lead database. Leads must be relevant to your industry. Contact information like names, job positions, and email addresses must be up-to-date.

Integration and Compatibility

Integrating lead finders into your existing CRM helps streamline acquisition and nurturing. Ensure that the tool you’re looking to invest in has integration features to significant CRMs. Some lead finders even have built-in CRMs themselves.

Advanced Filtering and Segmentation

Even businesses within the same industry can have vastly different buyer personas. You need a tool to filter out leads to only show those who fit your qualifications. Consider using a tool that can segment via company size, job position, and location.

Data Enrichment and Validation Features

Many tools that have advanced filtering options don’t have validation features. People still need to use third-party verification tools like Reoon or Millionverifier to validate. Remember, lead lists are useless if they aren’t validated.

Running outreach campaigns like cold emails with unvalidated lists can hurt your bounce rates and risk your domain being tagged as spam.

Scalability and Customization Options

Find a tool that accommodates scalability and customization options for both small and large campaigns. Some businesses are new to lead generation and want to scale slowly. Meanwhile, others want to send over 50,000 outreach emails a month.

Pricing and Value for Money

Your budget ultimately decides what lead finder tool you can go for. However, what’s more important is the value it provides for the cost. We’re not talking about the number of features the tool can do but the value it offers for your business.

Training Resources

A lead finder tool is only as effective as the person using it. Even if a tool is intuitive and easy to learn, there’s still a lot of untapped potential. The right training resources allow you to unlock a tool’s potential to make the most out of it.

Best Lead Finder Tools to Consider Going Into 2024

As 2023 nears its end, here are the top lead finder tools worth looking at going into 2024. Find what works for your business and try out the following for yourself:

Instantly B2B Lead Finder

lead finder tools

Tired of using three different tools for lead generation and qualification, validation, and nurturing? Instantly’s B2B Lead Finder has you covered!

With Instantly B2B Finder, you gain access to over 80 million verified leads, find the perfect fit for your buyer’s personas with advanced filtering tools, and immediately run outreach campaigns—all in one tool!

Even if you’re a beginner in the world of email marketing, Instantly has hundreds of resource materials for everything from setting up domains to email templates for various occasions.

Scrapy Bird

scrappy bird homepage

For most people, Twitter won’t be the first place they think of when generating B2B leads. You’d be surprised at how effective it is, and Scrapy Bird does exactly that.

The tool has a unique algorithm that can scrape B2B emails even when it’s not written on the bio. That’s the great part. They don’t generate personal emails, only work emails.

So, you won’t get email addresses from providers like Gmail, only ones like “[email protected].” You only need to input your target Twitter accounts and export the business emails to a CSV file.

GrowMeOrganic

grow me organic homepage

If you’re looking to scrape leads from LinkedIn, GrowMeOrganic is worth looking into. If you get their “Growth” plan for $79/mo., you can scrape unlimited LinkedIn contacts and gain access to over 15 million companies. But always remember to verify and qualify your lead list first before running outreach campaigns.

Amplibiz

amplibiz

Amplibiz isn’t a “tool” per se. Instead, it’s a DFY (done for you) lead generation service that covers cold email marketing, data tracking lead management, and much more. You basically get to run entire lead generation and qualification processes on autopilot.

They work hand-in-hand with your sales team to discuss insights, growth patterns, and potential revenue opportunities. Because of their premium service, pricing is also at a premium, starting at $3,000/month.

Sales Navigator

sales navigator homepage

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is one of the most well-known lead-finder tools. It’s great for building email lists, and you can also do cold emails on LinkedIn’s InMail. However, InMain doesn’t have the best track record. We recommend using a third-party outreach tool instead.

Apollo

apollo home page

Apollo has always been a go-to for many email marketers for prospecting, but there are other alternatives. It has a massive database of B2B leads you can filter out to meet your buyer personas.

But sometimes, the email lists you export can be a hit or miss. If you go through review sites of forums like Reddit, you’ll find a mix of people who have experienced getting a 40-50% bounce rate while others claim only to get a 1% bounce rate.

We suggest using Apollo for prospecting only. Then, run your email list through verification tools like Neverbounce. And finally, run campaigns with email marketing tools like Instantly.ai

Hunter

hunter.io homepage

Hunter is another crowd favorite for lead generation. Aside from advanced filtering options, it also offers a verification tool and bulk email management features. But it lacks automated email warmups—an essential if you want to improve email deliverability.

As a standalone lead finder tool, it’s one of the best ones out there! However, if you’ve already tried it out and are looking for something similar, you can check out our list of Hunter alternatives.

Key Takeaways

The best way to grow your business is to grow your customer base. But to get new customers, we have to earn them. This all starts with getting qualified leads for your sales pipelines. To streamline the process, we use lead finder tools. Here’s a quick recap of our recommendations:

  • Use Instantly B2B Lead Finder if you want to pay only for verified leads; no third-party validation tools are required.
  • ScrapyBird is for people who want to get B2B lead information through Twitter.
  • GrowMeOrganic is best for LinkedIn prospecting with unlimited scrapes.
  • Sales Navigator is great for prospecting and LinkedIn lead management.
  • Apollo and Hunter are solid and affordable lead finder tools but require validation.

If you want an all-in-one lead finder tool for prospecting, qualifying, and validation, look no further than Instantly! Start finding verified leads today!