04/21/2008
By Tim Gray, TMCnet Web Editor
While most people know having the right tools for a job is often more than half the battle, in the Customer Relationship Management space the tools are only as good as the data they contain.
At least that is what Dan Hughes, a co-founder of Broadlook Technologies, told TMCnet President and Editor-in-Chief Rich Tehrani recently. Hughes noted that his company has been developing technologies for the past six years to help business better leverage the mass of information scattered about the Internet, while making tools more efficient.
“Over the course of our history we’ve developed a suite of tools and technologies to help sales and marketing professionals to be able to research and harness the Internet more efficiently,” Hughes said.
The Wisconsin-based Broadlook Technologies is the leader in the development of software applications and services designed to empower B2B business professionals to “Leverage the Internet” for the market, sales, candidates and competitive intelligence necessary to grow revenues and improve productivity.
And while Hughes concedes there are a lot of good CRM tools on the market today, he says many businesses have trouble finding ones that best fit and support their company’s goals. Often companies are frustrated and plagued by inadequate or outdated information.
”Its like buying a nice car and not putting oil and gas in it and then expecting it to run,” says Hughes.
And anyone who has ever used a corporate database is all too familiar with the out of date nature of the information. Tools like those from Broadlook are helping all companies keep their databases up to date and optimized for effectiveness.
”Just about every sales and marketing professional goes to a Web site saying I need more resources, “ Hughes said. “There is a whole universe of information that is expanding well beyond what an online directory is. Broadlook has developed those applications that help find and target comprehensive contact and information from many sources.”
Four of the major tools from Broadlook are: Profiler, Eclipse, Market Mapper and Diver.
Broadlook Profiler provides a single interface to perform real-time research of company web sites and deep web sources to identify key contacts, influencers and opportunities, according to the company.
Hughes notes that sales professionals often spend 25 percent of their time performing due-diligence for sales call preparation. Profiler reduces that time by 80 percent. or more, increasing time for selling instead of researching.
Eclipse is a data capture tool specifically built to quickly capture, parse, sort and export online lists of companies and contacts. Online lists such as employee directories, association membership listings, chamber of commerce directories, password accessed lists, and even online profiles behind links can now be turned into sales leads that flow seamlessly into database or CRM.
Market Mapper is a company list generation solution and builds plans for the Broadlook Engine to research. Using proprietary technology and processes, Market Mapper builds company lists based on the target companies own self-descriptive language.
And Diver extracts the contact information out of the search engine results of Google, Yahoo, Alltheweb, AltaVista and Microsoft Live searches. This innovative way of expediting Internet research allows users to capitalize on their existing search skills while reducing the time spent pouring through results
And how does Hughes describe operating without tools like these?
“It’s like going out into desert to dig for oil with a spoon,” he says. “Unless syou have tools and know how to dig efficiently and effectively, you’ll dig all day.”
About Broadlook
Broadlook Technologies is the leader in the development of innovative software applications and services that empower B2B business professionals to leverage the Internet for the market, sales, candidates and competitive intelligence necessary to grow revenues and improve productivity. For more about Broadlook, visit their website at www.broadlook.com.
Media Contact
Jessica Knoeck
Broadlook Technologies
262.754.8080
jknoeck@broadlook.com