 
By Kip Gregory
If you’ve ever tried to prospect for executives of privately held companies or even midlevel managers of public ones, you know how challenging and time-consuming (not to mention expensive) locating their contact information can be. Online directories such as Hoover’s provide great information, but with subscriptions costing thousands of dollars annually, their price tag is prohibitive.
Recently I discovered an affordable alternative worth looking into: Jigsaw, an online prospecting resource with a rapidly expanding database of contacts. For $25 per month, you can search for, locate and download contact information for up to 25 people—their name, title, company, address, phone and email—drawn from a growing universe of 1.2 million-plus entries at over 90,000 companies.
Can’t spare $25? No problem. You can earn points for any person you add to Jigsaw’s database from your own list of contacts. Each name you enter earns you 10 points, which is enough to buy two contact names from the database. If you need more than 25 leads, you can either enter more names from your Rolodex or pay $1 for each additional name.
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I really like the flexibility Jigsaw provides in searching for certain kinds of leads.
—Kip Gregory |
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Jigsaw not only relies on members to build its library of contacts, it also provides incentive for members to police data others have entered to be sure it’s accurate. Each valid correction of information you make, which had originally been provided by someone else, earns you 10 points.
Free trial
You can sign up for a two-week trial, which will give you enough points to locate up to 10 contacts at no charge. As a trial member you can copy and paste that information into your address book; full members have the option of downloading a VCF card (a virtual business card) that can be imported directly into programs like Microsoft Outlook, ACT and Goldmine.
I really like the flexibility Jigsaw provides in searching for certain kinds of leads. You can enter a person's last name, a company name, a target industry (or sub-industry), title, rank (C-level, VP, etc.), department, country, metropolitan area, and state or province, among other qualifiers—or any combination of those categories—to narrow your results.
If you work in the corporate market—prospecting for business owners, looking for wealthy corporate execs, offering retirement plan programs or keyperson insurance to companies—Jigsaw may be the solution to the prospecting puzzle that you’ve been looking for.
For more tips like this one, sign up for Kip Gregory’s monthly e-newsletter Kip’s Tips.
Used with permission. All rights reserved.
Kip Gregory, principal of The Gregory Group and author of Winning Clients in a Wired World, is a consultant, trainer and speaker on marketing, sales and technology issues for the financial services industry. Contact him at 202-364-6913, or through his website at www.kipgregory.com.
MARCH 2006
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