Jeff Travilla, Senior Account Manager at Compel Cart and ZoomInfo Community Edition user, shares his strategies for using Community Edition.

Tell us a little bit about what you do.

I’m the head of sales for a digital media, marketing, and ecommerce agency. I work with a large demographic of customers, but my main focus right now is on the restaurant and hospitality industry.

How do you search ZoomInfo most often? What parameters/search terms do use?

I usually come to ZoomInfo knowing what company I’m going after. I use ZoomInfo to narrow down who I need to speak with at the organization. In the industry we target, there tends to be a lot of movement within organizations, so I use another service called mailtester.com in conjunction with ZoomInfo. It checks to see if an email address is valid, which helps me to ensure that the person I’m trying to contact is still with the company. When I do narrow things down to a specific prospect, I usually check LinkedIn, Facebook, etc… to try to learn a little more about them and get a sense of their personality to help me format my approach toward them. I’ve found this integrated approach to prospecting to be a literal game changer in terms of close rates.

Can you recall a specific example of when ZoomInfo Community Edition helped you overcome a challenge?

All the time! Being able to call a gatekeeper and say “Hey, is so-and-so available” gets me through to the right person 10 times more than if I cold called and asked to speak with someone in marketing.  Even if the receptionist gives me some resistance, establishing that I’ve looked into their company enough to find the proper person to speak with does wonders to establish rapport. I’m not just another cold-calling sales person working through some giant list.

Which single ZoomInfo Community Edition feature has helped you most as a business development professional and how do you use it?

With larger companies, being able to sort results by department is an invaluable time-saver.

What’s the most surprising search result you have found?

Let’s just say that not much surprises me anymore. Also, because I walk into ZoomInfo with a very specific game plan, the results are usually on par with my expectations.

Learn more and access ZoomInfo Community Edition for free, complete and total access to the ZoomInfo database!