Online resources have given us access to just about anything — knowledge, data, and yes, even the people we want to do business with. For B2B sales teams, this is more than just convenient; it’s a game-changer. The ability to find the right contact at the right company can open doors to conversations that drive growth.
But not all that information is easy to find, and not all of it is worth trusting. Between privacy laws, outdated databases, and endless dead ends, the process can feel like searching for a needle in a digital haystack.
This is part of the reason why we here at AnyBiz developed one of the largest prospect databases in the market. It not only provides you with accurate contact information of your potential prospect, our AI sales agent can do the prospecting for you.
But before we take a deeper dive into the prospecting capabilities of AnyBiz, let us confirm 10 proven ways to find business contact information online — methods that are fast, reliable, and above all, ethical.
Why accurate contact information matters in business
Finding contact information is one of the very first processes that you need to undergo on your outreach journey, and amongst the most important.
But first, before you try to look for your potential prospect’s information, you have to make sure that your potential prospect can find you.
A business that supplies incorrect information on their website can result in missed opportunities, the same goes with professionals that have inaccurate information in their socials.
Having the correct contact information can provide the following benefits:
Development of sales prospecting methods
You need accurate contact information as much as you need it for your sales prospecting methods and lead generation strategies.
Here is why.
Failing to incorporate reliable contact information on your website will not only lead to missed opportunities but can also result in an overall disservice to your business. It can bring collapse to your overall prospecting strategies and presence.
78% of customers are most likely to purchase or subscribe to the company that responds to their query first, so what if you have the wrong contact information on your website?
Slight inaccuracies in contact details can derail this opportunity.
Customer relations
Your contact information is not just a part of your sales prospecting strategy; it can also be used for your customers to contact you if they have further questions or require support.
Customer service is a significant part of your business and is instrumental to ensuring that your customers can use your product or services seamlessly. With accurate contact information, you can guarantee consistent communication and relationships with your customers.
Improved efficiency
You can save your potential prospects and yourself the trouble of speaking with you by providing the guarantee that you have accurate contact information.
This is the essence of ensuring that you have accurate contact information that can improve your efficiency.
If you are running a business or are about to start one, having the correct contact information will allow you to be more accessible and easier to contact.
Usually, finding phone numbers is impossible, but thanks to the proliferation and advancements of digital technology, it is now easier to find telephone numbers.
10 proven methods to find business contact information online
So how can one find someone’s contact information?
If this question comes to your mind, it is either: you don’t know how to start or that you’ve somehow gathered incorrect contact information.
Here are the following methods you can use to find contact information online.
1. Use professional networking platforms
Professional networking platforms, such as LinkedIn, are treasure troves of contact information. Most users provide their phone numbers to foster connections and build their network. Here is how to find out a phone number from a professional networking platform, such as LinkedIn.
- Use LinkedIn’s search filters to find your target individual.
- Check their profile for visible contact details.
- Use LinkedIn’s prospecting tool, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, for additional insights.
You can also utilize other prospecting tools since most of them are capable of retrieving contact information and can provide you with access to email addresses and phone numbers.
Related Reading: How to Best Use Sales Navigator: Proven Strategies & Pitfalls – AnyBiz
2. Leverage online directories
One of the most traditional methods of how to find someone’s number is by looking them up in phone books, or directories, such as the Yellow Pages and Whitepages.
Yellow Pages and White Pages now have online directories that make it easier to find business and personal phone numbers.
3. Search company websites
If you are trying to find business phone numbers, you can try to search their websites.
Many companies list their contact information of their business, and other team members on their websites.
You can visit their “Contact Us,” “About Us,” or “Team” sections, which usually have all the contact information of the business. Most small businesses and startups also provide direct contact information for their team members.
4. Utilize people search engines
People search engines are online tools that collect public records to assist in locating information about individuals, such as their telephone numbers.
Services like BeenVerified aggregate data from various sources to offer users comprehensive profiles of individuals. Users can easily input the names of individuals they are interested in or utilize additional search features to discover a range of information, including their contact details.
5. Explore social media profiles
The use of social media will be one of the most sought-after marketing trends this year. This means that many businesses would utilize social media to connect and expand.
People are also keen on sharing their contact information on various social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. By visiting their social media profiles, you can sometimes access most of their contact information, or establish a connection.
Social media platforms are also instrumental for a variety of businesses and how to find prospects online.
6. Use email lookup tools
Email lookup tools can help you find not just email addresses, it is also useful for finding phone numbers and other contact information. Some tools like VoilaNorbert and Hunter, give you the ability to look up email addresses depending on a domain name or company information.
7. Conduct Google searches with advanced operators
If you can get to documents or web pages that are publicly available, Google’s advanced search operators can make it easier to find phone numbers buried inside them. For example:
- Look Up “[Name] + Phone Number”
- Search with filetype operators to find PDFs, Excel sheets, or other files that might contain phone numbers.
8. Try phone number lookup tools
Tools for looking up phone numbers like Truecaller, NumLookup, and IPQualityScore are specialized in finding and verifying phone numbers. You can also use these tools to verify the numbers and that they still being used.
It can also be an effective sales outreach tool to establish business relationships and connections for potential customers and prospects.
9. Check public records databases
Contact information is often found in government and public record databases. These are particularly useful for enterprises in regulated sectors where public information is essential.
10. Use browser extensions and plugins
Install Browser Extensions: Tools such as Lusha and ContactOut provide a browser extension that will enable you to easily pull contact information from LinkedIn profiles and other sites.
How to verify the accuracy of contact information
Identifying a phone number is one thing; being certain about its precision is another.
Having incorrect or outdated contact information can waste precious time and resources, and even harm your professional credibility. Here’s what you can do to find out whether the information you’ve discovered is accurate and reliable:
Cross-check multiple sources
When you are looking for a phone number, relying on one tool or platform is bound to result in some errors. Now, double-check the contact information you’ve found against several other sources. For instance, if you find a phone number on a professional networking site, crosscheck it with online directories or the company’s official website. The more sources there are confirming the number, the likelier it is to be true.
Test contact information
Run a simple check before you reach out and test the number. If you do get one, send a friendly, gentle note to confirm it is legitimate, or give a quick call. For businesses, this might mean dialling their primary line to confirm their contact information is functioning. Please keep in mind the laws around privacy, and do not resort to invasive or repeated attempts to contact.
Leverage verification tools
The latest verification tools make it easier to ensure contact information. If it’s a phone number, you can use dedicated lookup tools like Truecaller, CleverReach, or NumVerify to see whether the number is active and associated with the right person or business.
Authenticate via professional networking websites
In privacy-shared services such as LinkedIn, users of the platform may share validated contact information. Cross-check phone numbers with the person’s LinkedIn profile or the company’s official page to verify their legitimacy.
Verify business numbers on the company websites
When you are doing B2B outreach, the most trustworthy contact details database is usually the company’s official website. Search for numbers to call on the “Contact Us” page or in departmental lists. When you contact via verified business numbers, your outreach is funnelled correctly.
Read feedback or ratings online
For phones that face the public, see if there are reviews or ratings available online. You can also look in tools such as Google My Business or Yelp, where users will provide feedback about whether that number is a real, active phone number.
Diving into the ethics of contact information finding: data privacy
If you are asking for contact information, ensure you are following data privacy laws (GDPR, CCPA, etc.). Some ethical guidelines to keep in mind are:
- Avoid spamming: Whenever you contact a person (either database users, marketing, etc.,) ensure that you get their consent.
- Avoid overreach: Collect only the information you need and avoid invasive searches.
- Use data responsibly: Respect users’ privacy and avoid sharing or misusing their information.
How can AnyBiz help contact information discovery
Finding and ensuring accurate business contact information is hard, but that is not the end of that challenge. You need to contact them and employ the best communication strategy that will nudge them on purchasing your product or subscribing to your service.
Here at AnyBiz, we pride ourselves in our AI sales agent’s capability in not just finding accurate contact information, but to actually convert your sales pipeline. Discover how AnyBiz can help:
Presenting the ai sales agent
At its core is the AI sales agent operating under the most advanced machine learning and large language models that gives it the ability to sound like an actual human being that can find prospects, contact them, and interact with them depending on their engagement level. Amongst its advantages is the seamless usage of other AnyBiz’s exclusive features, such as:
MultiChannel outreach and prospect database
The AI sales agent uses AnyBiz exclusive prospect database that contains over 400 million personas. The AI sales agent then utilizes its multichannel feature of email, LinkedIn and AI cold calling outreach to get in touch with up to 8,000 leads per month.
AI intent signals for lead qualification and scoring
How can the AI sales agent determine if your prospect is interested in your product or service? It uses intent signals that can help determine the potential of your prospect and how likely they may engage or purchase your product/service.
It can qualify and analyze the following:
- Email engagement: If your prospect opens your emails, clicked links in your messages, or replied even interacted with your follow-ups.
- Behavioral signals: Classify the amount of time they spend reading messages, or if they forwarded the emails internally.
- Profile relevance signals: Identify and match ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) and target persona.
- Technographic/firmographic signals: Can help you determine if the potential prospect is planning to add new technologies that may be relevant to your services.
- Response patterns: Any form or showcase of interest that may be ideal to your prospecting journey.
Intelligent follow-up sequence and segmentation
The AI agent can classify your potential prospect by analyzing their behavior, their level of engagement, and even their characteristics.
This will give you the opportunity to segment your prospect and help you develop a targeted communication that increases your chance of closing deals faster.
And depending on how the AI agent classified your potential prospect on its engagement level using intent signals (interested, expressed buying intent, or already requesting for a price).
It can generate hyper-personalized outbound messages that will surely capture the attention of your prospect, and prioritize the leads that are most likely to buy.
Social media integration and brand awareness
Social media is a perfect platform to build brand awareness and establish connections with prospects that may be interested in your services/products.
We’ve developed a seamless social media integration process with our AI sales agent to help you with posting and other content engagement to establish your social media presence and brand awareness.
You can integrate your social media accounts such as LinkedIn (for brand awareness and outreach), Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter).
AnyBiz dashboard
The AnyBiz dashboard forecasts the actions of the AI sales agent, it reports the total outreach and engagement: email, LinkedIn and call activity.
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