How To Get Free Leads At The Library with Kent Palmer #371

In this episode we meet business librarian Kent Palmer from the Naperville Public Library. Kent shares eight free online resources sales people can use to research prospects. All of the databases are free to the public and available in libraries throughout the United States. If you’re looking for free leads with contact information on a companies:

- executives,
- financial reports,
- revenue results,
- published reports,
- SWOT analysis,
- industry associations or
- guidance on how to start a new business venture.

This is the episode for you.

Sales people are always looking for fresh free leads. They are right around the corner, at the library. So let’s buckle down and get to it.

Free Leads Databases

Here are 8 resources you can use to aid your business research. These databases can be filtered, sorted and downloaded to a .csv file. Leads can be stored on a thumb drive and uploaded into your CRM.

- Reference Solutions – contact information for businesses including executives, address, phone numbers, size of business, number of employees, revenue, and sometimes emails.
- A to Z Database – contact information for businesses including executives, address, phone numbers, size of business, number of employees, revenue, and free lead resources.
- Mergent Intellect – research database for a companies financials, employees, executives, product information, subsidiaries. Contains a tool called First Research provides financial reports and credit background including D&B (Dunn and Bradstreet) resorts. You can search by industry and get key “hot points” to bring up during a sales call.
- Gail Business Demographics– Census data in an easy to read front end interface. It make research easy to find by geography, list of residential and business prospects.
- Gail Directory Library – Encyclopedia of associations that can be searched by keyword. Nation regional, state and local offices. Easy way to contact members and attend conferences.
- Gail Business Entrepreneurship – Articles on how to start a business, with worksheets, handouts and training materials.
- Gail Business Plan Builder – Tool to build a business plan if you want to raise our borrow money.
- EBSCO Business Source Premier – Provides industry reports, company reports, SWOT analysis, and supplemental research resources.

NaperLaunch

NaperLaunch is a free co-working space with conference rooms and public computers and software. It’s a community for sparking collaboration and sales productivity. The community provides cutting-edge technology that allows members to succeed at business without the price tag.

How To Find Kent Palmer

Kent worked in sales for 28 years in the insurance industry. as a sales rep and territorial sales manager. Kent started his own agency and became aware of the free online business resources. He was spending $20/per lead and amazed the leads are free at the library. So amazed he decided to become a librarian.

To connect with Kent and find free leads at the library go to:

- Resources and Free Lead Database in Naperville
- NaperLaunch entrepreneurial and business program

You can email Kent here or call the Naperville library at 630-961-4100

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