“Sales is a constant state of information gathering and analysis. There are numerous factors that will affect your sale – from market position, to manufacturing capacity, to a seemingly harmless tidbit of information received over lunch. The more quality information you have, the better your analysis, and the better your sales results will be.”

Sales intelligence refers to analyzing, tracking and monitoring of sales information which can help sales agents to function better in the sales activities. Serving leads today when the information about every brand is available online seems to be an even more difficult task to explain to them what makes you stand out. 

If sales hit a great mark in the current scenario as well as increase their lead conversions higher, the technique of simply selling the basics of their brand won’t work, different questions need to be answered such as ‘What makes your brand different?’ ‘How can your brand help me grow better?’ and so on. The only way for this to take place is by having prospect data. It could be reviews, patterns, behaviours, feedback, all of this data needs to be accommodated so that sales agents like you can benefit from selling solutions much more conveniently. 

Interesting read : The 20 Best Sales Intelligence Tools to Help Your Team be Successful

Conducting this action manually has a lot of risks and drawbacks, for instance, copy information can detect a slow traffic for the website owner, in turn, alerting them about the action you are conducting, some data is only viewed at but can’t be accessible to learn more, other data are blocked and can’t be accessed due to geo-restrictions and the list can go on.

So what can sales agents do to retrieve data which can enhance their sales whilst at the same time not put them in the risk spot?

The answer lies in proxies.

Proxies are software which ensures that when a user conducts any online activities as in this sale retrieving relevant sale information to assist prospect better, their identity remains anonymous and they are secured with a protective shield. 

For instance, you send a request to access a website to retrieve their sales information, the request will first be received by the proxy server who first changes your IP address and then sends it to the website, Once the website approves the proxy server will send you back the information. 

The advantage here is:

No malicious websites or information will come your way

Any information can be viewed with a proxy server

No risk of appearing as suspicious

Identity is hidden with every action

The main reason why brands get caught while retrieving information online is due to their IP address and proxy servers ensure that this problem is eliminated.

1. DATA CENTER PROXIES

Data center proxies are widely used to serve the purpose of brand protection conducting market research, sales intelligence, SEO monitoring and much more. Data center proxies work as a regular proxy, they hide the IP address so that your anonymity is hidden while surfing the internet. What makes them stand out is that they don’t require the need for an ISP (Internet service provider) or an internet connection. When you request to view a website instead of your information, data center proxies will send theirs.

PROS

1 . Cheaper in cost

2. Provides faster speed in its action

CONS

1 . Doesn’t hold a reliable position when it comes to securing anonymity 

2. RESIDENTIAL PROXIES

Aims to retrieve data without the fear of being blocked when conducting online data retrieval activities. Whether it is information on sales intelligence, get any data you want without having the fear of your IP address being subjected to high risk. Residential proxies have IP addresses attached to a physical location. The IP address is provided to users from the ISP itself. When you access information from any location, your ISP will give you an IP address.

PROS

1 . It is a brilliant measure for data harvesting

2. Offers high anonymity

CONS

1 . Only if the residential proxies are of good quality will the chances of not getting blocked while conducting online activities will stand secure. So a risk will always be there. 

3. WEB SCRAPING

Web scraping is the process of extracting information online through the method of scraping. Say you want to scrape through your competitor's website, you can conduct this action without any hassle. With web scraping all you need to do is click on the website to scrape, conduct the process and the data gets saved in your system. The data can be saved in any format for instance in a CSV file, Excel, JSON and much more. Web scraping, however, is more efficient when it is conducted with the help of any proxy servers. While the scraping happens, proxy servers ensure that 

Interesting Read : How to Grow Your Business with Web Scraping?

PROS

1 . Eliminates the manual work of copy-pasting information into the system

2. Retrieves data quicker

CONS

1 . Regular scraping can cause the IP to be blocked

2. With the rise in technology, websites are incorporating advanced methods making it difficult to scrape the information.

4. REAL-TIME CRAWLER

Search any sorts of information you want from search engines and e-commerce websites with the help of a real-time crawler. When you send a request to the real-time crawler, it collects all the information required according to your request. Once the information is collected it sends you back the information in a format of an HTML or JSON. All the action taking place is conducted on the same connection being implemented which gives you real-time web scraping solutions. 

PROS

1 . With a large IP choice and an exceptional IP backup option, the real-time crawler can deliver a 100% success rate in its data retrieval activities.

2. It is a user-friendly application that just requires a URL to get started

CONS

1 . Requires constant modifications due to frequent website changes with reference to its design or structural form.

5. PREMIUM PROXIES

Premium proxies are great to retrieve information online because it offers a dedicated proxy for a user. With premium proxies, any brand can conduct online activities without the fear of being blocked or their IP addresses being caught as suspicious. Premium proxies offer great speed and have a lot of advantages added to it for instance information can be viewed from any geo locations available, multiple IP addresses are provided, the data and bandwidth speed is great and much more. 

PROS

1 . Speed will never be tapered since the IP addresses provided are dedicated to the users

2. The servers are maintained from trusted brands which assure no crash or shutdown errors.

CONS

1 . Proxies have a cache system which saves the information. This can cause security issues as anyone can view it.