I’m in sales (technically, I sell my services that show you how to blog/use social media better :).  Who isn’t in some way?  You have to sell yourself to get into college.  You have to sell yourself to find a career when you get out.  You get inundated with ideas and names and companies that it’s sometimes hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel but Manta.com at least gives you the directions to get you to that light.  It’s up to you to make use of it.

I used to have a problem with organizing and moving my prospects, whether they be sales prospects or job prospects through a pipeline with whatever tools I have on my own computer until I found Manta.com.

First of all, if you’re looking for vital information on any company that’s registered in the US and then some (this site’s got a lot of international information as well), Manta’s got your back. This site pulls directly from Dun & Bradstreet and contains great information for salespeople looking to find FREE leads.  Yes, you have to dig a bit more to gain anything, but if it’s free, it’s for me. You can browse companies by state or industry and you can sort and even refine your results.

When you register for free on the site, you can see much deeper information such as the number of employees, $revenue/annual sales, DBA’s and you might even get a decision maker’s name in the listing if you’re lucky.  You can also add information, claim profiles and ask the company direct questions in the Company Q&A tab.

Now for the juicy stuff:  in order to create a pipeline, you have to first add this company to your lists.  Simply click “Add Company to List” and create a new list set, or add to an already established list.  It’s okay if you don’t pick a list first, you can always just create a new one or merge the company with another list easily later.  After this, you’ll be able to click view lists to bring you to your pipeline.

Finally, you can share these lists and these pipelines with your team.  Just add email addresses you would like associated with your prospects and it does it all on its own.  Pretty cool stuff. FYI:  To get into your pipeline later, there’s a link @ the top of the Manta.com screen called “My Manta.” Lather, rinse, repeat.