Mobile devices are among the most—if not the most—essential gadgets that help us connect with people from all over the world.
For many professionals, this is of utmost importance as it provides various opportunities, such as outreach, networking, and obtaining leads. To make it work, each mobile device must have a corresponding phone number.
Phone numbers serve as numerical identifiers, enabling someone with a mobile phone to get in touch with another person who also has a mobile device.
Why Accurate Contact Information Matters in Business
Accurate contact information establishes connection. For businesses, providing incorrect contact information can result in missed opportunities, and one of the many reasons why they employ digital (websites, and portfolio) and physical calling cards.
Having the correct contact information, or phone number on these calling cards can provide the following benefits:
- Develop Sales Prospecting Methods: Sales professionals rely on accurate contact information to connect with potential clients, sales lead enrichment, and improve their lead generation strategies. Slight inaccuracies in contact details can derail this opportunity.
- Customer Relations: Part of fostering a customer-centric workflow is ensuring that your contact information is valid, and reachable. Having an error in your contact information can damage your reputation, credibility, and overall customer service experience.
- Improved Efficiency: Ensuring that you provide accurate contact information helps streamline your entire business process, avoiding guesswork, and establishing meaningful conversations.
For various businesses, it is crucial to input the correct contact information, but in some cases that some businesses need to find a person’s phone number since their contact information is inaccessible.
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
If you find yourself asking the question of “how do I find someone’s phone number?” chances are good that you’ve acquired incorrect contact information. Fortunately, there are some actions that you can take on how to find a cell phone number.
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 connection, 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 access to email addresses, and phone numbers.
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 Whitepages now have online directories that make it easier to find business and personal phone numbers, and platforms like ZoomInfo or Appollo.io offer a comprehensive B2B contact database, for B2B contacts.
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 used marketing trends of 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, but also related phone numbers and other contact information. VoilaNorbert and Hunter.io are capable of looking up email addresses based on a domain name or company information.
7. Conduct Google Searches with Advanced Operators
If you can get to documents or webpages 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.
Top Tools to Streamline Contact Information Discovery
The benefit of a contact information lookup is useful for building your network and connecting with all sorts of prospects. It is overwhelming, yet for most SDRs, marketers, and business professionals these tools have been proven critical, not simply a way to keep up. Below are some of the best tools for SDRs and some other professionals.
- Anybiz.io: provides access to a database of relevant contacts with their emails for outreach. It’s not strictly a tool for finding phone numbers, but it does lead to professional contact details.
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Best if you need to find and validate business contact data.
- ZoomInfo — Offers a large B2B contact database.
- Truecaller — Best for Reverse Phone Lookup & Verification
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 companies 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.
Data Privacy and Ethical Considerations
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.
Streamline Your Outreach with the Right Methods and Tools
Tools such as AnyBiz.io offer a smart, AI-driven solution for various lead generation pursuits, making it easier for providers to connect with the right people and improve their overall outreach results.
Anybiz.io offers an impressive database where users can locate relevant contacts for outreach, including email addresses. Although it is not exactly for finding phone numbers, it helps in locating professional contact details.
This allows us to leverage and develop hyper-personalized campaigns and generate a tailored landing page.
Anybiz offers a vast library of products for multi-channel engagements (AI Cold Calling and application integration), including AI-powered hyper personalized landing pages, visitation detection, and email warmups, that will allow you to foster connections and establish leads with different prospects.
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