As a business owner or salesperson, connecting with the right decision-makers within B2B companies can be quite tricky. And once you identify them, the best you can do is send a message on social networks like Linkedin and hope they respond.
However, there are now ways you can find their phone number online along with relevant contact information to make prospecting even easier.
In this post, we’ll share a detailed approach to finding phone numbers by name using several tools online. This post will also emphasize the importance of complying with privacy regulations to build trust during your outreach.
Methods for Finding Phone Numbers by Name
There are several ways to find contact information like email addresses and phone numbers by simply searching via a name. The major ethical ways to do this include;
1. Free Online Search Tools
There are reputable online tools that provide background check services for free like Anywho and Whitepages. These free people search websites have search engines that crawl public directories and listings to provide information linked to a name. Sometimes this could include an address, email, phone number and even social media accounts.
However, since these services use public listings like electoral registers and more, they have a lot of privacy restrictions. This means the information may likely be outdated.
2. Social Media and Search Engines
The internet has been around for so long now that there’s a wealth of information stored on it. Accounts on social media platforms like Facebook and Linkedin often have email addresses and phone numbers linked to them. So if you’re trying to connect with a business contact, there’s a good chance they have their contact address listed on their social media networks or portfolios.
You can also use search engines like Google or Bing especially when you have some details to work with. For example, type in relevant keywords like the name, location or company and you’ll get results. This is because search engines crawl all web pages including business listings, personal websites, portfolios and so much more.
3. Paid Search Services
Multiple subscription services offer people search features that include emails and phone numbers. These services not only use public directories and listings but also private data partners to provide contact information. Also, they have verifiers that ensure you get more accurate details.
For example, lemlist sources the internet to identify potential business leads, finds their contact information, verifies it and once it’s valid, adds it to your database. All you need to do is type in the name and the company and the tool does its magic. This verification feature is very essential when you want to reduce your spam rates and preserve your caller reputation as a business.
4. Mutual Connections
You can also find phone numbers the old-fashioned way. Reach out to your mutual connections like friends, colleagues or acquaintances and ask for an introduction or a company card. In some cases, they might just be willing to give out the phone number directly.
7 Tools to Help You Find Phone Numbers Online
Ready to start finding business contacts online? Here are some recommended tools you can consider using;
1. lemlist
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Capterra – 4.6/5 (370 reviews), Product Hunt – 4.9/5 (425 votes)
lemlist is an all-in-one multichannel outreach tool that allows you to find verified emails and phone numbers for your leads.
Adding a phone number to your lead’s contact information can take your cold outreach to the next level by including cold calls in your campaign sequences.
Don’t spend hours looking for a phone number only to find an inaccurate one.
lemlist’s phone number database is powered by ContactOut, ensuring the accuracy of the phone numbers you’ll find.
With lemlist, finding your leads’ phone numbers is but a few clicks away.
3 ways to find phone numbers with lemlist:
- Through its 450M+ leads database
- Select relevant leads
- Click “Push to Campaign”
- Select a campaign or create a new one
- Check “Find phone numbers”
- Click “Push # leads to campaign”
- The leads will appear in your campaign, some of which will have a phone number
- In the “Lead list” of any campaign
- Select the leads you want to find phone numbers for
- Click on “Enhance leads” and then on “Find phone numbers
- If phone numbers are found, they will appear in the phone number column
- On LinkedIn through lemlist’s Chrome extension
- Search for leads on LinkedIn
- On the search results page, click on “Push lead(s) to lemlist”
- Choose to either: Push selected leads, all leads, or the first # of leads to lemlist
- Check “Find phone”
- Select the lemlist campaign to push the leads to
- Click “Push # leads to this campaign”
- The leads will appear in your campaign, some of which will have a phone number
Once you find these contacts, you can take it a step further by using the assistant and the AI variables feature to curate personalized outreach sequences and streamline your sales sequence.
Pricing: $39/Mo for Email Starter (up to 25 free phone numbers), $69/mo for Email Pro (up to 38 free phone numbers), $99/mo for Multichannel Expert (up to 75 free phone numbers), and $159/mo for Outreach Scale (up to 125 free phone numbers). With the free plan, you also get 25 phone numbers/mo.
✅ Pros
- Contact verifier and up-to-date data
- Bulk uploads and contact finder
- Free searches available
- Find phone numbers
- Offer full outreach stack of tools in one
- Linkedin and cold calling integration
❌ Cons
- You need to upgrade to a paid plan to access more features
In the lemlist academy, you can find everything you need to start and succeed with lemlist, including a lesson on how to find B2B phone numbers.
2. Lusha
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐
G2- 4.3/5 (1,455 reviews), Capterra- 4.1/5 (360 votes)
Lusha is a finder that crowdsources contact information including phone numbers from social media profiles and business websites. Similar to lemlist, this option also has a verifier to provide accurate information at all times. You also get additional contact attributes like the job roles, state, country and more. It has a Chrome extension that makes searching easy when you’re on other websites.
Pricing: Free, $36/user/month for Pro, $59/user/month for Premium, and custom for Scale plans.
✅ Pros
- Simple and intuitive interface
- Chrome extension
- Free plan with limited searches
❌ Cons
- Only five free phone searches on the free plan
- Data accuracy might vary based on the contact
3. Kaspr
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐
G2- 4.4/5 (678 reviews), Product Hunt- 3/5 (39 votes)
This is a free Chrome extension that can be used to find and extract information from popular websites. To use this software, simply install the extension and open it whenever you’re on a Linkedin profile, list, event or directory. It’s a bit more manual than other options because you cannot do a bulk search with a list of names.
However, you can send the data to other sales apps and launch workflows to keep track of where they are in your sales funnel.
Pricing: Free, $39/mo/user on Starter, $69/mo/user on Business and $85/mo/user on Organisation.
✅ Pros
- Easy-to-use chrome extension
- Additional features like enrichment cadence and in-app dialing
- Multiple integrations like Lemlist, Salesforce and Hubspot
- Free plan with limited features
❌ Cons
- No bulk searches on the Chrome extension
- No known contact verifier
4. Datagma
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐
G2 – 4/5 (16 reviews)
Similar to Kaspr, Datagma is another Chrome extension that allows you to get contact information online. You can extract phone numbers, emails and social profiles into a Google Sheet by simply searching for specific roles you want online. However, it mostly works when you’re on Linkedin or Sales Navigator.
The results often include job roles and industries so you can better personalize your outreach. For bigger organizations, there’s an API to help improve the data collection process.
Pricing: Free plan, $32/month on Discover plan, and $55/month on the Premium plan.
✅ Pros
- Chrome extension
- Bulk uploads available
- Free plan with limited features
- Contact change detection for up-to-date data
❌ Cons
- Only gets data from Linkedin and Sales Navigator
- No bulk uploads on the free plan
- It relies on public data which means that the accuracy depends on the quality and availability of publicly accessible information
5. Whitepages
Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Comparably- 3.5/5 (215 votes), Gartner – 5/5 (2 votes)
White Pages is a background checker that provides people search including contact information like phone numbers, and email addresses. You can search for a phone number by name and also do a reverse phone lookup where you identify the owner of an unknown phone number. It gathers data from various public sources so the data might not be exactly up-to-date.
Whitepages however offers a limited free search option. Unfortunately, you can only search for contacts within the United States.
Pricing: $4.99/month for contact info, $9.99/month for business and $29.99/month for business all-access.
✅Pros
- Reverse phone lookup
- Offers phone information like whether it’s a landline, cell or VOIP, business line, and area code location.
- A well-established platform
- The free basic search option
❌ Cons
- Limited free searches
- Data may not be entirely accurate
- You can only search for US contacts
- Paid subscription is expensive for small businesses
6. BeenVerified
Ratings ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Trustpilot – 3.5/5 (1,932 votes), Consumer Affairs – 4.7/5 (620 reviews)
BeenVerified offers information like phone numbers and more including public records, social media profiles and even addresses – ideal for in-person sales calls. It is a legitimate service that gathers data from public sources.
Similar to Whitepages, you can do a reverse phone lookup where if you only have the phone number, you can find the name attached to it. The major downside to this service is that it’s only available in certain regions, so you may not be able to use the service if you’re not in the US.
Pricing: $29.99 for one-month membership or $19.49/month for three-month membership
✅ Pros
- Extensive data search options e.g name, email or phone
- Free basic search
- All features are available across all paid plans
❌ Cons
- Limited information on the free plan
- Some data may be out-of-date
- Paid plan can be quite expensive
- Only available to search within the US
7. Anywho
Rating ⭐⭐⭐
Site jabber 2.5/5 (13 reviews)
Think of this service as an advanced-level phone book. It has a wide range of contact addresses thanks to its free online people search directory. Here, you can find people by their name or address. Since it’s updated weekly, you’re guaranteed to get more accurate information on this website. However, we always recommend doing some verification before placing a call.
You can also do a reverse phone lookup if you have the phone number. Unfortunately, it is only limited to finding numbers within the United States. Since it’s also a free tool, you cannot do bulk uploads or searches.
Pricing: Free
✅ Pros
- Free to use
- Updated weekly directory
❌ Cons
- Available to search within the US only
- Very limited features e.g no bulk search
Important Considerations When Finding Phone Numbers
Phone numbers are personal information which is why it is important to always prioritize privacy laws and regulations in your region. So always ensure you only obtain phone numbers via the ethical methods discussed in this article.
Also, verify the accuracy of the phone numbers you find online so you don’t end up spamming the wrong person. Finally, don’t keep calling if they don’t want to be contacted via phone. Instead, seek out alternative ways to reach out.
Phone numbers aren’t always the only way to connect. Sometimes, you may not find a particular contact’s phone number and that’s okay. Consider other methods like sending a message via social media or even an email.
Conclusion
A strategic multi-channel approach to marketing outreach gives the best results. So, we recommend you use a tool that provides everything you need to find leads, send personalized messages, automate the process and scale your business.
Start with a free lemlist trial today and see how it works.