Cue the frantic scramble to organize a quick advert, the mad rush to set up another email campaign and the many hours staying late to desperately get just one more lead! Last minute lead generation isn’t ideal for anyone, there must be a better way…
This is where the solution of buying business leads comes into play, using a provider’s database to purchase leads that match your buyer criteria. This seems on the surface, like a winning situation- you meet those target numbers and your sales team have plenty to work with. This is true, but as with any marketing strategy, nothing is perfect. The process of buying leads isn’t for everyone, so let’s weigh up the pros and cons of lead purchasing and discover the best places to buy those all-important business leads.
Pros Of Buying Business Leads
It’s always good to start with the positives and buying business leads has plenty of those. Few things in marketing are easy, and often it feels like we’re constantly chasing our tails, working hard to get the results we need. Lead purchasing offers a refreshing ideal, allowing us to know there’s always a back-up plan…
A huge advantage of purchasing leads lies in the time your team will save. The process of reaching out to prospects, gathering data to drive campaigns and setting up multiple communications takes so much time, which many of us have in short supply. The ability to just purchase leads is so time effective- it lets your team get the results they need and still put time into discovering why things didn’t go to plan, so you can re-strategize and avoid purchasing leads next time. Buying leads shouldn’t be a regular commitment; it buys you the time to discover how best to avoid lead purchasing in the future by improving campaigns, without hindering your result in the process.
Another known benefit of buying business leads is their quality. As a vast number of providers offer advanced databases where it’s easy to outline specific lead criteria, such as job role, seniority or industry and only purchase leads befitting your organization and product. This means leads purchased often are good quality, thanks to the attention paid in selecting specific lead criteria. This offers your sales team a genuine chance to gain a new client; it’s as if you’ve cherry-picked the lead (which of course, you have!).
This for many, is the key reason business leads are purchased. It offers the ability to gather leads instantly– especially useful for when targets need a sudden boost. No need to sit around waiting for a campaign to take shape, or waiting to source data, buying leads lets you send them straight over to your team for instant follow-up. It’s a winning feature for many marketers, especially those heavily driven by sales success.
Another enormous part of marketing success is receiving a great return on your investment, but this can often be difficult to calculate. When you factor in costs such as head-count, discovering true ROI is tricky. But not with bought business leads! You pay a set amount for that lead, then you try and turn it into a client. Whatever happens, it’s easy to attribute money appropriately to bought leads, and better understand if it’s worth doing again.
These are the reasons we give buying business leads a thumbs up- but that’s only one side of the coin. To truly know if this course of action is best for your business, we need to weigh up the cons too…
Cons Of Buying Business Leads
No system is ever perfect, so it makes sense that buying business leads comes with its disadvantages. Your budget is hard earned and needs to be well organized– you don’t want to take any risks, so you need to know what buying business leads could mean.
Some lead providers gather contact details then let them go stale in a database for three years before you purchase them, setting you up for failure. These leads may have changed their contact details or moved to new organizations, meaning there’s no chance they can bring you the new business win you’re hoping for. If you choose to buy business leads, you need to know the provider’s policies and how often they update their data. for example, cleanse their data annually after putting it through three rounds of verification – so you can be sure it’s accurate!
It’s easy to buy loads of new leads and think you’re onto a winner, but stop and ask, how many companies have these leads been sold to? Your competitors could have bought the exact same list 3 months ago and called them all dry. Therefore, you need to look out for cheap leads; if they seem too good to be true, they probably are, and will have been sold to plenty of businesses like yours already. Check carefully how your provider sells leads and who has bought before you.
The risk of contacting leads you purchase as opposed to contacting leads you’ve generated is the lack of personal touch. Even if this lead fits your ideal criteria, there’s no guarantee they will become a client. There’s a high chance they’ll have no idea who you are, so your team will have to work that little bit harder to make a connection. This makes them unpredictable– you don’t even know if they need your product! This lack of connection and insight into the lead’s business has a high chance of hindering your overall sales success.
If you have a specialized product serving a specific industry or are looking to purchase leads with very detailed criteria, you may struggle. Many lead providers can only offer generalized data for popular industries– the more specific your lead criteria, the harder you’ll find it to buy leads that effectively match your product and offer the chance to secure new clients. You may find a provider able to get the leads you need, but do you then compromise your position on old information or shared data?
Now you can see both the pros and cons of buying business leads, you’re in a better position to weigh up the options and decide whether this will work for you. If you’re keen to know more, then let’s discover four great places to buy business leads!
Places To Buy Business Leads
There are plenty of lead providers out there, all varying in price, quality and method, but here’s a few to get you started!
Cognism: A powerhouse in the lead generation and data services sector, Cognism provides a globally compliant, AI-driven B2B data resource that enhances sales, marketing, and recruitment processes. The platform excels with its data asset of over 400 million business profiles and 10 million companies, leveraging this vast repository to offer services like prospecting, lead generation, and revenue attrition protection.
Lead Forensics: An advanced lead generation solution, Lead Forensics identifies the anonymous businesses visiting your website and provides contact details for key decision makers alongside a full web-journey breakdown. This is the perfect way to generate leads you know have a genuine interest in your brand and product, maximizing every website visitor and benefiting online marketing campaigns.
Let Lead Forensics revolutionize your B2B lead generation. Find out more – book your free demo today!
