What Makes a Good Lead Generation Service?
What Makes a Good Lead Generation Service?
The internet is replete with companies, services, and websites selling “sales leads.” While many of these lists are perfectly legitimate as email, direct mail, or telemarketing lists, an important distinction must be made between them and a list of qualified leads. Wikipedia defines a sales lead as “a person or entity that has the interest and authority to purchase a product or service.” The question is, “Does that person or entity have an interest in your product or service?” This is where a good lead generation service comes into play. If you are considering whether or not a custom lead generation program is right for your business, here are some important items to consider when searching for the right company to produce qualified leads for you:
Does the company you are considering have a proven track record of providing qualified leads?
Does the company or service have examples of demonstrated ROI for its clients? Do they have testimonials of individuals who have used, or are currently using their services? These are important questions to ask, a reputable company should be able to provide you with examples of each.
Is it true performance marketing?
The lead generation company should provide you the service and you should pay based upon their performance, only after you have determined that their service works. In other words, are they asking you to pay in advance for a large volume of leads, before you are able to test the quality of these leads? A good lead generation company’s product (their leads) should speak for themselves. (Read more on performance marketing here.)
Here is a list of questions that any good lead generation company should ask you:
What is your budget? This seems obvious, but you would be surprised how many lead generation companies will automatically try to sign you up for a minimum price/volume without inquiring about your budget. You should be able to negotiate terms that allow you and the company to both profit.
Do you have a website? For online lead generation, having some type of website for potential customers to view is imperative, and this should be one of the first questions your lead generation company asks.
Who is your ideal customer/subscriber? This is a key question. In order to truly customize a lead generation program for a client, one must have a good vision for whom to target with the initial process. The more information the lead generation company has, the better they will be able to create a profile that fits this ideal lead, and this will shorten your company’s sales cycle, limit disqualifications, and so forth.
What constitutes a qualified lead for your business? Along with generating a profile for the ideal lead, this is an equally important procedural question because it is the second step in qualifying the ideal lead. Knowing exactly what information is going to help your company to make the sale, attain the subscription, and so forth will also help to shorten your sales cycle and make it more efficient.
We love to answer questions and help businesses succeed. So if you have further questions about lead generation, we would love to hear from you! Even if you are not ready to move forward, please don’t hesitate to contact us by phone, or email.
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