Should I just ‘buy’ leads?

What is a lead? We can all be given the identification of a person to get in contact with or some entity that has an interest in our product/service, but as marketers we want these leads to convert. The quality of a lead is really important to ensure our sales team are sitting qualified appointments that will bring in new sales. As marketers it’s our role to ensure we make this happen. So should we just buy leads to give to our sales team?

No. We should be looking at ways to ensure we’re giving our sales team high-quality leads. If you want more information within this area then read our blog – How do I confirm what a qualified lead is?

As marketers we’re always looking at ways we can generate a higher volume of quality leads. Whether it’s through investing more time and budget in our direct and digital marketing strategies, or simply deciding to use a data house and buying them readymade for us – sounds so simple! However, as always there are pros and cons to different marketing channels depending on your audience (B2B/B2C, industry).

So what are the positives and negatives behind buying leads…?

Positives

• It’s quick! You can get leads straight away for your sales team to start calling and qualifying
• You can have specialised leads in advance
• There’s pipeline straight away before your team have even started
• Buying leads is flexible, if they run out then you just buy more!
• Many marketers have found buying leads to be ‘cheap’ compared to buying data and then generating leads through your marketing activity
• Having readymade leads can be very time efficient for marketers and can speed up the process for booking sales appointments

Negatives

• Lack of quality – you don’t know how qualified the leads are and the level of relevance
• Your leads won’t be unique to your company
• Competitors may also be buying the same leads as you, not allowing you to be ahead of the game!
• Buying leads might work really well for certain companies in specific sectors, however there’s no guarantee buying leads will work for you
• These leads may not have consumer permission to be contacted
• Some leads might be descriptive but not bespoke to your company’s products or services
• Are you buying leads or are you just buying tailored data?

Buying leads can be very time-efficient and cost-effective. If buying leads works well for your company and produces the results you want, then it can generate very strong ROI. Like most marketing it involves an element of trial and error. Just to say one company buys good leads doesn’t mean yours will get the same ROI, and you also have to take into consideration it can be risky to solely rely on a tactic with various cons involved.

So, to conclude: there’s no guarantee that buying leads will automatically work for your products or services and it can be risky to solely rely on. But, then again, as a telemarketing agency we’re bound to be biased…

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Tags: Lead Generation, Leads, Marketing