Business leads are essential to everyone. They can boost our sales pipeline and increase our business growth and revenue while offering the opportunity to our team to grow our client base. Although sometimes, when seeking for clients doesn’t go according to plan, and marketing departments can’t generate as many business leads as they need.

Then there’s the frantic struggle trying to set up a fast advert, the hours staying late in the office organizing email campaigns, and trying desperately to get one more lead! Lead generation happening at the last minute isn’t ideal but there has to be a better way, right?
That’s where purchasing business leads come in to solve this problem, by using a database to buy leads that relate to your buyer’s criteria.

This might initially seem like a winning scenario - you achieve your target numbers and then your sales team has a lot to work with. That’s true, but just like any other marketing strategy, it’s not exactly perfect.

The business lead purchasing process might not be ideal for everyone, so it’s better to first see the pros and cons of this process and also find out the best places to buy them.

Pros of buying business leads:

It’s timesaving

A great advantage of buying leads is that it saves time for your team. Getting into the trouble of reaching out to potential leads, collecting data for campaigns, and organizing numerous communications takes up so much time, more than what your team has in supply.
Buying leads can be really time effective as it gives your team the opportunity to get the needed results and still have time to discover why the strategy didn’t go according to plan and try a new approach. When you purchase leads, it gives you the time to figure out how to avoid the same mistakes in the future by optimizing campaigns without delaying results.

Good quality leads

Various providers can offer advanced databases which makes it easy to outline certain lead criteria, such as employment, seniority, industry, and only buy leads that are closely related to your company and product. This gives your team a good chance of gaining new clients, feeling like they’ve cherry-picked the sales lead.

It’s instant

This is one of the key reasons why companies purchase business leads. They get the possibility of instantly gathering the leads necessary - which can be especially effective when a quick boost for targets is needed. There’s no need to wait around for a campaign to take its shape or wait to source information. Purchasing leads allows you to get them straight to your sales team for instant follow up. It’s a great winning feature, especially for marketers heavily driven from sales success.

Easy to calculate ROI

Another important aspect of success in marketing is receiving a great return to your investment. Although, it can be hard to calculate because you’re including costs like head-count, so figuring out true ROI is difficult. But that’s not the case when you buy business leads!
You’re paying a certain amount for a lead that you try to turn into a client. No matter how it turns out, it’s easy to allocate money appropriately towards purchased leads. Then you can better understand if it is worth repeating.

Cons of buying business leads:

You risk outdated information

There are some business lead providers who after gathering contact details in their database, allow them to get stale for as long as 3 years before you buy them, which leads directly to failure. It’s possible that some of these leads have already changed contact details or went to new organizations. This means they can’t bring to you the business win you hoped for. So if you purchase business leads, it’s important you know the policies of the provider and how often their data is being updated.

Sharing leads

In many cases, business lead providers sell their data to many companies. So it’s possible that your competitors have purchased the exact list a few months ago and engaged with them all. Therefore, be wary of cheap leads. They might seem too good to be true as they’re being sold to many other companies similar to yours already.

Lack of personal touch

There’s a big difference between leads you’ve purchased and ones you’ve generated through engagement with them.
Even if the leads purchased to fit your ideal criteria, no one can give you a guarantee that they’ll become a client.
There’s the risk of them having no clue of who you are, and in such case, your sales team will have to put extra effort to create a connection. This unpredictability of not knowing whether they even need your product can lead your overall sales success to hinder.

There’s no room for niche

In case you have a niche product for a specific industry, you’re going to struggle while looking to buy leads with specialized criteria.
Many providers are only capable of offering general data for industries that have proven to have great demand. The more detailed your criteria, the more difficult it’ll be to find sales leads that relate to your product and have the potential to become new customers.
Now that you’ve seen both pros and cons of purchasing business leads, it’s easier to consider the options and decide if this can work for you.

The question remains. Where can you find reliable lead providers? Here are 4 options to obtain business leads:

Places to buy business leads:

Data.com

This provider is owned by SalesForce. They gather most of their data through Dunn ; Bradstreet — global leaders, and there’s no need to be a SalesForce client to have access to their services. They offer advanced filters, so you can buy specific leads that match your criteria. Also, you can get advanced integrations (CRMs) and keep track of your new lead information easily.

SalesRipe

An ideal solution for smaller businesses, SalesRipe can offer numerous advanced data such as email addresses. They have various pricing options, making them suitable for many different sized companies. They guarantee 90% accuracy in data. This means 1 out of 10 leads can be a waste of money.

LimeLeads

Another option for businesses that are budget conscious, LimeLeads have full packages and pay-as-you-go plans. Also, they provide advanced integrations, and their platform is very easy to use, having detailed search features that help you get good quality sales leads.

If you looking to hire someone and generate leads for you through SEO or Paid Channels make sure to contact us today.