

Ask HN: Who here (successfully) uses lead generation services? - daniel-levin

Recently I discovered a few services that offer sales leads as a service. They seem to be able to put you in direct contact with exactly who you want to sell to. These guys [0] provide a massive database of companies and their respective representatives to contact. You can find the leads you want by using searches and filters on the business database. This other service [1] provides you with actual leads.<p>Does anyone have experience using these services for customer acquisition? Do they work (and for what kind of business)?<p>[0] http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.afriseek.com&#x2F;index.php (I&#x27;m based in South Africa)<p>[1] http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.saquotes.co.za&#x2F;join-saquotes.html?gclid=CJz_zvjTjLoCFbDMtAodSTgA3A
======
PJD
I've worked with lead generation services a lot in the past and currently do a
lot of work in this field.

Honestly, you need to know a number of things:

1) Do they allow for returned leads?

2) Do they allow for rejected leads?

3) Do you have a service like BriteVerify in your country that will allow you
to verify legitimate information?

4) Will they work on a further down the pipeline metric (as opposed to getting
paid per lead, will they work for a higher fee for a booked appointment)

5) Do YOU have a sales cycle that can work with these kind of leads?

6) Do you have an email nurturing plan in place?

7) Do you have the metrics on who buys your product?

8) Do you have the metrics on how long it takes them to make their decision?

9) Will they give you test leads to determine how valuable their traffic is?

10) Do you have to give savvy online marketers a reason to compete against you
in your media buying marketplace?

If you can answer yes to all those question you might consider using their
services

~~~
PJD
Actually, I just looked over the services you linked to and honestly I have
extremely low confidence that you'll find anything of any real value.

