I’m going to say something that you already know: The lead generation industry is broken. Now I’m going to say something that you might not believe: Outbound lead generation still works.
First off, why should what I say matter? For the last 10 years, I’ve worked in inbound/outbound sales development, some of that time in hospitality and tourism, with the majority of my executive experience in a tech and digital marketing context. While I’m not an old salty dog in the game of client acquisition, I do know a thing or two, and it's been my job to keep a finger on the pulse of the market every day for the last 4 years.?
Lead generation sucks. It just does. We all wish that businesses could grow organically, out of referrals and word of mouth alone. Some of you are successfully growing your company with this model at this very moment. I hate to break it to you, but that well will run dry, and you too will someday have to join the game of "Where's new business for me now?"
There are several different routes that you can take at this point. Common logic says to go with some options over others, but I’m here to tell you what I know for sure. Not what I would want to sell you or what benefits me directly, just what I have observed from using these services myself and the prevalent truths as a result. Let’s examine:?
- Pay-per-lead business model: This is the most common lead generation model you’ll find today. Pay only for what comes in. Now consider this, you are not the only client. In fact, you might be a quite difficult client—narrow segmentation, a long qualification process, and an even harder market to penetrate. So if your leads are hard to find and this company is only getting paid when they find you leads, how hard do you believe they will actually be working to maximise a campaign for you once they realise the amount of free work they’ll be doing? I think we both know the answer here. Meanwhile, you’ve wasted a lot of time thinking this would be the most cost-effective solution, and the opportunity cost is actually very high. Pay per lead is a substitute for actual trust, and shouldn’t you trust someone you’ve hired in any capacity??
- Money back or lead guarantee: This is another model you’ll see, and quite frankly, it’s the snake oil you hear so much about in this space these days. As someone who assesses digital marketing strategy on a daily basis, anyone who speaks with you for 1-2 hours max and tells you for sure they can get you X amount of leads in X amount of time is lying to your face. And they can get away with it, as they frequently do; it’s too expensive to sue. You can run chargebacks on your card, but it doesn’t always weigh in your favour when the fine print is considered. You can attempt to hedge your bets on this type of service, but ultimately, this will result in mismanaged expectations and a frustrating commitment driven by tactics alone.
- Growth as a Service: Here’s where you find your "fractional CMOs." This is a very strategy-driven process, and while it’s not as "incentivized" as the other models, the incentive is to build lasting client relationships based on analysis, planning, and a curation of multi-channel approaches—not based on specific behaviours but rather a commitment to telling the truth. Something isn’t working? They change their approach. There are no silver bullets in digital marketing, and business goals aren’t werewolves. The idea is to work with a team that understands that, while one specific tactic might work for some and not others, they have enough knowledge and experience to recognise this quickly and change trajectory for your benefit.?
You’re going to ultimately decide what’s best to do for you, but coming from someone who fights the growth fight on a daily basis for a lot of different teams, you don’t want the low-hanging fruit alone. Build something lasting. Growth as a service companies have a lot of different tactics they can pull from, and while there are no silver bullets, with enough lead ones, they can get the job done.
