You’re ready to start working with a lead generation partner. 🙌
You’ve got a bunch of nurture campaigns set up, your lead routing and lead qualification models have been perfected, and your sales reps are ready to start smiling and dialing. Now all you need are some great prospects from a lead generation partner. Or maybe you’ve worked with lead gen providers in the past, and you want to diversify your lead pipeline. Great idea! But how do you know this new vendor is the one?
Before you ride off into the sunset with a new lead generation partner, you’ll want to do your due diligence and ask the right questions. After all, those initial conversations can tell you a lot about what your eventual relationship with your lead provider will look like.
So, what questions should you ask? Start here:
10 questions to ask before you hire a lead generation company
1. Do you own your audience?
One of the first things you should do is find out if your potential new partner has built their own 1st-party audience, and scope out how legitimate their audience is. You can do this by either asking them or reviewing the content on their website and marketing materials. If they specifically reference their owned audience and the media channels they operate, hop on over to those sites to determine their legitimacy.
If a lead gen provider doesn’t talk about their owned audience at all within their marketing materials, chances are they don’t have a 1st-party audience and are leveraging email lists, contact databases, or 3rd-party channels for their promotions. Four words: Avoid at all costs.
2. How can I become part of this audience so I can see the experience for myself?
If a lead generation company touts a newsletter as a distribution channel for your content, sign up for that newsletter yourself to see the audience experience first-hand. For example, TechnologyAdvice makes it easy to sign up for a wide range of newsletters published by our various media brands, such as TechRepublic, eWeek, and eSecurity Planet. Vendors can easily subscribe and follow along to see what type of information is being shared, how reputable the newsletter is, and how sponsored content is represented.
If you’re unable to find a lead generation provider’s newsletters online, that may be a red flag. Don’t be shy to ask the provider to add you to their newsletter or email list. Follow along to see what type of content they are sharing and how other vendor brands are represented, and keep an eye out for anything that might put your brand safety or reputation at risk. If they are unwilling to add you to their newsletter or email list, proceed with caution.
3. How are leads qualified?
Verification is different from qualification. If you purchase verified leads, you pay for the assurance that the lead is a real person who exists at a company. Verification can happen via LinkedIn, email, telemarketing, or other methods that ensure the contact in question does, in fact, work for the company.
Some companies purchase all their leads and hand them over without doing any quality assurance (QA) or follow-up. Others put the work in and verify their leads, sometimes several times over, before they pass them on to you. Look for a lead generation company that is upfront about where their leads come from and whether they’re sourcing them directly, pulling from an internal database, or purchasing from another vendor.
Qualified leads are those that have expressed their interest in your product, or given one or more qualifications toward BANT. Qualification can also come in different forms and often requires direct contact with the individual to verify interest. So when you get on the phone with that lead gen partner, check whether you’re purchasing a list of contacts, verified leads, qualified leads, BANT-qualified leads, or highly qualified leads. The pricing of each lead should reflect how qualified the lead is. The more qualified the lead, the more you’ll pay for the lead, but the less work you’ll need to do to nurture the lead.
4. How often and how does the team update the contact list?
Lead generation companies come by their contact lists in different ways, but the biggest indicator of the company’s quality is how recently they have updated their contact list. Companies that sell the same information they initially purchased in 2015 without any updates can’t guarantee the quality of that information. After all, how many people do you know who have changed companies or their position within their company in the last four years? Likely quite a few!
Your lead gen partner should be able to tell you how often they update their contact list and how quickly they age their contacts out of the main list. Data is their product, so they better be able to answer you directly.
RELATED Article: 4 Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a B2B Lead Generation Partner
5. What’s your return policy?
We all make mistakes, and even the most diligent lead gen companies can get it wrong sometimes. You want to work with a partner who’s willing to admit when they make a mistake and who’s ready to make it right. Even more importantly, you’ll want to ask about any situations where you wouldn’t receive a refund for leads.
Gather some example scenarios from your experience or from your sales teams where leads have not fit your requirements and ask how the partner would handle those situations. Ask these questions to understand how the partner defines a valid lead. This will tell you a lot about what actions are expected on your end for those leads.
6. How do you work with your clients to meet their pipeline and revenue goals?
Your lead gen partner should be invested in your success. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about the strategies and techniques they’ll use to generate leads that are actually ready to convert into pipeline. Have them explain their process in detail and get a sense of whether you’ll have visibility into leads being generated throughout the length of your campaign, or whether you’ll have to wait for the lead list at the end.
Your lead generation provider should also be experts on their leads, knowing how they were gathered, how many touches they’ve received, and what the next steps should look like. Be sure to ask about the type of guidance or recommendations they will provide before, during, and after a campaign to ensure goals are met. Work with a company that’s invested the time and effort into understanding its leads and who will help you build the most profitable campaigns to convert them. They should be ready with helpful resources like sales books, best practices, and personalized guidance to help you convert as many of your leads as possible.
7. How do you approach audience targeting?
When evaluating a new lead generation company, you’ll want to get a sense of how they’re going to help you reach your ideal customer and if they’re able to identify leads and accounts who are demonstrating an intent to purchase a new solution. Start by asking about the filters available to optimize your lead targeting. Beyond basic demographic and firmographic data, do they prioritize leads based on other activities, engagements, buying signals, or intent data? A reputable lead generation provider should be able to clearly explain what that data is, where it comes from, and how it is used in your campaigns.
Find out whether they can target accounts who are actively in-market for a solution, and if so, determine the specific data points or signals they use to qualify an “in-market” or “high intent” account. Additionally, if you have an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy, ask if they can target a specific set of accounts on your ABM list and how the process works. Having an overall understanding of your lead gen providers’ targeting capabilities will ensure they can effectively reach and engage the right audience for your needs.
8. How do you calculate the CPL?
You really need to know that your cost per lead (CPL) comes from somewhere other than a mysterious “formula” that lives in the sales manager’s head. Ask how they get to that number. This will give you an idea of why you pay what you pay, but also test the salesperson’s knowledge of their business.
Pro tip: if you want to look even smarter, ask the salesperson what particular difficulties the lead gen partner will have to fulfill your targeting. Then ask how you might change your targeting to improve your lead volume without diluting quality.
9. Can you share past customer referrals?
Asking new vendors for customer referrals is always a good idea. But even more so, it’s important to make sure the reference customers are relatable to your business and can speak to real pipeline and revenue impact.
Start by ensuring the lead generation company can offer a list of reference customers who target the same audience as you. If you’re trying to target cybersecurity professionals, it’s not very helpful to hear from a past client who was targeting marketing managers.
Next, ask those reference clients about the outcomes that are important to you, not just the outcomes that the lead generation provider cares about. For example, if your goal is to generate more pipeline and revenue, dig into how well those leads converted into pipeline for their sales team. If they offer vague answers like “really well” but aren’t able to provide concrete details, this could be a red flag. Reputable content syndication and lead generation companies should be able to offer reference customers who can speak to how their programs drove real pipeline and revenue results.
10. Where do you invest?
Consider researching the company itself. Take a look at the makeup of their employees and where they choose to invest their resources. A lead generation company with 30 employees and 60% of them in Sales will operate very differently from one with 300 employees and the majority of them in Editorial, Technology, and Customer Success roles. While this is never a perfect science, it can help you infer whether a provider may be a trusted publisher, a lead manufacturing farm, or a new entrant with a limited track record.
LinkedIn is a great source for this type of information. If you have access to a LinkedIn Premium account, you can use the Insights tab on any company profile to see a breakdown of their employees by team and role type. It can also be insightful to review their executive team to understand their backgrounds as well as their tenure with the organization.
We can answer your questions
We can help you find the right audience for your software and help you sell better to those leads. Join forces with a company that’s not afraid to answer your questions and share some best practices. Find out more about our lead generation programs today.
