What's important to a marketer? Sales, perspectives, and, of course, lead generation. At the same time, industry experts point out that customer engagement costs are increasing every year. Therefore, it's more profitable for ventures to hire lead generation firms with a few experts in the field. A team approach allows you to optimize your time for prospecting, attracting customers, and designing new tactics.
That said, when choosing a lead generation agency online, you want to consider a few factors before you make your final decision. Thus, the company may have its own specifics in terms of preferred platforms, software tools, integration, or specialization. Therefore, weighing all the pros and cons of the agency is a must.
What Do Lead Generation Companies Do?
A type of lead management (searching for potential customers by specific contact details) is called "lead generation." A "lead" is a customer who has expressed interest in products or services of a certain brand.
How Do Lead Generation Companies Determine a Lead?
An example of the lead generation process is when someone gets on a company's website and asks for a callback. This is when a regular customer turns into a lead. Site visitors who filled in an online application or subscription form, or sent a request to attend an event can all be called that.
In lead generation, marketers can have a whole set of data about a potential client, or it can only be a phone number or even a name. Thus, when a business receives this information, marketers (or managers) split the leads into groups.
Why Classify Leads?
To decrease the burden on the sales department, companies classify leads. How does this happen? The department is divided into two parts:
- Consultants. Company specialists consult customers and specify the information on the transaction (specify if they need the product/service, how soon they are willing to buy, etc.);
- Lead generation managers. These experts close deals and negotiate with customers who are eager to buy.
Lead classification helps companies assess how their ads are working, optimize marketing campaigns, and encourage "slow" leads to buy.
Lead Qualification Criteria
There's no single lead classification accepted in the world. However, we can still assess the degree of marketing-qualified customers’ willingness and readiness to buy, i.e. define leads with the most and least potential. Thus, you may rank each sales-qualified lead as follows:
- Cold leads show no interest in your business. Thus, you need to encourage them and explain why they need to buy from you;
- Warm ones are familiar with the brand, have expressed their needs, but for some reason are not ready to buy. The reasons for that are usually time or budget;
- Hot ones are the closest to the buying stage, they have already made their decision and are ready to buy.
How to Get a Lead?
Lead generation can have several directions. And special companies apply effective ways and tools in their work, taking into account the TA (target audience) and niche brand market. These tools can be:
- Feedback form on a website. In lead generation, feedback forms allow clients to get in touch with the agency ASAP, without the need to search for Contacts on the website;
- Newsletters with surveys or an offering to participate in free webinars. Thus, it's an opportunity to get to know your clients better and collect useful data about them;
- Calling cold leads. To collect information on a customer, an organization uses a call-tracking system to record a conversation between a manager and a client, so that you can analyze the conversation later;
- Lead magnets. It’s a free item or service that is given away in exchange for customer contact details or a targeted action, e.g. subscription. This can be a 10% discount or a free guide.
Reputable services have plenty of cases and know many efficient tactics. However, not every element may be applicable to your niche. That's why, before making your decision, you want to consult professionals on this issue.
What Do Lead Generation Agencies Do?
Lead generation requires a multi-faceted approach so that businesses can grow multiple customer sources. Each channel, through which company services, as well as products, are promoted, requires a customized strategy. Doing this on your own can be quite challenging, especially when the competition is high. That's why brands need the best lead generation companies with an efficient strategy that will help engage quality leads and set up management processes.
Such agencies focus on collecting and combining consumer and business information to offer the following services to various organizations:
- Database marketing;
- Custom teaming;
- Campaign creation and management;
- TA definition;
- Content distribution for lead generation;
- Website development (from optimization to maintenance).
This is an incomplete list of the services. Getting in more details might be tedious - examples are always more interesting. So let's take a look at the top-rated lead generation companies.
Top 15 Lead Generation Companies on the Market
The most interesting part is the section about top-rated lead generation companies. There may be a perfect option just for you! However, let's not be too quick with making a decision - it must be well-considered and balanced. After all, you should not trust the first firm you liked - risking is unreasonable. Below the following list of companies, there's a methodology for choosing the right partner.
1. LeadGeneration
LeadGeneration has established itself on the market as the top provider of lead generation services. Business leaders like Aeropostale and JG Wentworth had a successful experience with the company and appreciated the quality of its services. Now their logos are proudly resting on the agency's website, as a token of satisfied clients.
Each project is assigned to a manager who monitors its success and is ready to answer questions at any time, if necessary. A team develops, supports, or works hard to improve the strategy.
Leads are delivered through dedicated online systems: by email in a doc file. Like other companies, the firm can integrate with Salesforce, HubSpot, Highrise, Zoho, Infusionsoft, Pipedrive, and Sugar CRM.
Lead generation services: SEO, media, PR, content, newsletters, website development, lead generation call tracking, and more.
2. Callbox
This firm is among the top B2B lead generation companies. Offers specialized services, and most often cooperates with ventures engaged in IT, healthcare, and finance. The workflow at Callbox is just the same as with other companies, starting with creating a list of client organizations, according to the organization's TA.
In addition to lead generation services, businesses can order solutions that are related to Internet marketing and databases.
Their basic strategy is multi-channel and a combination of various ways to reach the TA. To ensure guaranteed positive results, the company uses an individual approach to each client.
All teams are custom, with specialists carefully selected for each project. Callbox considers the peculiarities of each business niche. Say, a brand is looking for lead generation for technology agencies. Then Callbox offers experts who work exclusively in the tech sector.
Callbox technologies are supported by Pipeline (customer management) and HubSpot (marketing, sales, and service development).
3. Upcall
Upcall stands out among quite a few lead generation agencies due to its flexibility and innovative approach. As you know, lead generation is done by collecting data over the phone from real people. Upcall allows you to synchronize your customers by type, engage them at the right time using fine-tuned techniques.
Upcall is a reliable protector for marketing and sales teams. So, thanks to the company's established lead generation process, managers will be relieved of the need to contact customers and "build bridges," focusing on more significant tasks.
Four areas of Upcall's services are lead generation and qualification, market research, and customer attraction.
4. CIENCE
CIENCE continues our list. Here, lead generation is a synthesis of intelligence and machine learning that helps attract more clients for businesses. The award-winning lead generation firm is on the list of top B2C companies. During its existence, it has been trusted by well-known brands such as YAMAHA, Microsoft, Google, and Uber.
CIENCE achieves success through pinpoint research, and its teams combine first-rate copywriting expertise and data usage.
But what solutions does CIENCE actually offer? There are 4 categories to choose from with this agency: Sales Data Solutions, Inbound SDR, Outbound SDR, and CRM Services.
5. DiscoverOrg
The best way to get leads for B2B might be turning to DiscoverOrg for help. Experts from this company have a large customer database and can connect you with your potential clients. What's more, the foundation of DiscoverOrg's process is the complete communication of sales and other valuable data about your TA.
DiscoverOrg is one of the few lead generation companies that guarantees 95% accuracy. The firm provides its services in sales, marketing, recruiting, sales leadership, and marketing operations.
You may go to the company's website and request a demo of DiscoverOrg's database. This will allow you to test the firm and its technographic data, job descriptions, functions, phone numbers, and emails.
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6. CandorWorks
While CandorWorks will work on lead generation, brand owners will be able to focus on more important things. Their specialty is integrated demand generation, which allows them to deliver quality leads to their clients.
In addition, CandorWorks offers a profitable collaborative system where businesses will only get leads that generate results. If a lead does not meet the requirements, it's replaced with another one, so you only pay for potential clients.
CandorWorks, like many other companies, offers business planning, campaign tracking, marketing data management, and many other related services.
7. Overdrive Interactive
Overdrive Interactive offers a wide range of lead generation services to businesses in various fields. They help support and optimize customer acquisition channels. Their specialty is continuous prospecting and engagement, and in lead generation, demand is generated through a comprehensive marketing approach.
Companies such as Overdrive Interactive provide brands with related services like marketing, optimization, inbound marketing, retargeting, newsletter rental, content creation, testing, mobile/native advertising, and digital PR.
Every reputable company understands that striking a balance between price and quality is essential. That's why experts constantly monitor the results and report to their clients on time. Overdrive Interactive uses a comprehensive approach to find potential customers for businesses no matter where they are.
Overdrive Interactive is one of the best online lead generation companies engaged in healthcare, finance, and technology.
8. LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Reliable companies always deliver results. LinkedIn Sales Navigator's team of experts knows how to professionally use lead generation strategies for LinkedIn. Their paid sales solution will help brands manage leads and connect to the social network to get more deals.
The software solution can be integrated with popular apps and services that help establish strong customer relationships. The lead generation procedure itself becomes much easier due to the advanced search feature, allowing you to find potential customers more effectively.
In addition, businesses can use the tool to find people, as well as companies with LinkedIn Sales Navigator solutions. Automated prospecting is a function that allows you to generate leads based on your firm’s preferences, search history, profile views, etc.
9. Salespanel
Salespanel isn't just a versatile company, it's a software tool that's leveraged in lead generation and marketing.
Salespanel is your online advocate that will be responsible for identifying visitors to the website, collecting and aggregating leads, tracking their behavior and selection. In other words, to get high-quality results in terms of lead generation companies, Salespanel's experts help control potential and real clients of the brand.
With Salespanel, businesses can predict results of the lead generation process, launch TA-focused marketing campaigns, attract more customers to the website and beyond.
The main feature of the solution is Salespanel's ability to synchronize customers from any type of leads.
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10. Belkins
Here, lead generation starts with prospect research, whose data enables you to find quality leads. Belkins is among the top-rated companies, which means you will find plenty of positive customer feedback on them.
They work with businesses in a variety of fields and offer solutions from lead prospecting to making appointments with hot clients. Belkins' team of experts works to ensure that brands get an up-to-date database in the process. That's why they collect customer data from all possible sources, both paid and free.
In addition, lead generation can become much more productive if you use email marketing. That's what Belkins offers. Plus, they guarantee that your emails will never end up in a spam folder. The firm's list of B2B services also includes Linkedin influencer marketing.
11. Martal
For more than 10 years, the venture has been doing lead generation for B2B tech firms. It's one of the few companies that assemble a dedicated team individually for each project to manage the process of prospecting, attracting, and managing leads and their accounts. Martel is known as an organization that really knows how to boost your sales and bring visible progress in the shortest possible time.
Martal offers to expand and strengthen your internal sales teams. Their list of lead generation services also includes customer onboarding, prospect acquisition, audience customization, and account management.
As for the prices, there's no related information available on the website. We believe the reason for that is that the price depends a lot on your enterprise’s objectives and marketing requirements. We recommend you contact the company directly to know their pricing.
12. SalesPro Leads
Leave low-quality lead generation companies behind and meet SalesPro Leads. The firm's range of services encompasses every possible offering, from analyzing a target audience to finding potential business clients.
On the firm’s website, you can find out all the details about how the team achieves great results and what strategies they use.
Lead generation services target business niches such as IT and software, marketing and advertising, telecommunications, and healthcare.
You may wonder about SalesPro Leads offers. These include appointments and sales analytics, account marketing, demand creation, newsletters, social media marketing, SAL, SQL, and MQL.
13. Pearl Lemon Leads
If you were looking for lead generation companies that use cloud-based solutions, you have found the right one. A popular agency, Pearl Lemon Leads, effectively utilizes cloud technology and is aimed at business growth. What does this mean for brands? It's an opportunity to get a team of experts from all over the world.
You should know that Pearl Lemon Leads is one of the top 20 agencies, with many awards, which confirms the quality of its services.
By hiring this organization, you get a team of professionals who will lead your sales department to success through quality online lead generation. Company copywriters are ready to write personalized emails for your clients, and managers will plan meetings with your leads.
14. SalesRoads
Companies like SalesRoads are ready to help at any stage of the lead generation process. A company team of experts focuses on customers who are most likely to make a purchase. To find the latter, the firm analyzes potential customers after developing thoughtful search strategies, testing them, and choosing the best one.
SalesRoads team of experts works in multiple steps, starting with creating a list of key accounts, then assessing databases, collecting, and reporting results to the sales team.
Well-known brands like Microsoft, Shell, Sharp, and others trust SalesRoads, which proves that this agency is able to deliver expected results.
15. LeadGenius
LeadGenius is among those lead generation companies that use automation and human intelligence in their activities. The company provides services to enterprises working in the B2B sector, helping brands communicate and interact with the right influencers.
Lead generation capabilities include corporate and individual targeting, engagement monitoring, performance measurement, testing, and campaign management.
Criteria for Choosing a Business Partner
To find the top lead generation companies, follow the next steps:
- Don't use lead generation firms that offer "all-in-one" solutions for every type of business. Such companies will most likely not have enough experience to provide your brand with quality leads. There's a good chance that the with an agency will be done in an inappropriate way. That's why you need services from organizations that specialize in your business niche;
- Consider the process and methods of lead generation. Every company attracts customers in its own way. So you need to determine the way you want your leads to be delivered. Say, one business may offer lead generation in a "person-as-a-service" format, others will collect leads and set up appointments with them. And some will simply collect customer data and pass it on to a manager;
- Pricing. Some companies often have custom prices on their offerings. So you want to make sure that their services match your budget directly;
- Reputation. On any website of this or that firm, you will (obviously) find only the most positive customer feedback. However, don't take their word for it - study the company's reputation on independent review and rating sites.
What Budget Is Required to Achieve Success?
We've written before that most firms don't display their prices on the websites. This is primarily due to the fact that each business comes with unique needs and requests. Therefore, the price of lead generation will be different for everyone.
Say, a business buys one lead for $5-50. However, lead generation companies charge an average of $2000 for their services.
Conclusions
Lead generation is a popular service today, which can radically improve the sales process. No matter what business niche or segment you're in, there are plenty of different organizations on the market.
Yes, some brands manage to find their potential customers through social media without spending a single dollar on online promotion. But you should understand that it's a time-consuming process that can last for months or even years. That's why hiring a reputable firm is a strategically wise decision on your way to success.
What are the best lead generation companies?
This directly depends on your niche. Specialized companies are better suited for a certain brand. Say, if you're a tech organization, then it's best to look for a firm with experience in that sphere.
What industries pay the most for their leads?
Health care, finance, and manufacturing are the industries that pay the most.
What are the types of lead generation?
There are 5 types:
- Events;
- Advertising;
- Branding;
- Newsletters;
- Referral system.
How much does a lead cost?
On the high end, a lead can cost around $1,442, and on the low end, around $180. Don't forget, though, that the cost is largely influenced by your business niche. For example, the average cost per lead for tradeshows or events is $811.
