Quality leads streamline sales and consequently increase revenue. This is why companies invest in capturing leads, typically via webinar registration, email marketing, BANT, and ABM campaigns. However, to cut costs, sometimes companies purchase generic leads. Most often, these lists contain arbitrary information, with no relation to your organization or products/services.
Before we delve into why buying such a lead list is a bad idea, let’s first understand lead lists better.
What is a B2B lead list?
A B2B lead list is essentially a list of potential customers. It contains the company name, size, address, and the number of employees. The list also has the name, designation, and contact details of relevant decision-makers. You can generate one in the following ways.
- Track website visitors
- Hold online or offline events
- Gather information via email and telemarketing campaigns
- Join relevant social media groups
- Register in directories
- Create thought leadership content
- Undertake guest posting
When you collect leads through these routes, you will end up with a roster of data where each person is interested in your product/service in some way. If you nurture them appropriately, they carry the potential to convert as well. However, this needs time, money, and effort from your sales and marketing teams. In a bid to save, some organizations take a shortcut and buy a generic or affordable B2B leads list.
Why buying a B2B leads list can be bad for your company?
While buying a B2B leads list appears to be more economical, the trade-off is that the data is typically of poor quality and hasn’t been cleansed. Here’s how this can impact your business.
Compromises credibility
When you buy a list, there is no way of knowing if the people on it are interested in your business. So, it’s possible that when you contact them, you’ll be met with stony silence. After all, it can be irritating for B2B decision-makers to receive emails or calls that are irrelevant, and this can result in you getting blocked.
When you connect with people repeatedly, without understanding whether they even need your product or service, you’ll come across as negligent and untrustworthy. Over time, your credibility will take a hit. In fact, even in the future if you are to contact the same set of people with a relevant product or service, they are likely to be extremely hostile and unreceptive. This is because of the impression that they have of you based on their prior interaction.
Creates a negative customer experience
The entire purpose of any sales and marketing activity is to streamline the customer’s purchase journey. But, when there’s a mismatch between what you’re offering and what an individual or organization is looking for, you’re doing just the opposite. You create more pain points than you solve. Ideally, you would segment your audience base and build personalized communication, as only a tailored pitch enables conversion. However, a low-quality lead list doesn’t facilitate this.
Wastes sales teams’ efforts
It is easier to close a deal with an individual who has a proven interest or intent, rather than one who doesn’t. A generic leads list, unfortunately, doesn’t offer any guarantee that the names or businesses that are listed have expressed intent or shown any interest. Therefore, in most instances, your sales and marketing teams will spend more time cultivating an interest and then converting. In cases of complete misalignment, they will end up wasting time and energy.
Violates regulations
If you buy leads from a non-compliant lead list provider, you’re violating data regulations. CAN-SPAM in the US, GDPR in the EU, and the POPI Act in South Africa are part of a growing list of global data regulations. A violation can earn you a hefty penalty and might put an end to your commercial communications. This is a risk simply not worth taking.
In a nutshell, if you’re buying lead lists only because you think you’ll save time and money, don’t! What you save up-front may end up costing you later.
How to get quality data for B2B lead generation?
There’s no shortcut to creating a lead list. You have to scale your inbound and outbound marketing activities to get quality leads. As this requires time and skill, contact the experts. At Resolute B2B, we supply leads to your organization with the help of lead generation services such as appointment generation and webinar registration, along with BANT, ABM, and email marketing. Optionally, you can use our data enrichment services to elevate your existing database with the latest and most relevant information. Visit our website today to know more about the option that’s best for you.
