Is 2023 the year of the lead buyer?

You’ll have seen hundreds of “gurus” and “experts” selling courses on lead generation, all pitched at helping and assisting the lead seller, offering them ways to make more money. This is fine, but how often do you see advice for the buyers? How often do you see experts helping them? Other than Databowl - if you’ll allow us to be immodest for a second - there is very little out there, right?

This adds gravity to the idea the role is currently undervalued, but in this article we look at a new idea, the idea lead buying as a role is starting to not only get the respect and the attention it deserves... but that it demands. 

When done right, lead buying can transform the sales and revenue of a business. We tell you how to ensure you are best placed to achieve this in 2023.

What are some of the biggest problems lead buyers face heading into 2023?

We speak to lead buyers every single day and have complied a brief list of some of the biggest challenges and problems they have to overcome in order to succeed when it comes to buying leads.

• Poor quality leads with low intent
• Invalid leads or fraudulent data
• Leads that could be good, but have incorrect details
• Non qualified leads (people outside of set criteria they have)
• Aged leads that have been mis-sold as real time leads
• Bad adverts (this can be from a compliance point of view or impacting customer experience in a negative way)
• Needing more suppliers
• Needing better suppliers
• Needing better reporting on performance 

There are a whole host of other challenges a lead buyer may face, but as we head into the new year we first need to establish how lead buyers can overcome these challenges if 2023 will indeed become the year of the lead buyer.

How do lead buyers level up in 2023?

It all comes down to building the correct processes that allow lead buyers to thrive. A lead buyer needs to build a process that allows them to remove bad leads and identify and remove the sources of bad leads. They also need to be able to identify and optimise the sources of good leads and the handling of them.

This, along with transparency and control, forms the basis of any good lead buying strategy. But how do you build these processes? It can be broken down into simple steps.

1 - Due Diligence 

You can solve most of the lead buying problems listed above by simply carrying out good due diligence. It is the basis for building a strong partnership with the best lead suppliers and a very simple method of pre-qualifying and cutting out the bad ones. 

2 - Simplify your API set up

Move away from antiquated tech and difficult SOAPString APIs and simplify the entire process of receiving leads in. This one action could instantly eradicate the hurdles many lead generators face in actually sending you leads. By switching to a simple system you can transform your ability to receive and manage leads overnight. 

3 - Qualify Leads

Super simple, super necessary and impactful. If you have certain restrictions and criteria in place - such as geo restrictions - then ensure you have the rules set up to effectively manage the handling of this. In short, be sure you are only buying the leads that meet your requirements, and if they don’t, reject them. 

All of this can be automated and is easy to set up. It allows you to simplify your process and remove the need to perform manual time-consuming tasks. 

4 - Use CAPS to control the supply of data from every source

Using CAPS is a brilliant way to gain control. You can control the time of day you receive data, place limits on volumes, restrict it by granular sources such as individual ads or individual suppliers.

It all feeds into this transformation of lead buying, from a risky and unpredictable venture, into a de-risked, carefully orchestrated process where you know exactly what you are buying and what you will achieve from your investment in terms of ROI. 

5 - Deliver leads quickly

There’s no new ground to be broken hammering home the importance of speed to lead. Everyone knows the faster the better (with a few exceptions). But even if you are using appointments settings there is no reason not to still deliver the leads into the CRM or dialler in real time and give the sales team the best possible chance to contact that lead quickly.

Always deliver leads as quickly as you can (ideally via API). 

6 - Feedback results to the lead generators

A partnership works both ways. Be transparent. Help them help you. By arming a lead generator with all the information you have you are going to make their job easier and the leads better. 

You already trust them if you’ve done your due diligence, so why wouldn’t you? 

7 - Ensure you have all relevant information 

By having all the information relevant to the lead generation you not only improve your ability to refine and optimise performance, but you add an extra layer of protection in terms of compliance. Make sure you know:

• What the advert is
• What the landing page is
• What the channel is
• The URL
• Every stage of the customer journey

Having this audit trail will give you the solution to many problems before they even arise. 

8 - Get granular with your tracking

Your revenue is directly tied to your best data. Getting granular with your tracking will enable you to pinpoint the exact moments that are leading to sales. You need to know which individual ads, which landing page, which sources,  which suppliers, which sub-suppliers, are driving the sales. And just as importantly, which ones are not.

Once you have this information you have the power to very quickly and effectively transform performance.

By combining these 8 individual practices you can build the process required to make 2023 your year. 

Listen to a podcast on this subject below, or watch the video over on Databowl’s YouTube Channel.