Lead generation services
Lead generation services, compared without the sales pitch
The short answer
Lead generation services come in four shapes: contact data delivery, appointment setting, managed outbound and paid inbound. The right one depends on whether you already have people to make the calls. If you do, buying screened contact data at cents per record is the cheapest route to pipeline. If you do not, pay for dials or appointments until you hire.
The four models
What each service costs and who it suits
Contact data delivery
10 to 50 cents per contact · Teams with reps who need volume
You buy screened, callable contacts matched to your ideal customer. You keep the conversations, the data and the margin. This is what LeadNumbers does, from 10 cents per contact with a mobile number or direct dial on every record.
Appointment setting
$100 to $800 per meeting · Teams with closers but no prospectors
An outside team calls and emails on your behalf and books meetings into your calendar. Fast to start, expensive per outcome, and you rarely own the list afterwards.
Managed outbound
$3,000 to $12,000 per month · Teams building a motion from zero
A retained team runs sequences, dials and reporting. Good for building a playbook quickly, but the cost holds whether or not the month worked.
Paid inbound
$50 to $400 per enquiry · Brands with a proven offer and budget
Ads and content pull buyers to you. Higher intent, slower to compound, and the price per enquiry moves with your market's ad auction.
Doing the maths
Why the per-lead rate decides everything downstream
Work backwards from a meeting. On mobile-first data a rep connects with roughly 10% of dials and books a meeting with roughly 10% of connects, so about 100 dials per meeting. At 10 cents a contact, 3,000 contacts costs $360 and supports a month of full-time dialing. The data is rarely the expensive part of an outbound program. Rep time is. That is why paying more per record for contacts that do not reach a human is the costliest mistake in the category.
How to test one
A fair test of any lead generation company
- 01
Give them your real profile
Not a broad industry. Titles, company size, geography and the exclusions that matter.
- 02
Ask for a live sample
Records built this week, not a canned file. Dial them yourself and count how many reach a human.
- 03
Check the replacement policy
Anyone confident in their data replaces wrong records free. Anyone who is not will sell you credits.
FAQ
Lead generation services, answered plainly
What do lead generation services actually do?
They fall into four groups: data providers that sell contacts, appointment setting agencies that book meetings, marketing agencies that buy inbound demand, and managed outbound teams that run calling and email for you. They differ mostly in who does the work and what you pay per outcome.
How much do lead generation services cost?
Contact data runs from about 10 to 50 cents per record. Appointment setting runs $100 to $800 per booked meeting or $3,000 to $12,000 a month retained. Paid inbound depends entirely on your cost per click and conversion rate.
Which lead generation service is right for a small sales team?
If you have reps, buy the data and keep the conversations in house, because the margin sits in the calls. If you have no reps, pay for dials or appointments and skip the hiring cycle.
How do I evaluate a lead generation company?
Ask for a live sample against your own profile, check what share of records carry a mobile number or direct dial, ask what happens when a record is wrong, and confirm whether the data is exclusive to you and deduplicated across your account.
What is the fastest lead generation service to start?
Self-serve contact delivery. There is no scoping call, no onboarding project and no creative to approve. Confirm your ideal customer, pay, and the first batch lands on the next business day.
Do lead generation services guarantee results?
Data providers guarantee the record, not the outcome. Appointment setters guarantee a meeting count but not its quality. Be suspicious of anyone guaranteeing revenue.