Just the other day we had a call from a potential customer who had a business contact list requirement and called to inquire about how we could help build one for him. The discussion went well and then hit the brakes when he discovered custom role based list building would cost more per lead delivered as compared to buying a single contact from an existing database such as Jigsaw.com or even purchasing a pre packaged contact list. The turning point was a question that hit him right away which was “why should I pay a premium for a custom business contact when I can pay less per contact by purchasing a large list instead?”
There is a difference. When you purchase a list of business contacts you are buying a list that was created based on some criteria and though the costs are lower, you are relying on the fact that some percentage of those contacts will be the right decision makers to receive your marketing message or sales call. In a custom role based list building effort every account is called into individually and the best decision maker for your message is locatedensuring that you are targeting the right person within your target account. In this respect, short of qualifications based on asking qualifying questions, these contacts are more qualified as leads compared to ready lists or databases and yield higher returns.
Lets say a company has a CRM software which they need to pitch to potential customers. A custom role based list building service would identify decision makers or key executives within IT who overlook CRM requirements for the company and hence you know you are reaching out to the right person. It takes away part of the ‘trial and error’ aspect associated with a title based list where although the titles maybe along the lines of your potential decision maker, a lot of time and energy may end up being wasted on trying to connect with the wrong decision makers. So while purchased lists and contact databases like Jigsaw are great sources of title based contacts and probably better for a bigger source of volume raw leads, the role based list building option would be worth the premium if you are going for a more focussed, more qualified set of leads where “what the decision maker is responsible for” is important. In our experience, its well worth the premium and the ROI should speak for itself.