I'm interested in testing a lead generation service for people that sell SEO, website construction, etc. No pre-sales hype here, as I'm only in the idea generation stage at this point (although I do have all the systems in place already and use them in an existing offline business).

In a nutshell, I can harvest local business data from any city in the US (think Yellowbook, Merchant Circle, etc.). I can broadcast recorded messages to these businesses by phone (play recorded message to live person, leave recorded message in vm, press 1 to connect to sales person immediately, etc....standard stuff). Strictly business to business, no business to consumer calls.

Phone broadcasting doesn't have a massive response rate, but it doesn't have to. When you're offering a high margin product/service to thousands of local prospects, you don't need many takers to generate a very solid ROI.

I have a lot more to add, but I wanted to open up the discussion since I see so many people that seem to be struggling with cold calling, hiring telemarketers, commissioned sales people, etc.

Thoughts?

I know as someone who as struggled to find a decent lead generator (and never found one...), that depending on the cost of this service I'd be interested. I think I'm about $250 in the hole now, with nothing to show for it from hiring Odesk lead generators.

The main questions would be:
1. Cost?
2. How many people are given each lead?
3. Would you diversify the leads? Google Places, ORM, General SEO, etc.

that would be dope. I can see many people using this including myself.

Originally Posted by Frostedbutts

I know as someone who as struggled to find a decent lead generator (and never found one...), that depending on the cost of this service I'd be interested. I think I'm about $250 in the hole now, with nothing to show for it from hiring Odesk lead generators.

The main questions would be:
1. Cost?
2. How many people are given each lead?
3. Would you diversify the leads? Google Places, ORM, General SEO, etc.

How did the people on oDesk generate the leads?

I'm dedicated to starting a full online business, and have a site that will be ready to go very soon. However, I'm having trouble establishing the initial contact.

I'm open to chatting here or on Skype if you want to get this thing going as soon as possible.

Am interested..What Cost??

Originally Posted by Frostedbutts

I know as someone who as struggled to find a decent lead generator (and never found one...), that depending on the cost of this service I'd be interested. I think I'm about $250 in the hole now, with nothing to show for it from hiring Odesk lead generators.

The main questions would be:
1. Cost?
2. How many people are given each lead?
3. Would you diversify the leads? Google Places, ORM, General SEO, etc.

I think a lot of people are having the same challenges. I'm not sure about the potential cost structure at this point. I wanted to test the waters to determine if there would even be much demand. I think the leads would have to be exclusive. By nature of the system, we'd pinpoint an area and specific businesses categories and work from there. In terms of diversification, it would depend on your target offering. The system won't change, but the message would. You can basically offer any type of product/service simply by changing the message in the broadcast.

Originally Posted by flaw3d

that would be dope. I can see many people using this including myself.

I think you're right.

Originally Posted by imperial109

I'm dedicated to starting a full online business, and have a site that will be ready to go very soon. However, I'm having trouble establishing the initial contact.

I'm open to chatting here or on Skype if you want to get this thing going as soon as possible.

A lot of people are in the same boat. And you bring up a good point....establishing the initial contact. Let's face it, cold calling sucks. No one likes to do it, and it's very resource intensive. The beauty of phone broadcasting is that it takes the grunt work out of your hands. It doesn't close business for you (you still have to be able to do that), but it is possible to generate warm leads.

Originally Posted by safex

Am interested..What Cost??

No sure yet. I'm actually thinking more along the lines of providing a service whereby we harvest the data for you for particular business categories in a particular geographic area (city/zip code), create the message, and do the broadcasting. Perhaps a flat charge per 1,000 messages delivered....something along those lines, rather than a per lead fee.

Also might consider doing first broadcast free, something along those lines. (I'll actually definitely do this when I get to the testing stage).

Next question:

What types of services specifically would you like to get warm leads for?

Good leads would be for the following services:

Seo (always)
Social Media, marketing and account customization
Online Reputation Management
PPC
Mobile Marketing
Email Marketing

Originally Posted by dankerman666

Good leads would be for the following services:

Seo (always)
Social Media, marketing and account customization
Online Reputation Management
PPC
Mobile Marketing
Email Marketing

Great list, thanks. What if we could also target companies that don't have a website, for example?

General SEO
ORM
Social Media
and Google Places

Those would be the leads I would want targeted. I would also REALLY love a geo-targeted lead service, so I could get local leads. I like meeting with my clients, and no reasonably priced service I've found yet offers that.

Doing some digging...the ideas are flowing.

I'm thinking super targeted local leads....there are tools that combined w/ broadcasting/mailing...could knock the ball out of the park in terms of lead generation.

Originally Posted by flexpaydude

Doing some digging...the ideas are flowing.

I'm thinking super targeted local leads....there are tools that combined w/ broadcasting/mailing...could knock the ball out of the park in terms of lead generation.

I would 100% pay for a service like this if the price was right. If you are in need of any sort of testing, let me know and we can figure something out.

Taking this a step further, could you generate a set of leads for my customers? Say property managers in Houston for my hardwood flooring customer? I would offer this as an added value service and buy from you.

Can you do custom pulls, say people who own dry cleaning companies, landscaping companies, or whatever?

I would also be very interested in new LLC's that spring up in my area.

I'm also interested in your discussion, and will be a possible customer.

The services I'm thinking of providing:
SEO
Reputation management

I'll help with testing or whatever assistyance you may need.

Thanks for the offer.

VB has its challenges; What do you find the response rates are? Ie: How many numbers called, to how many connects/live answer or VM, to how many (call backs, press one, landingpage etc vists) are you finding? How are you doing it? live press one transfers, voice message or do you blend it?

Im looking into hiring good lead gens and will pay $200 to $1000 depending in the lead and package that I will close them with. With an automated voice personally I just hang up because it seems like a telemarketing call. If you could cold call and produce leads for me to close we can maybe talk

I'm interested in knowing more about your service. I would like to generate leads for home owners in the area who are looking to do short sales, refinance, forensic audits, etc..

let me know if this something that you can offer.

I am extremely new to offline marketing and have no idea where to begin.

What is the benefit of the warm lead?

The business gets a recorded message, if they are interested, they hit 1. The phone comes to me so I can close the call.

Am I understanding this right?

This is the basic one:

You can start with sending emails to the potential client with a contact number and address...Then cold-calling will follows and so on. But it's if you do it personally than hiring lead generators, the success rate for that is 50/50.

Would you be able to pull a owner/principal of the business and the emails? ( not just the junky "info@---.com") ?