James Dooley: So if I am hiring a lead generation agency and I want to try and vet that lead generation agency in some cases they they sign you up to a 12 month contract um what are some questions I should be asking that just so I know from from a business point of view that investment is actually going to be worthwhile?

Unknown Guest: So there's quite a few different questions that you should be asking what the first the first question you should be asking is the quality of the leads right so it's how are they generating those inquiries they outbound lead generation strategies are the inbound lead generation strategies generally speaking if I'm paying for any leads or teaming up with any lead generation company I want inbound leads I always want inbound leads because they've gone out with their way to make the search or go out of their way to inquire with the service or the product that you yourself are looking to sell them and I think that's very very different to someone trying to outreach via email marketing or cold calling and stuff like that it's like I on a minute or direct messaging on LinkedIn you've kind of gone out your way to kind of message them and they're like all right give us a price they're not really ready you want them on an inbound they're ready they're ready to buy so that's probably the first one that I would do.

James Dooley: So would you say that that's kind of like um if if we had a funnel here um if somebody's more outbound they're they're probably a little bit more top of the funnel if somebody's a little bit more inbound they're they're further down you can nurture an outbound lead?

Unknown Guest: Yeah you just you've just got to go through a lot more you got to be educating them along the way die you said down the funnel so another one that I'd be looking at is are the real time leads am I getting it the minute that that person is inquiring am I getting that lead straight away why is that important because conversion rate because what generally starts to happen is IM imagine you're a locksmith right generally speaking on a locksmith you want calls if I'm blocked out my I'm locked out me house I am not feeling in a form I want to Ring to someone now saying how quickly can you get here and price isn't that much of an issue I just want the fastest person to come out and get me back in my car or get me back in my house so for that reason if if it was a call or was an inquiry and someone's not got back to move in a minute I'm going on the second L listing down and I'm inquiring with them if they turn around and say I can be out with you in 20 minutes when that first first company ring back I'm like I've already had it started now so if I'm not getting the real time leads you could end up responding to him as a business owner very fast and say I've already had it started if you're on a paper lead model and you keep hearing I've had it started and you've rang them within 20 seconds the lead generation company are not giving you the real time leads that you need so you need that ammo to be able to be able to convert the leads that's coming in into profit and some times the certain lead generation companies like we'll move on to the next one now is exclusive leads and what might start to happen with this which kind of Falls in line with the real time leads certain lead generation companies have a bidding process so the highest bidder gets the lead and then the second bid gets the lead but they might get it two three minutes later right so if it is on that case well not only that you're paying for a lead and sometimes you're paying 50 for a single lead that lead might be been sold five times so now you've only got a one in five chance now if it's a long-term tender and generally some customers like going out to four or five different companies and checking prices but it's not too bad but generally speaking if you want conversion and quick conversions you want exclusive you want realtime leads and you want inbound leads so they're definitely certain ones that I would be looking to do.

James Dooley: Okay so after asking them those three questions um what about case studies?

Unknown Guest: A million per yeah because like if if I'm teaming up with a league generation company let's say I'm a lawyer in Manchester right if they can show me case studies of what they've done with a lawyer in Essex or in London or in Edinburgh and they can show me that we scaled this company these these was generating two inbound inquiries a day for himself we now are generating them 15 inbound inquiries a day and this is the return on investment of what they're getting and it's specifically in a similar Niche or the exact Niche ideally than what they're in they've done it they' they've literally turned around and gone this is exactly what I want but in Manchester so if they're doing let's say PPC they've got the negative keyword list already the negative keyword listing careers and jobs and other keywords that might not be working for him they know what a good landing page looks like from a conversion standpoint they know what SEO is needed to rank for the terms so they know what good quality content looks like they've already gone through that why would you not have someone who's got that experience of course you would want that and then alongside case studies of proving what they've done falls falls in hand there where you you've got testimonials ideally video testimonials the amount of fake written testimonials I see out there it's hard to fake I know you've got AI nowadays but it's hard to fake a good quality video testimonial where it's not been they've not gone into a studio let's say like this and it looks professional sometimes they're on the phone they're on an iPhone and and they're shooting thems and they're saying oh I just dealt with John from A1 leads and he's he's helped me go from a million to three million a year in revenue and profit margins up and this is what we do and like those testimonials and those case studies in my opinion are key as well but also what I would say to you is if you are a business owner and you are looking to team up with a lead generation company don't just think you have to choose one company go out to two or three different companies try those different companies out and see what works best for you because in Manchester if you was a lawyer somebody else might come along and and have a big network of people far outbound within Manchester that might be they might be able to help with some some of us might be brilliant and have a massive kind of big directory specifically for Manchester companies and that might work so go out try two or three different companies track your kpis and then see which compan is giving you the best return on investment.

James Dooley: Um is there any others on that that you've kind kind of think of from a lead generation?

Unknown Guest: I I think just going back to what you've just been saying um a lot of business owners they don't like going to the same lead generation company because they feel like oh if if they they're my competitor and he's right he's helping my competitor generate more and they kind of have that little bit of a an off step and they're like I don't want to deal with that but I think I think what what you have mentioned there is is really important if they've done it for let's say a law firm in Edinburgh and a law fir in Newcastle and you're a law fir in Manchester and it it just makes sense um I would probably say um I'm fairly certain that's is there anything else that you could I'm trying to think know of what there would be I mean the big one is to spread yourself try to a three different ones check to see who performs best you've got little things like how quick does your lead generator respond how do they want payment up front do they not want payment up front these loads of little caveats from one lead generation company to another some might turn around and say it's a minimum 12 Monon contract you're like I don't I don't even know where your lead to convert yet like so don't have a long contract literally turn around and say I just want 20 leads to start with to see whether they convert that that's that's one thing I was going to say may maybe a trial period um where where you say right okay I know you want let's say 24,000 for the 12mon contract two 2,000 a month let's just say okay I I'll pay you let's say 2,000 let's do a trial for four weeks or six weeks or whatever and then we'll we'll start we'll start after we see some results I think I think that that's probably one one other question I would do is is is a trial period all the the one caveat to all of this as well is if you guys are looking for lead generation head over to Fat rank we do have a pay for performance model which um if you do it get accepted you don't need to pay anything up front um we'll actually take the actual marketing cost and we will generate you the leads and then once we've generated you the leads once you've got the leads you still don't pay you then start only paying after you have actually received payment from the actual work that we actually generate you as well yes so it is literally pay on conversion so once you've got the lead you've converted it you've done the job and you've been paid you then pay a commission and a finders fee for the lead that you have which has already been agreed prior to all the leads being sent through to you so it is it is an absolute no-brainer for businesses if accepted there is a criteria to get accepted and you need to make certain you meet that criteria if you don't there still is a paper lead model which is still an inbound marketing model but on that you are paying for for each and every lead where if you can get yourself in on the commission based or the revenue share or the no win no fee lead generation model it it is the best that you can generate for if you get if you do get declined unless is something else that's very important if you do get declined ask why ask for the reason why and try and work on it because if if the due diligence team have come back and said look it just looks unprofessional that you're emailing from James big bad James hotmail.com instead of James A1 conservatories do.uk well if our due diligence are thinking that it's because probably clients are going to think that so we don't want to waste our time and our money on generating leads that's coming out from Big badj mail.com so think about the reason of if you got declined and then trying working it and you can easily reapply the commission-based lead generation service is the best that there is out there like he said it's a no-brainer but like I said don't throw all your eggs in one basket go out to two or three different lead generation companies ask those questions get those testimonials get those case studies check whether it's exclusive and real time leads and then if they're getting a return on investment for you as well and you can use two or three different lead generation companies at the same time.