It’s evident that the pricing of a B2B lead gen tool matters to your business. What isn’t so obvious is how you should compare the price structures of the many different contact database options available on the market. With some companies charging monthly per user and others billing for an entire year for your whole team, it’s difficult to compare the cost of sales leads vendors.
Here are a few questions to consider as you make your decision:
What kind of lead quantity do you need from a contact database?
Almost every company you find will have a different way of packaging the data they sell you. One popular way to sell sales leads is per record – many companies charge a flat rate for each contact record, making it easier to compare their price to other companies. This option is also desirable because it ensures that you only pay for the leads you need.
On the other side of the coin are companies that charge a single price for as much data as you need, similar to an all-you-can-eat restaurant. This option may seem ideal because you know exactly how much you’ll pay each month, and you get as many contact records as you desire.
But before you go with the buffet-style option, think about how hungry you really are. Does your business really need an unending stream of prospects? If you can calculate precisely how many leads you’ll need each month, you may be able to get a better deal by purchasing them on a per-record basis. There also may be a bottleneck preventing you from using leads beyond a certain quantity – technological or staffing limitations, for example.
What are the payment options?
Any discussion on pricing should also include an examination of payment terms. Some contact database vendors require customers to pay for an entire year up front, while others provide a monthly subscription option. This raises some questions for a company trying to find the perfect solution for their needs.
Are you sure that you will get enough use out of the leads database to justify the cost of paying for an entire year in advance? What if something changes and you want to end your membership early? It may be worth it to your business to pay a little extra for a flexible, month-to-month solution instead of getting locked into a single provider for a year.
How transparent are they?
While considering multiple vendors, think about how much they are willing to tell you about their solution and how far they will go to prove that their data is reliable. In an ideal situation, you will be given a representative data sample that allows you to test the records before you pay for them. It may be worth paying a higher price for more reliable data that a vendor will stand by instead of saving some money for leads of questionable authenticity.
