LinkedIn Lead Generation Service – Read This Before You Hire

Has your B2B business not had enough leads come through recently?

Maybe you’re frustrated with the amount of money you’re spending on inbound marketing, and you aren’t seeing results as fast as you would like.

If this is the case, you aren’t alone. Many companies spend a ton of money on different forms of marketing, only to find that qualified leads aren’t coming in fast enough.

Outbound works, but if you aren’t a fan of cold calling or aggressive marketing, you might be interested in trying out a LinkedIn lead generation service. 

Not only won’t your business come across as sleazy and aggressive, but if you choose the right Linkedin lead generation agency, you could be guaranteed 1 qualified lead per day (which amounts to 20+ leads per month.)

But the question arises… 

How do you find this unicorn agency? 

With so many different lead generation services out there, you need to choose one that will give you the best bang for your buck.

How do you do this? By asking these 10 questions. 

(Or if you’re ready for a company that guarantees 20+ qualified leads per month, set up a free 15-minute consultation call and read this article to see Salesbread’s lead generation strategy.)

Question 1: How long will it take before my first lead comes in?

Imagine paying an outreach agency, and signing a contract, only to have your first few leads come in a month later. 

This would be disastrous. And unfortunately, this happens more often than not, with larger b2b lead generation agencies. 

Have a look at some of these comments below from two different Linkedin Lead Generation agencies: (We have not included the company names)

NOTE: We aren’t adding these examples into this article to slam our competitors, but rather to focus on the fact that if you get locked into a contract, and don’t have any leads after 4 months of paying, it’s going to cause frustration. You don’t want to find yourself in this situation.

 No one wants to lose money.

 So it’s important to ask a company when your first quality leads will come in. 

Because if you have the right target audience, and you have an ultra-targeted list of prospects, you should be getting your first qualified lead within the first 24 hours of launching your Linkedin lead gen campaign. 

 At Salebread 92% of our clients get their first lead within 24 hours after launching their Linkedin lead generation campaign.

It’s important to note though that the first week is usually the slowest when it comes to the lead generation process, but as you grow your prospecting sequence and follow up with prospects, then by week 8 the agency should have generated plenty of qualified leads for your business. 

If an agency says that it takes time for leads to come in, it’s important to ask them why.

Because if you have a defined target list, and you’re selling to prospects who need what you’re selling, then those leads should come in quickly.

 At Salesbread, we guarantee 1 qualified lead per day, and as we mentioned earlier 92% of our clients get their first lead within 24 hours from the launch date. 

 IMPORTANT: 

Your Linkedin profile can also play a major role in who accepts your connection requests or not. Remember the agency will have access to your profile to reach out to prospects as if they were you.

So if your profile is unprofessional, or has very little information on it, the chances of prospects wanting to engage with you will be minimum. 

Here are some things to consider when updating your Linkedin profile:

• Use your profile as a sales page. Many people use it as a resume, but this is an outdated way of using the platform. Your about section should tell readers exactly how your company can address their pain points and include any merits that your business has. 

Below is an example of a great Linkedin profile:

• Notice how the contact details are clear at the end
• Pain points are addressed
• You know exactly what Dan Martell does.
• His photo is also clear and professional

Read this article for more tips on how to create the perfect Linkedin profile

Question 2: How will you make sure that my Linkedin account won’t get blocked?

If a lead generation company promises hundreds of leads, and that they send many messages per day, ask them how many messages will they send in a day.

Why? Because if the agency isn’t careful you could be hit with these little beauties:

You don’t want to be hit with these messages.

Not only does it slow down your outreach campaigns, but sending too many messages at once, will burn through your list.

At the same time, this is also important because the agency you choose should not only grow and nurture your connections, but they are connecting you with potential clients who will be part of your network even long after you stop working with the agency. 

So if they are sending hundreds of messages that lack personalization, and you sound robotic in your messages, all it takes is one person to flag you.

This is really bad because then Linkedin will crack down on your account.

You need to make sure that your risk of getting blocked is under control.

If the agency is using crappy automation lead generation tools, like Dux-Soup, run for the hills. If they are using any browser automation tools, don’t even go there.

At Salesbread we have been using Expandi for years now, in fact, we were probably one of their first clients, and we have a perfect track record of zero issues, through hundreds of clients. 

The agency must keep messaging to a reasonable volume. 

25 messages per day should be enough to hit your lead gen goals.  

This amount can fluctuate, but never send more than 100 messages in one day. 

Note: Interestingly enough, in the past 8 months, we haven’t seen any restrictions at all on any level of volume on Linkedin for our clients. It’s starting to look as if Linkedin is backing off on invite restrictions, as long as you’re maintaining super high quality and reaching out to the right people.  

Question 3: How do you build a list of prospects?

If a lead generation service can’t tell you how they build a prospect list, be wary.

When it comes to working with the best Linkedin lead generation agencies, they should be able to explain to you in detail how they intend to build a list of qualified prospects. 

They should be able to tell you this on a sales call.

Don’t feel as if you have to wait for them for weeks to have this process going. 

A short conversation with a good list builder and a good agency should be able to tell you on a high level, exactly how they will find your prospects before working with you. 

There’s no secret to list building.

Here’s an example:

Say now you would like to target agencies that offer video production services.

And you ask the lead generation company how would they target founders at these video agencies, they should be able to tell you the following:

We would start with clutch.co and search for video production/marketing agencies. Clutch is a directory of millions of agencies.

We scrape the relevant categories of agencies to get a broad list, there are going to be a lot of false positives there. We will then narrow it down according to data on your current buying customers. 

For example, you would like to only target agencies that have at least 10 employees but not bigger than 200, because these are the types of agencies that are buying from you.

We would check this information through a program called Zoominfo for example, and then remove the agencies outside of the employee count range.

Next, we would scrape each website of these agencies to check whether they mention video marketing on their services page. 

Then those who remain, we will use Linkedin Sales Navigator to find the founders or (decision-makers) of these agencies.

We will then check which founders are in your second-degree network, and then reach out to them via Linkedin messaging.  

If a lead generation agency can’t give you this amount of detail on the sales call, you might want to steer clear.

Question 4: What type of leads will you get me?

This is an important question so that you and the agency are both on the same page. You might have one idea of a lead, and they might have a different idea. 

There are also different types of leads.

Some leads mean getting your foot in the door to start conversations. Other leads might mean booked appointments. 

You need to be very clear about what the agency means by “lead generation.” 

Double-check whether appointments will be booked for you, or if you will need to book the sales call with the prospect. 

At Salesbread we start conversations in order for you to sell your product or service. We help you get your fit in the door. We can also book appointments for you if you need the service. 

It’s also important to note though that we don’t sell booked appointments. We are not an appointment setting service.

So if you are looking for someone who just fills your calendar and you don’t have to respond to any leads, we are not for you. 

But if you would like the following replies from leads: 

• Hi Harry, Sounds great, give me a call at your convenience, ####

• Hi Sarah, Thanks for reaching out. Quick question: how much does it cost to make such an app? Thank

• Can you send sample videos and the cost?

• Hi Nick! Apologies for the delay here as I’m not on LI as much. Feel free to send a note to email #### so we can set up a time to chat.

You may like working with us because we are half the cost of a reputable appointment setter.

Question 5: Will I be locked into a contract?

Most lead generation services will lock you into a contract for a few months. 

At Salesbread, we don’t do this. 

WHY?

Because our results get our customers to stay with us. 

We have clients who have been working with us for years without being locked into a contract.

There is a reason to stay on with the lead generation service for 3 months at least because, after this time, new leads really do ramp up. 

But you should be happy within the first 2 weeks.

If there is a contract, ask the agency how long will you be locked into it for. 3 months? 6 months? A year? Find out exactly what it entails. 

You don’t want to be locked into a contract, and not see results.  If the agency isn’t generating leads within 2 weeks you should worry. 

Question 6: Does the agency use personalization in their outreach and to what extent?

When it comes to a LinkedIn lead generation service, you need to make sure that they personalize their messages. And not just by adding a first name. 

Why?

Because Linkedin outreach isn’t going to be successful if messages are not ultra-personalized. 

What does this mean?

At Salesbread, our Linkedin lead generation strategy includes ultra personalization.

We actually have a personalization expert and all they do is research potential leads and write personalized messages just for the prospect. 

How do we do this?

We Google every prospect or check out their Linkedin profile. This should give us enough information to send them something personal. 

Here is an example of how we write personalized messages in our outreach:

Hi {firstName}, {custom Intro}

After reading that you’re working on {specific project responsibility} for {type_of_client}, I’d like to find out how you’re dealing with {current pain point}. My company is working on new ways to handle {unique benefit} for {customer_type}, but I’m curious to hear what’s been working for {Company} lately if you’re open to exchanging ideas around {pain point}. 

How’s Thursday or Friday looking to connect?

 Or

 Jack, loved your article on Mailshake about XYZ, particularly this point (XYZ) would love to connect with you. 

 When you think of personalization, think CCQ.

 It stands for: 

• Compliment
• Commonalities
• Questions

We use the CCQ method for our copywriting. We find something to compliment the prospect on, a commonality, or ask them a question.

This captures their attention, and they reply.

Prospects are so used to being spammed on Linkedin, that they have blinkers on when new messages come through. If they receive the same generic automated message that gets sent out to everyone, they are going to ignore you. 

This is a reply that we recently received from a prospect:

“Thanks for giving a sh*t about your leads! I don’t respond to even 1% of LinkedIn messages but wanted you to know I appreciated you digging a bit. It makes a difference! Let’s…”

A dentist and business owner wrote that after seeing our personalization.

Note: The personalization we included had something to do with how he enjoyed “water sports and camping”.

Nothing fancy.

But there’s no way we could deliver our “1 lead per day” if we didn’t obsess about personalizing every single LinkedIn message.

So ask the agency that you decide to hire, do they use personalization, and to what extent.

If messages are not ultra-personalized, don’t hire them. You’re just going to be throwing money down the sink. 

Question 7: What expectations should I have for this partnership?

As mentioned above you don’t want to be disappointed in the leads generated.

Perhaps in your mind, you’re thinking that you want 500 leads in one month, but this isn’t realistic.

Especially if you are using an agency that focuses on high-quality leads that will most likely convert once they get on a sales call. 

This conversation is important. 

IDEA: You might want to run some of your own LinkedIn campaigns before you hire a lead generation service. This can give you a realistic idea of what to expect. If you do decide to do this, ask yourself which messages worked? What didn’t work? If you receive any data from your own campaigns, you could always share this with the agency, as this will give them a place to start. 

 We can’t say exactly what you should expect, because you might have an excellent product or service that’s solving pain points, making prospects want to buy from you. 

You might even already have a brand following through content marketing, social media, or SEO.

This means more people know about your product or service; which means they might be much more likely to book a sales call because your name is already out there. 

Your product, your target market, and how new you are in the market will affect how many leads you can expect. 

Running some campaigns yourself beforehand will give the lead gen agency a lot of firepowers to use.

Important: Be wary, though, if they don’t ask you how you have been generating customers to date.

This is a fundamental question that shows the lead gen company what’s working for you. 

Even if you go to trade shows, use social media platforms, like Facebook, or use a specific pitch that works, let the lead gen agency know about it. 

This will help them understand what’s working for you and who they can target.

They can then add your copywriting/pitch to their Linkedin message copy, especially if it has been working.

Also, consider quality vs. quantity. 

Be careful to tell the agency that you need X number of leads per week.

This might lead them to message way too many people, with no personalization, bringing the quality of your campaign down.

Focus on quality over quantity. Rather have 20 qualified leads who convert, than 200 random leads that aren’t a good fit for your product or service. 

Also keep asking for updates on what the Linkedin lead generation service is doing for you. It’s okay and necessary to ask for stats, and what messages they are sending out. 

Open and honest conversations about expectations are of utmost importance for success. 

Remember for a partnership to work, you also need to be able to provide data to the agency. 

The agency that you choose has never worked with you before. 

They don’t know anything about your product or service and they don’t know who your current buying customers are. 

So give them tons of data. 

If you have a list of companies who have purchased from you within the past 6 months, you need to share this information because it can help their sales teams to target the right people.

The more information you can share the better. 

(For example, perhaps many of your leads come from social networks like Twitter, then the agency knows that Linkedin might not be the best platform to find leads and that they should rather target prospects on Twitter. Remember not all prospects are on Linkedin. )

9. How much will the lead generation service cost?

Costs vary from agency to agency, but most have similar pricing structures. 

Some companies charge per lead; We don’t advise this.

But according to research, you can expect to pay between $2000 – $5000 per month for a good Linkedin lead generation service. 

B2B companies shouldn’t be fooled though, into thinking that paying for cheaper services will get you the same results.

Some agencies don’t charge too much, but the problem is that they might be neglecting an important marketing strategy like personalization and ultra-defined list building. 

These cheaper agencies might even just buy a list of contacts and send hundreds of messages to everyone on the list.

This in our opinion is a waste of money and time. Rather pay a little bit more, and get better results that lead to higher conversion rates.

Important: 

Know where you’re at in your business. 

What you can and can’t afford, and most importantly, how much are these leads worth to you. 

If you don’t know your close rate from a lead to a new deal and where that deal ends up over the lifetime of the customer, then it will be hard to justify spending thousands of dollars a month on lead gen.  

You have got to know the value of your customer and the value of each lead that comes in.

Question 10: How do you find a good Linkedin lead generation service?

Lastly, this isn’t a question for an agency, but rather a question to ask in general. With so many agencies out there, how do you find the right fit for your business?

Have a look at Linkedin, Google some Linkedin lead generation services, and have a look at their reviews. You could even ask friends or colleagues who they suggest. 

But most importantly, ask to review case studies, hop on a consultation call, and ask the above questions. This will quickly help you pan out the good companies, from the not-so-great. 

But if 20+ qualified leads per month sound good to you…

Get on a free 15-minute consultation call with Salesbread. There is no secret to generating leads. It starts with an ultra-targeted list of prospects, quality personalization, and real-time follow-ups (no bots).

Salesbread has over a decade of experience in lead gen, and as a client, you will work directly with the founder of the agency, Jack Reamer, and not be handed over to a campaign manager.  

Our clients love working with us so much, that we have a waitlist. 

We also integrate with most CRMS that you might be using. 

Read this article:

https://salesbread.com/the-best-done-for-you-lead-generation-service/  

It will share how we generated close to 5000 qualified leads for our clients in 2021, along with case studies and testimonials. 

For 1 qualified lead per day in your sales funnel… think Salesbread.