Finding the right outreach agency is hard.
Why?
Well for starters, you don’t want to pay just any company to handle your lead-generation campaigns. Imagine spending thousands of dollars, and receiving hardly any ROI.
Nightmare.
In fact, we actually have a client who mentioned that they spent $10 000 on a Linkedin ads agency, and never even received 1 lead.
So when it comes to choosing the right Linkedin lead generation agency, you have to ask certain questions and gauge whether or not they would be the right fit for your business.
This article will share common red flags to look out for, and the type of Linkedin lead gen agency you actually want to hire.
(But if you would like more advice from a Linkedin lead generation agency, that has been in the industry for over a decade, feel free to hop on a free 15-minute consultation call with us. Happy to answer any questions you might have about generating high-quality leads for your business.)
Red flags to look out for… Stay away from these kinds of agencies
They promise hundreds of leads a month
If an agency promises hundreds of leads a month, red flashing warning lights should go off in your brain.
Why?
Because if hundreds of leads are promised (especially with Linkedin outreach) the agency will be skimping on 2 things:
- Personalization
And…
- An ultra-refined prospecting list.
Meaning… You won’t be getting many qualified leads, but rather hundreds of prospects who aren’t interested in what you’re selling. This will just waste time and money.
You want an agency to go after prospects who need what you’re selling and who have the budget to buy. When agencies use a “spray and pray” approach for generating leads, you’re going to end up with very few sales.
Another problem with this LinkedIn lead generation strategy is that you run the risk of getting your Linkedin account blocked.
If an agency uses your Linkedin profile to send outreach messages, and they over step Linkedin’s safe limits, your account could be suspended.
This could be for 1 -7 days, or even longer.
After a few restrictions, your account could even be banned forever. You don’t want this.
Besides this, if hundreds of leads come in daily, sales teams won’t realistically be able to handle all these calls.
An example we have is of a company called DigiPli that we were running Linkedin lead generation campaigns for.
We surpassed our promise of 1 lead a day, and generated 85 sales-ready leads in 8 weeks. We had to halt our services for a brief amount of time for their sales team to catch up with the leads coming in.
They use automation for the entire lead generation process
Automation tools can be useful.
For example, at SalesBread we use Expandi to automate follow-up messages until a prospect replies. Once they reply, we will then have a member of our sales team reach out to them in person.
But the problem with many other b2b lead generation agencies is that they automate the entire Linkedin prospecting process.
From the copywriting to the connection requests, to the follow-ups.
People know when messages are automated on Linkedin, and very often, they won’t respond to this kind of outreach.
Why?
Because it comes across as spam. We all have built-in “sales filters”. When someone tries to pitch us something, we often just ignore the message. Prospects are spammed daily on Linkedin by sales reps.
Any time you use automation for everything, you aren’t going to find those positive sales opportunities.
So ask the lead generation service, how much automation they use and what do they automate.
There has to be a human step when you use Linkedin for outreach.
They don’t write personalized messages
When we do personalization at SalesBread it goes way beyond using a prospect’s first name or mentioning the company they work at.
We actually research prospects in detail. We do this by checking out their social media pages, Googling their name, or even listening to interviews.
If a Linkedin lead generation service uses basic personalization, you won’t see results.
As mentioned above, people know when a message is automated, or spammy. And when you don’t use personalized messaging, prospects tend to ignore you.
Personalization causes a pattern interrupt. It makes prospects stop and get curious about what you have sent them.
At SalesBread we use a process called CCQ for personalization. This means that we will either find something about the prospect to compliment them on, ask a question, or mention a commonality.
Because of using this personalized approach, we are seeing average connection rates of 45% and average positive reply rates of 39% on Linkedin.
When scouting for an agency, make sure they use in-depth personalization. If they don’t, keep looking.
What kind of message would you rather reply to?
This:
Or this:
You would most probably connect with the second person.
This is what we keep mindful of in our outreach. We personalize our messages enough to get a foot in the door for further conversations.
When lead generation agencies don’t do this, they run the risk of failing and wasting your money.
They lock you into a fixed contract
A Linkedin lead generation company should get their clients to stay with them due to good results.
Not a fixed contract.
Why?
Because imagine if you’re locked into a contract for 6 months, and the agency hardly generates any sales leads for you.
You shouldn’t have to be tied to a contract. Results should get you to stay.
If an agency insists that you sign a contract, always read through the fine print. Many companies only really start to make money from clients if they can keep them for about 5-18 months.
This is probably the number one reason why agencies lock clients into contracts, but if the company is bringing in leads, then clients will stay on with the agency.
No need for fixed contracts.
They only use one outreach channel
If an agency only uses one outreach channel they stand the chance of missing out on new leads.
For example, not every single prospect is going to be active on Linkedin. If they aren’t, then using a cold email, SMS or a phone call could work to reach them.
At SalesBread we use Linkedin outreach, cold emails, and SMS to reach out to ideal prospects. Because of this, we ensure that if a prospect doesn’t see our message on Linkedin, they will receive it through a different channel.
Their list-building process is basic
Building a basic list of your target audience is a huge mistake. Most agencies will ask you who your ideal target market is, and you might respond by saying: “It’s founders of content marketing services who specialize in SEO throughout America.”
Great.
They then proceed to build a list of all founders of content marketing agencies throughout America who specialize in SEO and go after ALL of them. Leading to a very low conversion rate.
What was the problem?
The agency didn’t look at your current buying data. They didn’t look for in-depth patterns of WHO is buying from you.
And this is what we do at SalesBread. We analyze buying data. WHO has been buying from you in the past 6 months?
Quickly patterns begin to emerge.
For example, we might notice that your best BUYING customers are companies with 10-20 employees. We might also notice that they mainly use video production in their content, and that decision-makers aren’t founders, but rather marketing managers.
Most businesses know who they would like to target, but building look-alike prospect lists of current buying customers increases your chance of lead generation success.
These articles go into detail about how we build prospect lists:
They buy prospecting lists
When a marketing strategy includes buying data – you have a problem. When a prospecting list is built from scratch, the data that you have is fresh. Buying lists of prospects or buying data could lead to having outdated information.
Sure it’s easy to buy a list of information, but how do you know that the information is accurate? Rather choose an agency that takes the time to build an accurate, in-depth list of prospects with fresh data.
There’s no point in flushing your hard-earned cash down the drain for leads that don’t convert.
And the chances of this happening is very high if you have inaccurate data.
They don’t have recent case studies or testimonials
Reading case studies and testimonials can tell you a lot about an agency. For example, by reading an in-depth case study, you can quickly tell whether a Linkedin marketing agency knows what they are doing.
They should be able to prove with metrics and excellent testimonials that they get results for their clients.
If case studies and testimonials are outdated, you might want to think twice. It might mean that they haven’t had recent success in generating Linkedin sales for their customers.
This isn’t always the case, but remember lead generation is an ever-changing game that agencies should keep up with.
If they are still using outdated methods that worked 5 years ago, they might not be getting results right now.
Maybe 5 years ago they were crushing it, but now in 2023, they aren’t.
Below are some of our recent testimonials:
The agencies pricing is pretty cheap
It can be really tempting to choose a company that has cheaper rates, especially if you’re a start-up and would like to save money.
The problem is though that some of these agencies might be a lot cheaper because they neglect list building and don’t write personalized messages. Or perhaps they are new to outbound and don’t have a huge client base yet, so their pricing is less.
Rather choose a Linkedin lead generation service that is in the middle range for pricing. This could be from between $2500-$5500 a month, depending on your needs.
Anything less than $2000 a month, I’d steer clear of. If you do choose to use a more cost-effective agency, it could end up costing you more in the long run, especially if no leads are coming in and closing deals is a fleeting hope.
What do we learn?
Steer clear of agencies that:
- Promise hundreds or thousands of leads a month
- Use automation tools for the entire lead generation process
- Don’t write personalized messages for each and every prospect
- Lock you into fixed contracts
- Use one outreach channel
- Have a basic list-building process
- Buy prospecting data
- Don’t have recent case studies and positive testimonials
- Are really cheap
SalesBread is one of the agencies that do Linkedin lead generation the right way
If you’re interested in getting 1 qualified sales lead per day, or 20+ qualified leads per month, let’s talk.
Hit us up below for a free 15-minute strategy call, and let’s help your b2b company find potential leads that bring in sales.