New way of getting B2B customers – what are your thoughts?

[Paul_R]

Hey Guys! Happy 2013! Hope it’s a good one for you all!
I’m looking for your take on an idea…
A friend of mine is looking to start a new business that helps businesses in the B2B arena (so businesses who supply to other businesses) find new customers more effectively.
He’s asked me to join him and work on it, and I kind of like the idea, but I’d love to hear your take on it and any thoughts you have on the concept!

Here’s the spiel…
Basically, how do you currently get warm leads for your business?
Telemarketing?Pay-per-click advertising?SEO? Trade Shows?...
Well, how about if you stated what type of customers you are looking for (your ideal customer in terms of industry, employee size, turnover, decision maker title, etc…) and then individuals who know the type of customers you are looking for could introduce your company to them if they are interested in hearing from you?…
Here, via an online platform, you state what customers you are looking for, and how much you are willing to pay for warm leads that have been pre-qualified. People who then know the customers you are after are then alerted, and are told they will be paid the amount if they can facilitate an intro on your behalf.
You get pre-qualified warm leads via a referral (the best type of lead!), and the person referring the customer to you gets money for facilitating the introduction. You only pay if someone can provide a pre-qualified lead.
The model works on a national & global scale, so you can get introductions across the country (/globe!) which previously you would have no access to.

So, what do you guys think??
- Could you use this to get new warm leads for your business?
- Would you be prepared to introduce people from your contact base to businesses in return for money? (which could range from £50 upto £1k+, depending upon the industry type)

Be great to hear the thoughts of everyone and see if (a) you could use it for your business, and (b) whether you would be willing to introduce people from your contact base in return for money.

Cheers guys!
Paul

[rshughes]

From the viewpoint of the one receiving the warm leads, this is a great idea!

From the viewpoint of the person whose name was given up, it might either be a good idea or an annoyance. If it turned out to be an annoyance, then the one who did the referring might risk losing a customer or at least his trust. If you are my supplier, Paul, and you gave my name to a pesky salesperson whose product I may or may not have a use for, then I would think less highly of you. If I further found out you received money to give up my name, then I would definitely avoid doing business with you in the future.

So to answer your questions, (a) yes, as the purchaser of the leads only; and (b) no way.

David

[Wozcreative]

Ok so lets say I am business 123 that is getting referred to company ABC by george, how is this george going to introduce me? 123 has never met him before. 123 hasn't done any business before. So it looks like george has to blow smoke up company ABC's butt about business 123 to make it believable that he is referring out of previously having experience with 123.

That doesn't make sense to me. Referrals only work if the contacts are genuine. Thats why we have reviews.. sometimes we don't know anyone who actually has used a product or service we need.. so we go looking at other company's reviews to decide for ourselves. These are almost always honest and we will get consistent quality based on the reviews we see.

On another note.. doesn't Linkedin already have something like this?! Your friends are connected to ABC company.. you check them out and you want to use your friend as a referral to connect. This is more genuine than having a random connect you. How is a random connecting you really a warm lead? It isn't.

[Paul_R]

Hey guys, thanks for the great feedback – some really good stuff here!

@ David
Totally agree with you – if someone passed my details on ‘cold’ (i.e. without asking me if I would be interested in hearing from them) then I would be annoyed too. Like you say, I’d reconsider my stance towards that individual.

The whole thing is based around ‘pre-qualified’ intro’s – so I’d come to you first, say “hey David, there is this guy I know who sells accounting software – would you be ok if I put him in touch with you?”. If you say yes, I can make the intro and benefit by doing so. If you say “hell no!”, then I wouldn’t.

With this being a key principal, I think there needs to be a rating/review process for people supplying the leads – to weed-out anyone peddling cold and/or dud leads.


@ Wozcreative
I think you’ve hit the ‘nail-on-the-head’ here – the introduction needs to come from someone who knows both of you (you as the supplier, and the customer). Otherwise I guess the ‘integrity’ of the referral is in jeopardy…

Regarding reviews – maybe these could be employed as a solution to this ‘integrity’ problem when the intro is made by someone who doesn’t know the supplier (so the ‘introducer’ can rely on the fact the company has a great track record, before he enquires about intro’ing to his buddy who is their target customer).

Do you know of any B2B review sites out there already?? I haven’t stumbled across any… (Maybe theres a good reason for that though…)



Anyone else got any thoughts on it?? Be great to hear if others would use it (from both sides – getting introductions to customers and facilitating intor’s for cash).


Paul

[Harold Mansfield]

Isn't this the way everything already works?

If you use PPC, it's Google putting your ads in front of people who are searching for what you have to offer.
If you have an affiliate program, it's you telling publishers to put your ads in front of people most likely to bite, and they pay you per sale or lead.

This is how the mortgage industry has worked for years. there are different rates for the varying strength of the lead. For instance back during the boom, new leads were going for $75 and up. Stepped on leads were like $50 and cold leads were like $25.

Sites like Lending Tree are lead generation sites for people looking for mortgages.
Cars.com is a lead generation site for people looking to buy cars.
You know those free vacation giveaways that you see at the mall? Those are lead generation for vacation time share companies.

What you are describing seems to be the way it has always been done, but specifically the way it used to be done before the internet. There are already brokers out there that deal in information and lead generation that have lists of millions of people based on search history, email open rates, what kind of car they drive, how much money they make, if they have kids, how old they are and every detail imaginable that a company could want.

I'm not sure I'm understanding any difference in what you are proposing. This is the way it already works.

[BNB]

Keeping it short. I like the idea, if it's executed correctly.