Devoted to lead generation, lead generators, and successful lead gen campaigns

I have paid out more money for business leads than for any other source of new business.  A business lead can be worth a few dollars or worth thousands of dollars paid monthly for years and years.

For example, I worked in the call center industry for over a decade.  I made lots of contacts over those years.  Even now, after leaving the industry, I can still refer work to some call centers and they are happy to pay me a commission on the business leads that I send to them.  With very little work, I can bring in several thousand dollars of extra income.

While I was a call center owner, I would be glad to pay out referral fees, finder fees or broker commissions to those that brought is a solid business lead.  Generally, I wouldn’t pay for just leads, I would only pay for business that I closed.  From my perspective as a business owner, I figured that to sell a contract through my internal team, I had sales salaries, travel expenses, health benefits, advertising and marketing expenses.  Add all of that up and I very well may spend 4% of my gross revenues to pay for that.  The trouble was, if I had a sales guy that didn’t perform, I was still out that money.

With a broker arrangement, I only paid fees out if they brought business in.  So if a broker brought in new revenue, I would have extra revenue to pay out that commission.  And sometimes, that commission could be significant.  Say, for example, that a broker brought in a piece of business that generated $100k worth of revenues per month.  If you assumed a 4% commission, you could see payments to a broker of $4 grand per month. (See my blog post about call center brokers).

Thousands of people make a good living working as brokers bringing in qualified business leads.  If the lead turns into a big contract, that business may be willing to pay out big bucks for that business lead.