Trying to hire a lead generation agency to fill the pipeline for your sales team but don’t know where to start and have a lot of questions?
You might probably be wondering:
- How to select the best lead generation agencies?
- What to consider when comparing agencies?
- What’s the cost of a lead gen company?
If that’s the case, we got you covered. In this article, we’re covering how to vet agencies, the best lead gen companies, and more.
What Does A B2B Lead Generation Company Do?
There are two types of B2B lead generation companies:
- B2B lead generation agencies who help companies generate leads and book sales-qualified meetings.
- B2B lead generation software companies who provide agencies and in-house sales teams with the tools and data they need to run successful lead gen campaigns.
Most B2B lead generation companies of the first category offer the following services:
- Appointment setting
- Building the contact lists
- Personalized marketing campaigns
- Database management
- CRM integration
- Account management
- Lead nurturing
- Dedicated management team
If either of the above is something you need help with, here are the top 11 of the best lead generation companies and agencies you might be interested in.
11 Best B2B Lead Generation Agencies
There are tons of other lead generation companies out there, but our list only includes the ones we see and hear pop up in most conversations.
- Nerdy Joe
- Single Grain
- CIENCE
- Belkins
- Martal Group
- Pearl Lemon Leads
- WebFX
- Callbox
- Lead Cookie
- Apollo
- Upgrow
Let’s detail and discuss what you need to know about each of these agencies and companies.
Lead gen agency 2: Single Grain
According to their website, Single Grain runs innovative growth campaigns for remarkable companies. Note that Single Grain is mainly known for being a CRO, Paid Ads, and SEO agency.
They offer full-service lead generation to their clients — assigning a dedicated campaign manager to each one of their clients.
Although its website does not provide much information about its lead generation strategies and service, Single Grain has made a name for itself, working with companies such as Salesforce, Uber, and Amazon.
Single Grain’s offering is not self-serve, meaning you have to download one of their gated content, then a sales rep will reach out to you and probably send you a proposal if you’re both fits.
That also means the agency has custom pricing and requires clients to sign a certain duration contract (probably 3 to 6 months).
Lead gen agency 3: CIENCE
CIENCE is primarily a B2B lead generation company offering outbound lead generation technologies like ZoomInfo and Lusha. They help you grow your business using a variety of outbound lead generation strategies.
The company offers a set of outbound lead generation tools, including:
- Sales intelligence software,
- Intent data software,
- Conversational sales platform,
- Appointment setting tool,
- Data enrichment tool,
- And more.
On top of these tools, CIENCE also offers lead generation services to tech companies. CIENCE mainly offers SDR-as-a-service solutions to brands that need to level up their sales game.
On its website, CIENCE claims it makes use of social media marketing, email marketing, phone calls, and many other lead generation techniques to get results.
Contrary to Nerdy Joe, CIENCE requires a minimum contract of 3 months, and you should go through a long sales funnel before the agency starts generating leads.
Also, their pricing is not available on the website, so you have to fill out a form and talk to an SDR and receive a proposal later.
Lead gen agency 4: Belkins
Belkins describes itself as a B2B appointment-setting service for companies across more than 190+ industries. And they claim to have worked with the likes of Berkeley University, Born & Bred, Cemtrex, and more.
According to information on their website, they have a 4 pronged approach to B2B lead generation:
- As soon as they sign you up, you get to meet some of their specialists to talk about your company, its goals, and your lead generation strategy.
- After that, their data mining experts then go on and build your prospects list.
- They then assign you an SDR who runs the lead generation campaign on your behalf.
- The final step is where they book sales meetings in your calendar.
Although Belkins’ pricing hasn’t been mentioned anywhere on their website, they seem to work with clients on a contract basis.
They require a minimum of a 6-month contract, and one campaign can last up to 12 months for the Startup and Growth Plan.
For the Enterprise Plan, they require a minimum of a 12-month contract.
Looking at their ROI calculator, it seems like for a list of 850 prospects and 64 appointments booked across the year (5 – 8 meetings per month), they charge $51,000 or $4250 per month.
Lead gen agency 5: Martal
Martal Group is a B2B appointment-setting agency similar to Belkins. The Martal team uses many B2B lead generation strategies to book client meetings. They combine their knowledge of account-based marketing with inbound marketing and sales funnels.
Just like most B2B agencies, they require a minimum 3-month contract, and their pricing is only available upon request.
The Martial Group has three pricing tiers, and each of them gives you:
- A fractional sales executive
- A fractional research manager
- A sales operation manager
All of these three specialists cost about $11,500 per month if you’re to work with the Martal Group. That’s roughly $140,000 a year.
Lead gen agency 6: Pearl Lemon Leads
Pearl Lemon is a UK-based lead generation company that serves clients across America, Australia, and Europe.
The company offers a variety of outbound and inbound lead generation services, including cold calling, call center outsourcing, outsourced sales team, appointment setting, demand generation, account-based marketing, and many more.
They work on a contract basis, and for their fully managed lead generation services, they charge about £3000. They also charge the same price for their LinkedIn lead generation services.
Lead gen agency 7: Callbox
Callbox is a multichannel marketing company. They’re similar to CIENCE and combine email, SEO (search engine optimization), and chatbots to increase your lead conversion rate.
Working with Callbox means you get:
- Client Success Manager
- Production Manager
- Sales Development Rep
- Email and Social Marketing Specialist
- Research and Data Analyst
- Quality Analyst
This lead generation firm works with Pipeline and HubSpot to automate your campaigns and fill your sales pipeline.
There’s no information available on Callbox’s pricing on its website, but if you want to work with the agency, you can request a quote.
Lead gen agency 8: Lead Cookie
Lead Cookie describes itself as a full-service outbound marketing agency. They claim to have booked meetings with big tech companies like Google, Cisco, AT&T, and Microsoft.
Lead Cookie’s experts combine their knowledge of LinkedIn lead generation, cold email, and cold calls to fuel their client’s lead generation machine.
Their process is as follows:
- You book a sales call with a sales representative.
- You go through your company’s needs, and they get back to you with a proposal.
- You sign a contract, etc.
Lead gen agency 9: Apollo
Apollo is a lead generation SaaS that provides firms and cold email agencies with contacts and data enrichment solutions.
Similar to ZoomInfo, Lusha, and Seamless AI, Apollo is not a B2B lead gen service provider per se, but it equips you with the tools and necessary training to launch and run successful lead generation campaigns.
So, if you want to run your email campaigns by your in-house sales team instead of outsourced lead generation, Apollo is the right tool for you.
The tool costs $39 for the basic plan and $79 for the professional plan. It also integrates with most tools, such as Zapier and Hubspot, and supports CRM integrations.
Read more: How to Hire a Cold Email Agency? (10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring)Lead gen agency 10: Upgrow
Upgrow is primarily a digital marketing agency before being a B2B lead generation service provider.
The company has worked with the likes of Lyft, TalkDesk, and Single Store, and their lead generation process is multi-channel.
They require a 6-month contract for every client engagement, and their lead generation agency charges at least $2,500 depending on your needs.
Lead gen agency 11: WebFX
Although they claim to be a lead generation company, WebFX mainly offers content marketing, SEO, paid ads, and email marketing services.
They also claim to have 1.6 million hours of expertise and more than 500 marketing experts. WebFX has worked with the likes of Auntie Anne’s, Fujifilm, and Hilton.
If you want to work with WebFX, you have to request a quote for one of their services, and they’ll take it from there.
3 Things to Consider When Hiring a Lead Generation Firm
Hiring lead generation companies is not always black or white. It implies tons of things and can make or break your company’s success.
Here are five things to consider when hiring a lead generation company that guarantees you’ll get qualified leads.
1 – What’s the lead generation company’s definition of a lead?
Every company and marketer has their own definition of what a lead means.
For instance, a lead for a software company can be when someone signs up for a free trial. Or maybe when someone purchases a software license for the next two years.
For a marketing agency, high-quality leads mean someone requested a quote and agreed to hop on a call or that someone agreed on a sales call to discuss how the marketing agency can help them.
There are tons of B2B lead generation companies, and each of them can have different definitions of what a lead means.
For instance, for the lead generation company you’re talking to, any person that downloads an ebook or a whitepaper is considered a lead.
So, ensure to clear that from the get-go before agreeing on any sort of engagement. Failure to do that will lead to having
Read more: How to Hire a Lead Generation Agency (Plus Why the First 30 Days Are Critical)2 – Does your B2B lead generation company specialize in your niche?
This principle applies to every type of digital marketing campaign.
If you’re a B2B SaaS company, working with a D2C lead generation company is not going to get you more leads, you’ll only get crickets.
It’s easier to generate qualified leads in a specific niche market when you already know how the industry works, how to find leads in that industry, how to set up the right sales funnel, etc.
And this is where niche expertise comes in.
If you’re a B2B company, work with B2B lead generation companies. This can make the difference between generating qualified leads and only generating low-quality leads.
And that brings us to the next thing to consider when vetting B2B lead generation companies.
3 – How does the B2B lead generation agency ensure you get high-quality B2B leads?
Top lead generation companies have a clear lead generation process they use to build their prospect list.
Scraping the web and adding thousands of email addresses of people who don’t know you is only going to make your email deliverability worse. Not more.
On the other hand, working with the right lead generation agency can be crucial to your business growth as they’ll make sure your lead generation efforts bring in new leads that are qualified and fit your ICP.
Which Lead Generation Agency Is Best For Your Company?
As you’ve seen, many so-called lead generation companies offer services and marketing strategy that have very little to do with lead generation and the results you actually want.
If you’re just looking for an agency that’ll use paid ads or content marketing to promote your product, Single Grain and WebFX are the lead generation agencies for you.
But if what you’re looking for is:
- An agency that runs custom lead generation campaigns.
- An agency that charges you for results, not tasks.
- An agency that doesn’t require you to commit to a contract.
- An agency that does not waste your time and that’s affordable.
- A group of experts that care about your company’s reputation and relationship with prospects.
Nerdy Joe is the lead generation agency you’re looking for. We do the market research, identify leads, do the lead research, lead management, and bring you qualified leads, we are part of your team.
Frequently asked questions
What does a B2B lead generation agency do?
A B2B lead generation agency finds and engages potential business buyers for you, through channels such as cold email, LinkedIn, phone or content, and passes qualified leads or booked meetings to your sales team.
What should I ask before hiring a lead generation firm?
Ask how the agency defines a lead, whether it specializes in your niche, and how it ensures lead quality. Agreeing on these points early prevents disappointment later.
What is the difference between a lead generation agency and a lead generation tool?
An agency plans and runs campaigns for you. A tool such as Apollo gives your in-house team contact data, enrichment and the means to run its own outreach.
Why does niche experience matter in lead generation?
An agency that knows your market understands how to find leads there and how to speak to them. A B2B company is usually better served by a B2B-focused agency.
How do lead generation agencies charge for their services?
Models vary. Some agencies use multi-month contracts or retainers with pricing on request, while others charge based on results such as meetings booked, so confirm what you pay for and for how long.