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Hey there, 

 

Wanted to get other users feed back in regards to lead generation companies like Buyer Zone.  Been using them for 2 months and it's definitely a mixed bag of mild to cold opportunities. 

 

Anyone else have success with their services?

 

Happy Holidays, 

 

John Mooney

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John, we are using buyer zone. A large majority of the leads have been garbage with people wanting to spend anywhere from 100-1000 dollars. If you have a good case as to why a lead didn't work they will credit them. I have had a few leads come through that we have closed big machines that were profitable so for now we are going to continue to use it.

We also capped our monthly expenditure at around 600.00.

A rep I just hired from a dealer out west swears by buyer zone and has said several times he would pay for it himself to get leads. I feel that if we shut it down as a company he will continue it based on our conversations.

We do not participate in any lead generation program currently so I am not speaking from experience but it seems to me that with every passing year, more people will begin their buying process with internet searches. To me that would tend to indicate that there will be more opportunities for quality leads to come from such sources. Virtually every industry has lead generating entities...cars, insurance, mortgage loans, even law suits, i.e. "if you or a loved one has ever..." Most of these places don't actually sell what they advertise, they just hook you up with someone who does.

So I tried them out from October until January and Jason was right on the money. 

 

For the first month two months the quality of leads were semi-decent, $27.00 per lead,  won two (although couldn't get them lease approved) 

 

They had a minimum dollar thresh hold of $1K for hardware and for some reason removed it from their criteria in December. It went from legitimate A3 and small A4 to people looking for, at best, a $300 Staples printer, price shopping Costco for home office and used equipment. It was interesting that the majority of people I spoke to had no idea how many vendors would call them and some were downright furious.  While I haven't tried the process myself, they definitely need clarify things further to the customer. 

 

Over all, for a small business, the money we wasted on that could have put through a telemarketer just calling through UCCs.  

 

I definitely think certain customers are looking to disengage from the sales process to an extent for smaller segments 1-3 so it will be interesting to see how our industry evolves with that. 

I have noticed in the last month the quality of the leads has been bad. We have been getting a lot of the "I have a budget of 3-500.00 to spend." We did have one recently that bought a 60 ppm color device and is running about 4-5,000 a month in color. We submit all the junk for credits from BZ and they are pretty good about refunding the leads that we say are bad.

Jason, 

 

You are right on the money, not sure how they changed their search algorithms but the majority have all been in that price range.

 

Also, with so many bad leads lately we decided to suspend the service while we evaluate other options. Upon notifying them they froze us out immediately of the leads  that we actually paid for saying unless you subscribe you can't access your account.  Now that's a great way to want me to continue a business relationship. 

Last edited by John Mooney

When we first started it several months ago there was just a handful of people using it, maybe 3 dealers. Now it seems there are 10 or so using it and several of them are guys out of the back of their car selling used equipment. I spoke to a guy the other day and his employee had put a lead in as a joke and he said I was about the 10th or 12th person to call him about it. If I don't see some better leads come through soon I will suspend using the service.

 

I really want to try EDA's service for the UCC information but they want a 1 or 2 year commitment at 3 or 400.00 per month for the service.

I've been getting the used copier from a car scenario as well ! Super frustrating. It just felt like literally throwing money into the trash. 

 

UCC search availability is awesome, especially when you combine it with a solid linkedin strategy for putting together target pipelines. I think there's a few other UCC search companies out there.

New update, first, as I mentioned here before, after I requested they suspend my service for a month while I review options, they immediately locked me out of all leads I already paid for.   

 

Now they just billed my card $414 for one month with no explanation of leads that were credited and not even an invoice for what that was for. 

 

Won't be ever working with them again, nor would I ever recommend them. 

Last edited by John Mooney

I am going to be making a call today or monday to them. We are either going to cancel it or ask for a better rate. We are not happy with the quality of leads. It seems, like I mentioned, that since they don't have a price threshold most of the ones we get are garbage. I'll update once we have a conversation with them.

 

I think their business model has gone to put every lead through, charge the dealers for them, and then hope when they are bad leads they don't request a credit.

Spoke to buyer zone yesterday and had a nice conversation with the lady about how the leads coming through were garbage and aren't in the business of selling 300.00 mfp's. I told her their biggest mistake was getting rid of the pricing thresholds. She said some of their copier vendors request those garbage 300.00 leads which I find hard to believe.

 

I told her we were going to drop the service unless she did something for us. In the end she said they would credit any lead that we couldn't get in touch with the customer on, any lead that wanted small equipment, and any lead in a house that was not a business.

 

Will see what happens as we move forward.

A few years ago I did a test and submitted a lead as if I was looking for a mid volume color machine.  Was contacted by at least 6 sellers.  Seemed like a race to the bottom.  Might be good if you're selling low end equipment and don't mind low margins.  If you sell quality equipment and hope to make a decent commission, not so much.

The ones we have done have been pretty profitable. One of my reps got one this morning and sold a machine close to retail after the initial meeting this afternoon. That obviously doesn't happen often and now it seems everyone from the guys out of the back of their car up to reputable dealers are using it in our market but I did our cost justification last night on it and we have sold about 40-50k in hardware from it and spent about 3500.00 in 5 months. We have seen about 12,000.00 in profit from that 40-50k. It is still off of our typical margins (40%) but not bad with 6 - 8 people calling on most leads.
I struggle with keeping it when we spend 700 on month and don't have anything, then am all for it when we sell several machines. My best advice is to track it closely to make sure it is beneficial. I'm in a constant struggle with our owner about these types of things because he, like most owners, wants instant results not 6 month averages. I keep a running spreadsheet of what we have gotten, what we've sold, and the revenue/profit in it.
Can you give me any suggestions of companies I can contact to do UCC search for me?
 
Thanks!
 
Originally Posted by jbmnyc:

I've been getting the used copier from a car scenario as well ! Super frustrating. It just felt like literally throwing money into the trash. 

 

UCC search availability is awesome, especially when you combine it with a solid linkedin strategy for putting together target pipelines. I think there's a few other UCC search companies out there.

 

That's just it, we won 2 deals but couldn't get either of them of approved. I think one of other big fails is they fail to deliver a message that vendors are paying for the service. I've had a few customers who actually screamed at me that they had no idea what they were getting themselves into by clicking submit. 

 

I recently went back and revisited all of the BZ leads we never got hold of, and although and less then 5% of all of the people I spoke to said they bought a system from BZ. 

 

Chalked this up as an expensive lesson in business development. 

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