Hot take: Paying for premium B2B leads was a waste of $800 for my shop

I dropped $800 on a lead generation service for my fencing installation business last quarter, thinking it would flood my pipeline with solid construction companies. Instead, I got 12 contacts that were either outdated or too small to afford commercial work. What I learned is that cold calling local general contractors directly beat those fancy lists by a mile. Has anyone else had better luck with a specific lead source for service based B2B?

3 comments

3 Comments

karencampbell7h agoMost Upvoted

Try your local building material suppliers, they know who's buying.

umar494h ago

“They know who's buying” - I used to think that was just sales talk, but @karencampbell has a point. A buddy of mine landed a huge fencing job last year just by asking the guy at the lumber counter who was ordering all the posts. Changed my mind on that one.

king.eric5h ago

$800 for 12 contacts that didn't pan out? That stings just reading it. @karencampbell is onto something though, I've heard the same thing about suppliers having their ear to the ground. For fencing work, maybe check with lumber yards or metal suppliers who see the permits coming through before anyone else even knows a project is real.