Why ‘black box’ lead generation will soon be a thing of the past

In an industry as simple to join as lead generation, it’s easy for vendors to promise high outcomes and deliver low returns.

Most sellers of leads trade on low costs for high volumes of output. They offer little to no innovation, and supply inefficient, unreliable leads. Contacts that satisfy neither the data subject nor the marketer who is trying to engage with them.

Why would a Lead Generation company even want to change the status quo? Even as leads grow less effective, customers continue to buy in increasing volumes, negotiating only on price. Why go through the effort of innovating? Why be transparent as to how you recognise intent and generate leads when opaque methods have always worked in the past?

Most lead generation vendors take the black box approach: ‘we will generate leads and deliver them to you, but you don’t need to know how we got them.’ Many customers have been trained to accept this, but if they were to peel back the layers, they would find a complex web of outsourced data delivery and qualification that many in the industry rely upon. Data rather than leads. No true intent or demand. No integrity nor limpidity, just trust built upon a non-existent foundation. Big promises, weak results.

As a tech executive, it is clear to me that AI exposes inefficiency. AI is not a technology that replaces people; it is technology that simplifies over complicated processes and eliminates unnecessary parts of the supply chain.

The Black Box method is dying, destined to be replaced by innovative demand generation that uses AI to simplify identifying and engaging potential buyers. The question is, will your Lead Generation supplier join the trend, or get left behind?

Find out about Demand AI’s unique solutions that help identify intent and drive true demand for organizations like yours.