Solved: Advice on Finding a Lead Generation Agency Needed

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! I had a look at your enquiry and your situation is a common one for startups. You know who you need to reach, but the question is how to do it in a way that actually works and doesn't just waste time and money. Happy to give you some of my initial thoughts and guidance.

You’re asking about finding a lead generation agency to basically do cold outreach. Honestly, while it sounds logical, I think you might be looking at the problem from the wrong angle. Sending out a bunch of messages to a list of contacts is a bit of a lottery and can often do more harm than good. I'd suggest there is a much more predictable, scalable, and professional way to get those calls booked with the right people.

You're asking for lead gen, but I think you're really asking for predictable growth...

The method you've described – find an organisation, find a contact, send a message – is what most people default to. And it's what a lot of low-end 'lead gen' services on places like Upwork will sell you. The problem is, it's incredibly inefficient. You're paying for someone's time to manually scrape lists and send generic messages that, lets be honest, will probably be ignored by 99% of the people who recieve them. Decision makers at these foundations and associations are busy, and their inboxes are already full.

What you really want isn't just a list of 50 contacts. You want a *system*. A predictable, repeatable machine that brings you a steady stream of conversations with the right people, month after month. That's not what manual outreach gives you. Manual outreach gives you a spike of activity, a lot of 'no's, and then silence. You have to start the whole process over again. It doesn't scale. If you want 20 calls next month, you have to do the same work again. If you want 40, you need to double the work. This isn't a strategy for growth, it's a recepie for burnout.

The alternative is to use the power of modern advertising platforms to do the heavy lifting for you. Instead of you hunting them down one by one, you create a system that makes them come to you. This is a fundamental shift in thinking, from hunting to farming. It's more strategic, more leveraged, and in my experience, far more effective in the long run.

We'll need to look at your Ideal Customer's Nightmare, not just their organisation type...

Before you spend a single penny on ads or outreach, you need to get this bit right. You've listed your target organisations: associations for the elderly, veterans, heritage foundations, care homes. That's a good start. But it's too broad. A "heritage foundation" isn't your customer. A person inside that foundation is. And that person has problems, pressures, and goals that keep them up at night.

Forget the demographic profile for a second. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a job title; it's a problem state. It's a nightmare. What is the specific, urgent, expensive, career-threatening nightmare that your startup solves for them?

Let's brainstorm for a second:

-> For a heritage foundation, is the nightmare that their membership is ageing and they can't attract younger donors? Is it that their valuable archives are sitting unseen on a clunky website from 2005? Are they losing out on grants to more digitally-savvy organisations?

-> For a veterans' association, is the nightmare a lack of engagement from recent veterans? Is it the administrative burden of managing member services, taking time away from actual support work? Is it the struggle to prove their impact to funders with tangible data?

-> For a care home director, is the nightmare the constant battle with staff turnover? Or the challenge of keeping families informed and engaged, leading to constant phone calls and complaints?

You see the difference? "A director at a care home" is a demographic. "A director terrified of losing their best staff because of communication breakdowns" is a nightmare. When you define your customer by their pain, your entire approach to marketing changes. You stop selling a product and you start selling a solution. This is the absolute foundation. If you get this wrong, nothing else matters. Any random person on Upwork won't do this work. This is strategic thinking, and it's what separates agencies that get results from those that just send emails.

I'd say you need a proper advertising system, not a freelancer from upwork...

Once you understand the 'nightmare', you can build a system to find the people experiencing it. This is where paid advertising, specifically on a platform like LinkedIn, becomes incredibly powerful for your specific B2B goal.

LinkedIn is built for this. It's not about finding someone's email and spamming them. It's about putting a highly relevant message in front of the exact right person at the exact right time. You can target with incredible precision. You’re not guessing; you're telling the platform exactly who to show your ads to.

Think about the targeting options you have:

• Job Titles: You can target people with titles like "CEO", "Executive Director", "Head of Partnerships", "Foundation Manager", "Trustee", etc.
• Industry: You can select industries like "Non-Profit Organization Management", "Civic & Social Organization", "Hospital & Health Care".
• Company Size: You can focus on smaller associations or larger national bodies.
• Company Names: You could even create a list of your top 50 or 100 dream-partner organisations and tell LinkedIn to *only* show ads to the decision makers within those specific companies.

Imagine being able to run an ad that is only seen by the Executive Directors of every Veterans' Association in the UK with more than 10 employees. That's the kind of power we're talking about. It's targeted, it's scalable, and it's professional. I've seen this work incredibly well for B2B. I remember working with a B2B software client where we got leads from specific decision makers for just $22 a pop. That's far more efficient than paying someone an hourly rate to maybe find a few emails.

You can then test different ad formats. Maybe a simple sponsored content ad with a strong image, or a short video explaining the problem you solve. The goal isn't to get a 'yes' straight away, but to start a conversation by offering value.

You probably should build an offer they can't refuse...

This brings me to the next massive mistake I see people make. Your plan is to "arrange a call with me". This is, with all due respect, one of the worst possible calls to action you can have. It's a huge ask. You are a stranger from a startup they've never heard of, asking for 30 minutes of their valuable time to be sold to. It's arrogant, it's high-friction, and the answer will almost always be no.

You need to delete the "Request a Demo" or "Book a Call" mindset entirely. Your offer’s only job is to deliver a moment of undeniable value. An "aha!" moment that makes the prospect think, "Hmm, these people seem to understand my problem." You must solve a small, real problem for free to earn the right to solve the big one.

So what could this look like for you? Instead of asking for a call, your ad should promote a valuable asset they can get instantly, in exchange for their contact details. For example:

When someone downloads your guide or uses your tool, they become a lead. But they're not a cold lead. They're a warm lead. They've already engaged with you. They've implicitly raised their hand and said, "I have the problem that this guide talks about." This makes the follow-up call (which you can then offer) a much warmer, more welcome conversation.

You'll need a message that actually resonates...

So you have your target audience (the person with the nightmare) and your offer (the valuable asset). Now you need the ad copy that connects the two. This is where understanding their pain becomes so important. You use a simple but powerful framework: Problem-Agitate-Solve.

1. Problem: State the nightmare you identified, using their language.

2. Agitate: Twist the knife a little. What are the consequences of not solving this problem?

3. Solve: Introduce your valuable offer as the first step towards a solution.

Let's try one for the heritage foundation director:

Ad Copy Example:

Headline: Is your foundation's history invisible to the next generation?

Body: Many heritage sites struggle to connect with younger audiences, leaving their future uncertain as traditional membership declines. Are you worried your legacy is being left behind in the digital age? It doesn't have to be this way. Our new guide, "The 2024 Digital Engagement Playbook", reveals 3 simple strategies to turn your archives into compelling online content that attracts new supporters. Download your free copy now.

This is a world away from "Hi, I'm from a startup, can we have a call?". It shows empathy, establishes authority, and provides a clear, valuable next step. This is the kind of messaging that cuts through the noise and gets a response. It's not something you can just outsource to a generalist; it requires a deep understanding of direct response copywriting principles.

Let's talk about the real numbers, not just a 'going rate'...

You asked about the "going rate". For manual outreach, it's all over the place and often misleading. You might pay someone £20 an hour, but if they get you zero calls, your cost per call is infinite. It's the wrong metric.

The real question isn't "how much does it cost?", but "how much can I afford to spend to acquire a valuable partner?". To answer that, you need to understand the Lifetime Value (LTV) of a partnership. Even a rough, back-of-the-envelope calculation here is better than nothing.

Let's say one successful partnership brings your startup £10,000 in revenue over its lifetime. Now we have a number to work with. A common rule of thumb is to be willing to spend up to a third of the LTV to acquire that customer. So, in this hypothetical case, you could afford to spend up to £3,333 to secure that one partnership.

Now let's work backwards. If you know you can spend £3,333 to get one partner, and your sales process converts 1 in 10 qualified *calls* into a partner, you can afford to pay up to £333 per call. And if your ad campaign converts 1 in 10 *leads* (e.g., guide downloads) into a call, you can afford to pay up to £33.30 for a lead.

Suddenly, seeing a £20-£30 cost per lead from a highly-targeted LinkedIn campaign doesn't look expensive. It looks like a profitable investment. This is the maths that allows you to scale aggressively and intelligently. It frees you from the tyranny of chasing cheap, low-quality leads. You stop asking "what's the going rate?" and start asking "what's my ROI?".

We'll need to look at choosing the right partner, not just the cheapest one...

So, to bring it all back to your original question: how do you find the right agency? You don't look for a "lead generation agency" that promises to send emails. You look for a strategic paid advertising partner who thinks like this.

When you talk to them, here's what you should look for:

-> Case Studies: Take a good look at them. Have they worked with B2B clients before? Do they show real results, like cost per lead, or revenue generated? Results are what matters. For instance, I remember working with a B2B software client where we got leads from specific decision makers for just $22 on LinkedIn. And in another instance, I helped an environmental controls client reduce their cost per lead by 84%. That's the kind of proof you want to see. Don't be fobbed off with vague promises.

-> The Initial Conversation: That first call is everything. Are they asking you smart questions about your business, your customers' problems, and your LTV? Or are they just giving you a sales pitch? A good agency will give you ideas and insights on the very first call, for free. They should challenge your assumptions, like I'm doing now. If they're just nodding and agreeing with your plan to send emails, they lack expertise.

-> Honesty and Realism: Tbh in paid advertising, you can't promise specific results. There are too many variables. If an agency promises you "10 calls in the first month, guaranteed!", run a mile. A real expert will talk about a process of testing, learning, and optimising. They'll be upfront that it might take some time to find the winning combination of targeting, messaging, and offer.

After you've done your research and had that initial chat, you should have a good gut feeling. If it feels like they truly have the strategic expertise you need, it's probably a good fit. (And a little inside tip: if an agency has shown you detailed case studies and given you a free, in-depth strategy review, and you then ask to speak to their other clients for a reference, it's often a red flag for them. It signals a lack of trust that will likely cause problems down the line).

I know this is a lot to take in, and a big shift from your original plan. But I hope you can see why this more strategic approach is so much more powerful. I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

Executing a strategy like this is complex. It involves deep knowledge of the ad platforms, copywriting, funnel building, and constant testing and optimisation. It’s not something you can just set and forget. This is where getting expert help can be the difference between burning through your startup's cash and building a real engine for growth.

If any of this sounds like the kind of strategic thinking you've been missing, I'd be happy to schedule a free, no-obligation 20-minute strategy session with you. We can take a closer look at your startup, your specific goals, and map out what a campaign like this could look like for you in more detail. It would at the very least give you a solid, actionable plan you can use, whether you decide to work with us or not.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh