Lead agreements are short and lead sales calls are long, which is the wrong way round. The questions below take a vendor ten minutes to answer honestly and are the whole of the diligence most brokers never do.
| Ask | What a good answer sounds like |
|---|---|
| Who generates the traffic? | We run our own ads, on these platforms |
| How is the phone verified? | A one-time code the merchant types back |
| How many buyers per lead? | One, permanently |
| What does the disclosure say? | They send the text and a screenshot |
| What is replaced, and how? | A written policy with examples |
| How does delivery work? | Webhook POST, shaped to your fields |
| What pacing can I set? | Daily cap and a delivery window |
| What if you under-deliver? | Refund the difference |
| Do you scrub? | Yes, at generation, and here is the provider |
| What is in the payload? | A sample JSON, immediately |
| Do you sell aged data? | A straight yes or no |
| Who owns the record after? | You do, exclusively |
The three that separate vendors
- **Buyers per lead, and for how long.** "Exclusive" often means exclusive for thirty days. Ask for the number and the duration, and get both in the agreement.
- **The consent disclosure text.** A vendor who cannot send you the exact wording under the submit button does not have a defensible consent record, and you are the one who places the call.
- **What under-delivery does.** An agreement silent on a short order is an agreement that expects to be short.
What we answer
Our own answers are on the page where we sell exclusive MCA leads and in the lead criteria, including the ones that are not flattering: no free trials, no revenue share, no aged data, and a benchmark of two to four funded per fifty rather than the best number we have recorded. If a vendor’s answers to the twelve questions are vaguer than that, the vagueness is the finding.
Questions brokers ask
What should you ask a lead vendor before buying?
Who generates the traffic, how the phone is verified, how many buyers each lead has and for how long, the exact consent disclosure text, the replacement policy, delivery method, pacing controls, what happens if they under-deliver, whether they scrub, what the payload contains, whether they sell aged data, and who owns the record afterwards.
Does "exclusive" always mean one buyer forever?
No, and this is the most common gap between what is said and what is meant. Exclusive frequently means exclusive for a window — thirty days is common — after which the record is resold. Ask for the number of buyers and the duration, and get both in writing.
Why ask for the consent disclosure text?
Because you place the call and the consent record is your defence. A vendor who can send the exact wording, a screenshot of the page and a sample record has one; a vendor who describes their process instead does not.
What should a lead replacement policy cover?
Disconnected numbers, provably false contact details and bounced emails, replaced on proof without argument. It should not cover a merchant who simply did not answer — that is a dialling outcome, not a defective lead.
Should the agreement mention under-delivery?
Yes. An agreement silent on a short order is an agreement written by someone who expects to be short. The undelivered balance should be refundable.
Reference
Our answers to all twelvePricing, exclusivity, replacement and pacing, stated rather than described.
Alex Makowski
Founder, Infinite Bookings
Runs the lead generation operation behind Infinite Bookings — paid traffic, the funding application, and the delivery pipeline that puts records into brokers’ CRMs.
Reachable directly at alex@infinitebookings.com or 732-609-7182.