Lead Supplier vs. Lead Platform – what are the differences?
Traditionally, the optimum conditions for trading goods and services have always been considered to be direct relationships between buyers and sellers – the view being that the less people in the supply chain, the better. Occasionally there will be middle men pulling the strings, but people like to go direct as much as they possibly can, removing barriers, providing transparency and ensuring the best prices at both sides of the equation.
Today, however, as the online world expands, as globalisation continues on its upward trajectory, and as the sheer volume of suppliers and buyers out there continues to grow, it is increasingly important to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.
As a result, platforms that can help vet and compare traders, enable feedback on performance, and do some basic checks on authenticity and quality are gaining more and more traction in the market and becoming ever increasing destinations of choice.
Individuals who were hitherto reluctant to buy from platforms, with their perceptions of higher prices, lower quality and less control, are beginning to see that the reality is actually very different.
This is especially true of market-driven platforms, exchanges and aggregators such as eBay, AliBaba or our very own LeadPoint, all of whom ensure quality based pricing, healthy competition and enhanced customer engagement and services. Business models such as these are seeing ever increasing interest and these are a few reasons why:
LeadSupplier Vs. Lead Platform
In summary – you may save pennies going direct in the short term, but an exchange will help you scale your business by benchmarking suppliers against each other, ensuring the best leads at the best prices and providing you with multiple tools to manage and maximise your ROI for the longer term benefit of your business.
This a guest post from Emma Smith who is the Head of Product at LeadPoint UK and oversees all of the UK’s product and platform developments. LeadPoint UK currently trades over 5,000 real-time data leads per day in a number of verticals including finance, legal services and cosmetic surgery. LeadPoint already has over 3,500 active lead buyers and sellers with hundreds more signing up each month. In the next 6 months LeadPoint will be launching into Voice Leads as well as adding a number of new products to the platform.