The Hidden Cost of Buying MSP Leads (And What to Do Instead)
Buying Leads Feels Like a Shortcut—Until It Isn't
Most MSPs start their sales journey the same way: buy a prospecting list, start cold outreach, and hope for the best. It seems logical.
Why spend hours finding leads when you can pay for a ready-made list?
But here’s what actually happens.
You spend thousands of dollars, and half the leads are worthless. Contacts are outdated, job titles are wrong, and the same list has been sold to your competitors. Sound familiar?
The truth is, buying MSP leads isn’t a growth strategy—it’s a gamble.
And most MSPs don’t realize how much money they’re wasting until it’s too late. Buying your MSP leads can be one of the biggest marketing missteps MSP owners make.
If you want a list of MSP prospects that actually converts, you need a better game plan.
Fox & Crow Group and Membrain want to show you how to build your own MSP lead lists. No subscriptions necessary!
Carrie Richardson has been helping MSPs navigate sales prospecting since 2014, when she founded the MSP lead generation agency Managed Sales Pros.
She estimates that she's purchased over 3 million leads for MSPs using popular data platforms over the last ten years. And at least 30% of every list purchased was junk.
Why Most MSPs Are Wasting Money on Data
1. You're Buying More Leads Than You Can Use
Think about your sales team. How many new conversations can they realistically handle?
- A full-time MSP sales rep can manage about 3,000 prospects per year.
- Yet, many MSPs buy 10,000+ leads annually, most of which are never touched.
- Instead of replacing only the bad leads, MSPs purchase an entirely new list every year.
This cycle of overspending on data you’ll never use is one of the biggest reasons MSP lead generation feels so expensive.
2. Bad Data Slows Down Your Sales Team
Here’s what happens when you work with a low-quality lead list:
- Your sales team spends hours filtering out bad contacts instead of closing deals.
- You reach out to the wrong decision-makers, wasting valuable touchpoints.
- You buy the same leads over and over again, driving up your acquisition cost.
Buying leads might feel like a shortcut, but it usually creates more work than it saves.
Annual Estimated Costs of Popular B2B Data Platforms
If you're spending thousands on a data platform each year, it's important to know exactly what you're paying for. Here’s what some of the most well-known platforms charge annually:
ZoomInfo
- Basic Plan: Starts at $14,995/year
- Advanced Plan: Up to $32,995/year
- What You Get: A large database of business contacts, company insights, and intent data.
- The Catch: Expensive, and often contains outdated or duplicate leads that multiple companies receive.
Cognism
- Pricing: Custom (typically $15,000+ per year)
- What You Get: GDPR-compliant data with real-time updates.
- The Catch: Requires a demo to get exact pricing, and costs scale quickly with usage.
One other major consideration with this platform? They're handing out cell phone numbers, not business phone numbers. N
While you might be okay with telemarketers calling your private cell phone number, many small business owners find this intrusive and will actively block you after your first dial attempt.
Lusha
- Basic Plan: $36/month per user
- Premium Plan: $75/month per user
- What You Get: Easy-to-use lead lists and contact data.
- The Catch: The most useful features (like bulk data exports) are locked behind higher-priced enterprise plans.
Apollo.io
- Basic Plan: $49/month per user
- Professional Plan: $99/month per user
- What You Get: Access to millions of B2B contacts and sales automation tools.
- The Catch: Requires manual verification of leads, as data accuracy varies.
UpLead
- Essentials Plan: $74/month for 170 credits
- Plus Plan: $149/month for 400 credits
- What You Get: Verified leads with real-time validation.
- The Catch: Limited monthly credits make it less useful for high-volume prospecting.
Uplead brags that they have 160 million contacts in their platform - but only 16 million company profiles. With most MSP client having 20 employees, I don't imagine SMBs are well represented in this data set.
SalesGenie
SalesGenie can be purchased as a recurring subscription or on a per download basis. They're the most cost effective data source, but they are also the least accurate data source.
The best thing about this platform is their free trial - for MSPs you can probably get a year of data from your free trial of SalesGenie or their parent company DataAxle.
The catch? You'll have to work hard to verify and scrub the data before it will be useful to you or your team.
💰 Bottom Line? The cheapest option still costs thousands per year—and you’re often left filtering through inaccurate, shared, or irrelevant leads.
The Hidden Time Cost of Researching Leads
Beyond the financial cost of data platforms, there’s a hidden productivity cost that MSPs often overlook—time wasted on lead research.
If you're buying data for your CRM, there is no need for your SDR to have a data platform subscription. Everything they need is already in your CRM. They don't need to spend time on Linkedin, either.
Researching a business where the phone isn't answered....ever....is a complete waste of sales productivity.
One five minute phone call will tell you everything you need to know. Don't know how to qualify a lead with a gatekeeper? The MSP Sales Process has a course that will teach you and your sales team how to qualify or disqualify quickly.
Let’s break it down:
- A typical SDR (Sales Development Representative) makes 120 calls per day when working efficiently.
- On average, it takes 300 calls to schedule one qualified sales meeting.
- If an SDR dials without excessive research, they can book one meeting every 2.5 days.
- But if that SDR spends 10 minutes researching each prospect before dialing, they now only make 6 calls per hour.
- At 6 calls per hour, a full 8-hour workday results in just 48 calls per day instead of 120.
- At this reduced rate, it now takes 6+ days to book one meeting instead of 2.5 days.
This means that bad data and excessive research time more than double the time required to generate sales meetings—slowing your pipeline and killing efficiency.
Instead of paying for bloated data platforms and slowing down your team with time-consuming research, the real key is having a clean, accurate list of pre-qualified prospects—so your SDRs can spend their time selling, not filtering through bad contacts.
Bad Leads Don’t Just Waste Time—They Raise Your CRM Costs
Most CRM platforms, including Keap and HubSpot, charge based on the number of contacts stored in your database. These platforms are marketing platforms and they were never built for outbound prospecting. Keap used to be called Infusionsoft.
When you're managing your outbound MSP sales in a marketing platform, that means every bad lead, outdated contact, or irrelevant prospect in your system isn’t just cluttering up your pipeline—it’s actively increasing your marketing costs.
When your CRM is filled with low-quality leads, you’re paying more for email automation, retargeting ads, and nurturing campaigns that will never generate ROI. Worse, inflated contact lists can hurt email deliverability rates and skew reporting metrics, making it harder to measure the true success of your sales and marketing efforts.
Cleaning out bad-fit leads and maintaining a high-quality, accurate prospect list isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about protecting your bottom line.
More FAQs About MSP Lead Generation
How much time do sales reps waste using bad data?
If an SDR spends 10 minutes researching each prospect, they more than double the time it takes to book a meeting—turning a 2.5-day process into a 6+ day one.
Why do data platforms like ZoomInfo and Apollo sell so much excess data?
These platforms make money based on volume, not accuracy. The more contacts they sell, the more revenue they generate—even if a large percentage of the leads are useless.
How do I know if my MSP prospecting list is bad?
- If your reps spend more time researching than calling, it’s a red flag.
- If bounce rates on email campaigns are high, your list is likely outdated.
- If conversion rates are extremely low, you may be targeting the wrong decision-makers.
What’s the biggest advantage of building my own MSP lead list?
Control. When you build and maintain your own list, you ensure it contains only relevant, accurate leads—leading to higher response rates and more sales meetings.
Can I mix a purchased list with a self-built one?
Yes, but it requires manual validation to ensure accuracy and relevance. If you’re using a purchased list, always verify job titles, company status, and contact details before adding leads to your pipeline.
Does Fox & Crow Group sell MSP prospecting lists?
Yes, we build lists and use multiple platforms to verify the information. If you don't want to do it yourself, we charge per company name for accurate prospect lists. Pricing varies based on targets.
However, you can learn to do this yourself - and we're going to show you how we build ours!
Want a Prospecting List That Actually Works?
💡 Join Our Free Webinar and we’ll show you:
✅ How to build a high-converting MSP lead list from scratch.
✅ What makes a lead truly valuable (it’s not just an email address).
✅ A step-by-step strategy to create a steady stream of ideal prospects.
📅 Date: April 1, 2025
⏰ Time: 3 PM ET
📍 Location: Online
🚀 Stop wasting money on bad leads—build a prospecting list that actually fuels your MSP’s growth!
