Quote sites, bought lists, tenders or premises data: which to use
Each way of finding new business customers is good at something different. This page says what each gives you, when you hear about it, who else gets the same lead and how you pay, so you can choose the mix that fits your desk.
| What you get | When you hear | Who else gets it | How you pay | Best when | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quote websites Bark and sites like it | A request from a business ready to buy | When it asks | The other suppliers who respond | Per response, before you know if you'll win | You want buyers who are already asking |
| Bought lists List brokers | Names and addresses by trade and area | Whenever the list was last updated | Anyone who buys the same list | Per record or per list | You want volume for a letter or email campaign |
| New-company lists Read from Companies House | Companies formed this week | At incorporation | Everyone who reads the register | A monthly subscription | You sell to brand new companies, as accountants do |
| Public tenders Contracts Finder and Find a Tender | Public contracts open to bids | When the notice is published | Every bidder | Free to search; the cost is the bid | You can take on larger jobs and the paperwork |
| Your own site and search ads Google, your profile, your website | Businesses searching for what you do | When they search | Every supplier they also find | Your time, or per click | You want people with a need today |
| Premises data Salenovo | Businesses taking on premises, changing hands or about to open, with what happened and when | In the weeks before opening, or the week a business changes hands | Others in your trade and region, unless you take first look | £250 a month for a region | You want to call before the business has asked anyone |
Where premises data fits
A quote site hears from a business once it has decided to buy. A list tells you a business exists. Premises data tells you a business is at the point where it chooses its suppliers: a unit being fitted out, a licence applied for, a new owner taking over. That's earlier than a quote request, and it says why to call now, which a list can't.
The guides for each trade weigh the same options in more detail: every guide.
Had your free fortnight? Subscribe here and the files carry on: a region for £250 a month, and you can stop at any month's end. You choose the region and what you sell at the checkout.
Questions
Should we drop the quote sites?
Not if they pay. A quote request is a buyer who has already decided to buy, which nothing else on this page gives you. Premises data comes earlier, before the request exists, so the two work together: one for the businesses asking, one for the businesses about to.
What can't premises data tell us?
Whether a business wants to buy. It tells you a business is at the moment it usually decides, with what happened and when. Some rows have no phone number yet and need a letter or a visit, and Northern Ireland isn't in the file.
How is this different from buying a list?
A list is a snapshot of businesses that exist. This is what changed yesterday: who moved in, who took over, who left. A bought list can't tell you any of that, and it's out of date the day it arrives.
How do you find them?
From public registers, read every day and kept, so we can see when something changes at an address. The sources are on the sources page. How we put them together is ours, and we don't publish it.
Our prices are as published on these pages today. We don't quote other services' prices, because they change and we can't keep them true.