Local business leads, and how to judge a list
Lead lists have a bad reputation and mostly deserve it. The usual product is fifty thousand rows scraped years ago, sold to everyone, unfiltered. Here is what to check before paying for one — including for this one.
Ask when it was collected, not when it was sold
A list assembled in 2021 and sold today is a list of businesses that have since closed, moved or built a site. Ask for the source and its date. If neither is disclosed, that is the answer.
Ask what it was filtered for
Volume is the enemy. Fifty thousand businesses in a country is worse than four hundred in your city that match one trade and one condition. If the seller advertises size rather than a filter, you are buying a directory, not leads.
Ask whether the phone numbers are real
Emails on lists are usually generic or invented. Phone numbers are harder to fake and, for a local business, far more useful — the owner answers the phone. A list without phone numbers is a list you will not work.
Ask where the data came from legally
Anything sold without a named source is a liability. Open data with a public licence — the Overture Maps Foundation, for instance — can be checked, attributed and resold cleanly. Scraped data cannot.
Test the list before you trust it
Whatever you buy, work the first twenty rows before touching the rest. Call them. If four numbers in a row are disconnected or the business has clearly closed, stop and ask for a refund — you have learned what you needed to for the cost of an hour. A seller who will not stand behind twenty rows will not stand behind five hundred.
What we do about each
Refreshed monthly from a dated open release; filtered to one city, one trade, and only businesses whose source declares no website; every row carries a phone; the licence travels with the file on its own sheet. 2,165,514 businesses across 20 countries, and the count for your market is shown before you pay.