13 Sales Leads Business Success Stories [2024]
Imagine a business where you help companies find potential customers who are ready to buy. That's what a sales leads business is all about—connecting businesses with valuable prospects.
In simple terms, a sales leads business generates, verifies, and sells contact information and other pertinent details of potential clients to other businesses. The practical work involves researching, collecting data, and ensuring its accuracy. You'll use various tools and techniques to gather leads, such as online databases, social media, and company websites.
Demand for quality leads is high across industries. Companies are keen to outsource this tedious yet crucial task, making this a worthwhile endeavor. Starting a sales leads business could be perfect if you're methodical, data-savvy, and enjoy helping other businesses succeed. With dedication and the right approach, it’s a venture that offers ongoing opportunities for those willing to put in the work.
In this list, you'll find real-world sales leads business success stories and very profitable examples of starting a sales leads business that makes money.
1. Chili Piper ($40M/year)
Alina Vandenberghe and her co-founder Nicolas began Chili Piper in 2016, inspired by their extensive backgrounds in product development and sales processes. They identified a common pain point for sales teams: the inefficiency and frustration involved in scheduling meetings and managing sales leads. Through attending numerous industry events and engaging directly with potential customers, they validated that there was a significant need for a solution that could streamline this process.
Their initial approach was very hands-on; at these events, Nicolas would secure interest and demos on the spot, then Alina would handle onboarding and support, allowing them to gather critical real-time feedback. This feedback loop helped them continuously refine their solution, ensuring it met the actual needs of their users. One major challenge they faced was conceptualizing their brand and logo, which Alina sketched over a hundred times before they landed on the right design, overcoming this through persistence and external design help.
Key lessons from their process include the importance of deeply understanding their customers’ problems and remaining adaptable based on direct user insights. They learned early on that personal engagement and a customer-centric approach were crucial components in developing an effective, valued product.
How much money it makes: $40M/year
How many people on the team: 300
Aspiring founders will learn how Chili Piper's founders bootstrapped their way to $3 million ARR without paying salaries, raised over $54 million in funding, and secured rapid growth through strategic partnerships, personalized customer service, and effective influencer marketing campaigns.
2. The Pedowitz Group ($18M/year)
Jeff and Cherie started The Pedowitz Group in 2007, leveraging their expertise in sales and marketing. They saw an opportunity to provide consulting services in the digital marketing space and quickly gained momentum through word-of-mouth and industry referrals. Today, they have achieved over $20 million in annual revenue and continue to focus on growth and providing excellent service to their clients.
How much money it makes: $18M/year
How much did it cost to start: $500
How many people on the team: 100
Pedowitz Group, a $20M+ consulting agency, shares the story of how they grew their business by prioritizing customer retention/loyalty, being platform-agnostic, and focusing on strong results aligned with clients' key business objectives.
3. Dux-Soup ($4.8M/year)
Will van der Sanden, the Founder and CEO of Dux-Soup, came up with the idea for his business after his wife expressed frustration with manual lead generation for her publishing company. Recognizing the potential in LinkedIn scraping, Will saw a gap in the market for a product that offered more value at a lower cost than existing options. The result was Dux-Soup, a LinkedIn automation tool that now has over 70,000 users and nearly $5 million in revenue.
How much money it makes: $4.8M/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 20
Dux-Soup is a LinkedIn automation tool that helps business owners and sales & marketing professionals generate more leads, increase efficiency, and save time; with over 70,000 users and revenue of nearly $5 million, it offers automated top-of-the-funnel LinkedIn outreach activities, targeted LinkedIn campaigns and multi-touch & personalized LinkedIn drip campaigns for lead generation.
4. Interact ($2.5M/year)
Josh Haynam, the co-founder and CEO of Interact, came up with the idea for the business while in a hot tub with his co-founders. They realized that there were no platforms for creating interactive quizzes, and they saw the potential for facilitating human connection through this unique form of engagement. Despite facing financial struggles in the first six years, Interact has now grown to nearly $3 million in ARR and serves over 100 million people who take their quizzes each year.
How much money it makes: $2.5M/year
How much did it cost to start: $50K
How many people on the team: 9
Interact, a company co-founded by Josh Haynam, has been built up to nearly $3 million in ARR over the last 10 years, with over 100 million people taking its quizzes each year.
5. Wingman ($1.5M/year)
Shruti conceptualized Wingman after her hands-on experience at a fintech company called Pioneer.
While working on their go-to-market strategy, she faced challenges in understanding why some sales reps excelled while others did not, despite similar efforts. Additionally, she struggled to relay customer feedback to a distributed team.
These experiences led her to recording, archiving, and making sales calls searchable, which would help analyze performance and improve communication. Thus, Wingman was born.
How much money it makes: $1.5M/year
Discover how Shruti Kapoor transformed her fintech challenges into Wingman, a real-time sales insights powerhouse generating $1.5 million annually by providing actionable feedback to sales teams for just $100 per rep per month—despite starting with zero conversions from 40 targeted meetings.
6. Listkit ($1.5M/year)
Andre Haykal Jr., the founder of ListKit, came up with the idea for the company after reading John Warrillow's best-selling book, Built to Sell.
Tweet by the founder explaining how he came up with the idea
As an agency owner, Andre spent too much time creating lead lists for clients instead of engaging with potential customers. When he realized that many sales teams faced a similar issue, he saw the need for a more efficient solution.
After researching, he found that tools like ZoomInfo and Apollo were inadequate, and manual methods involving virtual assistants were costly and time-consuming.
Andre sought a better way, which led to the creation of ListKit.io, a platform that automates lead generation, allowing users to obtain and verify leads quickly.
How much money it makes: $1.5M/year
Learn how Listkit, founded by serial entrepreneur Andre Haykal Jr., scaled to $1.3M ARR in just 90 days using a hyper-personalized B2B contact list service, solving the problem of automating lead generation for marketers and sales teams through quick acquisition and verification.
7. FlowChat ($1.2M/year)
After selling their first software company and facing intense burnout, Chris Baden and his partners identified two key pain points—finding quality leads and ensuring consistency—through interviews with 40 business owners. Combining their sales expertise with Bruno Domingues' automation, they transformed FlowChat into a tool now generating over $1 million in annual revenue.
How much money it makes: $1.2M/year
How much did it cost to start: $0
How many people on the team: 14
Generate over $3 million in organic sales and achieve a $100k+ monthly revenue in just 4 months by leveraging FlowChat's powerful automated social media workflows and B2B sales tools, with insider tips and scripts included.
8. Franchise UK ($600K/year)
Joel Bissitt, founder of Franchise UK, had always dreamt of being an entrepreneur. Drawing inspiration from UK business icons like Richard Branson and Alan Sugar, he started the business at the age of 19 with just £1000 of funding. Through his expertise in SEO and a user-friendly website design, Franchise UK has experienced rapid growth, achieving a 50% increase in turnover last year and attracting some of the world's largest brands.
How much money it makes: $600K/year
How much did it cost to start: $1K
How many people on the team: 5
Franchise UK is the UK’s largest franchise directory helping franchise businesses to grow by generating quality franchisee recruitment leads online, with a 50% increase in turnover last year and big plans to further expand in different directions over the coming years.
9. Wealth Lead Generation ($120K/year)
Maria, the founder of Wealth Lead Generation, came up with the idea for her business through her experience as a freelancer and her passion for marketing. After successfully helping a fintech startup raise 7 figures through social media advertising and PR, she realized the potential of digital advertising and decided to start her agency. She focused on creating specific offers that addressed the pain points of her target audience and spent time listening to the market to refine her services. Through hard work and perseverance, Maria's agency quickly scaled to a team of 5 and achieved impressive revenue growth.
How much money it makes: $120K/year
How much did it cost to start: $200
How many people on the team: 5
"Wealth Lead Generation grew from a side hustle to a 6-figure business in 2021, generating an average of 250% increase in revenue for their clients through digital advertising campaigns on social media with a team of 5 people."
10. Mailmodo ($102K/year)
Aquibur Rahman, the founder and CEO of Mailmodo, came up with the idea for his business while working as a marketer at a fintech company. He realized the importance of email for business growth and saw the potential of AMP emails when Google announced them for the Gmail app. Seeing the gap in the market for a no-code platform that supports AMP emails, Rahman decided to create Mailmodo to help marketers improve email conversions and engagement.
How much money it makes: $102K/year
How many people on the team: 25
Mailmodo, an email marketing software that enables marketers to send app-like interactive emails, accelerated to 100k+ ARR in just five months after launching the public version in January 2021, with a focus on attracting and retaining customers through organic growth and product-led solutions.
11. Koala Rank ($96K/year)
Arrigo, the founder of Koala Rank, stumbled upon the idea of starting his own business while working as a freelancer on Fiverr. After receiving an email about Fiverr's new Studios feature, he saw an opportunity to create his own thing and decided to click on the "Create a Studio" button. This marked the beginning of Koala Rank, an all-in-one content marketing service that now generates $8K in monthly recurring revenue.
How much money it makes: $96K/year
How much did it cost to start: $4K
How many people on the team: 1
Koala Rank, an all-in-one content marketing service for B2B firms founded by Arrigo, has grown to $8K in MRR since its launch in Jan 2020 with retention being good and March 2021 seeing a boom in subscriptions.
12. LinkHelp ($48K/year)
a risk-free way to try out LinkHelp and see if it meets their needs.
Referral Program We have implemented a referral program that rewards customers for referring others to our platform. This has helped us in acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones through word-of-mouth marketing.
Customer Support We prioritize excellent customer support and provide timely responses to any queries or issues our customers may have. This level of support helps us in building trust and loyalty with our customer base.
Continuous Product Improvements We constantly listen to customer feedback and make regular updates and additions to our product based on their needs and suggestions. This helps us in providing a better user experience and retaining customers.
In terms of marketing, what has been your most successful strategy? Our most successful marketing strategy has been content marketing. We create and share valuable content through our blog and social media channels, focusing on topics that are relevant to our target audience such as LinkedIn lead generation, networking tips, and business growth strategies.
This strategy has helped us in establishing ourselves as a thought leader in our industry and attracting organic traffic to our website. It also helps in building brand awareness and credibility among our target audience.
Additionally, we have also leveraged partnerships and collaborations with industry influencers and experts to reach a wider audience and increase our brand visibility.
What are some of the biggest challenges you've faced and obstacles you've overcome? One of the biggest challenges we faced was building credibility and trust in a competitive market. As a relatively new player in the LinkedIn lead generation space, we had to prove ourselves to potential customers and differentiate ourselves from established competitors.
To overcome this challenge, we focused on providing exceptional customer support, consistently delivering a high-quality product, and leveraging customer testimonials and case studies to showcase the positive impact LinkHelp has had on businesses. Building a strong online presence and actively engaging with our community on social media also helped in building trust and credibility.
Another challenge we faced was acquiring customers without a large marketing budget. We had to be creative in our marketing efforts and leverage cost-effective strategies such as content marketing, referral programs, and partnerships to attract and retain customers.
Overall, we have learned that perseverance, adaptability, and constantly listening to customer feedback are key to overcoming challenges and growing a successful business.
What advice do you have for aspiring founders who want to build their own business? My advice for aspiring founders is to always focus on solving a real pain point or problem for your target audience. Understand their needs and challenges and create a product or service that provides a valuable solution.
Additionally, surround yourself with a strong team that shares your passion and vision. Building a business is not a solo journey and having a team with complementary skills and expertise can greatly contribute to your success.
Don't be afraid to start small and iterate as you go. Test your ideas, gather feedback, and continuously improve your product or service based on customer needs.
Lastly, be prepared for challenges and setbacks along the way. Building a business is not easy, but with perseverance, determination, and a willingness to learn and adapt, you can overcome obstacles and achieve your goals.
How much money it makes: $48K/year
How much did it cost to start: $1K
How many people on the team: 3
LinkedIn lead generation and relationship-building tool, LinkHelp, used by entrepreneurs and small-to-medium businesses across different industries in more than 90 countries, boasts a diverse user base and an ARR of $50k, with a pricing model that's economical compared to competitors.
13. Hawk Prospecting ($12K/year)
Mohamad Alasadi, a 19-year-old entrepreneur and blogger, came up with the idea for Hawk Prospecting while running his marketing agency. He realized the need for a low-budget tool that could help him find qualified leads and prospects. With a limited technical knowledge, he used a no/low-code site builder to build Hawk Prospecting, which has now gained traction and generated $1500 in monthly revenue within its first two months.
How much money it makes: $12K/year
How many people on the team: 1
Mohamad Alasadi, a 19-year-old entrepreneur, shares how he grew his B2B prospecting software, Hawk Prospecting, from an idea to $1.5K MRR in 7 weeks, using a no/low-code tool to build the product, and a go-to-market strategy that focuses on user feedback and outreach to marketing agency owners.
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
