Top 7 Martal Group Alternatives for Lead Generation

The Martal Group is one of the best lead generation companies out there. They specialize in helping businesses achieve their full potential through strategic consulting, marketing, sales services, as well as outbound lead generation. 

The company is made up of over 100 sales executives and owns four curated databases containing 100 million contacts. Their specialty is generating leads for IT, SaaS businesses, and telecom B2B companies.

Generally speaking, The Martal Group's services are overwhelmingly positive on review sites like Clutch and G2.

• Clutch reviews: 4.9 out of 5

• G2 reviews: 4.8 out of 5

Essentially, they make their clients happy and they receive positive feedback across-the-board. But given that every business is unique in their needs and goals, you are probably looking for The Martal Group’s alternatives for one of the following reasons:

• their service didn’t align with your brand,

• you are comparing options based on pricing or overall service,

• you were dissatisfied with the services provided by The Martal Group, 

• you found them too expensive for your business, 

• you didn’t receive the number of leads you expected, 

• etc.

In this article, we will review the Martal Group’s outbound lead generation services and compare them to their biggest competitors on the market today, including our brand new lead generation agency Nerdy Joe. 

So, we'll be discussing 7 lead generation company alternatives to the Martal Group’s outbound lead generation services. We will start with a comparison to Nerdy Joe by demonstrating why we are the perfect alternatives for your needs. 

Next, we'll examine seven other lead generation firms and compare them to the Martal Group. 

Why Nerdy Joe is the best alternative to The Martal Group’s outbound lead generation services

Our main objective for lead generation aligns with The Martal Group's: to generate sales-qualified leads and schedule meetings or appointments with our clients.

As a business owner or sales representative striving to expand your sales efforts, you may encounter significant obstacles in establishing a productive process for active lead generation and customer acquisition.

Furthermore, if you're involved in sales or have worked with salespeople, you're likely aware that they dedicate the majority of their time to researching and reaching out to potential clients, with only 12% of their time spent on actual conversations and finalizing deals.

That's where both Nerdy Joe and The Martal Group come into the picture. We handle these tasks, freeing up salespeople's time so they can focus on their core competencies: in-person sales and closing deals.

With that being said, there are some differences between our approach to lead generation and the channels we employ compared to The Martal Group. Here are some reasons why you might prefer our service over The Martal Group.

Important: Please note that we are not criticizing their service; we are simply outlining the benefits you will receive from each service.

Scope of work and outreach channels

The Martal Group’s outbound lead generation service combines all the top three outreach channels known to cold outreach B2B lead generation to bring you the best results. They use cold emails, LinkedIn outreach, and cold calls to reach out to your target audience. 

So, they create message sequences and outreach funnels that combine all those outreach channels to reach out to your target audience. The first step in the workflow is to build a target list for your needs and then work on creating persona-based message templates that ensure that every message is personalized. 

At Nerdy Joe, we only specialize in cold email outreach. Our outreach strategies are designed to engage and attract your potential customers using cold email and that alone. 

Once you sign up with us, we will discuss your ideal customer profile, build the prospect lists and start sending cold emails. 

Our team works closely with you to understand your unique needs and goals, and we customize our approach accordingly to ensure we deliver the results you need.

We believe that generating leads is only the first step, and true success lies in converting those leads into loyal customers. Therefore, we prioritize generating high-quality leads that are more likely to convert into paying customers.

One of the things that really sets us apart from other lead generation agencies, including The Martal Group, is our commitment to quality (more on that later). As we understand that every business has unique needs, we provide customized lead generation solutions tailored to your specific requirements. 

List building approach

The Martal Group does a great job creating target prospects lists for their campaigns. According to their website, they create a curated list of pre-qualified prospects on a weekly basis and use it for their campaign.

The website also mentions that they create a list of 3000 - 5000 prospects that they target per month. So, considering that they build the lists and target the prospects on a weekly basis, that makes it around 750 - 1250 prospects list that they build per week. 

We believe it’s fair to assume that outreach lists this long can’t possibly be built manually. That would mean that they leverage some data intelligence tool (of which they have one in-house) to build the prospect lists then proceed to curate those lists.

Now, building lists like that can be an effective way to accelerate the list building process and be able to target several prospects within the agreed upon timeframe (i.e; weekly or monthly). But at Nerdy Joe, we prefer to build all of our lists manually and here is why this benefits you best. 

First thing, the type of data provided by data intelligence tools are generic and can be guessed. Even while they do apply filters to narrow the lists and focus on specific audiences, the data they provide still remain generic. In most cases, you’ll see data in the range of:

• IPO companies

• Companies that have 500-1000 employees

• Companies that use Salesforce

• Companies that are in the UK

• Companies that are Serie A funded

• Etc. 

The main reason we don’t like these data types is that they don’t actually say anything specific about the ICP, target prospects, their pain points or anything interesting about them. I mean, simply because you’re selling HubSpot does not make a company that uses Salesforce your target. 

If you see them as your potential target, you should be able to tell the specific pain point that makes them a potential customer for your product. 

So, because of this, we build our lists manually to ensure that they actually include only people who will have genuine interest in your product. We only include people with clear needs that your product provides solutions for. So, how do we do it?

Well, we can’t and won’t guess it. So, we will discuss it with you. We will ask you specific questions that help us build a sheer picture of what audience or individuals your product serves the best and why. Here are some of the questions we ask: 

• Why did you start your company? 

• What pain points were you trying to solve?

• What are the top 3 objections you hear from prospective clients during sales calls?

• Which type of clients have the highest lifetime value?

• Which type of clients is easiest to close?

• Which type of clients churns the fastest?

• Etc.

As you answer these questions very well, we can tell precisely who we should target and why. And this makes the difference between: 

“We’re targeting series A tech companies,” 

And 

“Our ICP is a VP of Sales at a b2b software company selling to HR professionals, and his main pain points are lack of organization, time management, and team collaboration. He often refers to XYZ podcasts to get insights as to how to manage his team efficiently.” 

Once we have a clear understanding of who the ICP is, we proceed to manually build our list, and that’s what we use to run our lead generation campaigns.

Targeting approach

As part of their scope of work for your business, The Martal Group targets between 3000 - 5000 and sends anywhere between 9000 - 12000 emails per month. 

Also, during the same timeframe, they’ll also follow-up with the prospects on LinkedIn by sending anywhere between 600 - 700 LinkedIn messages.

The deal also includes following up with the prospects through calls. And in the end, you can expect 20 - 30 qualified leads out of the campaign.

The combination of these three platforms or outreach channels can be effective in hitting up prospects across channels and ensuring that you actually touch the prospects and get a response. But this might not be ideal all the time and here is why:

• LinkedIn: Although it may be effective, teaching out to prospects on LinkedIn isn’t professional. Plus, people don’t go on LinkedIn to get offers, it’s a social platform and their primary goal is to network with like-minded people, not to buy. 

• Calls: Especially cold calls, are always intrusive and people hate them in general. Too many calls can negatively influence people’s opinion of your brand. 

Even more importantly, the main issue we take here is that The Martal Group reaches out to TOO MANY PROSPECTS and SENDS FAR TOO MANY EMAILS. We get that the emails can be sequences and all, but still. 

Here is why targeting a huge list and sending too many emails isn’t great for you. 

From our experience, here is what it could mean if you are targeting huge lists: 

• Lead blasting: If you are sending emails to this many people, it means that you are not taking the time to properly research your prospects and tailor your email to each individual. You’re blasting people with generic cold emails and pushing for action. They might say you’re selfish and lazy. 

• Poor leads quality: Since there is no super personalization, the quality of the leads you get will be subpar, and you can’t convert, at least not easily or in a short timeframe. 

• Angry prospects: Some prospects can be mean to you, saying things like “Remove me from your list”, “Don’t ever email me again” or worse, “Your cold email sucks”. 

• Your brand reputation is on the hook: Targeting people with generic emails can negatively impact your company’s reputation. This can be particularly damaging if you are in a competitive industry or rely heavily on word-of-mouth referrals. Also, we are sure that’s not how you want your business to be represented.

You get the idea? 

Now, let’s make it clear that we are not making any claims about the quality of service provided by The Martal Group. 

We're only highlighting the sheer amount of work and time it takes to create effective outreach campaigns and how targeting a large number of prospects is not necessarily an effective approach.

At Nerdy Joe, we are not interested in sending cold emails to 5000 prospects in one month to get you 20 leads. Preferably, we send personalized messages to a select few prospects after thorough research and analysis. 

Our ideal scenario is to send 20 carefully crafted cold emails to well-researched prospects, resulting in 15 responses, 10 positive responses, and ultimately 6 sales-qualified leads or appointments.

We do this by investing a lot of time in learning and researching your ideal customer profile (ICP) before sending emails. Our goal is to create emails that make each recipient feel personally connected to you and take your offer seriously, even if they don't ultimately sign up.

To achieve this, we work closely with you to develop your ideal customer profile, study each prospect individually and collect data points to create cold emails that stand out and leave a lasting impression. 

You may be wondering how we get the information about each prospect or member of your target audience that we use to tailor our emails to each individual.

• We listen to the podcasts your prospects participate in.

• We read the blog posts they write.

• We read their posts on LinkedIn, Twitter and Mastodon.

• We read the discussions in the forums they participate in.

The data we collect is aggregated to provide a unique perspective that allows us to create personalized cold emails.

Contract-based service

As you sign up to work with The Martal Group for the first time, you’ll be required to commit to a 3 Month Pilot Campaign before you can move to the simple monthly subscription.

That means you'll have to pay them the agreed monthly price for three months for them to test strategies to see what works and what doesn’t. It means your company will still have to be paying them for three months even when you don’t get results. 

From our experience, if you are looking for a lead generation agency, the most likely scenario is that you are not growing at the rate you want and are looking to fill your sales pipeline with qualified leads so you can increase your revenue. 

And if you are a small business or a startup, chances are you won’t have the budget to sustain a three month lead generation investment where you can’t guarantee results. 

That’s why at Nerdy Joe, we focus on bringing you results from the first month. We won’t make you sign any long-term or retainer contracts. 

We make it clear from the pricing page what you get as results and that’s exactly what you pay for. 

Pricing

The Martal Group's website does not provide pricing information, and the FAQs section does not address this topic either. Pricing cannot be found anywhere else, so you will need to book a consultation. But we can tell that they operate on flat fee, subscription-based pricing. 

Interestingly, a review post on Cience’s website reads that The Martal Group's pricing policy states that the minimum project cost is $5,000. This is obviously expensive and can’t be a choice for a new startup or a small business looking to grow. 

At Nerdy Joe, our service’s pricing is crystal clear. We have three plans:

• Silver: It costs $499/month and only gives you one warm LEAD.

• Gold: This is the plan we recommend, as it gives you the biggest bang for your buck. It costs $999/month and gives you 6 hot and sales-qualified appointments or LEADS.

• Platinum: This plan is for mid-level to enterprise companies willing to fuel their sales team with up to 15 sales-ready leads on a monthly basis.

Our email marketing pricing includes the following:

• The tech stack we use to build your prospect list and send and monitor your campaign.

• A complete list of prospects that fit your buyer persona and ICP.

• The campaign setup fees.

Top 7 Martal Group alternatives to consider for lead generation

Cience

Looked from outside, Cience is a lead generation and appointment setting service company. They focus on outbound email and phone outreach lead generation. 

But the company also owns sales intelligence tools where you can access leads and data and a team of sales professionals to which you can outsource your sales or lead generation service.

Their sales intelligence tools include programmatic ads tools, chatbot software, appointment setting tools, real-time chat, marketing platforms, CRMs, and project management tools.

Cience charges a fixed monthly fee for their services, with pricing based on the people and tools required from them. But their pricing details are not available on their website, but potential clients can request a quote from their SDR.

Also, unlike Nerdy Joe's subscription plan, Cience requires a minimum 6-month contract before starting to work with a client. 

This means that you must invest for at least six months, regardless of whether you see results or not. This type of contract gives Cience time to try and test things, but it does not guarantee an ROI for the client, and scaling down may not be an option.

Belkins.io

Belkins.io is lead generation and appointment-setting service company and an excellent alternative to The Martal Group. 

The primary difference between us, the Martal Group, and Belkins.io lies in the approach taken to identify the ideal customer profile (ICP) and the source of the leads. 

While the Martal Group does not specify it, Belkins.io uses data sources like Google, LinkedIn, Crunchbase, Glassodor, Xing, and others to generate leads, and our team relies on meaningful questions to understand your ICP and their pain points.

Both Belkins and the Martal Group offer multiple outreach channels, including cold email, cold calling, and social media outreach and we only offer cold email outreach. 

We also differ greatly in the targeting approach. Both companies hand-curate thousands of prospects from data intelligence tools. We target very few people and deliver incredible results with a more personalized approach.

Belkins.io also offers custom pricing but based on the project's scope and complexity, whereas our pricing is pretty straight forward, ensuring that you get the best value for your investment.

Operatix

Operatix is a lead generation and outsourced SDR agency that focuses on helping B2B tech companies increase their pipeline and generate revenue, making them a great alternative to the Martal Group. 

The company offers more services than the Martal Group. Their main services include: 

• Account identification

• Cold prospecting

• Lead qualification

• Account-based selling

• Outbound sales development

They also help you build sales funnels and outbound marketing channel programs that help you generate leads and drive more sales to your business. There are no details about their pricing. You will have to get in touch with the team to get a quote.

Cleverly

If you are looking for an alternative to the Martal Group that primarily focuses on LinkedIn outreach and LinkedIn lead generation, you’ve got a winner. 

Cleverly is lead generation and appointment setting company with a focus on LinkedIn outreach. They also offer other services and lead generation channels like cold email, content writing, paid ads, and more. 

Cleverly also targets hundreds of people based on the plan you choose. In fact, the main pricing factor is driven by the number of people they’ll reach out to for you and not the actual results they will provide for you — which may not always be ideal because your business cares more about the results than the actual work that needs to be done. 

Although Cleverly offers lower rates compared to us and the Martal Group, we believe our service and pricing offers you a better deal, especially if you’re a small business or a startup. Also, their service is primarily done on a platform that’s not dependable, LinkedIn.

WebFx

WebFx is a digital marketing agency that provides a full range of outbound and inbound marketing services to businesses of all sizes. 

Like the Martal Group, WebFx employs custom lead generation and outreach tools to improve their clients' campaigns.

They offer various inbound services, such as SEO, PPC, content marketing, email marketing, and ABM marketing, to generate leads and facilitate the sales cycle for their clients. While they do offer lead generation and appointment setting services, it's not their primary focus.

However, their email marketing services are relatively expensive for the average business, ranging from $300 to $5000 per month or $0.1 to $0.05 per recipient. Plus, there is an initial investment of $900, and larger projects are priced based on their custom pricing model.

KlientBoost

KlientBoost is a full-service digital marketing agency that helps businesses of all sizes increase their online presence and drive revenue growth. 

With a team of experienced digital marketers, they offer many services including PPC advertising, conversion rate optimization, landing page design, lead generation, and more.

One of their standout features is their advanced analytics tools. Thanks to these, the company is able to provide their clients with detailed insights into their online marketing campaigns, allowing them to make informed decisions that drive results.

One of the company’s most popular services is email marketing, helping businesses generate leads and more revenue through targeted email campaigns — which is what brought them on this list. They conduct thorough research and design effective campaigns to bring prospects closer to their clients' businesses.

From creating emails to conducting A/B testing, Klientboost manages all aspects of your email marketing services. Also, they perform email audits to ensure that their clients' email campaigns perform well.

To learn about their pricing, clients can use Klientboost's ROI calculator to get an estimate based on their specific needs.

Lead Cookie

Like Cleverly, Lead Cookie focuses on B2B prospects on LinkedIn and their services revolve around the platform. They use LinkedIn search to create lists of potential prospects, similar to Cleverly's approach. 

However, they also offer email copywriting and cold email outreach, which overlaps with The Martal Group and Nerdy Joe’s services.

Lead Cookie charges clients by the hour, but they don't provide pricing details on their website. According to Cience's blog, their average hourly rate is between $25 and $49. Although this may seem low, the cost can add up quickly, and there's a risk that clients will have to pay even if they're not satisfied with the results. 

Also, LinkedIn's reliability is not always guaranteed, as account blocks are common, and there may be additional costs for third-party tools.

Let Nerdy Joe do appointment setting and lead generation for your business

At Nerdy Joe, we distinguish ourselves from other lead generation companies through our personalized approach. Unlike companies that rely on purchased or scraped lists, we take the time to understand your business and create a clear ideal customer profile by asking relevant questions.

Our unique targeting approach means that we don't simply send out large numbers of cold emails in hopes of generating leads. Instead, we conduct extensive research on prospects and create customized email copies that truly resonate with them.

We take the time to listen to your specific business needs, and our tailored approach to each prospect enables us to generate high-quality leads that are more likely to convert into sales.

If you're looking for an effective lead generation and appointment-setting service alternative to the Martal Group that:

• prioritizes quality over quantity,

• manually builds lists of pre-qualified leads and researches each prospect to ensure quality

• target very short lists very well and ensures quality

• customizes its services based on your unique needs

• crafts super personalized cold emails and icebreakers

• requires no contract and is only focused on delivering you excellent results

 Nerdy Joe is the perfect alternative to the Martal Group.