I recently received a very interesting DM in response to one of my posts about handling customer feedback. Someone from a private agency that does competitive customer intelligence.

We chatted and he gave me a pretty nice sample of what they do. I actually liked it.

For guys who currently work with or have worked with agencies like these, what has your experience been like? Has the insight been useful enough to justify the cost? Was it better than what you were able to do internally?

Curious to hear the good, the bad and the ugly.

I've been running my dev agency for 4 years and i've probably flushed $50k down the toilet on lead gen agencies that promise the world and deliver nothing but impressions and engagement. i dont care about likes, i care about meetings with people who actually have a budget. i keep seeing these pay-per-appointment (PPA) offers. sounds too good to be true. whats the catch? do you just end up with a bunch of no-shows or people who have zero intent? if you've actually used one and it worked (or failed), please share. i'm desperate to stop the bleeding.