Springwise:
If crowdsourcing can be used to improve product design, music promotion and sports team management–to name just a few of the examples we’ve written about–why not the process of finding sales leads?
That question is about to be tested through a new site that aims to put the crowds to work as a sort of community sales force.
LeadVine lets users post the types of sales leads they seek along with the referral fee they’re willing to pay; the community is then invited to earn that fee by making the desired connections. Fees listed on the site must be at least USD 50, but the range is considerable.
One listing, for example, offers a USD 100 referral fee for help in finding companies in need of online chat support. Another offers USD 50,000 for investors to contribute USD 2 million toward an Oregon real-estate development project.
Requests are listed by category, and buttons for each allow others to bookmark them, share them via e-mail or make a referral. The resulting transactions are conducted outside the site, but LeadVine facilitates the payment of referral fees via PayPal.
Community members can also rate each other on the site to reflect the quality of each transaction.
Photo by valkarie.