When the ROI is so good, you pay for it yourself
Chancellor Corbett is a business development consultant at Oracle NetSuite, selling cloud ERP to C-suite executives. His quota: 35 booked meetings per quarter with CFOs, CEOs, and other decision-makers who control significant software budgets.
At most enterprise companies, BDRs use whatever sales intelligence platform the company provides. Chancellor does something different.
He pays for Lusha out of his own pocket.
Not because NetSuite doesn’t offer other tools. Because the ROI on Lusha is so good that paying for it himself makes obvious financial sense.
As a BDR, Chancellor pays for Lusha out of pocket, because the ROI is over 1000%.
1000% ROI isn’t a marketing claim. That’s his actual calculated return based on commission from meetings booked using Lusha’s direct mobile numbers.
I’ve already booked 14 qualified meetings one month into my quarter (out of a goal of 35 meetings.) If I do the math on my commission check, the ROI is well over 1000% and I make my money back tenfold.
When a BDR willingly pays for a tool with personal money, it’s not loyalty. It’s math that works.
The phone number is everything
Ask Chancellor what matters most for enterprise BDR work, and the answer is direct.
I could honestly care less about emails. The phone number is everything.
Not email addresses. Not LinkedIn InMail. Not company switchboard numbers. Direct mobile numbers for C-level executives.
The math backs up that focus:
200 emails = 1 meeting
30 dials = 1 meeting
When you need 35 meetings per quarter, that efficiency difference determines whether you hit quota or not.
Email works for some prospects. But when you’re selling six-figure cloud ERP to CFOs and CEOs, phone conversations convert at rates email can’t match.
The challenge: finding verified mobile numbers for executives who don’t publish that information.
COVID made direct mobiles critical
When COVID hit, office phone systems routed to empty desks. Switchboards stopped working. Generic company numbers became dead ends.
For Chancellor, that shift made Lusha even more valuable.
You have to consider COVID-19 everybody working from home. Unless their office line leads to a cell phone, I need to have a direct line to a decision maker. At the end of the day, that’s what leads to meetings.
While other BDRs struggled with disconnected office lines, Chancellor had verified mobile numbers that connected regardless of where executives were working.
60% accuracy for C-level direct dials. Not perfect. But significantly better than email conversion rates or generic office numbers that route to voicemail.
During a time when traditional prospecting methods broke, direct mobile access kept working.
When paying out of pocket makes sense
NetSuite has 10,000+ employees and 300+ BDRs. Large organizations typically negotiate enterprise contracts for sales intelligence platforms.
Those platforms often cost $10,000+ annually per seat. Deployed company-wide, that’s massive budget. For individual BDRs paying personally? Prohibitively expensive.
Lusha’s pricing changes that calculation.
With other competitors, you have to purchase them at a company-wide scale, and the ROI is harder to accomplish. With some competitors costing at $10K a year and up, even if you were to split that amongst your teammates, that’s harder to justify. With Lusha, the ROI is certainly there.
Chancellor can afford Lusha on a BDR salary because the cost is reasonable and the return is immediate. One $40K deal from a mobile number Lusha provided pays for years of subscription.
That’s why he’s used it for two years. That’s why he recommends it to colleagues. That’s why he pays for it himself even though he works at a company that could easily afford enterprise tools.
The individual economics work.
14 meetings in month one
Chancellor’s quota: 35 meetings per quarter.
One month into Q1, he’d already booked 14 qualified meetings. 40% of quota achieved in 33% of the time.
That pace came from one fundamental advantage: direct access to C-level decision-makers through verified mobile numbers.
With Lusha you have a direct line to your prospect, and it’s way easier to make a connection. Cell phone numbers are ultimately what provide me with the most value.
Direct lines bypass gatekeepers. Mobile numbers reach executives wherever they’re working. Conversations happen faster than email sequences.
When you’re measured on meetings booked, that speed compounds. Hit 14 in month one, and you’re on track for 42 by quarter end—20% above quota with buffer for slower months.
That’s not luck. That’s infrastructure that works.
The $40K solar deal
Recently, Chancellor used Lusha to find the mobile number for a solar energy company CEO.
Called him. Connected immediately. Discovered the CEO was actively vetting Chancellor’s competitor—exactly the conversation every BDR wants.
It’s looking extremely promising. It’s great timing.
Potential deal value: $40,000 annually.
That single conversation—enabled by one verified mobile number—could deliver returns that pay for Lusha for years. One deal. One number. Massive ROI.
Perfect timing only matters if you can reach the person at that moment. Email would have taken days. Office switchboard might never have connected. Direct mobile? Immediate conversation.
Why 300+ BDRs use free credits
NetSuite has over 300 BDRs. Chancellor isn’t the only one using Lusha.
Everyone takes advantage of their free Lusha credits, especially on the BDR side.
When word spreads organically through a 300-person BDR org, that’s not marketing. That’s proof the tool works in the exact workflow they all use.
Free credits let BDRs test the platform. Good results convert them to paying customers—even when they have to pay personally.
Chancellor started with free credits two years ago. Saw the ROI. Started paying for it himself. Now recommends it to colleagues who are discovering the same thing: direct mobile access changes conversion rates.
When individual ROI proves value
Most enterprise sales intelligence platforms sell to companies, not individuals. They require organizational budget. VP approval. Procurement processes.
Lusha works at both levels. Enterprises deploy it company-wide. Individual BDRs pay for it personally.
Chancellor represents the second category. He works at a 10,000-employee company that could easily afford enterprise tools. He chooses to pay for Lusha himself because the individual economics make sense.
1000% ROI based on commission from meetings booked
14 meetings in month one (40% of quarterly quota)
60% accuracy on C-level direct dials
30 dials to 1 meeting vs. 200 emails to 1 meeting
$40K potential deal from one verified mobile number
Affordable enough for individual BDR to justify personally
The ROI is well over 1000% and I make my money back tenfold.
That’s not a corporate procurement decision. That’s an individual BDR doing the math and concluding: paying for this tool myself generates more commission than it costs.
When that calculation works at the individual level, the value proposition is undeniable.
Asked to describe Lusha in one word, Chancellor chose: “Connect.”
Because that’s what direct mobile numbers do. They connect you to C-level decision-makers who can approve $40K deals. They connect conversations that turn into meetings. They connect effort directly to quota attainment.
At 1000% ROI, connection becomes infrastructure.
