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posts in Lead Generation category

  • Post By
    JT Benton

    Hello again! Last week, we rolled out MobilePositive and gave a hint or two at what we’re up to. If you read that first post, you’d know that our new platform connects Advertisers with Consumers on the mobile web in a very meaningful and aligned way–driving heaps of quality inbound calls to our clients, daily. You would also know that I promised a follow up to that post explaining the timing of this rollout.

    Thus, the title (or, question) of today’s contribution: Why mobile; why now?

    Because it’s time. And, because before now, it wasn’t. Seriously.

    If you’ve attended LeadsCon, Ad:Tech, Affiliate Summit or any other performance marketing event in the past four years, you’ve surely heard the hype on mobile. For years now, soapboxes at major industry shows have been occupied by folks signaling the ‘year of mobile.’ They blogged. They tweeted. They spammed us all on LinkedIn. Some of these zealots even went so far as to don QR-coded T-Shirts that were color coordinated to match their converse sneakers. Indeed, active were the hypesters.

    And yet, despite all the hoopla, they were wrong. That’s right – flat wrong. At least in the context of the Cost-per-Lead media ecosystem. Mobile has been unworkable and unnecessaryuntil fairly recently. It’s taken Publishers, Advertisers, Networks and Consumers time to find the right way to play. We just weren’t ready, yet. Mostly, this was on the consumers and the publishers. It’s taken adoption rates skyrocketing, Apple’s stock booming, the Android market maturing, bandwidth levels rising and a whole host of other factors to get consumers ready for this at scale. For mobile publishers, the question has never been if – it’s been how and when. As in, ‘how and when can I make as much money selling leads as I do selling impressions and clicks.’ These groups needed to converge and align. It took help, muscle and risk. And, again, time. But now, it’s clear to me that it’s happening: mobile lead generation is alive and growing.

    Ok. Before we get too far, I’m coming clean: I get the irony. In writing the above, one could argue that I’m now guilty of the same soapboxing I’ve just poked fun at. The argument is pretty linear, actually: I just said the people who announced the era of mobile lead-gen were wrong. And yet this post’s thesis is that the era of mobile lead-gen is, in fact, now here. Thin ice, right? Totally. Except I’ve got the in-house data to support this, and I see the interest on the advertiser side mounting: we introduce a new major advertiser to the mobile web weekly.

    Last month, MobilePositive facilitated over 25,000 inbound phone calls to our early advertiser clients. These were direct, net-new customers, each happily dialing in. And, a considerably high number of them bought the services our clients were selling. These advertisers include leading brands in the Education, Mortgage, Insurance, Home Services and Identity Protection vertical markets. So far, the proof is the campaign performance. We see cost-per-sale figures that consistently perform on target and our budgets are growing. The publishers are happy, too. Both sides (buyers and sellers) see long-standing, steady campaign growth and an exciting new mix of partnerships as a big part of the upside to mobile.

    So, why mobile? And, why now? Because – like I said, it’s time.

    That’s all for today, gang. Thanks for reading. Next week, we’ll get more tactical with a piece on why publishers should love the pay-per-call format.

  • Post By
    JT Benton

    Hey, everybody – JT Benton here.  I oversee DoublePositive’s new mobile marketing division, which we’re calling MobilePositive.  While it’s true that I’m a rookie at DP, I’m certainly no stranger to the world of performance marketing.

    I’ll be blogging here fairly frequently.  I’m excited to share with you a bit about our growing work in mobile, how we plan to add value and show first-hand how easily the mobile web can drive alignment in a performance marketing format.  I’ll also make it a consistent point to emphasize that this growth comes from a very solid foundation of connecting sales teams with live, interested customers on the phone.  Indeed, I think it’s fitting that game-changing mobile marketing developments would come from the industry leader in delivering LIVE Hot Transfers.

    I’ll spend most of my ‘air time’ describing our mobile product offerings and musing on the industry on large.  The mobile web is quickly transforming the way advertisers connect with consumers, and MobilePositive is helping to lead the charge.  As such, we’re learning a lot – and I have every intention of sharing these learnings with the reader along the way.  With major Advertisers in the mortgage, EDU and insurance verticals already participating, our platform is driving tens of thousands of inbound calls monthly.  We see lots of data, and we talk about this stuff all day.  Just ask my wife.

    So please, dig in.  Follow us, and share with others that there’s a new player in mobile.  And, don’t miss next Tuesday’s followup: Why mobile; why now?

  • Post By
    Rich Dent

    You guys know me – booth babe.

    So last month at Leads-Con East, I am chatting with this guy who says he’s a big leads buyer.  He likes our LIVE Hot Transfer concept, and wants his enrollment officers to receive live, interested leads on the phone, but …

    “Can’t you guys qualify them more?”

    This comment shows how times have changed.  In the old days, companies were simply handing a fat pile of leads over to sales, and asking them to call them all.  It was like looking for a needle in a hay stack.

    Then DoublePositive came along and found the needle in the hay stack.  We patented the LIVE Hot Transfer process, so that companies could receive phone calls from live consumers who were ready to talk with a salesperson.

    Now this guy wanted to know if we could take it a step further and thread the needle for him.

    “We do some simple qualifying,” I cautioned.  “But in my opinion, you should be careful what you ask for.  You might do yourself more harm than good.”

    He said, “Why?  If I’m talking to people I can’t help, I want to filter those people out.”

    “I understand,” I said.  “But you need to be careful who you filter out, or you will filter everybody out.”

    “Not sure I follow,” he said.

    I tried again.  “Think of it this way.  What if they have a family member you could help out? What if you discover there is another service or product you could provide?  You never know unless you talk to them.”

    He shrugged.

    “You are basically asking the call center agent to make that decision for you,” I said.  “That’s not wise.  What you should do is, let us eliminate those consumers who really had no interest of ever speaking to you about your product or service.  Let us take away that work for you.  And the rest?  Those who have raised their hand and said they want to talk to you?  You should take those calls as fast as I can transfer them to you.”

    “I don’t know,” he said.  “There’s got to be an easier way.”

    I gave him one of Sean’s great lines: “There’s nuggets of gold in the hills.  Finding them is the hard part – that’s our job.  It’s your job to work them.”

    “Well, I need someone who will do all the work for me,” he said.

    At this point I just had to laugh, shake his hand, and wish him luck.

    So I’m writing this post to help folks understand.  There is a right way to use a LIVE hot transfer service and a wrong way.

    If you want us to call your leads and transfer back only those that are ready to talk business, that’s the right way.

    But you want us to call, qualify the lead, sell for you, close the deal and just send you the money …

    Booth babe says, “Good luck.”

  • Post By
    Rich Dent

    Hey, everybody, it’s been a while, but I have a good reason for my absence.  I’m a new dad!  Wife and baby are doing just fine.  Thanks for all the nice notes we got.

    Back to reality

    Unfortunately, I came back to the reality of even more frustration for the mortgage industry.  As a former loan officer, I know a little bit about what those guys are going through.  That’s why I want to share the news that DoublePositive’s hot lead transfer service can help.

    You guys know me – I’m not trying to sell anything.  But situations change.  Maybe more people may be able to hear me now.

    Here’s the deal

    There is still a struggle out there – what’s more important?  Having someone like DoublePositive call your Internet leads, or having your own reps call them?

    In our economy, there aren’t a ton of interested, qualified consumers out there.  There are some, but not a lot.  By volume, there are far more uninterested, unqualified Internet leads to call on.

    This leaves you with a decision.  Do you call the big pool of low quality leads, or receive calls from the small pool of high quality leads?

    Does it really matter?

    The impact of making a mistake is huge.  Companies are finding it more and more expensive to grow.  Hiring new sales professionals is a long process.  It requires a substantial investment in planning and training as well as employment costs before you can acquire a single new customer.

    DoublePositive can get you that customer without all the time and expense.

    How it works

    Let’s say you want to 500 more leads per day, starting tomorrow.  Most organizations don’t have the ability to call on 500 potential new clients tomorrow.  For example, who will call?  It could take months and months to hire the people and get them up to speed to handle a surge like that.

    Instead, DoublePostive will do the work for you.  We’ll send your sales force more consumers on the phone who are interested in talking to them.  Like a sports car running on high octane, your currently successful salespeople will only get better with higher quality leads.

    This approach allows you to grow faster, without investing the money and time to hire and train people.  And you don’t have to wait until 3-6 months later if your new people are valuable to the organization.

    Victory lap

    That’s all I wanted to tell you guys today.  Don’t be afraid to trust a new source to transfer the calls to your existing sales team.  You can double your customers with the same amount of salespeople.  It happens every day.

  • Post By
    Rich Dent

    When you’re hot, you’re hot, and DoublePositive is definitely hot.

    First, we’re growing at a torrid pace.  That’s why we decided to bring both our DP East and DP West teams to LeadsCon East in New York last week.  Hopefully you got a chance to meet more of our talented people who are setting the industry on fire.

    Second, we were happy to be in a position to underwrite LeadsCon East as Lead Sponsor this year.  DoublePositive has had a hot hand, and this is one small way we were able to give back to the community.

    Third, to really spice things up, we brought our own hot sauce to the event.  It was a special fiery concoction that was brewed just for us.  We passed out 250 bottles in New York.  Yes, that’s me on the label.  Hot stuff, I know.

    Are you tough enough to take the heat?  Can you handle all that Live Hot Transfers flavor?  If you were one of the fortunate (or unfortunate!) ones to pick up a bottle, let us know if your tongue survived.  And check back soon because I expect to have a few more posts about LeadsCon.

  • Post By
    Joey Liner

    Given the sorry state of the mortgage industry, the big question is: What can we do?

    The attitude out there is keep your head down, fight through it, be a tough guy. There’s no other way to survive. You have lived through hell the last five years, and you’re used to pessimism and the negative nature of the economy. You know you don’t have the answers. Your peers in the industry don’t have the answers. They are going to see if they can merge, roll up or fight through it and continue to operate on their own. But margins keep dropping, and it’s not a fun time. Not fun at all.

    On the other hand, you talk to some big investors, and they see an opportunity, as the market continues to shrink, they want to get in and buy low. So there are some companies that are growing.

    Lead quality drops

    You guys know, I like to say I’m one of the most optimistic people out there. But this one of the most frustrating time in my mortgage leads lifetime.

    At DoublePostive, we are seeing lead quality drop. This is happening because the re-fi market is drying up and the lead providers are beginning to be desperate to fulfill their client quotas. I can see lead providers dipping into affiliate marketplace leads, and this plays out in lower quality leads.

    Quality has gone down over all. In response, we’re trying to optimize transfer rates as best as we can, via our normal process. Also we’ve added a lot of innovative tools to enhance speed-to-lead, features like call-backs, the ability to put our client’s name on the caller ID and email follow-ups on each lead.

    Tightening the chin strap

    My goal, assuming things continue to get worse before they get better, is to work with the folks who will survive, and partner up with the lead providers who are going to make it through it. I will continue to be a good service provider, and help the people that need to be helped.

    For example, the big banks don’t have an outbound dialing culture. They don’t have the high-commissioned loan officers who are banking on a big commission, so they are not aggressive outbound dialers. This favors DoublePositive, in the long run. These big banks are paying low-level, inexperienced people, who are not aggressive outbound dialers, and that works for us. But what we really want to see is a period of healing for the smaller lenders.

    The best medicine

    Sometimes, when the stress is really, really bad, all you can do is laugh. That’s probably why I am reminded of Woody Allen as I wrap this series of updates. He said, “I want to leave you with a positive thought, but I can’t think of one. Would you take two negative thoughts?”

    Here’s a positive thought. Just stay true to your vision, guys. Embrace the pain for the opportunities it offers. Do what you must do. Keep fighting, sell, roll up – but don’t give up. The adjustments you make now will build your company, and strengthen you to face whatever is coming next. I hope, in the long run, those who stuck it out will be rewarded.

    So that’s my take on the state of the industry. My next update comes next quarter. Meantime, feel free to get in touch, or leave comments in the fields below.

  • Post By
    Joey Liner

    In my last post, I gave the Internet leads perspective on where mortgage is as an industry today. Interest rates are low, but consumers can’t qualify for purchase or re-fi loans. Loan officers’ compensation rules have caused mortgage shops to change focus, and a huge pool of consumers for loan amounts under $250K is being ignored. The comparison lead product, which came onto the scene with such great promise, has been unable to provide enough volume. Margins are thin. Doors are closing. In short, there is a lot of stress and anxiety in the market.

    Other than that, you might say, everything’s great.

    No boom for comparison ads

    Three months ago, I predicted that comparison lead buying would scale quickly. Since then, the comparison ad market has stayed flat. The LendingTree product Loan Explorer has been put on hold. I haven’t seen much from LeadPoint, either. They were supposed to have a major comparison lead product as well.

    There are still four that dominate the comparison ad market (BankRate, Zillow, Informa, and Google). Their clients are doing well with the comparison leads. Unfortunately, they are complaining that they can’t get enough volume. (See my State of the Union – Part II http://bit.ly/iiltBZ to understand the factors that impact the volume of comparison leads available.) As a result in my estimation, it now looks like comparison ads will make up closer to 25-30% of the total next year, no more.

    The state of the sales floor

    Something else I predicted has not yet taken effect – but this time, I don’t think I’m wrong. I’m talking about my advice to lenders to divide their sales floor in order to scale.

    Right now, I’m seeing shops go one way or the other. I’ve seen a complete reversal with two of the major players in buying lead aggregator leads. Until recently, they were heavy buyers of regular internet leads. Then they shut it off and went 100% comparison ads.

    Why? Their conversion rates were dropping on traditional leads. I think they took a good look at the profile of their sales force and felt that, on the out-bound, aggressive side of the sales floor, they were not competitive with Quicken and big internet lead buyers. They lost out. So, to continue to operate in the Internet channel at all, they felt the only way to compete was to move to a low-margin / high volume business. So they publicized their rates, and completely switched over to comparison ads, where their “sales” folks just have to honor the published rates on the ad. BTW, I took some criticism for calling that order taking from some loan officers and managers in my last post. I was not trying to offend anyone on the front lines, just making a point that it is a completely different sale then the aggregator model.

    This shift has been successful for both companies. But again, what I keep hearing is that lead buyers can’t get enough volume to meet their demand.

    Opportunities in the confusion

    So I stand by what I said at the start of Q2. In the long term, mortgage shops will buy both traditional and comparison leads online. To scale the company and hit revenue goals, you simply will have to do both. You’ll divide your sales floor, because you understand that you are dealing with two different types of sales, requiring two different types of sales people.

    But you’ll still need to be smart about navigating these changes. A whole lot can still go wrong. I’ll talk about that in my next post probably mid-week.

  • Post By
    Brian Ocheltree

    How to identify value while diversifying and increasing lead supply

    Summary

    • The value of aggregator leads – both shared and exclusive ­­– has changed
    • After self-generated leads, the best option might be aggregator leads, not paid search
    • Shared leads are often a better value than if the same leads were exclusive
    • Lead-Buyers should also test exclusive leads to determine whether they convert better
    • New quick connections allow Buyers to add more lead supply, from more diverse sources, without adding IT integration costs

    A New Mix of Business Drivers

    When planning the integration of Internet leads into the company’s sales and marketing efforts, Lead-Buyers need to check their assumptions about shared versus exclusive leads.  The market has changed.  Optimized properly, both lead types can be significant growth drivers.

    The Problem of Shared versus Exclusive

    There’s a misunderstanding about the value of the different types of leads today.  Because exclusive leads can be 2-3x the cost of shared leads, some Lead-Buyers think they are too expensive.  But are they?  Others think that because shared leads are shared, they are not worth the price.  Is that correct?  Could both be right?

    Rather than guess at answers, DoublePositive recommends taking a step back and considering the facts.

    Your Most Valuable Leads

    First, a word about your most valuable type of online lead, the self-generated branded lead.  These are the leads generated from your own website typically.  Generally, these leads are the highest quality because they are from highly motivated, proactive consumers who tend to be “in market” and are therefore the consumers most likely to convert.  In addition, self-generated leads are often very inexpensive since many come from free organic search traffic.

    So, if self-generated branded leads are the best, and usually the cheapest, why do anything else?

    In most cases, the volume of self-generated leads is not sufficient to hit required sales goals.  Increasing the volume is a slow process, and Lead-Buyers can’t simply “step on the gas” to generate more self-generated leads overnight.  You can use paid search to increase the volume quickly, but in most markets, this becomes cost prohibitive quickly due to brand advertisers bidding up the primary keywords to unrealistic prices.   Think of trying to compete with Geico and Progressive for the key phrase “Auto Insurance” to drive traffic to your website.  It doesn’t work.  So, to fill the gap between self-generated leads and sales goals, aggregator leads are one of your best options.  Both shared and exclusive should be considered and ideally tested since everyone’s situation is different.

    Are Shared Leads a “Necessary Evil”?

    Some Lead-Buyers have always believed that shared leads are bad.  We hear it all the time.  Shared leads are “a necessary evil”.

    DoublePositive challenges our clients to look deeper before deciding whether that statement is true.  Some shared leads are bad, no doubt.  Perhaps most are.  But we have found that if a shared lead is bad, it probably isn’t because it’s shared, but rather more likely due to other reasons.  For example:

    • The lead was generated from a low quality source
    • The lead was sold too many times, or is aged
    • A Lead-Buyer has abused the lead with unscrupulous dialing methods

    Are Shared Leads Any Good?

    A complaint I hear every day from our lead buying customers is that shared leads are no good because they are shared.  There is too much competition fighting over the consumer’s attention, they complain.

    While it may be true that these leads would be better if they were not shared, they become less attractive when the price is adjusted appropriately.  Suppliers would have to charge 2-3x the price of a shared lead to make their economics work.  And I do not believe these leads would convert 2-3x higher if they were exclusive, which would be required to justify the higher price.  Keep in mind that if a consumer is truly “in-market” and motivated to buy, it is likely that they visited multiple supplier sites and submitted multiple forms, so even though you got an exclusive lead from one supplier, you probably aren’t the only sales organization calling that lead.

    During a recent client visit, my client asked “How do the lead suppliers do it?  They only charge me $7 a lead, and it costs me $50 per lead to generate on my own through paid search.”  I was speechless.  This was the first time I had ever been asked that question, and usually it’s the opposite.  In my opinion, sharing the leads is a big reason the economics work for all of us.

    What about Exclusive Leads?

    If all else is equal (lead type, lead source, speed to lead, etc.), then an exclusive lead should convert higher than a shared lead simply because there are fewer companies pursuing the sale.  However, all else is rarely equal, and these other attributes contribute more to the likelihood to convert than the exclusivity attribute, I believe.

    Just as with shared leads, some exclusive leads are good, and some are bad.  We believe the best plan is to include them in your testing and optimization process along with shared leads so that you can see which type and sources convert the best for your particular situation.  As long as all lead sources are optimized for Cost Per Sale Per Supply Source (see DoublePositive white paper “Tapping the Value of Supplier Leads” at http://bit.ly/lnjmaz), the more supply sources you have, the better.  For the clients whose lead supply we manage, we rarely see the cheapest lead source being the lowest cost per sale, or the highest priced lead source being the highest cost per sale.  It is different in almost every case, and it changes over time as each supply source adds new affiliates, and other lead sources to their offering.

    Access to More Suppliers

    As we have shown in previous white papers, there are compelling financial reasons for having as many supply sources as possible.

    A supplier offering exclusive leads generated from search is just one example of the multiple lead sources available.  In our opinion, every Lead-Buyer should try out as many lead sellers as they can.  Especially since the greatest obstacles to connecting with these suppliers has been eliminated.

    Utilizing Third-Party Connectivity

    In the past, the technical integration to connect to more suppliers was difficult and time consuming.  For many clients, getting connected to new suppliers could take months, if not a year or more, due to the technical and testing requirements with each data feed.  This level of complexity and cost prevented most companies from engaging with any but the largest of suppliers, at least initially, thus limiting their supply diversification.  It has been difficult to justify the effort for a small set of new suppliers.

    Third-party connectivity platforms have eliminated this problem.  DoublePositive’s Lead Funnel, for example, facilitates and automates the physical connection to many lead sources automatically.  Lead-Buyers simply build one physical connection that is already connected to multiple supply sources.  This allows them to maintain a direct relationship with the supplier, without incurring technology integration costs.

    Lead-Buyers with a Lead Funnel can turn the lead flow on and off for new suppliers, without any expense, and pay only for leads.  Let’s take another look at how it works:

    In the above illustration, “You” are using a DoublePositive Lead Funnel to make a single data connection to multiple, diverse suppliers.  Our proprietary Translation Engine handles the entire custom data mapping per supply source.  By building one connection to the Lead Funnel, the company can be connected to virtually every supplier, large and small, quickly and efficiently.

    Once the necessary connections are in place, Lead-Buyers can add and test new sources at the same time, filling the gap between self-generated leads and sales goals.

    Review

    What options are available for companies looking to leverage diversified lead types and drive growth?  Let’s review the facts.

    1. Misconceptions about the value of shared versus exclusive leads can cause missed opportunities for today’s Lead-Buyer
    2. A shared lead can be good or bad, depending on factors such as speed-to-lead, quality of lead, lead type, source, etc.
    3. The best exclusive leads often are not exclusive, because a motivated buyer is likely to visit multiple “exclusive” supplier sites and submit multiple forms
    4. Connecting to a Lead Funnel allows companies add more suppliers and test more shared and exclusive leads, without adding IT costs
    5. Companies that pay only for the lead, and optimize their supply sources, can successfully use both shared and exclusive leads to reach sales goals
  • Post By
    Rich Dent

    Back in February, in my post How to Strengthen Contact Rates , I told you guys about the new inbound-outbound service DoublePositive had recently launched.

    As I mentioned at the time, our contact rate is historically about 50% – but early this year, we saw that rate dipping.  We knew the problem had to do with smart phones and the personal firewall they create.  According to the most recent Nielsen report, as of December 2010, 31% of cell phone users in the United States are smartphone users.

    Show of hands.  If I called you on your smart phone right now, and you didn’t recognize the number, would you answer?

    Probably not.  Over 90% of consumers would ignore an unknown number, according to an informal survey I ran on Facebook.  But those same consumers said they probably would call back if the caller tried to reach them more than once.  Wouldn’t you?

    Our new inbound call-back service was born.

    So, are they calling us back?

    It’s still very early, and so far, we’ve limited our test to mortgage leads.  But I can tell you definitively that we’ve seen a lot of call-backs.  And when they call, one of two things is happening.  Either they hang up right away (“Oh, it’s ABC Mortgage.  I don’t feel like talking to them right now”), or they stay on the phone because they are interested in speaking with a representative.  Those in the second category are transferring at 70%, a very high rate.

    What does that mean to lead buyers and lead sellers?

    It means we are improving the performance of your leads.  Keep in mind, those call-backs are consumers we previously never would have been able to contact.

    As a result of this early success, we decided to roll out our call-back service across all verticals.  Our new test group is 80% of all the leads we are dialing on, and we are holding 20% back as a control group.  I will share the results as soon as comparative data becomes available.

    Meantime, we’re still asking ourselves, what else can we do to get people to call us back?

    Local versus 800

    At LeadsCon in Vegas last month, DoublePositive partner Joey Liner spoke on a panel with Ken Krogue, President of InsideSales.com, a dialer manufacturer.  Ken confirmed what DoublePositive had long suspected.  He said that InsideSales.com had seen a nice uplift in performance by displaying local numbers to consumers, instead of 800 numbers.

    In our experience, this seemed true.  Prior the conference, we had conducted another informal survey on Facebook.  We asked, would you be more likely to answer the phone if the caller was a local number versus an 800 number?  Again, over 90% of consumers told us they would be more likely to answer a local number, because it might be someone they know.

    DoublePositive decided to test this theory.  We reached out to one of our key clients in the mortgage industry, and will perform a test on the leads we dial on their behalf.  The expectation is that using local numbers will increase our contact and transfer rates.  We’ll let you know how it goes.

    Needs evolve.  Buying habits change.  The important thing for all of us is to keep innovating.  Stay ahead of the curve, and you’ll be ready for where the market takes you next.

    Your turn.  What are you doing to get consumers to call you back?

  • Post By
    Rich Dent

    I have been silent for a few weeks, but for good reasons. March was just a crazy month for us at DoublePositive. We had our best month with respect to Hot transfers.  We had LeadsCon 2011, the Lending Tree Summit, March Madness and Opening Day for the Baltimore Orioles!  I am back and have some good stuff I want to share with everyone.

    This year in Vegas was my 4th LeadsCon, and I must say, the growth of this event has been nothing short of amazing.  At 2500 participants, word has clearly gotten out.  More lead buyers from more verticals are realizing how important it is to attend the pioneering conference for the online lead generation industry.  And why not?  They get a valuable take-away: Information that can revolutionize their sales function.

    My role at LeadsCon this year was “booth babe” – I didn’t spend a lot of time in break-out sessions but stayed out on the floor where I could talk directly with hundreds of lead buyers and take a pulse on what’s really happening out there.  Here are some things I heard:

    The pain is spreading

    Problems that used to affect only the mortgage industry have spread other lead-buying sectors as well (for-profit education, insurance, home services, automotive, real estate, etc.).  I even met some great people from the 2nd largest supplier of diabetic equipment in the country, who said they purchased thousands of leads per month.  They told me, “It may take us an hour or two to get back to a lead – and by then it’s too late.”  Sound familiar?

    The pain is deepening

    I also spoke with a lot of companies that were afraid to expand their businesses.  They knew that simply buying more leads wouldn’t work, because then they would have to invest heavily in recruiting, hiring, training to expand the sales floor – all of which could take months, whereas they needed results immediately.  Have you been there?

    The solution is working

    And then there were the dozens of folks I spoke with who were already fully aware of the value of LIVE hot transfers.  I got to spend quality time among friends who had successfully leveraged our process and grown their businesses.  Here are some of the success stories I heard:

    • “I know I can start buying more leads tomorrow and send them to my top guys, increasing lead flow overnight without missing a beat.”
    • “We are talking to interested consumers within minutes, not hours.”
    • “We were able to ramp up without hiring.”
    • “We love how flexible hot transfers are.  Now we can speed up or slow down the lead flow at a moment’s notice, unlike call centers, which put us on the hook for a certain amount of leads per month, even when we can’t handle them.”

    One great thing about meeting people in new verticals is that our service is plug-and-play.  It makes no difference to us if they are in mortgage, for-profit education, insurance, or even diabetic equipment.  We make their phone ring with live, qualified consumers who are interested in talking with a sales professional.  Everyone can win.

    I have more to share about LeadsCon, so check back soon.  Meantime, drop me a note in the comments section below – what issues did you hear people dealing with?

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