How do I get my call center busy with leads? How can I make my phones ring off the hook?
Lead Generation is a touchy topic with not much guidance for the end user. There are thousands of Lead Vendors out there. Therefore, how does a business know which companies to work with? So many to choose from: Lead Point, Lower My Bills, Lending Tree, Zip Search, Juicy Leads, King Kong Leads, Etc.
In addition, the lead programs also differ. Programs range from Internet and Email Leads to Hot Phone Verified Live Transfer Leads. Depending on your business size, sales industry, quality of sales professionals, and product or service you are selling, these factors change the conversion ratio your company will achieve.
A business owner with not much experience in Marketing/Advertising nor the budget to hire a Marketing Director, can find it difficult to choose where to start. It can be challenging to distinguish whether they are pursuing in the right direction or being led up a well-known “creek” without a paddle.
One should always try to avoid Lead Brokers. These are companies that purchase leads in bulk from a Marketing/Advertising Agency then turn around and sell them to the end user at high mark-up prices. Depending on the Lead Broker, this source can also lower the quality and conversion ratio tenfold – even if the leads were sold to you exclusively. Not all leads provided by Lead Brokers are bad leads. Some are very good. It is definitely YMMV – your mileage may vary.
The best thing a business owner or company can do in the Lead Generation arena is to align themselves with a Direct Response Ad Agency or a company that takes an Advertising Approach to Lead Generation. This is a proven way to work directly with the source, which in turn, allows one to achieve the lowest cost and highest results. This is the only way to optimize campaigns and lower overall cost in the process.
In my experience, I have worked with numerous Lead Brokers. Unfortunately, most of the time they don’t know much about Marketing/Advertising. They hire a Direct Response Ad Agency as previously mentioned to handle the dirty work and act as the “wizard behind the curtain.” Nothing to be ashamed of there. If you are not an expert then hire one. The beneficial thing about hiring an Ad Agency is that they usually don’t demand a monthly salary or any type of company overhead. Their profit is built into the products or services you purchase, very similar to many financial advisers. When one buys a Life Insurance Policy, 401k, IRA, or any Investment product the compensation they receive is built in to the product or service you purchase. This allows you to put all of your money into Lead Generation rather than hefty salaries.
Marketing Directors can be very helpful depending whether you have the right individual with actual hands-on experience in Marketing/Advertising and not just based on some snazzy paper degree. The best marketers I have ever met in this industry do not attribute their success to their degree. They attribute their success to applied experience. Regardless if you do retain or employ a Marketing Director the cost is only for their expertise. This does not include the media you will need to purchase. This typically doubles the company’s cost in the marketing sector. If you are a growing business you need to be spending your capital wisely. If you can get the same expertise and double your leads for the same cost, then it becomes clearer to see which strategy makes more sense. No offense to Marketing Directors out there!! I still love you…especially if you are a good one.
Important factors to keep in mind when buying leads:
1. Are the leads exclusive?
This is the obvious. An exclusive lead is sold to you exclusively meaning there should not be other competition for that same lead. This improves conversion dramatically. All leads are different and exclusivity increases results. However, there are some verticals and circumstances where I believe an exclusive lead is not as important. This depends on price, quantity, marketing vertical, quantity of agents and more. But an exclusive lead is a much higher quality lead with a much higher conversion.
Real Time Delivery is a key component to a high conversion. You want to strike when the iron is hot. A Real Time Hot Live Transfer Lead is going to convert much higher than that of a Hot Verified Lead that needs to be called back the next day. Same thing with Internet Leads. Your chances of converting an Internet Lead within 1 Minute of them filling out the form online versus 5 Minutes dramatically decreases conversion by up to 50%? That is a huge difference. This means you will have 50% more chance of closing a deal if you contact the prospect within 1 minute vs. 5 minutes. This is another important factor why you should work with an Ad Agency rather than a lead broker. We focus on numbers. Not our numbers, but your numbers. We can share our experience of the thousands of campaigns we have run successfully and unsuccessfully. Thus, preparing and educating you on the best way to achieve the highest conversion and closing percentages. At the end of the day it is all about ROI%.
3. What marketing method was utilized to generate these leads?
There are many different types of media and they all have their own conversion percentages, ROI %’s, Quality, Leg Work, Scripts, Etc. An Inbound Call off of a Direct Mail Campaign converts at a much higher % than a TV/Radio Inbound Call. Why? Because you target and qualify who you are marketing to prior to sending them the mail piece. This cuts out a large portion of the qualifying. With TV/Radio you lack control over who calls you. It could be a person with no debt when you are seeking people with debt. At the end of the day everyone looks for one thing – a large ROI%.
What is the quickest way to make a 100% return on your money? The strategy will play a crucial role in how quickly you get paid. Different types of media attract different types of prospects. A Text Message Lead is likely to attract a different type of customer than a Direct Mail Campaign. Don’t know what type of marketing strategy is being utilized? Get to understand it! This will allow you to dig deeper into the quality behind this lead and ways to optimize it as well.
Knowing the marketing source these days is very important, especially due to all the strict regulations with Privacy Policy, Telecommunication’s Acts, Do Not Call and Do Not Mail Legislation’s, FCC, FTC, Etc. The government has made it one of their main priorities to eliminate Marketing/Advertising Agencies from performing many different types of historically effective marketing strategies. I find this quite funny, considering all of the other far more important matters that need government attention in this world. When buying leads from a company that is illegally obtaining information such as data to perform these marketing strategies you are going to be held liable as well. Also the method that was utilized must be legal as well. This means a Telemarketing Lead Broker must be buying data legally and following all DNC regulations to ensure that their clients will not be brought into a class action lawsuit for aiding and abetting an illegal marketing tactic.
More companies violate these acts than you probably think. Bottom line is if you are a Debt Settlement Company or Loan Modification Company and you are buying Credit Data that says an individual is 30 to 90 days late on their mortgage or that the consumer has $10,000 or more in Credit Card Debt than chances are that data was obtained illegally. Stay away from this. There are too many legal ways to mess around with junk. Also it is short term thinking. Always think big and long term.
