As a lead generator for the home improvement industry, I often find myself swimming in dirty waters. “Dirty” in that a lot of other lead providers use what I consider to be questionable tactics and sales pitches to get a piece of your marketing budget.
So what works and what doesn’t? To answer that, I’d like to point you to – of all things – a recent post from a striped bass fishing forum. And, before I go any further, let me say that we had absolutely nothing to do with this posting. Moreover, we don’t even know who the poster, “Michael P”, is:
http://www.stripersonline.com/surftalk/showthread.php?p=8184277
Michael P does a great job breaking down some of the myths that lead providers have perpetrated on the market over the last decade. Specifically, I’d like to address a couple of his key points:
- Many lead providers forward the same leads multiple times. Despite what their sales reps may tell you, the cold reality is that lead providers will sell their leads as many times as they can. Fact is, those sales reps aren’t lying; they are just so far removed from the process to know the truth.
- Instead of focusing on how each individual lead performs, Michael P rightly focuses on the overall value of the leads from each provider’s program. Many home improvement companies give up on a new lead source after only a couple of bad leads. Fact is, all providers will generate some “bad” leads. The reality is that judging the value of a lead program only after 40 or 50 leads is the only effective way to assess your lead providers.
- Michael P is also clear in his opinions about Yodle (“the biggest mistake of them all”) and Yellow Pages (“what they were doing was fraud”). In my opinion, he’s got it right: these companies have designed their systems with a focus on spending your budget. How they do what they do is a subject for another post.
At the end of the day, most of Michael P’s advice resonates with me. Perhaps you too will find wisdom in his remarks.
