Elephant Underground Vs Hometown Leads Vs Net Quote/quotewizard

[ericinsures]

Looking for advise on Elephant Underground P&C leads. Does anyone have success with them. I was thinking of giving them a shot and I am guessing they are just like the rest of the lead companies out there. I was recently disappointed with Hometown quotes thinking they were legit but they have only provided very poor leads and I have only been using them for a month. I don't expect them to get any better and my patience is running short with them. Netquote stinks bottom line and they are difficult on junk returns. Quotewizard is hit and miss but at least they give good returns. oh and hometown quotes does seem to be forgiving when they send a terrible lead, the problem is they aren't very good anyway and they are wayyyyyyy too over priced. any thoughts on Elephant underground? The seem pricey but state they only sell the lead to 3 total agents and I am ready to pull the trigger with a couple hundred to lock in the price for leads because they stated the pricing is going up in 2014. I wish these guys would just be plain honest. I hate being robbed of trying to buy decent leads where folks are truly interested. Please let me know thanks for any solid advise.

 

[Bob Klee]

Looking for advise on Elephant Underground P&C leads. Does anyone have success with them. I was thinking of giving them a shot and I am guessing they are just like the rest of the lead companies out there. I was recently disappointed with Hometown quotes thinking they were legit but they have only provided very poor leads and I have only been using them for a month. I don't expect them to get any better and my patience is running short with them. Netquote stinks bottom line and they are difficult on junk returns. Quotewizard is hit and miss but at least they give good returns. oh and hometown quotes does seem to be forgiving when they send a terrible lead, the problem is they aren't very good anyway and they are wayyyyyyy too over priced. any thoughts on Elephant underground? The seem pricey but state they only sell the lead to 3 total agents and I am ready to pull the trigger with a couple hundred to lock in the price for leads because they stated the pricing is going up in 2014. I wish these guys would just be plain honest. I hate being robbed of trying to buy decent leads where folks are truly interested. Please let me know thanks for any solid advise.

Eric, [if you are the Eric I have in TN]
You've received 22 leads since you signed up on 10/23/13 & we've given you credit for 10...yes, I'd say that sucks a bit. Plus we've not gotten you much volume. Of the 10 leads that were bad, 5 were from a source we just turned off due to their inability to improve their quality. [feedback from agents like yourself...we do monitor it] Plus I noticed one of them was from another agent "applying" for insurance on our site. How would you expect us to filter him out?
I'll be on a plane tomorrow morning until 1 pm CST. I'd love to review your account with you over the phone as I would like to hear more. Please email me your contact info so I can give you a call.....or try calling me after 1 pm CST.

Thank you. I too believe we sent you too many bad leads. We can/will do better. But we also need to get you more leads as it truly is a number's game when working internet leads!

FYI: we sell our leads a MAX of 3 times to my agents only...I know where/who my leads go to & on average, only 1.5, depending on what part of the country.
All the Best!

 

[LGilmore]

I have used HTQ for much longer than a month. I have been using online leads for years now and the biggest reason I stick with HTQ is that they have been reasonable about returns. Why is that important? It's just a fight I don't want to have with a vendor that I am paying.

Like all lead vendors the leads quantity and quality can go up and down over time. HTQ is not immune to bad sources, but as Bob has pointed out, when a pattern is found, the vendor is dropped. I appreciate this because I don't want to chase fake leads. I would rather work with HTQ to improve the quality of what's out there. The lead companies that just shove everything onto the agents and then fight with you over returns (or limit credits) just aren't worth your time.

I will admit I like Bob, I have spoken with him over the years. I've chewed his a ss sometimes, but overall the reason I am still around is he and the people who work for him try a harder to get it right than the other guys.

To the OP, maybe you should try another source at the same time to compare. I have used almost all out there from a few years back. I've left HTQ a couple times over those years. They are the ONLY vendor I came back to. While there are days I consider myself dumb, I've never been stupid. There's a reason I continue with these guys and not others.... maybe you should test the waters elsewhere so you can find out for yourself.

Maybe you can enjoy the back and forth with another lead source that argues with you over the new obituary for the lead you just got. I won't name who those guys are, but that situation, plus a few others made me say goodbye a couple years ago. I even put the obit link in the return notes on that one.

Every lead vendor has their faults, problems and so on... I choose to work with those who piss me off the least. HTQ fits that description. The owner of the company (Bob) cares enough about your month with them to pull your information and review it... Try to find somebody else that would do that.

Cheers, it's Friday and I hate the ACA. Not for what it tries to do, but for how poorly executed it is. I've never seen so many smart people do such stupid work.

 

[P&CGuru]

My hats go off to HTQ although I have had my quarrels with them in the past they are great with returns and they also also work with you to do thins such as turn of volume from certain networks. Try requesting that from any Bankrate owned company lol I spent years and over $100k with Bankrate and everytime i call to make a simple request they act like they are too bothered to be on the phone with me same goes for Allweb.

 

[STRMLDR]

underground elephant is garbage. i tried them when they started with life leads a year ago. no volume, at all, even for a few major metro areas. they were however nice enough to give me a full refund of $500 after a good threat

 

[JP Savage]

STRMLDR - What did you do to get your refund? I have them now and they don't want to refund me, and so far they SUCK bad!

 

[STRMLDR]

STRMLDR - What did you do to get your refund? I have them now and they don't want to refund me, and so far they SUCK bad!

they fought a little
at the time, they just started their life leads. the main sales girl there, or at least then, they insisted i go through her to get my needs met. i spoke to the owner a few time....he was reasonable and nice. the girl tried to insist that i give it time. 5 weeks had past and they had $500 of mine, and i hadnt received jack. she didnt put up took much of a fight, but she insisted that their billing dept will sent me a check. a week goes by, and nothing was received. i call her again and then start riding her everyday about it. then eventually insisted that i speak to the person in said department.
just keep riding these people and be pushy about getting your needs met. i imagine if you received leads at all, you have less leverage.
the girls name was megan.
again, if she promises that **** will be done for you, and that time or day comes and its not....RIDE HER on it
and the owners contact info is listed on the forums here if you search
i hope this helps

 

[Mehler91]

I agree with the sentiment of this entire thread. HTQ has their issues but they are a very fluid company and adjust their lead sources accordingly. THey are also the easiest when it comes to returns and refunds.

I have dealt with Parasol, HTQ, NetQuote, AllWebLeads, and BankRate's program over the years and HTQ is by far and away the best quality and they actually give a damn about the relationship with their agents.

 

[Bob Klee]

re: getting a refund. Did you try calling your credit card company to dispute the charge? That at least buys you time & perhaps get's someone's attention that can make a difference.

Plus, I truly believe posting on publicly open sites like the Insurance Forum, helps add pressure as well. I find it hard to believe that companies don't want to do the right thing. I know I can't please all my agent/clients no matter how hard I try. I wish I could. No business to my knowledge can please everyone, though I suspect we all try

Thank you for the kudo's folks. Seriously, I try my hardest to help our agents succeed. If you guys succeed with my leads, then hopefully, I've earned the right to do business with you. I can't claim anyone has closing rates in the 40% ballpark, but I do have many successful agents working our leads.

Next Wednesday, I'm hosting a live webinar with an agent who owns an independent P&C agency in the Los Angeles area of CA. He has days he closes 28%+ of our leads, but on average, he closes 11%. He says our Auto leads have the highest closing rates of the companies he uses. If you would like to sign up & learn more, please click here.

I am doing this webinar in conjunction with Velocify. The agent was a 7 year employee of Velocify before starting his agency from scratch in November 2012. He had no prior insurance background, though he did meet a few agents while at Velocify/Leads360. He is knocking the ball out of the park writing new business using only internet leads. Please join me next week. We plan on spending just 45 minutes or so, and we will have time for questions after our presentation.

 

[TheCaspian]

Bob, do you have an average close ratio for life agents?

I realize it will vary from person to person but I would need to write 1 app per 8 leads; any less and it wouldn't be worth the effort.