Internet Leads and Verified Email Addresses
- Thread starter rgithens
- Start date
- 180
Ummm. Maybe because it would actually require effort? Cost more? And reduce their margins?
Just a swag, you know!
- 11,995
It's not a cheap service. There are a bunch of companies that will happily validate the data, but another consideration is the email might be invalid, but have a good phone. Lots of stuff about this at Leadscon.
- 180
No link! You're alright, after all, Josh!
- 11,995
Most of the time you won't see links. Although Xverify Verify Email Addresses In Real Time With Email Verification and RealValidation are links to companies that provide the verification service
BOOM! Two links!
- 180
Ha! I like your style.
- 882
Most of the time you won't see links. Although Xverify Verify Email Addresses In Real Time With Email Verification and RealValidation are links to companies that provide the verification service
We use several 3rd party tools to verify both email, phone #, name & address. But yet we still get bogus leads. It is not a perfect system but we find it weeds out a good number of leads that agents never see. There is no 100% solution, that is why we have to use our own smarts/custom software as well as 3rd party solutions. Josh mentions 2 that I'm familiar with
No one likes bad leads, including the lead vendor!
- 4,132
It is an ever evolving process between those who "create" false leads and those who try and catch them. About the time someone like Bob's company finds a way to catch them, they come up with something new and the game is on again.
I consider online leads to be like the tides, they come and go. It is hard to evaluate any lead company on a short period of time because they could be going through a hot or cold spell over a quarter.
As an agent you must simply call on everything you get, double check through the many places where information can be found for free and do a little foot work yourself. You also should try to have a good relationship with the supplier of your leads. The good ones (like Bob) know if they can help you make money, they make money too. While trying not to make this a plug for Bob, I will say he is very agent oriented and gets it. Not every lead vendor thinks or acts that way. Far too many are already making sales promises to the next agent as they figure you won't be with them beyond 6 months. It appears that there are two different business models going on in the lead business.
I consider online leads to be like the tides, they come and go. It is hard to evaluate any lead company on a short period of time because they could be going through a hot or cold spell over a quarter.
As an agent you must simply call on everything you get, double check through the many places where information can be found for free and do a little foot work yourself. You also should try to have a good relationship with the supplier of your leads. The good ones (like Bob) know if they can help you make money, they make money too. While trying not to make this a plug for Bob, I will say he is very agent oriented and gets it. Not every lead vendor thinks or acts that way. Far too many are already making sales promises to the next agent as they figure you won't be with them beyond 6 months. It appears that there are two different business models going on in the lead business.
- 882
I almost didn't respond, but your response is so uninformed, I didn't want to leave your response as if was the truth.
Think about the business model that you are alluding to here. I want to offer agents the highest quality leads that are possible, because bad leads hurt my reputation & agent retention. There is absolutely no profit in selling fake leads if ones goal is to have a sustainable business. Retention of agents requires quality leads. A business model of churning customers does not work for your agency & it sure does not work for my lead business! So FAKE leads are a bane to both the agent & my lead business.
The bottom line in working internet leads is that one can scale the model. One can put proven processes in place, manage the processes/people, to a given Return on Investment/Cost Per Policy, & thus grow ones agency. There is no other scalable model that I'm aware of & in 20+ years as an active agent, I've tried many methods. Internet leads work. I see & hear about it every day from agents that I talk to all over the country. The problem as I see it, is that those that are making leads work, one rarely hears from them on forums like this because so many people want to tell them they are wrong, they must be lying, lucky, or just a better agent/agency owner than the ones that can't make leads work.... And no one likes to admit that it is their agency/processes that suck, not the leads. So the leads are an easy target because of course, "all leads suck." Keep saying that mantra & soon, it becomes your reality....even though it is not true.
Okay, I'll get off my bandwagon, but please, if you are going to post "XYZ does not work," give specifics as to why, so you help folks make informed decisions. Over the years I've heard: Direct mail sucks, Yellow Pages suck, cold calling sucks, BNI/networking sucks, etc., etc.,....but not one agent yet, has admitted that it is their processes/sales skills that suck....Amazing isn't it?
