My Experience with Hometown Quotes

[Bob Klee]

Yes he sounds naive but what do you expect when the lead company sells you on the fact these are people that went out and actively searched for life insurance quotes but the reality is they wanted x number of points for Farmville and have no interest in the quote.

FYI: We rarely see this anymore. I think with TCPA compliance & the industry working hard to clean up the garbage, that this is not the large issue it used to be. At least we don't see it at my company.We want leads that have intent...not leads that were looking for points/freebies.

 

[Norwayguy]

FYI: We rarely see this anymore. I think with TCPA compliance & the industry working hard to clean up the garbage, that this is not the large issue it used to be. At least we don't see it at my company.We want leads that have intent...not leads that were looking for points/freebies.

I stopped buying Internet leads years ago because of that.... it was always a rogue affiliate. But there was one fact that never went unnoticed. I was buying shared leads and I proved leads being bogus many times however I never had a lead company contact me and proactively credit bogus leads meaning one of two things either my competitors did not work the leads which since I was buying multiple states I don't believe happened all the time. Or the lead company had no problem even once one agent proved a lead was bogus keeping the other agents money.

 

[Bob Klee]

I stopped buying Internet leads years ago because of that.... it was always a rogue affiliate. But there was one fact that never went unnoticed. I was buying shared leads and I proved leads being bogus many times however I never had a lead company contact me and proactively credit bogus leads meaning one of two things either my competitors did not work the leads which since I was buying multiple states I don't believe happened all the time. Or the lead company had no problem even once one agent proved a lead was bogus keeping the other agents money.

Peter,
Good observation but being that I'm on the inside, let me give you one reason. Leads360/Velocify publishes data based on the millions of leads that are worked using their platform. You can download the white paper here: "Online Buyer Expectations." Quote: "Overall, more than half of all respondents indicated they have experienced submitting an online inquiry form for which they expected a response and never receiving one. The likelihood of no response was even greater for business buyers, with 70% of respondents indicating they’ve experienced this."

There were surveying the consumer! Their own data analyzing the leads that are worked using their platform show that 39% of leads bought, never get 1 phone call! Quote:"Of the 61% of online leads that received a callback, the average wait time for the first call from the insurance seller was two days and eight hours. Check out the white paper called: Insurance Industry Online Buyer Experiences. Amazing data!

So with at least 50% saying that on a lead they submitted the agent never called them, plus you add in that I have many agents that have never submitted a lead for credit as they tell me they are too busy...that they just consider that a cost of doing business...then why would anyone in my shoes give credit for a lead to another agent that you turned in as bogus?

To be honest, there have been times in the past that we have gone in & credited everyone that got a lead from a certain affiliate, even if they never requested credit. We've had some pretty sly folks selling leads over the years & a few were so good, that unless one was analyzing all the leads, not just leads to a certain agent, then we'd never have caught some of the fraud.

Thank you Peter for offering your experience. Sorry I had to give such a long answer. I can tell you, at Hometown Quotes, we do things a bit different than our competitors.

All the Best to you.

 

[VolAgent]

Peter,
Good observation but being that I'm on the inside, let me give you one reason. Leads360/Velocify publishes data based on the millions of leads that are worked using their platform. You can download the white paper here: "Online Buyer Expectations." Quote: "Overall, more than half of all respondents indicated they have experienced submitting an online inquiry form for which they expected a response and never receiving one. The likelihood of no response was even greater for business buyers, with 70% of respondents indicating they’ve experienced this."

There were surveying the consumer! Their own data analyzing the leads that are worked using their platform show that 39% of leads bought, never get 1 phone call! Quote:"Of the 61% of online leads that received a callback, the average wait time for the first call from the insurance seller was two days and eight hours. Check out the white paper called: Insurance Industry Online Buyer Experiences. Amazing data!

So with at least 50% saying that on a lead they submitted the agent never called them, plus you add in that I have many agents that have never submitted a lead for credit as they tell me they are too busy...that they just consider that a cost of doing business...then why would anyone in my shoes give credit for a lead to another agent that you turned in as bogus?

To be honest, there have been times in the past that we have gone in & credited everyone that got a lead from a certain affiliate, even if they never requested credit. We've had some pretty sly folks selling leads over the years & a few were so good, that unless one was analyzing all the leads, not just leads to a certain agent, then we'd never have caught some of the fraud.

Thank you Peter for offering your experience. Sorry I had to give such a long answer. I can tell you, at Hometown Quotes, we do things a bit different than our competitors.

All the Best to you.

Here is the problem with that, they surveyed the consumer.

I can't tell you how many people I have repeatedly tried to reach who suddenly answer two weeks later and claim they were never contacted. No, they were numerous attempts to reach them, they just now answered after ignoring previous attempts and have either forgotten them or they just never registered as being an attempt to reach them.

I seriously doubt I am alone in experiencing that.

 

[Bob Klee]

Here is the problem with that, they surveyed the consumer.

I can't tell you how many people I have repeatedly tried to reach who suddenly answer two weeks later and claim they were never contacted. No, they were numerous attempts to reach them, they just now answered after ignoring previous attempts and have either forgotten them or they just never registered as being an attempt to reach them.

I seriously doubt I am alone in experiencing that.

I agree with the survey of the consumer & your experience as we've experienced that also.
But look at the Velocify Stats. 39% of leads folks buy Never get ONE call! At least those that are worked through Velocify.
We call leads proactively & weekly we have consumers tell us they have not received a call. [no, we can't afford to call all our leads but we do sample them on the front end] So I know that many leads just fall to the floor & are not called even once. I can't imagine an agent/agency working this way but I know it is a fact.

 

[dondulah]

I agree with the survey of the consumer & your experience as we've experienced that also.
But look at the Velocify Stats. 39% of leads folks buy Never get ONE call! At least those that are worked through Velocify.
We call leads proactively & weekly we have consumers tell us they have not received a call. [no, we can't afford to call all our leads but we do sample them on the front end] So I know that many leads just fall to the floor & are not called even once. I can't imagine an agent/agency working this way but I know it is a fact.

It could be this poor because the agent did not mark it as called in velocify. Many don't use the velocify dialer. So it could be a situation where the agent called but just did not mark it called in velocify. I can't fathom not calling a lead or waiting 2 to 3 days.

 

[somarco]

I can't fathom not calling a lead or waiting 2 to 3 days.

I always wait 2 - 3 days before calling. Have done that for years. Gives me a chance to letter the noise die down and let visitors learn a bit about me ........ as long as they read their email.

 

[dondulah]

I always wait 2 - 3 days before calling. Have done that for years. Gives me a chance to letter the noise die down and let visitors learn a bit about me ........ as long as they read their email.

I don't disagree with calling them 2 - 3 days later. However, I would not purposely do that. I get a ton of deals off being the first to respond. I get a ton a few days later too. I recommend doing both. I just don't recommend purposely waiting. Of course somarco we can respectfully agree to disagree.

 

[somarco]

I get a ton of deals off being the first to respond.

I am happy for you.

The itchy trigger finger folks are not my type of client. But occasionally I run across people that "just bought" and I manage to flip them by educating them on their options.

What's really fun is when I have called someone within minutes of hitting my site. (Something I rarely do). They tell me they already bought so I engage them in a dialogue.

Oh really? When did you buy? Since you bought last week you must not feel good about your decision since you were JUST ON my site.

What are your concerns?

 

[ZappMan]

So I Figured that I’d give HTQ a try & I was completely fair & I honestly worked each lead as much as possible. Heck I even helped Bob with a faulty phone # on his website.

I'd like to say that I believe that I would have gotten similar results from any other on line lead vendor.

I use Velocify, their e-mail Drip program works great with leads like this along with the reporting, tracking & following up. I left several pleasant & quick vm's that requested a call to action by e-mail or return call.


Here are my results.

61 Leads ( I was going to wait until I got 100 leads, but I think this is fair.)

32 leads (50%) Absolutely no good! I.E., Not at all interested….wanted quote for a line I hadn’t requested…thought they were filling out something for a free this or that.. a child messing around on parents pc. All verifiable & honestly accurate on my part.

11 quotes. Some I won’t write the others I can’t say one way or another.

18 leads are still between call attempt 2 & 6 with no contact yet made & most going right to vm.

A lot of these leads were stale or dated as well.

My take? Not worth the time invested.

After a few phone calls you find yourself embarking on a new mission with the
old mission (gaining a customer) now firmly in the rear view mirror. The new mission is validating the lead! You have 7 days to find out if they even want a quote. That’s where you have to get creative. Using different phone #’s to trick them into thinking it’s not you calling, telling them that you are “obligated” & must speak with them. Feeling a sense of accomplishment when you finally get in touch with them to find out that the lead is no good.

Then you have to login & go onto the HTQ site & complete a credit request with a reason then track the results.

I spent $600 on this, Maybe I’ll break even, but I don’t see it happening.

Instead, I’m now going to buy “SalesGenie”, I have a SAN# & will do more cold calling. I have always liked it & I control who is the prospect.