My Internet Leads Experience

[PatrickJoseph]

yeah, they bought out insuranceleads....but who uses all web anyways? if you've been in the game for long enough you know not to purchase leads that are being re-sold by affiliates...a lot of people are doing their own research on these companies....after the first 100 people used them and came back with the same responses, why do people continue to "give it a shot"?

 

[rizzle]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Hometown Quotes

I have received 11 leads, have received credit for 5, have 3 pending, 1 appointment, 2 unreachable not yet submitted for credit. But I know if I do submit the 2, it won't be a problem.

requesting credit for 91% of the leads..doesnt seem like anything has changed over there in the past year.

 

[Bob Klee]

Tom,
Life insurance leads are the hardest of all lead types to get quality...it has always been that way but is much worse today then ever. It has come to the point that we are considering not offering life leads or only offer them to agents that understand they are going to have to work through the crap to find the gold nuggets. There are efficient ways to do that and make $$.

We gave you credit for all the leads you bought, not just the ones you requested credit on. Things have changed at HometownQuotes.com in the past 6 months. But like the lottery...you have to play to win.

The guys that are knocking the ball out of the park with internet leads are using auto dialers & working the leads in volume. They have proven processes and train their staff to roll with objections & to be creative. We give credit for all bad leads & it ends up being a win-win for both parties.

For you all that work Auto leads. Check back next week as we are rolling out a first in the Lead Gen business......more to come after we announce the details in Vegas.

Thank you to those of you that do business with us. We appreciate your business, loyalty & feedback. It makes us better.

 

[ninetythree]

***UPDATE***

I think I've figured out how some of these lead companies are making their money. What they do is create a return policy that requires "verification" that the lead is bad before they give you credit. This verification only happens if the person says "I didn't request a quote" or if the number is disconnected.

What usually happens is people don't answer a number they don't recognize nor return the call. In that scenario, most of the lead companies will refuse to refund the lead. The fact is, if they requested a quote they'll answer the phone or return the call- its the selling point of the companies that "Leads that have requested a call back" versus cold calling.

Once they lure you in, they use their dishonest business practices to keep as much money as possible. Its a nice scam if you think about it. Just go though the phone book, get names and addresses and throw them online. I'm sure these companies make a killing luring agents into spending their money on these leads. They sure got me!

 

[StoneRiver]

Tom,
Life insurance leads are the hardest of all lead types to get quality...it has always been that way but is much worse today then ever. It has come to the point that we are considering not offering life leads or only offer them to agents that understand they are going to have to work through the crap to find the gold nuggets. There are efficient ways to do that and make $$.

We gave you credit for all the leads you bought, not just the ones you requested credit on. Things have changed at HometownQuotes.com in the past 6 months. But like the lottery...you have to play to win.

The guys that are knocking the ball out of the park with internet leads are using auto dialers & working the leads in volume. They have proven processes and train their staff to roll with objections & to be creative. We give credit for all bad leads & it ends up being a win-win for both parties.

For you all that work Auto leads. Check back next week as we are rolling out a first in the Lead Gen business......more to come after we announce the details in Vegas.

Thank you to those of you that do business with us. We appreciate your business, loyalty & feedback. It makes us better.

I know it's probably a dumb question, but here goes--by "Auto" leads, are you referring to automobile insurance or something else? Obviously I am new, and curious. Thank you.....

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

Yes, he is. And that's not 20 characters.

 

[russelltw]

Lead companies that use affiliates (I would dare say all do) have it made when it comes to making money.

Situatuion: The lead vendors pay the affiliate $3 for generating the lead. The lead is then sold to the agents/call centers/preferred partners (ehealth). Let's say only 3 agents in this example for minimum of $8 each agent.

Assume contact info is real (correct address/phone) but "lead" did not make a real request for quote(s). Affiliate may have obtain info from internet or data vendor. Once the lead has been been distributed to the agents/callcenters/preferred partners; the lead is bombarded with phone calls. After one or two calls, the lead quits answering the phone and let's it go to voicemail, but will not pick up the phone anymore. If the first agent finds out it's a fake lead and requests credit, there's a good chance of getting a credit. The other two agents have no way of telling if it's a bad lead or not.

Here is the gravy train for the vendor. When one agent proves it's bad, vendors can credit that agent $8 and then charge the affiliate the $3 back. Keeping the $16 they made from the other 2 agents who have no way of getting credit.

Question from an ethical stand point, how can vendors knowing keep the money for the sale of the known bad lead to the remaining 2 agents? You knowingly are selling something that is not what you state it is??

I have used leads for over 3 years and can count on two hands how many times I have gotten a request from a lead vendor to stop calling a lead because the lead was fake and so pissed they called the vendor directly to request the calls stop.

 

[LGilmore]

Bob?

"Life insurance leads are the hardest of all lead types to get quality...it has always been that way but is much worse today then ever"

Quick Question? Does the industry reimburse more for life leads than others?

While HTQ does provide a better quality of life leads than others, it is like you've mentioned. Lately, I've run into "survey" takers who are doing publisher's clearing house and Iwantthat.com compensated surveys where they are just filling out a datapage and whomever is collecting the info is repackaging it into leads.

Maybe the quality has gone down because of the compensation system used with affliates? Maybe a lower base price paid, with a quality bonus on a monthly or quarterly basis.

If it doesn't pay for them to manufacture leads, maybe the quality will go back up...

dunno stabbing in the dark here. Just trying to figure out why life would be disproportionate to other types in the fake lead business.

 

[ninetythree]

Well, I've officially given up on internet leads and I plan on going door-to-door this weekend. Of all the lead companies I used, hometown quotes has done the best job of customer service and lead generation. The two genuine leads I received from them led to 1 sale.

I'll be asking hometown for a refund of the money I have left in my account on Monday, and I have to say that if I lived in a larger city, they probably would have been a great company to work with. Of all the bs leads I received from other companies, I received far fewer from hometown and was credited quickly upon return.

On the other companies, well, iLeads has stolen my money as has AllWebLeads.com. Leads2Close won't stop calling me about my account with them, as I didn't actually fund it. I wish they'd leave me the hell alone.

After throwing away $500, I have made one sale based on the leads and on that commission Assurity isn't going to send me (their agent service really sucks).

I'm optimistic about the flyers and door knockers I made up because I'm going to be hitting the pavement every day for the next few months.

Wish me luck!

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

Nice weather this weekend for that.