Terrible Lead Providers

[shortformleads]

@AgentProvocateur -

Your feedback is helpful. Particularly the bit about selling the importance of speaking to an agent vs. 50% cheaper price now. From your reply, it is clear that there could be value in short form leads done correctly.

I am not claiming to understand insurance sales - I am frankly not sure why this matters when I am asking for feedback - regardless, I am 100% sure of something - there is no way in the world that 20% or more bogus leads is anything other than lead sellers blending low quality aged / incentive leads with real leads - whether they do this directly or turn a blind eye to affiliates that definitely do.

Insurance isn't special - bogus lead gen is worldwide across industries, and I cannot think of one partner in ANY vertical we work in that would accept anything close to this sort of return rate....

But, if this is the best there is and you are not that bothered by it, then it's your choice.

Again, I am not attacking Bob, he attacked me after I attacked his model - which I am very comfortable doing as the model is at least in part a scam.

As requested 10x now, if Bob was so confident he was doing everything above board, or any other lead seller for that matter - they could easily state here exactly how they acquire traffic and leads... oh, btw, the affiliate excuse is code for buying aged leads for $1.

 

[AgentProvocateur]

Understanding insurance sales is important for you, because you need to understand consumer behavior when shopping for auto insurance online, to be able to generate leads, and you need to be able to give agents the leads they want, if you are going to sell them.

You can come up with a great idea to avoid the abuses of lead generation companies, provide agents with better leads, and keep prospects from being solicited too frequently by too many agents, but if online auto insurance shoppers don't want to shop that way, you won't be able to generate enough leads to be profitable.

For an example of a possible problem, customers usually want the agent closest to their home or office. If I go to your site and want a quote from a State farm agent, and I see you have one in Hillsboro, Oregon, one in Salem, Oregon, and one in SW Portland, and I live in NE Portland, I wouldn't use your site, and would look for a State Farm agent closer to me.

 

[Bob Klee]

ShortFormLeads....

[this is going to be too long...sorry guys]

You are so wrong on so many levels I don't even know where to start. Not going to waste my time on all, but here are some nuggets of logic/wisdom off the top of my head.

You make some pretty wild assumptions about me....& you don't even know me. Yes, I've been a licensed agent since 1985, first in CA, then KY & TN. Started HometownQuotes.com above my garage back in 2003 & moved out in 2006 once we finally figured out how to drive leads to our site. Sold my last agency in Nov 2006 as Hometown was growing so fast I didn't have the time or expertise to run both. I can still remember the day we finally sold $1000 in leads and then a few years later we were selling over $50,000 a day in leads! Not bad for a couple of insurance guys [my former partner was an agent I trained in my office.] But times were much different then than they are today.

Also, we don't nor have we EVER engaged in selling our data for pennies on the dollar to aged lead vendors nor will we. Never manufactured, refreshed or any other of the "tricks" you made an assumption we "had to do" in order to start this business above my garage. You are pretty full of yourself & your telling us how great you are...like I said: Big hat, no cattle

The carriers got involved online and suddenly clicks became more expensive than leads! The cost of Google Adwords sky rocketed! The money attracted very shady characters & we started seeing lead quality go down, the cost of driving our own leads go up....and the price agents/carriers were willing to pay for leads go down....it was a vicious cycle.

Some of the bogus leads we get we describe as "drunken leads." Real people, but they fill out wrong information....
Life leads seem to get the most of the wrong info. Back in 2004-2008/9 we would see 3-5% bogus lead returns on Auto/Home & swings from 10-20% bogus on life leads. And these were just from leads going through our own long forms

But you wouldn't know anything about that since you weren't around back then. I'm not going to give you any information that can help you compete with me but, if I was in your shoes, I'd try to make friends vs. enemies...starting with Sam... you have too big an ego my friend.

You are not listening to Sam....big mistake my friend. He is one of the most respected, well known folks in this industry. He knows all the players in this space, most on a first name basis. Many people value his opinion on trends & what is happening in the insurance space and with agents. Like he said...you really show your lack of knowledge....

Maybe I came off too harsh in my original post? As my very good friend who happens to be my first employee at HometownQuotes.com told me after reading it [Elaine is in charge of operations & business development today] "I never ever see you get upset about anything, unless someone says something bad/untrue about Hometown." So yes, I take it personally as I've poured my life into making Hometown the best quality insurance lead provider I possibly can & taking care of our agents as they are the reason we exist. Or as another friend said: "Don't call my baby ugly!"

Do we have faults? Yes...but they sure are Nothing that you have pointed out yet. As Sam pointed out...you haven't a clue & your facts are all wrong. But...I hope for you the best as I do encourage outside the box thinking.

ALL the GQ leads with the Guaranteed 20% or less bogus leads; ALL of them, are search & approved email marketing. If not our own search then we have personally vetted the landing pages & lead forms of the very few, high quality partners we have. They also have very limited distribution, under 2x shared on average at this time. Plus as I've posted before. We KNOW who else we sell these leads to. I control it.

So Scam? Seriously, you are full of BS. You absolutely are a fraud & don't know what you are talking about.

So, while the quantity may not be all I'd hope for today, we are growing with QUALITY leads.

Mr, SFLeads, until you can prove you can drive Insurance leads with an almost ZERO bogus percentage & make a profit in the Insurance Lead Business year after year....you'd do better to quit throwing out numbers as if they were facts because you do not know what you are talking about.

FYI:I talked one of the co-founders of SureHits, a personal friend of mine, and verified you don't have a clue what you are talking about when it comes to SureHits, clicks, leads or carriers......just like Sam said.

Lastly, I will say that I hope you learn & I hope you invest your money in proving your concept & that it works. There is always room for improvement & competition.

WAIT, one last thing. For Agents that want the BEST leads money can buy, then give me a call. Guaranteed Auto, Life, Health & MedSupp leads

email: [email protected] or call my sales manager at : 615.599.5506 x 105

 

[rousemark]

@AgentProvocateur -

Your feedback is helpful. Particularly the bit about selling the importance of speaking to an agent vs. 50% cheaper price now. From your reply, it is clear that there could be value in short form leads done correctly.

I am not claiming to understand insurance sales - I am frankly not sure why this matters when I am asking for feedback - regardless, I am 100% sure of something - there is no way in the world that 20% or more bogus leads is anything other than lead sellers blending low quality aged / incentive leads with real leads - whether they do this directly or turn a blind eye to affiliates that definitely do.

Insurance isn't special - bogus lead gen is worldwide across industries, and I cannot think of one partner in ANY vertical we work in that would accept anything close to this sort of return rate....

But, if this is the best there is and you are not that bothered by it, then it's your choice.

Again, I am not attacking Bob, he attacked me after I attacked his model - which I am very comfortable doing as the model is at least in part a scam.

As requested 10x now, if Bob was so confident he was doing everything above board, or any other lead seller for that matter - they could easily state here exactly how they acquire traffic and leads... oh, btw, the affiliate excuse is code for buying aged leads for $1.

Bob's first post was #26 where he simply disagreed with you. The first personal attack was your response in post #27. The innocent, hurt little boy act isn't working.

It has been my experience that it is the people who are running a scam that insist that everybody but them are scammers.

 

[LGilmore]

"It has been my experience that it is the people who are running a scam that insist that everybody but them are scammers"

The reason for my Primeamerica reference. Their MO to a T.


​

 

[shortformleads]

Bob -

"So Scam? Seriously, you are full of BS. You absolutely are a fraud & don't know what you are talking about."

There is a very easy way to make me look foolish and settle this.

Tell the people exactly how you acquire your leads.

You are not paying $15 a click on Adwords.

As such, how do you do it?

This is a question for ANY lead seller. And as I said many, many times... no one will answer, including you. I have told you how we do it in the bright light of day.

I know what I am talking about, and I am not a fraud.

20% "drunken" leads? For god's sake... who really believes this on this forum? I love to drink and I can't recall filling out lead forms for kicks.

Will it be 0%? Of course not. But anything over 5-10% is a crime.

Everyone that is defending lead resellers are either Bob's cousins or sheep on the way to slaughter.

As for Surehits, you don't have to believe me if you don't want to - go to any of their pub sites and enter any ZIP you want anywhere in the US - you will only ever see 5 or 6 direct writers.

Attention lead sellers - be forewarned.. we are coming for you.. your model has been exposed

 

[tins]

Bob -
You absolutely are a fraud & don't know what you are talking about."
...
I know what I am talking about, and I am not a fraud.

You are a fraud and I am not a fraud?
Lol, that sounds like the arguement of a 7 year old.
You are poopyface and I am not poopyface!

 

[GreenSky]

You are a fraud and I am not a fraud?
Lol, that sounds like the arguement of a 7 year old.
You are poopyface and I am not poopyface!

If I thought it would indeed add value to the forum I would point out that you are indeed a poopyface.

Rick

 

[Bob Klee]

ShortFormLeads,

I want to apologize for calling you a fraud & full of BS...that is not who I am nor the way I normally talk to anyone, must less someone I do not know. I did take what you said too personally.......

I'm not going to disclose to you or anyone else what I do to market for our GQ = Guaranteed Quality leads other than what I already said in my last post: Quote: ALL the GQ leads with the Guaranteed 20% or less bogus leads; ALL of them, are search & approved email marketing. If not our own search then we have personally vetted the landing pages & lead forms of the very few, high quality partners we have. They also have very limited distribution, under 2x shared on average at this time. Plus as I've posted before. We KNOW who else we sell these leads to. I control it.

This will be the last I post about this issue unless I'm personally attacked or mentioned in a bad way again.

I'll close with the following post from an agent that I & others on this very Forum, tried to help last August. Sadly, he posted yesterday that he was terminated from his job for falling 1 life sale below quota. Fearls!, I'm sorry you didn't make it after 4 years with Liberty Mutual. You sure had the right stuff & attitude IMO. I spent some time talking to him last year as did my sales manager several times, to give him some help in how to sell internet leads. I also gave him free leads to try & help him survive so he could support his family. I am not one to boast...but I have do have a passion for agents...it is not easy but IMHO it is very rewarding to help others with their important insurance program...whether it be Life, Health, Auto or Home insurance. Thank you guys & gals.

Quote from "fearls1": ++++++++++++++
That is when I went searching for answers and help... and thats how I found this Forum. Bob from Hometown quotes reached out to me and helped me get some leads to assist in increasing production rapidly.

The quality of his leads are truly better than any other internet lead company I have tried, there were still a couple crappy ones here and there but much better quality leads. I sold a few of those

Read more: Ideas for Short Term Production Increase, Job at Risk - Page 4
+++++++++++++++

So yeah, I guess our leads suck & we rip people off....!

Blessings to all!

Bob