So
are a lot of loan officers. Yet these
are exactly the kind of leads they’re
lining up to buy every day.
When
interviewed, the majority of lead buyers
rate “qualified leads” as “most important” when
working with internet lead companies.
And they’ll tell you what qualifies a
lead; it’s when someone is actively
shopping for your services. Yet
some lead companies have a pretty loose
interpretation of “qualified”… and the
result is a bunch of leads with bargain-basement
prices and ZERO interest in
talking to you.
Where
do these bogus and uninterested leads
come from? Some companies lure shoppers
to submit their information using sneaky “incentivized” offers.
You’ve seen it in action before. You’re
surfing the web and suddenly there’s
some company dangling random offers for
stuff like coupons, screensavers or iPod
giveaways. When you sign up for the download
or freebie, you’re bombarded with questions,
like “Are you interested in refinancing
your home?”
These
boxes are usually pre-checked so the
lead has absolutely no clue why
you’re calling when you get them on the
phone. These leads are hardly “qualified,” and
they’re impossible to squeeze
sales out of.
Don’t
Get Stuck With Incentivized Leads.
But
there are interested leads out
there looking for mortgages on the internet,
right? You bet. The trick is knowing how companies
find them. Interested leads start their
search by typing mortgage-related keywords
into popular search engines like Google
and Yahoo. Companies use highly competitive
pay-per-click campaigns (PPC) and search
engine optimization (SEO) to consistently
position their websites into the top
10 rankings. Good positioning attracts
serious shoppers, and weeds out the free
download crowd.
After
clicking on a search engine ad or listing,
your lead visits a “lead generation website”.
You can see where your leads are coming
from by visiting one of these sites yourself
(like www.quotefinancial.com).
Poke around and see what your leads see,
and what actions they’re taking to become
your lead. That way you’ll know firsthand
the first impression made on your leads
is professional, and nobody’s getting “tricked” into
submitting their info.
Ask
your lead company where their leads
come from before they’re sent to you. If
they won’t give you a straight answer,
you can bet they’re trying to hide
something.
Sure,
there are lots of easy ways to generate
leads. But good companies aren’t interested
in cutting corners. You should expect
a company to maintain the integrity of
their lead generation strategies, so
you can ALWAYS get the interested
leads you need — promptly and
reliably.
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Jeremiah Desmarais, ProspectZone
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