You are right on here. This is why we've only ever charged clients on a per lead or per appointment basis. It just doesn't make sense to charge hourly without hurting the independent agent. In this industry, everyone knows everyone else, and I can tell you that per hour rates are the reason a lot of companies come and go. We retain 99% of our clients, and in fact, most of our clients have been with us for a decade, because we only charge for results.
Direct Mail Vs Telemarketed Leads
- Thread starter Josh
- Start date
You are right on here. This is why we've only ever charged clients on a per lead or per appointment basis. It just doesn't make sense to charge hourly without hurting the independent agent. In this industry, everyone knows everyone else, and I can tell you that per hour rates are the reason a lot of companies come and go. We retain 99% of our clients, and in fact, most of our clients have been with us for a decade, because we only charge for results.
- Thread starter
- #12
- 11,995
By "we", I presume you mean your parents?
I realize you don't like this being brought up, but the reality is you're a 22 year old college student with practically zero insurance marketing experience. You're clearly a talented individual with technology, but this isn't your arena. If memory serves, you're parents company can't keep up with demand?
What do the following companies have in common?
TSL
BlackBox Technologies
Your Advantage Leads
The Lead Champion
AIC Leads
The Executive Lead Source
They charge per lead and they all have been flamed on here for not delivering on what they said on a per lead basis. I'm only familiar with the back end on a few of them, but of the ones I'm more familiar with, they all misjudge how long it takes to generate a quality lead and so they sell leads at $X only to find out it costs twice as much or more to generate a quality lead.
Hogo, why don't you have your parents company generate leads for 2001mason and we'll have him come back and report his experience?
In order for telemarketed leads to be viable they have to be of a reasonable quality AND they have to be available. If an agent can't get 10 to 20 plus per week, it's not a viable marketing method (for most products anyway).
Where can we have Matt buy some of these leads you keep talking about at the prices you keep talking about?
- 5,260
I'll take a batch of 15-20 FE leads for one week and give an unbiased report.
I Second it, I trust that Readon will do just that. He is a solid producer and knows how to work a lead.
Reardon shoot me an e-mail with the areas that you want and the quantity. I also need to know if you want any specific information, like if they have a checking account or not (We get this info by default, of course). But I'll modify the script for your campaign if you want any specific parameters. Just e-mail me and we can talk on Monday.
---let it be known that I'm not on this forum to offer lead gen, rather IT services to help you guys manage your own telemarketers--
Now, in response to Josh.... had you seen the video response I posted for Twilight you would have realized three things:
First, is that I have been managing operations at our call centers for 6 years now. That is much longer than most telemarketing agencies stay in business. So please leave the whole "age" deal out of it.
Second, in my video I clearly outlined how FE lead generation is viable at a $25-$30 price point, and showed you the numbers and lead averages to prove it. (Or must I make a video of our books?!?) You must be willing to take a hit in the hard areas in the name of service and volume. Yes, we can easily drop our harder clients and pursue all of the easy stuff and make a killing, but how does that reflect upon us and how long do you think we'd stay in business?
Additionally, we have enough telemarketers and a large enough lead order that even IF Peter over here is ordering hard stuff and we happen to be pulling like **** there, Paul on the other hand is in easy states so it all balances out in the end. This is the point you seem to miss. YES, on a per order basis, you may be losing your ass on Peter's order (for which a $40 price point is needed), but Paul is making you enough money to cover that. You must take a hit and treat all clients equally, and you must move VOLUME.
Third, I clearly stated that I'm offering a call center solution for agents to manage their own telemarketers remotely. I'm not on this forum to sell lead generation business, guess why? Because all of our clients are satisfied with what we do and they continue to order week after week after week. So we don't need any new business. And you're right, we are overwhelmed by lead orders, and have been for as long as I can remember. That right there, sir, is why we've been in business for 25 years and don't have a need to go out looking for it.
Now, I reiterate, I'm not here to offer lead gen, but rather technology that can help our fellow independent agents hire, train, and manage their own telemarketers.
The only reason I posted in this thread was to show you that it CAN be done, and encourage you to go ahead and go for it! I have no doubt that you have 10x the experience that I do, and by no means am I trying to challenge that.
I'm here to make love not war.
---let it be known that I'm not on this forum to offer lead gen, rather IT services to help you guys manage your own telemarketers--
Now, in response to Josh.... had you seen the video response I posted for Twilight you would have realized three things:
First, is that I have been managing operations at our call centers for 6 years now. That is much longer than most telemarketing agencies stay in business. So please leave the whole "age" deal out of it.
Second, in my video I clearly outlined how FE lead generation is viable at a $25-$30 price point, and showed you the numbers and lead averages to prove it. (Or must I make a video of our books?!?) You must be willing to take a hit in the hard areas in the name of service and volume. Yes, we can easily drop our harder clients and pursue all of the easy stuff and make a killing, but how does that reflect upon us and how long do you think we'd stay in business?
Additionally, we have enough telemarketers and a large enough lead order that even IF Peter over here is ordering hard stuff and we happen to be pulling like **** there, Paul on the other hand is in easy states so it all balances out in the end. This is the point you seem to miss. YES, on a per order basis, you may be losing your ass on Peter's order (for which a $40 price point is needed), but Paul is making you enough money to cover that. You must take a hit and treat all clients equally, and you must move VOLUME.
Third, I clearly stated that I'm offering a call center solution for agents to manage their own telemarketers remotely. I'm not on this forum to sell lead generation business, guess why? Because all of our clients are satisfied with what we do and they continue to order week after week after week. So we don't need any new business. And you're right, we are overwhelmed by lead orders, and have been for as long as I can remember. That right there, sir, is why we've been in business for 25 years and don't have a need to go out looking for it.
Now, I reiterate, I'm not here to offer lead gen, but rather technology that can help our fellow independent agents hire, train, and manage their own telemarketers.
The only reason I posted in this thread was to show you that it CAN be done, and encourage you to go ahead and go for it! I have no doubt that you have 10x the experience that I do, and by no means am I trying to challenge that.
I'm here to make love not war.
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- Thread starter
- #16
- 11,995
So what you're saying is that you don't have a better solution available, but you'd like to say that whatever I have to offer won't work? Is that the gist of it?
If you can offer lead generation services on a per lead basis and make money at it, then you should absolutely offer that service to folks here. I believe we already discussed that you folks aren't looking for more clients, so I believe that makes it a dead issue.
I realized it was almost a half hour long and did not watch more than a few minutes of it.
I don't know how well you can manage at 16, but that's definitely relevant. If you're going to question my expertise and say that you have a better solution for folks and a better understanding of what's going on, it's important for folks to understand your background. That doesn't necessarily mean that you shouldn't be taken seriously, but considering that I've been a licensed agent for almost a decade and have experience working with telemarketed lead generation as an independent agent using individual and small teams of telemarketers I think that helps frame things a bit better.
Hold that thought.
I disagree with you completely. In order for a deal to be viable it has to work from both sides of the table. If you're "losing your ass" on someone's order, you shouldn't be doing it. Peter needs to pay enough to make it viable for the call center or Peter needs to go find another way to generate leads. Why on earth would a legitimate business knowingly take clients they would consistently lose money on? That makes absolutely no sense.
If I might ask, why are you trying to sell agents on your solution? Of your own admission you haven't had enough time to sleep because you've been busy with your school work. You also claim to not need the money. I'm not judging you on anything here, but why are you trying to sell folks on your solution if your clearly so busy?
Always good to hear.
Because, as you so eloquently stated before, there's variable change. Sometimes Peter makes you money, sometimes he doesn't. The point is, keep consistency with your prices, keep customers happy, and you will retain business. That's not to say that we haven't raised prices in the past, because we have, as has everyone else. But, everything will average out in the end, and profits will be made.
Only discussing price points... never mentioned anything about something being better than the alternative.
You haven't seen me try to sell something. I've simply responded to a few posts, and offered a dialing solution for folks that are overpaying for the alternatives.
- Thread starter
- #18
- 11,995
The infamous "I'm not here to sell you anything".
Wrong. More like sure, you can buy what I have to sell.
OR, if I were REALLY pushing to sell my product I'd put up a page and run advertisements, and invest some money. Responding to a few posts on a forum isn't my definition of "trying to sell someone on my solution."
I'm done with the hostility. Have a good day sir.
- 5,260
Hey Hogo -- I'm not in the market to purchase outright a batch of leads at $30 per lead, as I have a slew of aged Securus leads (around 60-80) that need working over the next several weeks.
However I'd try a small batch (15-20) out for free if your goal was to look for a 3rd party validation of your product for use of this forum.
If that's not the case or that doesn't work for you, no hard feelings. I certainly don't want to waste your time, as it sounds like your purpose really isn't selling lead gen to independent agents.
With all that said, I would like to hear more details about your aged FE inventory program.
-Dave
However I'd try a small batch (15-20) out for free if your goal was to look for a 3rd party validation of your product for use of this forum.
If that's not the case or that doesn't work for you, no hard feelings. I certainly don't want to waste your time, as it sounds like your purpose really isn't selling lead gen to independent agents.
With all that said, I would like to hear more details about your aged FE inventory program.
-Dave
