by Scott Cahill
2012-02-10 09:09
The Truth about Aged Leads
When it comes to online lead generation companies there is a plethora of outlandish, foolhardy, and sometimes outright incorrect information. And when it comes to top of aged debt leads and aged mortgage leads that level of misinformation gets ratcheted up to astronomical levels. Within an industry that is chock-full of every type of conceivable customer data, one must consider that most, if not all of this data was collected from consumers who at one point in time were interested in some type of product or service be it credit repair or loan modification leads. The reality is that the pace of the internet age sometimes brings forth the possibility that some unsuspecting person enters their information on a website and within 1 hour is being bombarded by every call center north of the border and then some.
Probably the largest and most widespread misconception about aged debt and mortgage leads are that these leads are outright bad leads that are purchased by unscrupulous business owners by the boatload for pennies on the dollar and thrown to the wolves on their sales floor. And while internet lead providers who provide aged debt leads no different than your local car mechanic in that some are fantastic while others aren't to be trusted, it is the same premise in that there are good and bad people in all professions.
When it comes to online lead generation and lead generation companies there is basically a consistent model no matter what type of lead with which your are dealing. Be it mortgage, real estate, nutritional supplements or online credit repair leads; the same basic formula for lead generation remains the same. The lead is generated using any number of ways. While in the pre-internet age it may have been tv commercials or 3 by 5 cards contest promotions handed out at sporting events, today it is generally handled via internet landing pages or affiliate style marketing. No matter how the lead was garnered and no matter if it is an aged lead or an exclusive lead, the tried and true sales axiom is that the longer it takes to touch the lead, the lower the chance of success in terms of closing or selling that lead. Much like fishing, the longer your bait sits in the water, the less effective it becomes. and leads are no different.
Therefore, at some point, an exclusive lead that hasn’t been touched for any number of reasons gets cast aside as garbage, never to be contacted again. But lets think about the factors behind the so called garbage lead theory. A person may have requested information; but left town on business or called away on emergency. A person may have genuinely be interested in that service but was turned off by being called 10 times in a 2 hour span. That then "exclusive or fresh mortgage lead"may not have been touched at all and simply fell through the cracks. There are number of reasons an online business lead may not have been converted in the first week, but that doesn't necessarily mean the lead can never be converted.
When it comes down to it there are so many factors the dictate why someone buys a product or service, it is foolish to think if a person doesn't buy on Monday that they wont buy on Tuesday. It would be akin to a pitcher in baseball throwing the same pitch each and every time and wondering why he was failing on the mound. Different people require different strategies at different times. Aged mortgage leads, for instance, are at times the best bargain for your sales department in that aged leads can be had for a fraction of the price of an exclusive lead. And while we hate to use the term “churn and burn,” the process of elimination and the time frame upon which the lead was last contacted could stack the deck in the favor of your business floor.
Do you have any aged leads success stories? We would love to hear about it! Feel free to comment on this blog post.