Simplification can’t come too quickly for the “Lead Ecosystem”
Image courtesy of GapingVoid
Anyone in the “Lead Ecosystem” knows that it is a complicated world.
Lead Providers have a complex formula for generating, pricing, filtering, and distributing leads, in addition to all the integration headaches of providing leads to customers by email, spreadsheet, or through one of many Lead Management Systems.
Meanwhile Lead Management companies have to work with the Lead Providers to make their mutual clients as profitable as possible, while keeping everything running smoothly. Lead Management companies have to work with hundreds of lead providers, client self-generation and importing of leads, and exporting those leads to a 3rd party software, such as a Loan Origination System or a client management system.
As convoluted as life is for Lead Providers and Lead Management companies, it’s worse for clients and consumers.
Companies that buy leads, use a lead management system, and otherwise integrate their operations with the “Lead Ecosystem” have a steep learning curve to contend with. Companies which are used to doing in-house marketing, generating their own leads, gathering referrals, and distributing them on paper, suddenly have to contend with managing multiple vendor relationships-which are all intertwined. Also successful Lead Buyers have to adjust their workflow and sales process to fit the requirements of working with Internet leads. That is a lot of learning that a client has to do, before being able to reap the benefits of the Lead Ecosystem.
Consumers often have it the worst. Consumers have little or no idea about what happens to their data when it is submitted to a lead provider. They are often totally unprepared for the sales process which they will be exposed to, uneducated about the products which they are interested in, and unequipped to make intelligent decisions. An unqualified, paralyzed, traumatized, frustrated, or otherwise unreceptive consumer is always going to be the toughest sell.
How do we simplify the Lead Ecosystem for everyone involved?
owen raun said... January 16th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Good post - I’d chime in that the market shake out will only help our industry’s interface with the consumer. Gone are some/most (not sure here) of the lenders that gave our industry its reputation for bad service, unethical loan officers and steering consumers into products they didn’t match well with. Remaining are lenders that play by the rules - give full disclosure to the consumers and attempt to make every transaction a pleasant one..
Morelli said... January 16th, 2008 at 10:05 am
What this all says to me is “TRANSPARENCY!” One of the cardinal rules of sales is “Never overeducate your prospect.” I’m not so sure that this rule is as important in the present, to making a sale, as it was in the past. I think it provides for a smoother transaction, and creates a better relationship in the end. Whether I am selling a lead management system to a mortgage company or that mortgage company is selling a loan to a consumer, an open and transparent process I think can curb a lot of the pains explored above. Plus, it just makes life easier to lay your cards on the table sometimes. The business you want, the good business, will appreciate it.