We have all experienced the same frustrations with lead companies. Let’s check if this sounds familiar. They promise real-time leads and most will give you leads for free. No matter how many questions you ask the sales rep, they’ll insist that their leads are better than any other company. Most companies start strong. Most of the free leads you get are crap. The leads that you pay for within the first week are usually good. The quality suddenly takes a dramatic turn. People either didn’t ask for insurance quotes or the number doesn’t work. It was always strange to me that no real-time lead could be reached. The occasional lead I did reach was so fresh that the prospect was still on my computer! Hmmmm. What’s the deal? How can a lead company produce such junk and rarely provide a high quality lead? Is it possible that so many people are just entering incorrect information? It’s hard to imagine.
Sometimes, I would call the sales representative from the lead company and things would improve for a few days. Finally, I reached a girl from one of the larger companies. She told me that she had “shut down the third party sources” with which I was having issues. She said they would eventually turn on, and that I would have to call again. I was confused by all of it, but she explained everything to me and the leads were incredible! This was for about a week. I called back to find out that she was not working there anymore. She was just too honest to be in this lead industry.
Forget the idea that we are BUYING these leads. They’re supposed be real people who want to talk to you about insurance. It’s enough to be a disaster! What about the responsibility of these companies to the PEOPLE whose personal data they so recklessly possess and share? This is why we get such a bad reputation in the industry. We call with all the best intentions. This industry is being poisoned by the FORTUNE 500 LEAD COMPANIES. They have an endless supply of recycled data.
I insisted that my husband, a web/tech professional, work with me to get real, current leads. We were producing our own insurance leads within a few months. And eventually, even the most incredible FE leads. But that’s another story! One random day, we began the leads, and then BAM! I got 8 leads in a row, all completely fake. It was unbelievable. We looked into each one and discovered that they all came from the same source. My husband opened our websites to obtain organic leads and then accepted affiliate referrals. The basic idea was that someone had visited an affiliate company and had been paid for each lead. They were all referred back to our site. Some of these leads were disconnected. Some of these leads were real people who simply stated that they had submitted an online form months ago and that the calls never stopped. It was there. This is exactly why lead companies are so evil. They are actually generating real leads. They are real people searching for quotes. They don’t have enough leads to support the thousands of agents that want them. Instead of restricting agents’ numbers, they allow themselves to receive affiliate data via third parties…who also receive affiliate data… There is an inexhaustible amount of data. Someone enters the random and inaccurate information, knowing that it is bogus. It’s sent to us by the lead company seconds later and we receive an email or text confirming that we have a new leader! YIPPEE! !
