Defining a Lead: Understanding Quality and Avoiding Potential Traps
For most businesses, marketing is the key to moving forward. Remodeling contractors, too, need to find and attract customers continually in order to stay productive. While referrals are the preferred method of generating business, they’re rarely capable of keeping even the most reputable companies busy at all times. Most business owners understand that hiring a lead generation service generates sales opportunities. At the same time, outsourcing the marketing function to a lead specialist frees contractors to focus on remodeling.
One of the most common methods of purchasing leads is individually, or on the “per lead” level. This is considered far less risky than hiring telemarketers or purchasing buying lists or direct mail materials. Why? Because these other methods may provide you with a long list of contacts, but many of these contacts may not even be looking for the work you provide.
According to Joey Liner, VP of Sales and Co-Founder of Double Positive, a mortgage lead generation company, 3 factors must be present to create a well-rounded lead. These factors are lead quantity, quality, and price. The following article is based on Liner’s principles for defining a lead.
Quality, Quantity, and Cost
Without a balance of all 3 of these factors, the lead service will not be favorable overall.
Quality is the total number of leads that convert into a job, making money rather than costing money.
Quantity is the supply channel’s ability to provide enough leads to support a business’s objectives.
Cost is the price paid per lead.
Here are some scenarios that demonstrate what happens when only two of the factors are available.
- You have high quality leads that always convert and you have access to an unlimited quantity of them, but the cost for each lead will be exorbitantly high, such as $10,000 per lead.
- Your leads are affordable in cost and the quantity is be unlimited, but the quality is so low you need 1,000 just to convert one.
- The cost for your lead is reasonable, and the quality is reasonable to, as about ten leads convert to a job. However, you only receive one lead per week, so quantity is too low to keep you productive.
As you can see, a reasonable cost, quantity, and quality are needed for a valuable lead service. Many lead generation companies advertise purely on cost, but look out for this. As you can see from the examples above, lower cost is not necessarily better, and you may end up spending more time rifling through low-cost leads before reaching someone who actually hires you for work.
Most contractors who understand the value of a lead will lean toward quality, even at a slightly higher cost, to save themselves time. Hot, live transfer leads like those available through CalFinder are considered to have the highest quality. These leads have already been contacted, qualified, and are transferred to you live. We find the clients, and all that’s left to you is selling your service to those who want most to buy in.
Tags: quality leads