Buying leads / psychology

Oct 17, 2009 9:53 pm
As usual I see people talking about buying leads from lead brokers or whatever they are, IMHO they are scammers using a very simple thing, fear.   If you include insurance I've been in sales in one form or another for 20 years. One thing I've learned again and again and again;   If you don't create the lead it's bullsh*t.   IF any of these guys could in fact create a reliable stream of leads they would make 100 fold selling the product over the lead.   These people are using the same thing I/we use to one degree or another to motivate another human ... pain. Pain of loosing money. pain of not being with those that are making money, pain of out living money, yada yada yada.   The PAIN of making a cold call. Isn't it fascinating how a cold call is perceived as painful? Look at how many on this board will tell you they don't work or it's unprofessional or a million other excuses. Bottom line is they're scared to make them so they justify it to themselves by changing their perception of what it is.   Our nature makes the very idea of being rejected by an anonymous person you have never met, will never see or will ever speak to again, the perception is so painful we will buy and fall victim to scammers. All to escape a special little type of discomfort.   Somebody ought to do a psychological study about this.   As I said in another thread we can not change our reality. BUT we can change our perception of it. The way I was able to change my perception was calling folks in the local ghetto. I knew they would never be a client and that I would never ever meet or see or speak with them again. When you wrap your head around that you can actually have a blast making those calls.   Almost like making crank calls!!!   Once you begin to change the perception and move on to real calls the success I had was HUGE HUGE HUGE!!. Month 25 and I have MY OWN business that's rapidly expanding just from referrals that's MINE MINE MINE for life. I'm already making well into six figures and love what I do 95% of the day i.e. trade options.   Just think the wild success one would have if they truly loved to make cold calls. Can you imagine? They would be bilging clients like a ship in a storm.   The human mind is a strange thing. Next time you cold call pretend in your own mind that you're making crank calls and have the same fun you did as a kid with a phone when mom and dad were gone.   All in good fun and MHO so please excuse the rant.
Oct 19, 2009 12:24 am

G- where did you get your leads? Thanks.

Oct 19, 2009 1:31 am
no idea:

G- where did you get your leads? Thanks.

  Oh, I get them from ACME leads are us. They're only $60 per lead and have been sold to a bunch of other hamsters but I don't mind. If only I had the nuts to cold call...alas.
Oct 19, 2009 2:21 am

Leads companies are funny especially residential… “Oh these are 401ks ready to be rolled over”… Yeah right. They just pull 50+ who aren’t on the DNC.



Gaddock is right you have to call everyone.

Oct 19, 2009 3:46 pm

If any company had 401K/annuity/“managed money” leads all ready to go, they would be running their own firm, not selling the leads for a few hundred bucks.

Oct 19, 2009 8:50 pm
B24:

If any company had 401K/annuity/“managed money” leads all ready to go, they would be running their own firm, not selling the leads for a few hundred bucks.

  Yep that's a fact IMHO.
Oct 20, 2009 1:01 am

Theres this real lead gebneration outfit thats called WISER ADVISOR. Their thing is to have a bunch of web sites with a button that ask ‘TLK TO A FINANCIAL ADVISOR’. The button pusher fills out a questionaire, WiserADvisor then sentd it to 4 of their advisor ssubscribers in a partiucular area (county for edxample).

  I found these were real people who actually did need financial advice,its just that none of them were serious, some had NO $$$, a lotta curiosity seekers. They also finally were charging $100 per lead, so the excpected cost is $400!!!   I saw exactly one inquiror actusally sign up (not w/ me).
Oct 20, 2009 2:50 am

As usual, I see people bashing leads being afraid to re-invest profits back into their business.

What is a lead?  It’s permission to call which is very important these days, and it’s information as to a prospect’s hot-button issue.  That’s it.  Too many people in our business believe they’ve purchased the right to make a sale.  All they have is permission to contact a prospect, nothing more.

Insurance leads are generated as a result of events in prospect’s life.  No one wakes up one morning and decides “I feel like buying some insurance today!”  Reason’s they’re looking for insurance: retirement, loss of job, marriage/remarriage, birth of child, recently moved to the area, death of spouse, or someone they knew being devastated because they were underinsured or uninsured.  I’d like to spend some time talking to anyone whose recently experienced one of these life events, more often than not there’s a sale to be made.

I don’t know about investment leads, they sound like a scam to me, and if the prospect didn’t actually submit the information then it is a scam and it’s not a lead. 

In instances where a real person with a real need returned a card or asked for a quote or information, there are no such thing as a bad lead.

Oct 20, 2009 5:01 pm

Let’s seperate buying leads from using list brokers. Some list brokers can be very good.

Oct 20, 2009 6:14 pm

BondGuy- how about a recommendation from a list broker you have had luck with in the past?

Oct 20, 2009 6:32 pm

Bond Guy I am still waiting for “bring you favorite blog poster to work day”

Oct 21, 2009 12:15 am
    G's right.  The leads are what YOU create. Leads are about trust and permission to move to the next step. Bondguy is spot on in that some LISTS are better than others.   Be careful not to confuse lists with leads. Lists are just data - the more accurate the data, the better your chances of converting data to a lead, qualifying the lead to a prospect and then closing the deal.         [quote=Gaddock] As usual I see people talking about buying leads from lead brokers or whatever they are, IMHO they are scammers using a very simple thing, fear.   If you include insurance I've been in sales in one form or another for 20 years. One thing I've learned again and again and again;   If you don't create the lead it's bullsh*t.   IF any of these guys could in fact create a reliable stream of leads they would make 100 fold selling the product over the lead.   These people are using the same thing I/we use to one degree or another to motivate another human ... pain. Pain of loosing money. pain of not being with those that are making money, pain of out living money, yada yada yada.   The PAIN of making a cold call. Isn't it fascinating how a cold call is perceived as painful? Look at how many on this board will tell you they don't work or it's unprofessional or a million other excuses. Bottom line is they're scared to make them so they justify it to themselves by changing their perception of what it is.   Our nature makes the very idea of being rejected by an anonymous person you have never met, will never see or will ever speak to again, the perception is so painful we will buy and fall victim to scammers. All to escape a special little type of discomfort.   Somebody ought to do a psychological study about this.   As I said in another thread we can not change our reality. BUT we can change our perception of it. The way I was able to change my perception was calling folks in the local ghetto. I knew they would never be a client and that I would never ever meet or see or speak with them again. When you wrap your head around that you can actually have a blast making those calls.   Almost like making crank calls!!!   Once you begin to change the perception and move on to real calls the success I had was HUGE HUGE HUGE!!. Month 25 and I have MY OWN business that's rapidly expanding just from referrals that's MINE MINE MINE for life. I'm already making well into six figures and love what I do 95% of the day i.e. trade options.   Just think the wild success one would have if they truly loved to make cold calls. Can you imagine? They would be bilging clients like a ship in a storm.   The human mind is a strange thing. Next time you cold call pretend in your own mind that you're making crank calls and have the same fun you did as a kid with a phone when mom and dad were gone.   All in good fun and MHO so please excuse the rant.[/quote]
Oct 22, 2009 1:39 am

This is great insight. The best list of names I have gotten was going through the yellow pages and scrubbing businesses. The lists I bought were completely over promised and under delivered.  I spend one hour a day putting my lists together from the phone book. Seriously, it is tough to find a good list that is anything more than a list of names.