Will The Lead Companies Survive?

ottagosoon

If you think the leads from these various internet leads companies are bad now, they are going to get worse and the number of leads is going to diminish. There is a slow down out there. I don’t care where you are, it’s slowing down. I am in the Baltimore/Washington area, the so called recession proof area. I’m not saying we’re not working but the work load has lessened.
I have used Service Magic. What a night mare and another story. I belong to an internet lead company that I only pay for the leads I want. To be honest I haven’t purchased any from them and that is probably because of my experience with Service Magic and leads with comments in them like “ready to start if the price is right”. The number I am receiving has dropped off a lot. I have a small service area and if I get one or two leads sent to me in a week, that’s a lot.
We have to face it. They’re telling us people will be cutting back on spending for the holidays, so you think they will be spending large sums on remodeling projects?
My point, I read a lot of these posting about lead companies and very few have praises about them. Have to remember though, most of us would complain before we give them a pat on the back. So what’s going to happen? These lead companies have to get creative with the small number of leads they are receiving and the large number of contractors they have signed with them if they want to survive. That means reselling what they have as many times they can get away with it. In turn many more dissatisfied contractors. This will lead to many contactors dropping out of their service and the demise of many of these lead service companies. Probably be bought up by the stronger larger companies (Service Magic).
What’s a contractor to do?

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Can't Say That Here!!!

Mike Finley

Same thing any legitimate business should do, generate their own leads!

Who the ***** ever came up with the idea that buying leads is the way things should be???????? It was a deal with the devil embraced and given life by weak contractors that never should have hung up their own shingle in the first place. Think about it. How many contractors went into business off the single marketing plan of "Hey, I can buy leads and be in business tomorrow"?

PMI

Be your own lead generator

Keep in mind that all the lead companies do is purchase all the keywords possible (i.e. plumbing, painting, roofing, etc.) and then ensure to get to the top of the list when looking for your town, city, county and state. A way to capture some of these leads is to have a great website (even just a home page) that has search engine optimization built in. Leads will come in from your website if you do it right. Of course the lead companies may be seen first as a sponsored search result, but homeowners will still see your local listing if they know they can get directly to you.

Another important thing is to ensure you reach out to your past customers to remind them of your services. An email (preferred), magnet on the fridge or even a postcard (if your still not on the Internet for your business) will generate repeat business which is better than a cold-lead.

Phil

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Phil Tonks
For all your Remodeling & Home Improvement needs in South Florida visit www.pmi1call.com

Robin Fletcher

Of course you should be generating your own leads if you have the resources. A lead company is meant to be an add on, not a replacement for your own marketing- you have to keep in mind that they generally have more resources and expertise to market than you do- at least, that's where the value is supposed to come from.

There are good lead companies out there, but you have to be very careful about separating the good from the not so good. Questions you need to be asking up front: 1. What's your quality assurance process? Do you check the leads before you send them out (and how do you check them) or do you just send out everything under the sun and charge me for it all? 2. How many times do you sell the lead? If you are competing on a lead against 8 other companies, that's not going to be a very good lead. 3. What are the contractual obligations? Some companies out there suck you into a year long contract, and then bombard you with low quality leads. This is how people get burned out on lead services. Do your research, and don't sign yourself over to a company just because they offer you cheap leads.

Max Nomad

If you stop and think about it, the lead generation concept for construction is one that probably looked great on paper, especially prior to the dot-com bubble bust. No one could have predicted (1) each lead being resold anywhere between 3 and 10 times depending on the market, (2) no real barrier-to-entry to prevent other lead generator sites from popping up and (3) consumers trying to use these sites to get ballpark prices on their projects without any confirmation that they're truly ready to get the job started. I like to compare it to the radical Al Qaeda-suicide-bomber claim about dying and being in heaven with 72 virgins -- only someone that's never had to deal with that many young women would claim it has anything to do with "heaven".

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Burby

72 virgins????? I know I would have to be in heaven or dreaming.. lol

But so true on the Lead companies. They are for beginners in business or companies that have a reputation of burning Contractors & need new ones. The same applies to Residential Lead Companies.
They make money on Business that buy spots for their ads and from Contractors that haven't learnt yet & probably shouldn't be in business anyhow.
They are about as reliable as one who states they can build you a custom house for $100.00 per sq ft. Having a fixed price up front don;t make sense when stating a "custom" house. It sounds good, but how can one build another a "custom" house for a fixed price without first sitting down to decide what specs to go by? "Starting at" $100 per sq ft maybe. But it sounds good and it attracts inexperienced buyers.

And one thing that never makes sense to me is, "no one had an idea this was going to end".
I have heard this so many times since the slow down of the building boom. Makes one want to shake someone to wake um up.. lol
When homes sell for thousands more than appraised for and one does not believe house market will or could ever slow down, what planet they from???
Here in Charleston, SC, since 2002 I have been saying if house prices don;t stabilize things will go to hell and fast. Since early 2000 houses were selling here for more than appraised for and rose steady from then on. From 1995 residential litagation began increasing as well and is when an Engineer asked me if I would consider going into it, take over jobs where Contractors & Homeowners could no longer work together and Lawyers had been brought in. In late 1994 I closed down business building custom homes because the work force was getting so bad, it made it hard to maintain 10 good men let alone 28 as i had a few years previous.
From 1995 thru 2003 I could not keep ahead of the litagation work and kept 2 to 3 of them jobs going steady thru them years. Only when we discovered my wife was terminal in Oct of 2003 did I totally close down my business. After she passed away in May of 2004, I took time off and didn;t open back until late 2006 and only after constant calls from old customers requesting I return to work because of them not being able to find suitable Contractors for their needs. The majority of my customers are ones most Contractors prefer to stay away from, but their pay is great and to me, they are fantastic to work for. The reason most Contractors prefer to stay away from them is not they are hard to deal with or hard to collect pay from, it is where the work force has gone in the past few decades.
Don;t get me wrong there are some great contractors and workers out there. But both have steady customers as well as the good workers are secure in their jobs. Because any building boom attracts so many that should not be in business. Guys I fired because they could not make it working for me even as a helper or apprentice I ran into in business for themselves and working.. lol. I am sure so many of you can relate to this as well.
But anyhow, back to my point, anyone that has been in business for more than a decade in residential construction had to have seen this coming for years. Anytime one grows so fast and even has a hard time to make bank deposits and or invoice, knows this will not last...
Next time you hear one say "who would have thought this market would ever fall out or slow down", please restrain yourself from shaking that person back to reality and just ask them, how long have you been in business?? Then you will get your answer as to why they said what they did.. lol
Business is like the stock market, you don;t jump in to get rich over night, you jump in for the long haul and in the end you will reap the rewards.
If not, like with the stock market, you will be left scratching your head wondering why others did it and you hit bottom blaming everyone out there.
We will get thru this poor economic time and come out even stronger. For those that have been in this for the long haul, enjoy this time while we have it and there are some great deals to be had out there.
Remember the glass is half full, not half empty.

Happy Holidays to all !!! Eat well, sleep better, & hammer harder

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Never judge another by one's own intelligence

HVAC

It really is true you will be much better off making your own leads than fluffing around with these online lead services. Get your own website out there with someone who knows how to generate results from it, or learn yourself.