[Heritage]

I used to be a member of a Lead Generating company (I'm leaving the name out for now). They are pretty big. For $40/month I would receive postings by homeowners for various jobs. On average I would receive a "new posting" every day...or two days.

I found that after months of being a member and having met with umpteen HO's for their projects...that something was wrong. I only closed one contract for a measley $1000 job. I went out on and submitted atleast 20 estimates in a three month period.

1 job out of 20? WTH is going on? How could I not close? How many other contractors am I bidding against?

So this is what I did...I went onto their web-site and posed as if I was a HO needing his basement done. Average basement job, average budget. I didn't make the posting look lucrative at all.

That was six hours ago...do you know how many replies from contractors I received?.....26!

26!....in the first 6 hours!!!

I have a good mind to send an email to all the contractors that replied to my "post" and tell them just how many replies I got.

Is it just me? Or do I have a right to be a little peed off here. I mean, what reasonable "lead generating" company would sell a lead to hundreds of contractors....for a crappy $5-20000 listed budget tag?

If you agree that I should send the email let me know...and I'll give you the lead generating company's name.

If you think I'm in the wrong here...let me know too.

[dirt diggler]

Originally Posted by Heritage

That was six hours ago...do you know how many replies from contractors I received?.....26!

26!....in the first 6 hours!!!

i'd crack up if like 8 of them were reading this right now

"Hey, i just got this great lead - they've got a pretty wide budget too!!!"







budget ... ugh ... the word is synonymous with "wasted my time again"




yes - i'd be pissed & feel burned.

But, in their eyes - a lead is a lead.


Put it to you another way. Look at it from their shoes - for $40 a month, would you put a whole lot of time into researching a lead for me??

it's a racket is all - just don't use em

[SuperiorBuilt]

Welcome to the wonderful world of internet lead generating companies. Yes, they promise the world but you found out their secret. Yes the leads are sold then sold again and sold again..etc, etc etc.. when you try to find that people who sign you up, of coarse you get the "he doesn't work here anymore" speech.
Best advice :choke it up as a life lesson and learn from your mistake. cut your losses and move on. Spend the money on developing a great website that can easily be found by your next potential customer.

[Mike Finley]

Yep.

Originally Posted by Mike Finley

Personally I would not cry a drop if the lead services all went away. I see them as an evil to the contracting business as was the Internet to the automobile business. As much as it might be too shocking for some sensitive ears here to hear, but too much information, too much power in the consumers hands often results in back firing on the consumer.

There is often a negative backlash that will develop over time that was impossible to foresee. The very adversarial nature of most lead services mentality of "Let contractors compete for your business" as I have always said year after year is bad for contractors and bad for consumers as a result.

It lowers the difficulty level for poor business persons to have access to customers which weakens the entire herd. It lowers the perception of contracting in consumers minds to a commodity mindset.

Anytime you lower the difficulty to access a service, or get information you cheapen that service. After all if I can type into my computer for 30 seconds and get 10 contractors tripping over each other to bid for the privilege of installing my water heater how does that not make the services they offer just a dime a dozen?

Lead services can suck it. They are a bane on our industry.

Originally Posted by Mike Finley

Everyone should ask themselves the simple question of what changed?

Here are the facts - Everybody says the same thing - years ago leads were better then they are today, everybody I know says this, I've never heard anybody say 3 years ago the leads were bad but now they are great. So what happened?

Think how it worked in the beginning - it was a matching service to find qualified contractors. That's how SM and others started their services - they were a method for consumers to sidestep the hassles and headaches associated with basically throwing a dart at a dart board with your eyes closed and hoping for the best. SM and others promised that they screened their contractor and it was a way for consumers to get good quality contractors.

Think about it now what is it about and who's to blame? It contractors who are to blame! As contractors wanted to jump on this gravy train of great quality leads what did you guys do? You started competing amongst each other hard core to get your piece of the pie. When you didn't get the easy successes you thought what the hell am I doing wrong?

So you started figuring out how to call leads back in 5 seconds after they submitted to get ahead. Consumer thought holy cow you guys were fast, consumers talked... you guys started cutting prices to get the jobs, consumers talked... pretty soon the whole thing changed you guys trained the consumers to use those lead services to get contractors to jump through hoops and compete on price. You guys trained consumers to treat you this way, enjoy it.

Consumers now use lead services like SM and others to shop price not shop quality, why? Because that's what it has become.

Now start tying to convince me how Craigslist is such a great source of good customers!

[mattd]

I also used a lead generating company and found that for every 25 estimates i only booked on average size job. This was just enough to cover the cost of the service I used for about 7 months. I will never use another lead company again, now I used that money every month to print good quality flyers, and upkeep my website. I've had better ROI doing everything myself instead of depending on these lead generators that recycle leads.

[C.C.R.]

Originally Posted by Mike Finley

Yep.

Absolutely right. I'm going into my second year of business I tried them(Reliable Remodeler) the prices started out fair but recently skyrocketed in 1 year with them I got, maybe 5 face to face meetings. landed 0. "Well the last guy said he would do it for less". "Have nice day"

I whent to one lead, for a deck(about 12' off the ground) spent 2 one hour sessions with him. After about two weeks go by I called him back and he said, "the guy they sent over after you said he woud bring me some fresh fish from his day job." I could help but laugh. the H.O. didn't understand why I was laughing. That's qualified contractor.

[PressurePros]

Somebody has to come up with something different as these lead generation services are so watered down you end up in a bidding war with hungry, no, make that starving businesses that will be out of business in a year anyway. Its not the homeowner's fault either. Like Mike mentioned.. when you flood a market with supply the inevitable outcome is commodity labeling and falling profit margin.

This next statement is gonna make me popular. Solely using lead generation services are for those with weak marketing plans or no advertising budget. The problem is, someone with weak marketing skills had better be an excellent salesman. Let me add that for someone with a large marketing budget and a sales force to back it up, generated leads can be another egg in the basket. That disqualifies about 98% of us.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by ************

I use bestcontractors.com. So far I am satisfied. It's not a pay per lead deal either. The leads I get are because consumers select to receive a bid from me in my online showroom. Just a thought. Anyone else experience them? Its a different concept from the others.

They call me about 3 times a day wanting me to use their service.

It seemed pretty steep of an investment with nothing to show at first for it.

Hi Cole - It's not bad. Any idea on how much they want to you pay? I pay around $300/Month and get around 20-25 solid jobs. There is no bidding war involved...

[hbelectric]

Goods job, i figured this much. freaking 26 calls, i feel bad for the customers though.