Here's An Idea ... How To Fix The Online Service Companys

dirt diggler

alot of you have accounts with several of these rackets. Or at least it seems like it.

i've come very close to joining the club twice. Fortunately, I've read enough horror stories on here that it's kind of a no-brainer.


But I think it's pretty clear what these lead services are doing to our line of work. They're cheapening it. They're making us all look like a bunch of circus bears.



You know that commercial?? About the lending company

"Where banks compete for you??"


That's bad enough ... but now you have this *new* lead service company setting it up so the customer gets to set the price???

to eliminate "unnecessary overage?" hello guys - that's your gross profit that I believe they are talking about.

lead services are not contractors. Yet for some reason, they think they can get into the mix somehow.


In essence, these lead services are f**king with all of our livliehoods.

And they're whoring us all out.

This business is hard enough ... last thing ANY of us need are some faceless internet companies meddling in things they ought not to





So here's an idea.... how about tomorrow ... everybody who is with a lead service, cancel your accounts. Close them out. Pay whatever you owe to these crooks, write a letter explaining that you are cancelling your account. Tear up your credit card and get a new one with a different number.

Close them out. And then maybe trying to regain some control of your industry.

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Thanks in advance!!!

dirt diggler

and i will add

everyone on here (from time to time - including myself) has complained about circumstances such as illegals or lead services that bring us all down


yet nobody does anything but b*tches ... thinking "someone else will take care of it" or "it will work itself out"



im sure with the volume of members this place has ... shouldn't be a reason why problems the industry (ies) face can't be solved.

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Thanks in advance!!!

Patrick

LOL I can see it now dirt, Pretty soon the national media will be announcing which presidential candidate has secured the contractortalk.com vote

dirt diggler

LOL


nah but seriously - we all sit here and gripe so much (I am JUST AS GUILTY for doing that) about stuff - but all the solutions are pretty easy. There's probably enough members just on this site to make up the population of a small state

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Thanks in advance!!!

dougchips

Dirt, I will jump on your bandwagon.....I will not buy on-line leads (I haven't in months) but this will make Dirt feel good that someone joined.

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Patrick

I VOW, never to return any phone calls to Mark the service magic rep who has left messages on my voicemail every other day for the past two weeks

deckman22

Dirt, There are too many wannabees out there who don't have a clue that will keep these crooks in business. I just can't believe how many people here have fallen sucker for their ploy. I can't say I haven't been tempted, but my gut always told me not to pull the trigger. It's like believing the email scam that will put 10 mil in your account, but they just need your account number to put it in.

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Deckman
www.alscustomdecks.com

leakygoose

RIGHT ON - DIRT- YOU are 110% dead nuts on ,I'm with you . Tried service majic , What a bunch of horse do do . You get a lead call, make the call to the HO and O your the eighth call I've had ,sorry . They can kiss my spinning saw blade.

tinner666

I was already a silent partner in your 'club' dirt! Why pay somebody for a 'service' I can do myself. And the service only knows how to spell 'roofing'. Maybe. Definitely nothing else about it.

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RidgeWalker

Dirt that is a good idea but honestly with companies like Service Magic who boast a contractor membership of over 40,000, I don't think any of us will make any differance to them when we leave.

= (

silvertree

It's only a matter of time before the online lead services change to another way of doing business, and they will screw that up also. I had to call my credit card company and report the card lost to stop SM from charging on it, that was a couple of years ago. If we operated like they do, we would be featured on the 10 pm news. I don't miss my online lead services and I won't do Yellow Book or Yellow pages online listings either. But theres a sucker born every minute!

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Vote for Pedro
Kitchen, bath, St Paul remodeling
Minneapolis Remodel Blog
203K Loan Consultant Minnesota

POOLMANinCT

my communication & advertising program is quite mature at this point. i have never considered these services. but for some reason i am emailed ridiculous "offers to bid" on pools, one in recall was in the bronx ny, for an aboveground thast also needed the lot cleared of garbage & construcion materials. they were wanted it for 18k. wtf?

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wizendwizard

This is a great idea. I personally NEVER signed up for any of the 6 services that have contacted me. As of today SM shut down my going into their forum to add my input. Locked all nonpaying members out!! This was requested by some of their paying members that didn't like anyone but them having access to their tools. While this makes me laugh aloud. It is also an indication the your idea will never work. There will always be someone going to these services when times get bad. These internet lead companies may not make as much money and some may have to restucture, but it will not shut them down. They will just up the fee's being paid by the desparate guy's that rely on them for all leads they get.

I paid close attention and sat back and talked to the reps from these companies that called me and would never actually sign with them. I admit i used the blogs on this forum to infuence my decision but i feel it was the proper choice. I was even dared and challenged by members of SM to sign up. I happened to notice that SM offers a market activity by state and area so i checked it out. EVERY dot they had for my state was 50 miles or more from me. Why would i sign up for that?

As for renovationexperts.com I spoke with a Mike. I started asking him questions about their markt activity and he say " You aren't new to internet lead services are you?" I said "no". at this he simply hangs up and i have never heard from them again.

Bidclerk.com HA! They actually let you veiw the leads they have availablt without supplying names and addresses just towns and projects. Nothing close to me in the fields i work in.

Servicelive. No way not sears not ever.

Well, i hope this has been at least a little enlightening.
I will stick to newspapers and flyers and posters and signs and W.O.M and business cards.

Grumpy

It's not cut and dry. There is some grey area. BTW what is this new lead service that allows the cusotmer to set the price?

If I were to go cancel out all my accounts right now, where would my leads come from? I'd have to try out a whole slew of new things.

Lead services do work, if you know how to work them. There is no reason to lower your price to "compete". What does compete really mean? I compete on every bid I do. Do you compete on price? I don't. I compete on quality, customer service, detailed bid, professional approcah to problem solving. I compete damned hard too. I fight tooth and nail. All I need is to get in the face of some potential buyers, the rest will work its self out.

So that is what I ask of lead services. Nothing more. I just want to get in the face of my potential customer. If they can do that for me, I will gladly pay them what ever they aska nd work it into my bottom line. If they can't, they get fired.

"When contractors compete, you win!" that's the marketing. That's what tricks the customer into using their service. Don't you be tricked too. Just because the customer falls for it doesn't mean you should.

a1propertyclean

LOL ~ thanks for the warning about Service Magic. They've been bugging me quite a bit.

Buying leads reminds me of people who'd rather use a personnel agency to get a job instead of picking up a newspaper and making phone calls and setting up their own interviews. You can create a profile and pay your dues. But it NEVER guarantees work.

There's nothing wrong with doing your own marketing and finding your own customers. Just about everyone I've met these days appreciates the old-fashioned approach of just walking in the door [businesses only, of course] and introducing yourself.

How many here have gotten any viable work from a lead generation company? How much did you pay to get the job? And did it lead to repeat business or referrals?

I've just never seen the point in paying to work when there's so much of it out there.

Linda

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http://allreopreservation.com
allreo.vendor.review@gmail.com [experienced vendors only - please list state and counties if you're looking for work]

silvertree

This happened to me today. I get home from work and check emails. An email from Service Magic says they are looking for reputable contractors who want to grow their business by 28% this year, they also add they have more quality leads than they can handle. So I write back that I am interested but I am going to jail for 90 days for spending a down payment and not doing the work, and I also got drunk and wrecked my truck but I would be interested in getting an account when I am released. I cant wait to see what happens next.

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Vote for Pedro
Kitchen, bath, St Paul remodeling
Minneapolis Remodel Blog
203K Loan Consultant Minnesota

Mike Finley

You're preach'n to the choir Dirt. I've been posting on this site for years about how the lead services are a waste of time and money and more recently how they are a bane to our industry. Glad to see more and more of us waking up. As I've said many times when they first started their shtick was providing consumers with qualified contracting professionals, that's long over with, now they are all about providing consumers with a lowest bidder service.

They are 3rd on my list of destructive influences on our industry.

#1 Illegals
#2 Unlicensed contractors & jacklegs
#3 Online lead services

Rock on, dump that lead service tea in the harbor.

silvertree

You know, that isn't going to be enough. This is a great forum and it's a good source of information, not to mention the entertainment value. I have been a member of NARI and the Twin Cities Remodelors Council for a while, and although I don't like joining organizations, this is what will probably help contractors the most in the long run. There's power in groups. How do you think doctors and lawyers get away with so much. I'm not saying be like them, but we need to do more than just bitch about things. It went against my nature to join up with other individuals but now I see the worth and power of these organizations. Also got to meet some World Class Bullsh*ters, made me all humble inside.

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Vote for Pedro
Kitchen, bath, St Paul remodeling
Minneapolis Remodel Blog
203K Loan Consultant Minnesota

DamionR

Unfortunatly, I complete disagree.

Maybe it's jsut from my limited experience (grin)... but it's really not the lead services. It's what we do with the lead.

Think about it.

Joe Blow uses service magic, or whoever, for a handful of reasons:

• They know of no-one - and think Service Magic will actually help them
• They're getting tons and tons and tons of estimates
• They're "playing around"

Obviously, the last one you can't do anything about except bitch and try to get a credit.

The second one, you can overcome but not without differntiation.

The majority fall into the first catagory.

The prospect doesn't have a reliable source to go to for the type of service the need, so they look to the lead source to do it for them.

So think about what happens with the prospect.

Typically, they get referred out to X amount of contractors. And each of them call up and say "i'll give you a free estimate" or something along those lines.

And they each give a pitch.

And they each write out a price.

And the each try to close the deal.

And none of them have doen ANYTHIGN to differentiate themselves from the competition.

This is why many people bitch that 3rd party leads are nothign but price shopers. That's because you've given them nothing else to compare your company to besides your price.

Sure we may know we're better than the next guy... and know all the reasons why they should choose you... but does the prospect? And do they knwo it before you throw a sales pitch and a price tag infront of them?


So.... try this. A bit of upfront information to the prospect - before your initial contact and after. Info about your infdustry, about your company, useful tips and such they can learn from, testimonials from your past clients (written, audio, video), etc.

Just something to think about.

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rbsremodeling

Ok my take

They lead companies have an exclusive on certain leads with the big remodelers. There are leads they recieve that you guys will never see period.

There are two many licensed but new contractors that are part of the network and they will lowball, bigger legit business everytime.

IF your new new contractor, have a license, bonded, probably did 2-3 small jobs, a deck, a dog house your aunts kitchen, you have three references you now qualify to be on service magic


Do you think you can compete against this guys bid. Service magic makes it look like we are all the same? we are all licensed, bonded and insured. That is all the homeowner sees. They will go with the lowest bidder everytime.

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