Last post, I touched on why it’s a bad idea to try third-party lead-aggregation services like HomeAdvisor and CraftJack.

In a nutshell, here’s why most contractors can’t stand these kinds of companies…

Too Much Competition

The HomeAdvisors and CraftJacks of the world sell the same leads to 3 to 20 other contractors. The unsuspecting homeowner who uses these sites will get incessant calls and dozens of emails… and they’ll regret the moment they ever clicked “Submit” on that online lead form.

You’ve got better things to do with your life than try out-elbow 17 other companies for a single lead (one that is likely to be highly irritated by the time you talk to them).

The Leads, By Definition, Are Price Shoppers

Lead generators put you in a pricing battle by promising to get you “multiple quotes” from prescreened pros. Take a look:

Lead- aggregators promising multiple quotes put prospects in a “price shopping” mind frame.

The very first expectation prospects are going to have from you is LOW PRICE. I don’t know about you, but I don’t offer the lowest prices, and I’m not interested in doing so.

You’ll Burn Through Your Budget

One of our clients had given $2,500 to CraftJack for 50 window leads at $50 a lead. After completely wasting their time trying to get in touch with the first 30 leads—with only two set appointments—our client called to quit.

When informed that there was a strict no-refund policy, the client actually told CraftJack to just keep the money. They’d rather take the financial loss than double their losses by wasting time chasing non-responsive leads.

Advice For People Who Insist On Jumping Into The Shark-Infested Waters Anyway…

You CAN mine some gold out of these leads. But you have to have strictly disciplined systems in place to make it happen.

Most companies I know that have success with lead-aggregation services are large and put a lot of resources into follow up. In other words, they have the systems in place to handle this type of lead generation.

Here is how to standing a fighting chance on third-party lead-aggregator websites:

React Quickly

And by quickly, I mean you’ve got like nano-seconds. You need to route the leads to somebody who has no other purpose in life besides dialing that phone and getting through to that lead the instant it arrives. Because you can bet your life that many of the other contractors who also just bought that lead are going to be right on top of it.

The statistics on this topic are staggering: If you fail to contact an internet lead within FIVE MINUTES, that lead is 100 times less likely to be contactable. Read that again. If you’ve ever bought an internet lead, called on it an hour after it came in, and were disappointed to find you couldn’t get in touch with anyone, now you know why. You should be shooting for one to five SECONDS to call the prospect. If you can’t play in that league, don’t play at all.

By the way, this is good advice for YOU, too… with ALL your leads. Even your PPC leads. Faster is ALWAYS better.

Be Persistent

This one seems antithetical to what I just said. But a few leads sometimes slip through that initial dogfight.

When that lead first comes in, the prospect is going to get slammed by contractors for two minutes to 24 hours. But then the calls will subside… which leaves an open to call 24 to 36 hours after the lead came in.

You can still find interested people—you just have to wait out the initial rush. Persistence pays, but it is a massive pain in the butt. Whoever is tasked with this job is going to hate it—be ready for that.

Get Great Software To Automate Follow Up

Immediately subscribe to MarketSharp, so you can manage all this automatically. It’s a great program that will take the leads FOR you and allow you to do any or all of the following: route the lead to somebody’s cell phone via text message; send an email or text message instantly to the prospect; set reminders for follow ups; generate mailers with personalized URLs. And more.

Bottom line: Lead aggregators aren’t for everyone. But you CAN see success with them. You just have to fight tooth and nail for every single lead.

Why fight for leads when you don’t have to?

Maybe you get a thrill out of battling for jobs… being the Last Contractor Standing… planting your flag on the fallen bodies of your competitors after a vicious and bloody battle for a lead. And that’s fine.

But I’m a lover, not a fighter.

If I were in your shoes, I’d rather NOT get leads by ripping every single one of them from my competitors’ hands.

That’s why we created No-Risk Pay Per Click.

The leads that No-Risk PPC generates come directly from YOUR website, so you are the only contractor who gets the lead.

You won’t have to duke it out with 12 other contractors. The lead is yours—and yours alone. And since the prospect is on YOUR website, they already know who you are, and why you are the best choice to buy from.

Since we guarantee a lead cost of $200 or less* and require no long-term commitment, you risk nothing. Feel free to try out the program to see if you like it. If you do, excellent! If you don’t, that’s okay—at least you generated some quality leads for a low cost.

Get in touch via email or our website for details about what No-Risk PPC can do for your specific situation.

Thanks!

-Rich

*In rare cases (about 5% of the time), the Guaranteed Cost Per Lead may be $300.00. This is due to ultra-competitive geographic areas, out-of-the-norm competitor PPC efforts, location in a very large metropolitan area, or extreme seasonal competition. Don’t worry—if this increase applies to you, you will be notified up front before you agree to start your campaign.

© 2018, Rich Harshaw. All rights reserved.