Construction Informer

A poster on one of the construction forums recently wrote about Internet lead generation companies and claimed to have reached about a 14 percent close ratio on 330 leads provided by one of these companies. He also cited the sales as being higher dollar value than the company’s typical average sale.

Another poster explained he was trying to move away from lead generation services partly because of all the leads he gets that don’t pan out. He was also miffed that no one had come up with a way to charge the potential client for sending qualified trades people to them, instead of the contractor always paying for leads.

One poster researched threads about a particular lead generation company and concluded it was a pretty mixed bag. As you might expect there were those who liked the services and those who didn’t. He reported he had received six leads after signing up for a free trial at one service. He bought two leads and it took a few days to get in contact with one of them and then the potential client said he didn’t have any money and just had wanted a free estimate to see how much the work would cost. The contractor never did manage to reach anyone at the other lead number.

In that same thread a poster complained about the same company saying that most of the time he couldn’t get in touch with the lead and when that happened the lead generation company required the purchase of more leads in order to get credit for leads that couldn’t be contacted.

On average, on this particular forum, there were more negative posts about these types of services than positive. I’m not sure that reveals everything since online forums may not be the source of a balanced view of things. Many times once the victim mentality gets going everybody piles on in a sort of misery-fest and those with anything positive to say are either intimidated from doing so, or shut down by the roar of the crowd. Still, the tidbits of experience here suggest there are companies in the lead generation business that don’t supply valuable leads to start with, and that are insensitive to customer complaints.

I saw a lot of negative posts about specific companies but there was one that seemed to have earned some respect on that particular forum. This is not an endorsement, just an observation.

Much like dating and match-making services these companies are another in a long line of efforts to maximize your exposure while minimizing the time it takes to accomplish your objective. Some people get the results they want and others don’t, while still others get more than they ever imagined. I think the most important thing is to make sure you are doing everything you can to get new clients from your old clients. These always seem to be the most valuable leads. Then, if you are still coming up short do your homework on these companies, and then define what you are trying to do and what result determines success. Knowing your expectations will go a long way toward understanding what value you are receiving.