Market atypically for extraordinary resultsJoe CornoMortgage leads
What do your grocery store manager, your hair stylist and your
chiropractor have in common? They all make money from you. Because
their livelihood depends, in part, on your money, all of them want
you to be successful. My suggestion is to get these sources to help
you succeed by enlisting them to market your business.
When you're standing in the checkout line, sitting in the salon
chair or being tweaked by the chiropractor, why not ask to use
their business locations to set up a giveaway? It could be, for
example, a contest to win $50 of groceries, a perm and style or
bone cracking that you will pay for.
Go through your check register or debit/credit statements.
Market to those where you yourself go to purchase things. You'll be
at the veterinarian, the school and the pizza place anyway, so why
not ask to put a drawing box up to give away products or services
where you are shopping?
Builders, insurance agents and other professionals in the
periphery will become a byproduct of your atypical and unique lead
generation system. You can market them as they come into play, but
the important point is to generate buyers before they become buyers
and sellers before they become sellers. Create an entry form to
gauge customer responses.
The contest entry form that you develop should request certain
responses from the contestants. Ask for a name, address and phone
number. List a simple survey that needs to be completed to be
eligible for the drawing, such as which of the following categories
the consumer fits into: first-time homebuyer, relocating to next
home, refinancing, equity/debt consolidation, construction loan,
home-improvement loan or, most importantly, not interested--in that
order.
Provide a simple, cardboard, ballot-type box for completed entry
forms. Place a small, computer-generated, color poster above it
that summarizes the grand prize and the contest rules, such as "Win
$50 in stuff," "Must be 18 or older to enter," "One entry per
household," and "Must complete survey."
To start, go to the places that you go to every day. Ask to see
the owner/manager and express to him that you love his store.
Compliment him on something that you love about the store. Offer a
paid contest to give away $50 worth of products or services that he
has. Be sure to explain that it will be an unmanned display. If he
asks what you get out of it, tell him.
Have an entry form available to stress the no-pressure approach
and the not interested survey choice. Promise that you are only
going to call those who mark an interest on the form and keep your
promise. Place boxes in locations for a specific time period,
depending on the logistics of the location.
Place your box in a grocery store for only one week to reduce
the amount of repeat customers. For lower-traffic or non-repeat
locations, like a plant nursery, two months is a good amount of
time. In a place like a restaurant, the amount of time the box can
be left is at your discretion. However, empty the entries every day
for two reasons: to work the leads promptly and to reduce the
amount of theft perpetrated by identity thieves and unscrupulous
fellow industry people.
Properly marked and complete leads are all warm leads. The cold
calling (not interested) leads are sorted from the interested
leads. There is almost going to be an equal ratio of warm to cold
leads, but the system has shown you whom not to call.
The warm leads want someone to contact them. You will need to
call them at three different times of day: day, night and on the
weekend. Call in the order that the form lists them. Contact
first-time homebuyers within two days, or they will go elsewhere
for their financing. Call those relocating within five days,
refinancing within seven days, home improvement within 10 days and
construction within 14 days.
By sorting the leads in priority order, they are manageable and
net the best return. Do not call any left blank or not interested
leads. No one likes to be called after requesting to be left alone.
Instead, develop a mailer system to send to these leads; they are
not necessarily dead leads just because they are cold leads.
They may be cold leads for two specific reasons: they have
detrimental credit and/or they have no down payment saved. They do
not wish to get their hopes up (and they have requested not to be
contacted by phone), so send them two separate mailers, instead.
The first mailing should be on credit repair and the second should
be on down payment assistance and 100 percent financing. The
envelopes need to invite the consumer to open them as well.
Handwrite (or use a handwriting font) to address the first
envelope, and make the second a window envelope, making it appear
like a bill. This will net the best results.
You need to think small when using this lead generating system.
A major chain grocery store will create 300-plus interested leads
daily. You will not have time to market the leads and you do not
need that many, anyway. You would implode with the mounting leads,
your staff would quit from exhaustion and you would be a disservice
to the people wanting you to call them.
When the contest, giveaway or seminar winner is selected, let
the owner/manager of the local business notify him, and be sure to
properly divide all of the leads among your sales staff, as well.
If you stray from these specific instructions and let the number of
leads get out of hand, you will not be able to respond to the
demand for your services. You must always deliver the best service,
because the referrals from the leads will replace and outlast this
lead generation system.
Joseph Corno is president of Utah-based We Be Consulting and
Seminars. He may be reached at (801) 836-2077 or via e-mail at
[email protected].
