more addictive than crack - what drug peddling can teach you about lead gen_owen roberts
TRANSCRIPT
More Addictive Than Crack
What drug peddling can teach you about Lead Gen
Owen Roberts
07817 169747
Is Lead Gen Really Like Dealing Drugs?
• It’s easier to sell drugs than to buy them
• The best dealers don’t answer your calls, they call you
• Always know the quality of what you are buying
• Keep your friends close but your enemies even closer
• You can’t just buy on the street corner
• Be nice
What Do I Know About Drug Dealing?
Entering the UK Market
Owen Roberts• 20 years working in Financial Services• Founded two successful consumer businesses
RS Data Tech• Founded in 2013• US Parent Company – RateSpecial Interactive
Business Model
Partner Websites
Cross Sales Declined
Customers
Email campaigns
Clicks
Commission
The Pitch
“I am calling from RS Data Tech and we have a £5m marketing budget to spend in 2014. I want to offer you the opportunity to benefit from this by referring your customers into our product UK Credit Ratings”
The Results
Jan-14 Feb-14 Mar-14 Apr-14 May-14 Jun-14 Jul-14 Aug-14 Sep-14
What Did I Know About UK Lead Generation?
Not as much as I thought!
Lesson 1
It is far easier to sell drugs than to buy them
• Sellers have a scarce and valuable commodity
• Buyers are plentiful
• Nobody wants to hear about your £5m marketing budget!
Prospecting The Wrong People
Getting Some Advice
And a suntan
Hidden Circles
Lead Generators
Lead Generators
Lead Generators
Lead Generators
Lead Generators Partner Websites
Cross Sales
Declined Customers
Email campaigns
Owen – “How do you find these circles?”
RateSpecial – “You need to know a guy who will introduce you”
Owen – “Do we know any guys that can introduce us?”
RateSpecial – “Not really”
<<silence>>
Owen - “Better get back to Manchester then”
Prospecting For The Right People
Hi, we are looking for partners to work with
to introduce customers to our credit reporting
product
Good partner
?
Who is this?
How did you get this number?
F**k off.
Yeah, sounds good. You will need to pre-pay us commission,
that won’t be a problem will it?
Yes
No
A Cheeseburger And A Stroke Of Luck
Building A Reputation
To our publishers:
We are guys they love
doing business with. They
value how smart we are in
making them money
alongside their existing
business model. From
working with us they have
learned we are friendly,
straight talking experts in
our field.
Delivered great results for early partners• Fast implementation• Relentless optimisation
Partners reinvested commission payments into acquisition budgets
• Leapfrogged competitors• Bought (and crashed) fancy cars
Word got around• Partners introduced us to their contacts• Tradeshow networking put faces to names
Jan-14 Feb-14 Mar-14 Apr-14 May-14 Jun-14 Jul-14 Aug-14 Sep-14 Oct-14 Nov-14 Dec-14
Introductions, meetings, tradeshows, SALES!!
Lesson 2
The best dealers don’t answer your calls, they call you
• The best guys work with people they know and haven’t heard of you
• Do a great job with the guys who will work with you
• Use your contacts and results to make a name for yourself
Who Do I Trust?
Me. That’s Who.
Bad Leads
• Sold as high quality, actually low quality
• Fraudulent sign ups
• Mis-sold on the partner side
• Sign up done by 3rd party – consented/not consented
Consequences of Bad Leads
Chargebacks
Regulators
Reputation
Cashflow
ProfitabilityComplaints
Refunds
Data, data and more data
Lesson 3
Always know the quality of what you are buying
• Successful buyers attract desperate sellers
• Understand your KPIs
• Invest in great analytics from day 1
• Always be willing to try new leads but make good decisions quickly
New Entrants
Suppliers going direct
No Time To Be Complacent
Competition
• From 2014-2016 at least 7 new entrants came to market
• Noddle and Clearscore
• Experian
Like A Swiss Watch
Cost control
Payment processing
Lifetime value
FCA regulation
Complaints
FCA regulation
Cashflow
Lead cost
Product Roadmap
Product Evolution
• Strengthen customer proposition
• Increase lifetime value
• Stay ahead of the competition
Lesson 4
Keep your friends close but your enemies even closer
• Almost all new entrants have shut down
• 3 previous competitors now generate leads
• It is far more lucrative in the short term to generate leads than to be a product provider
Planning Ahead
• Growth creates an appetite for more growth
• Good partnerships are hard to find and take time to build
• Focus on managing the mix of channels and quality
Marketing Mix
Lesson 5
You can’t just buy on the street corner
• “What can we do quickly to get more customers?”
• ‘Off the shelf’ leads need more work than it first appears
• Traffic bought quickly might create more problems than it solves
Be Nice
Lesson 6
Be Nice
• Broker introductions within your network
• Support your contacts
• Allow your contacts to benefit from introductions they make to you
Is Lead Gen Really Like Dealing Drugs?
• It’s easier to sell drugs than to buy them
• The best dealers don’t answer your calls, they call you
• Always know the quality of what you are buying
• Keep your friends close but your enemies even closer
• You can’t just buy on the street corner
• Be nice
