# I Guarantee 3rd Party Lead Services Can Work If You Follow These Tips...



## DamionR (Jan 19, 2007)

We've all tried their services. Service Magic, and the dozens of others like them, do provide a marketing service to you as a contractor. They provide leads on a performance-basis. This is a good thing, as you do not pay for advertising that does not generate leads.

However, many contractors have trouble getting anything out of the leads. Many of us have this mindset when it comes to these lead provider services:










Well, they certainly can. It all depends on how you approach them.

Realize that a referral, or someone who is in contact your company directly, will have more leniency in your approach than someone who's using an outside service to find a contractor. If you use a half-ass approach to these leads, you're going to get half-ass results.

Some contractors, however, are making a KILLING off of the leads these 3rd party services provide. How does that happen? What's so special about them?

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In the end, the biggest key to success with these contractor lead generation services is to differentiate!*

You have to stand out from the 3-5 other contractors that are being recommended by the service. Otherwise, it becomes a big bidding war.

Trust me, if you are a legitimate contracting company, you do not want to win this war. There is always someone that will give the prospect crappy results for a lower price than you. There's no profit here, and you'll likely lose money doing the job.

Here are my top 8 tips that will help you convert more of these leads into customers and to eliminate the bid wars:


*Make Contact Immediately!*- Do not wait to contact the prospect. Make contact immediately - preferably within 10 minutes of receiving the lead. You'll be amazed at the difference in attitude with the prospect. They'll be super-appreciate at your response rate.

You'll set yourself apart from the competition that doesn't call them for a day or two. Most importantly, you'll make contact with the prospect while they are still excited about their interest, and they haven't been bombarded by phone calls from the other contractors that get the lead, which can be offsetting.


*Pre-Meeting Information.* - Do you have any pre-meeting information to send the prospect? Anything that makes them WANT to get an estimate from you? Or did you simply think they're waiting around for you to bless them with a price tag for your services?If you don't have anything to give the customer up-front before you meet with them, get something together.


*Pre-Mailers*- Pre-mailers are a fantastic way to set your company apart from the competition. They can be done through email (a no-brainer), and through snail mail. A great tip is to Include a personal profile of the company rep that is coming out to meet the prospect. 

Did you realize that some people have serious anxiety with knowing who is coming into their home? Show a picture so they know who to expect.Include a biography that highlights their qualifications to help the prospect. Also include some personal info (hobbies, marrital status, # of children, etc.) to make the person real. Many times - the prospect will find something to relate to. This will lower sales resistance and bring you more success.


*Give Them Something -* Give your prospect something immediately. The law of reciprocity states that people will feel in debt to give something back to you if you give them something. It doesn't have to be anything of financial cost. An ebook/PDF on how to find the best contractor to (insert your industry solution here) is a great way to do this. Perhaps a checklist of things the prospect should review/analyze for each contractor they are getting estimates from.


*Plan Your Conversations* - Do you/your appointment setters have scripted conversation maps? Do they have a plan on what is to be said, or do they just puke up whatever comes out of their mouth on the prospect? If not, Get to work on this! You'd be amazed how many of your leads are blown because someone said something stupid during the initial conversation. 


*Scripted Voicemails *- How about scripted voicemail messages? Remember - the key to success is to differentiate. Everyone knows how to say "Hi this is Bob with XYZ company - responding to your lead through Service Magic. Give me a call and I'll set up an estimate".Be different. Have something planned. Something exciting and enticing that gives the prospect a reason to call you back, or to answer your call.

*Watch Your Mouth *- *NEVER EVER* call the prospect a "lead". It's degrading and off-setting. I cant emphasize this enough. Think about it the other way around. Image someone calling you from a request you made and calling you a "lead". Would you feel comfortable dealing with this company? Or, would you feel like a part of their weekly sales meeting numbers?


*Value Your Time*- Depending on the level your business is at, the amount of effort you place into 3rd party leads will vary. I'm a big advocate of "Run them all. Do not pre-judge or pre-qualify. Go do your job.". However, as a one-man operation or smaller shop where you where many hats, this approach simply is not possible.

Realize this. If you are in this boat, pre-qualifying the prospect on their DESIRE or PROBLEMS is acceptable. Do not qualify price at this point. Otherwise, you make price the main reason to buy. Again, you likely will not win this battle, nor will you want to. There is always someone who will do a half-ass job at a cheaper price than you.

If you do have dedicated sales reps, do not over-qualify the leads. Make sure they are the type of work that you perform, but that's it. Get your sales reps out there. And let them do their job. Make them work every lead with the sale high-quality service. You should not be giving more effort to a referral, over any other lead source. Otherwise, you'll be short-changing your results.


There you go! Implement these tips into your approach to 3rd party contractor lead services, and I guarantee you'll double the returns you see on the money you spend to buy the leads.

- Damion


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