Learn How The ISL System Generates EXCLUSIVE Leads For Your Business...
What Is A Shared Lead Service?
A “shared” lead is a lead that is sold to multiple (competing), contractors. Pretty simple.
Here’s what typically happens with these leads. The lead goes online, completes a search for the services that you offer, and ends up on the shared lead service’s website. There, they complete a lead form outlining what they’re looking to have completed at their home. The shared lead service then turns around and sells that lead to all of the contractors in that prospects area, who are willing to pay for it. Oftentimes, this means that the same lead is being sent to 4-6 (or more) contractors who are each paying to receive the lead.
Once the contractors have the lead, they each begin contacting the consumer to try to win the job. Often this leads to frustrations over playing “phone tag” and having to cut prices to win the job. When all is said and done, the shared lead service made money off of each of those contractors, but only one of them actually gets money for the job. The leads that are received from these services typically have a 10-20% conversion rate, meaning many more jobs are lost than won. It’s not an ideal way to run your home services business.
Shared Leads
Vs.
Inbound Service Leads
How about a diagram to show you more about how shared lead services work? After all, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Click the image for a full view of exactly how shared lead services work for home service contractors.
The Problem With Shared Leads...
We’ve already covered what a shared lead is, so you’ve likely drawn your own conclusions about why these services aren’t right for your business. But, if you’re still on the fence, let’s talk a little bit more about why these shared lead services are actually hurting your growth and profitability.
First off, the consumer has no idea who you are. They likely won’t even answer the phone when you initially call because they don’t recognize the number – leading to the start of your game of phone tag.
It also means they’re very likely going to pit you against your competition when it comes to price – because they’re getting calls from everyone. A lot of times these jobs will go to the contractor offering the lowest price.
Obviously, you lose money on every lead you pay for, that doesn’t convert into a job. However, the shared lead service made a large profit with the lead, and are able to continue working to get more leads to make more revenue. So, their business continues to grow, even with the leads that you aren’t able to convert to paying customers.
And when you stop paying for the shared lead service, the leads stop coming in. This is because those marketing dollars were being spent growing the shared lead service’s business, not yours. Therefore you remain dependent on the service to generate leads for you.
If you’re like many of our contractor clients, you’re probably thinking “I’ve heard this before.” And that’s okay, we get it. You’ve probably heard from multiple agencies that they can get you results and you’re just not sure.
Here’s a short video talking about our client Henry who felt the same way, and had previously worked with 5 general marketing agencies who weren’t able to get him results (because they didn’t have experience in his market).
Why Do Businesses Use Shared Lead Services?
To put it simply, they’re easy and well-known. These shared lead services are often the first thing that contractors learn about when they’re starting out, so they stick with them, because they do technically work to bring in leads. Because of their popularity, they’re often the only system for generating leads that businesses know about and considering anything else seems too complicated.
Also, these companies spend a lot of money on outreach with their large sales teams. The sales teams are very well trained, and incentivized, to get as many contractors to use their services as possible. This means that it’s easy to say yes and believe all of the promises that they make. However, oftentimes, the results fall far short of what is promised.
How Our Inbound Leads Model Works
The systems that we’ve created for our contractors, work to grow your business and get your name out there. This means that your business is getting in front of your prospects at the exact moment they’re looking for the services you offer.
We combine a variety of advertising methods to create a multi-channel approach that drives traffic to a high-converting, direct-response, landing page that generates a 4-7x higher conversion rate than the shared leads model.
Interested in learning more about how shared lead systems work and some secrets that they, and your biggest competitors, don’t want you to know? Set aside some time to read our article that dives deeper into the truth behind shared lead services and provides tips to help you get better results with your marketing.
What Makes Inbound Service Leads Better?
With the Inbound Service Leads system, your money is being spent growing your business, increasing your profitability, and getting your business name to the top of search results. When the prospect calls, they’re calling your business directly, meaning that they already know who you are and are more likely to convert to a paying customer.
When it’s your business that’s landing on multiple spots on the first page of Google, you’re increasing your brand strength and you’ll outshine your competition online.
When your business is successful, you can choose the jobs that you take on. Giving you more control over the business.
What We See With New Clients
After working with home service contractors for 10+ years, we’ve heard it all, including all of the things that they’ve seen improve since implementing our proven system. From more high-quality leads, to higher conversion rates, our contractors see results – many within the first 30 days.
Because of the increase in leads, and the better control over which types of jobs you take, our contractors often tell us that we’ve lowered their stress levels dramatically, and have finally allowed them to operate from a position of strength.
Many of our contractors have grown their businesses by 4-6x while continuing to use our proven models.
