The Telemarketing Lead Graveyard

In an era of AI, Big Data and Powerful Predictive Analytics, the humble telephone and specifically telemarketing is still the lifeline for the majority of Real Estate and Mortgage lead generation and sales efforts.
In the aftermath of the disastrous FCC rule changes and the IOS13 launch, there has been much discussion on the interwebs about the issues related to this post I wrote: How FCC is Killing Lead Gen less than 2 weeks ago. Many posts, comments and shares poured out – and frankly, I was a bit shocked with the response.

Here’s a summary of my favorite posts and content that received thousands of views. I thought it would be appropriate to share their thoughts here as well. I have tons of respect for these industry leaders both for their products and their insight and it’s an honor to have been included in their content.

Call Action Alarm

Jessie at Call Action deserves all the credit for sounding the alarm and starting such a great discussion. He theorized that “Silence Unknown Callers will negatively impact all businesses that generate online leads that require follow-up phone calls.” A serious claim that I instantly saw as having a real impact on our clients.

“The Most Powerful Blog in Real Estate”

The Notorious ROB wrote write TWO follow up posts related to the topic. His take on inbound vs outbound advertising/marketing is a must read imo. The Future of Lead Gen I love the illustration Rob sourced from Marty Neumeier’s book Zag: the No. 1 Strategy of High-Performance Brands used in this post – and it serves as a structure / lens to look at todays lead gen practices vs the future.

As usual, Rob drills down into delightful details, taking a simple premise and deconstructing it, laying out a new map for the future that is often frot with peril. His suggestion for the future: Ask people for more feedback – in social places.

Vendor Alley’s Response

Greg Robertson is the founder of several companies, including CloudCMA. In response to the chatter, he wrote on the vendor alley blog about the end of telesales? As per usual, Greg summarized succinctly:
“The answer? Inbound and content marketing are the best solutions. But the main thing will be focusing on creating great products that people will talk about.

So maybe in the end, this will not be such a bad thing after all.”

Great products for the win. While that is overly simplified – I agree with the premise, but for clarity, in Mortgage and Real Estate, the product is most often service.

The Podcast Interview

Rob and I have had lots of good conversations over the year – but never on the record. So, Rob decided to record our call and created a podcast where we get into some high level projections about the future of customer acquisition, marketing and advertising in Real Estate and Marketing as well as some very important details on Korean Karaoke. Yes, for real. We were unscripted and all over the map – It’s a fun listen.

Simple Math
In the end, better product + better relationships + better service have the best odds of getting the sale.

Telemarketing may die, texting may die, QR codes … well they never were alive in the first place – but they are just channels for two way conversations. Each day, you are more likely to do business with someone you have a relationship with, than not. Working new leads is grueling, hard work. Thus – large portal leads are not as easy to close as your friend from the golf club / book club / kids school volleyball team etc. Asking your customers for feedback and or referrals may feel odd at first, but will help you win down the road.

These changes to the FCC may seem bad now, however, with edits to your habits, long term they may help us regain focus on what matters.