Generating and selling leads to local businesses?

[mbomb]

Anyone have any experience in this area? I think I vaguely recall a WSO on the project, but can't seem to find it. If you're doing well in this area, I'd love to chat. Skype me or PM me. Thanks.

Mike

[NetAction]

Hey Mike,

I am looking too..... Let me know if you find it before me....

There used to be a WSO addressing that.... the wso said that
local businesses were begging him for leads...

Where is it???

[sahi]

Well I don't know about any WSo on this topic but since you are interested in this lead generation stuff then you can check Mark Vurnum's Lead Generation stuff. Google it and you'll find the site. But I don't know about the quality of the stuff, his videos etc. as I haven't seen them myself yet.

[jwlnewsome]

if there's any money in it let me know. I'm always looking for a new angle.

[joshril]

Originally Posted by jwlnewsome

if there's any money in it let me know. I'm always looking for a new angle.

The lead business is huge! Most service industries like plumbers, electricians, etc. are great markets to target as well as professionals like insurance agents, chiropractors, etc.

When I was buying insurance leads for my agency, I was paying around $20/lead and glad to do it because the leads were pretty solid. If the business owner that you're selling the leads to can make his target ROI (return on investment), then you can sell leads for even more than $20 per lead. It's all relative to what a client is worth to the business.

There are lots of ways to do it... PPC with a squeeze page is one of the most popular, but you can use other forms of marketing like direct mail, telemarketing, etc. to generate leads.

[Colin Theriot]

Since I resigned as StomperNet's chief copywriter in August, this has been my primary business, though I don't approach it exactly as you describe. There is money in it, and the main problem I'm having is that I can't do the work fast enough to make all the money that's possible.

I hate to be the guy that does this, but I also am not 100% sure I want to share too much about what I'm doing yet, or even if I'd share it freely here. What I'm doing is frankly so easy to accomplish, and so highly valued by my customers that it's been an insanely easy sell.

In fact, it makes a fantastic doorway to lead to more consulting and contracted work. Which again, is part of the problem. I've been getting bogged down doing those emergent jobs for the cash instead of focusing on doing more lead-gen in more fields to grow the business.

Plus, I'm always hanging out on the dang WarriorForum! LOL.

However, even though I'm not even at liberty to share my exact model (my biz partner would kill me) I'm very interested in seeing how this thread develops.

See, I'm trying to convince him that we need to just create a high-priced coaching program and teach people how to do what we're doing, then have one of these guru mega-launches and get paid and cash out bigtime.

It would actually work too, because like I said, the model we're using is just crushing it. In a very realistic and reasonable way, that is. I'm not a bajillionaire, but I did quit a high-paying job and I've almost completely replaced my old income inside of 3 months, starting from nothing. And that's with only 5 clients.

Since I don't want to be a jerk though, feel free to ask me whatever questions you want, and I'll try to answer as best I can. But you will have to be OK with my declining to answer some specifics.

Because I'll tell you directly, it's a FINITE opportunity, and I don't want to invite ANY form of competition until I reach a more dominant position in my own local market. THEN I'll probably let the whole cat out of the bag rather than just a wee whisker here and there.

Cool? Hope that helps. :P

[Always-A-Warrior]

I think Kevin Wilkes was doing something in the local niche. I followed but then it got too expensive.

[George Wright]

Now this is GREAT copy. Into the swipe file for me.

George Wright

Originally Posted by Colin Theriot

Since I resigned as StomperNet's chief copywriter in August, this has been my primary business, though I don't approach it exactly as you describe. There is money in it, and the main problem I'm having is that I can't do the work fast enough to make all the money that's possible.

I hate to be the guy that does this, but I also am not 100% sure I want to share too much about what I'm doing yet, or even if I'd share it freely here. What I'm doing is frankly so easy to accomplish, and so highly valued by my customers that it's been an insanely easy sell.

In fact, it makes a fantastic doorway to lead to more consulting and contracted work. Which again, is part of the problem. I've been getting bogged down doing those emergent jobs for the cash instead of focusing on doing more lead-gen in more fields to grow the business.

Plus, I'm always hanging out on the dang WarriorForum! LOL.

However, even though I'm not even at liberty to share my exact model (my biz partner would kill me) I'm very interested in seeing how this thread develops.

See, I'm trying to convince him that we need to just create a high-priced coaching program and teach people how to do what we're doing, then have one of these guru mega-launches and get paid and cash out bigtime.

It would actually work too, because like I said, the model we're using is just crushing it. In a very realistic and reasonable way, that is. I'm not a bajillionaire, but I did quit a high-paying job and I've almost completely replaced my old income inside of 3 months, starting from nothing. And that's with only 5 clients.

Since I don't want to be a jerk though, feel free to ask me whatever questions you want, and I'll try to answer as best I can. But you will have to be OK with my declining to answer some specifics.

Because I'll tell you directly, it's a FINITE opportunity, and I don't want to invite ANY form of competition until I reach a more dominant position in my own local market. THEN I'll probably let the whole cat out of the bag rather than just a wee whisker here and there.

Cool? Hope that helps. :P

[greenovni]

I am generating leads right off CL and selling them to a local business. It is quite simple to do.

[Colin Theriot]

Originally Posted by George Wright

Now this is GREAT copy. Into the swipe file for me.

George Wright

Aw, shucks. Thanks. You know that swipage is the most sincere form of flattery to a copywriter.

If you want to learn how I do that, get in touch via PM. I'm trying to figure out how I can teach it to people and could use some feedback on some of my material.

Or if you have the money, you can just hire me to write copy for you. That works, too.

[Maria Gudelis]

Originally Posted by Colin Theriot

Aw, shucks. Thanks. You know that swipage is the most sincere form of flattery to a copywriter.

If you want to learn how I do that, get in touch via PM. I'm trying to figure out how I can teach it to people and could use some feedback on some of my material.

Or if you have the money, you can just hire me to write copy for you. That works, too.

Yeah - I thought it was some darn good ad copy too! Colin - I'm pm'd you to know your prices!

and sellling leads is big..one of my clients buys 200,000 per month because they have the back end and sale floor systems down to a T!

[Richard Tunnah]

Originally Posted by sahi

Well I don't know about any WSo on this topic but since you are interested in this lead generation stuff then you can check Mark Vurnum's Lead Generation stuff. Google it and you'll find the site. But I don't know about the quality of the stuff, his videos etc. as I haven't seen them myself yet.

Mark is a warrior and hugely successful in the leads generation business. If you search his name on here you'll find a free leads generation course he gave away last year as a WSO.

Rich

ps. Part of my business model involves providing leads to businesses. It is very profitable if you can provide quality leads to many offline businesses!

[zoro]

Try Peter Sanchez. He had a WSO called Mom & Pop Lead Gen Business in a box.
I use it and am doing ok. Hardest part is getting the customers.

[JMB Marketing Group]

Originally Posted by Richard Tunnah

Mark is a warrior and hugely successful in the leads generation business. If you search his name on here you'll find a free leads generation course he gave away last year as a WSO.

Rich

Yes, I found Mark's link to his FREE WSO. However, it was pretty recent -- in April of 09, actually. HOWEVER, the free WSO was ONLY for the 1st 100 Warriors ((how did I miss this one? Waaaaaaaaaaa)!

It's $47.00 dollars now. Looks like a great bargain to me, if you ask!

Here's the WSO link:

$147 Lead generation videos Course - For FREE - Warriors Only

Cheers,

JMB

[ronr]

Check out Mark Vurnum lead generation videos in the product review area.

[JMB Marketing Group]

Originally Posted by ronr

Check out Mark Vurnum lead generation videos in the product review area.

Ronr,

Could you provide us a DIRECT LINK to what you are suggesting us to check out.

It would save us a bunch of time from trying to find it.


Thanks muchly,

JMB

[JMB Marketing Group]

Nevermind. I just found it!

Cheers,

JMB

[MichaelHiles]

It's a real viable business. The parent of 1ShoppingCart.com owns leads.com and sells a bunch of them.

I prefer to help businesses set up their own lead aggregation and capture systems. They pay more for that.

[ronr]

The difficult part as was stated earlier is finding clients. You would think that businesses would be interested in buying leads but many of them are hammered with people peddling leads so they are a tough sell.

[Colin Theriot]

Originally Posted by MichaelHiles

It's a real viable business. The parent of 1ShoppingCart.com owns leads.com and sells a bunch of them.

I prefer to help businesses set up their own lead aggregation and capture systems. They pay more for that.

I agree. This is almost what I do. Except I make a lead aggregation and capture system that's tailored to a region and an industry. Then I rent exclusive branding rights and access to the incoming leads to whoever is spending the most on advertising in that area. If they don't want it, I go to the next biggest competitor.

Also notice they are renting ACCESS to the lead list. It's not theirs. So if ever anyone wants to STOP renting it, I'll just go to the next guy in line and offer it to him at a HIGHER price, because it already has leads in the database, who we will email when a new site owner takes over.

That's what I'm doing. In a nutshell. Shh, don't tell anyone.

Also, if you're in my area, get in touch with me and maybe we can work together rather than compete. There's a lot of detail I'm leaving out, obviously, but I think I shared enough to give people the basic idea.

[Lady NaNa]

I think Maria Gudelis and David Preston are the folks to consult when it comes to offline lead generation. These guys know their stuff!

[DogScout]

Do not under-price your services. If you are willing to work with a small business, instead of charging $500 for a site, charge them $3,000. Bill $500 a month for 6 months.

Justify by including SEO. Outsource 1,000 back links with 2-3 of James' (Rich Jerk) WSOs. Do the keyword research, open them a Google account and add paralytics and add a few articles in addition to the content THEY provide.

Teach the owner how to make a blog post and tell him/her to make one at the least every 2 weeks. (do it for him if you have to for a few months using his content and your keywords, after which you can start charging for that if they never grasp how to do a post. There are those that just cannot get that no matter how smart they are.)

Do a month or two of Adwords at $250 or $500 in costs so that when they see the boost in sales they continue and start paying for the Adwords AND your managing of them. (basically continuing the $500. You spend $350 or so in Google and keep $150 for the 2-4 hours a month you spend testing ads and landing pages.) As they grow, they increase the Adwords spend and you increase the fee.

Remember they are probably local so keyword research has to take that into account. In Google make them a local biz, open a Google biz listing (as well as Yahoo & Bing). Use the local meta tag, that ranks them higher in local searches and excludes them everywhere else. Hardly anyone uses it, so it is very useful right now and make their account local in the webmaster tools of Google.

In 6 months you are likely to have a constant 2-500 dollars in net income from that one account if you are any good at adwords.

Getting Off-line biz is easy to get because there are so many idiots & crooks in the biz. Anyone that has been approached before can easily be persuaded to give you a shot. Value is easy to show. If you have to begin at a lower price, be sure they understand you are giving them an "Introductory Special" until you can 'show' them you know your stuff. (you need them to have email and phone# JUST for your on-line leads so it is trackable.) Don't make them sign long term contracts. (In some cases I do the work before being paid! Worst case is loss of a few hours work. And then they really trust you.) Let them know you are under charging them. After all, most adword companies (if they know what they are doing) charge $3000 just to get to know the company and $3,000 to set the campaigns up! $6,000 before they place the 1st ad! You are giving them a great deal!)

When doing adwords always never stop testing ads and landing pages. Do that and an idiot can beat most of the competition in ANY niche! (98% don't test. Lol.) If I were you and you never used adwords before, just buy Perry Marshall's ultimate guide to adwords on his site for $197. That has all the info you need and more. Ignore the high priced classes. Opt into Perry's list and Glenn Livingston's list. they email enough free info to keep you busy. Lol.

At 3-500 for a site, you are doing them no favors and yourself even less of a favor.

If they don't want to pay for a 'list', make one anyway. Use your AR to feed it. 6 months later ask if they would like a 'rush' of business make a % of increased sales deal and email the list with 10% off or something. They will see the value in the list then!

If you pick a few tiny mom & pop companies to work with, (12-15), in a year, you will be working 10 hours a week and making 10-12K a month. PLUS you will be making the companies successful and they will love you.

Maria Gudelis is an off-line 'guru' (in my opinion). Talk to her about mind-maps. With one designed especially for the client, you can blow them away! The only thing is I think she doesn't charge enough.

Mark

[Richard Tunnah]

Originally Posted by ronr

Check out Mark Vurnum lead generation videos in the product review area.

Think it's a fair summary by the way.

Rich

[ASUService]

Originally Posted by ronr

Check out Mark Vurnum lead generation videos in the product review area.

Wow ... not too good, huh?

That's too bad, I was considering buying before I read that.

[mrmatt]

I generate my own leads. Generating leads is the easy part.

Finding a business that will give you the time of day is the hard part. I get hammered with lead offers. Every time I've bitten and bought, the leads were total crap.

Craigslist is awesome. Every time I run an ad I generate between 10 to 20 leads in a day. And the area I live in is pretty small.

I also use classified ad papers and use an 800 number call capture. I've tried pushing them to a site but I get way more leads using the 800 number.