more addictive than crack - what drug peddling can teach you about lead gen_owen roberts

More Addictive Than Crack

What drug peddling can teach you about Lead Gen

Owen Roberts

07817 169747

oroberts@rsdatatech.com

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

Owen RobertsManaging Director, RS Data Tech

07817 169747

oroberts@rsdatatech.com