To really do well with Internet leads you have to do a number of things right. You need to have the right personal, the right lead management process, the right leads, proper tracking and analytics, the right re-marketing campaigns, and slew of other things. With this is mind do you really need to know exactly where the leads are coming from?

As a lead buyer I wanted to know how the leads were being generated, where they were being generated and how many times they were being sold. Today, lead buyers are expressing the same concerns within their conversations about transparency. This is the same discussion that I mentioned last week and it has been going on for years and years. After I wrote last weeks post I sent a quick note to friend Bill Rice:

Before I show you what Bill’s response was let me share a little history with you. I started this blog a little over 3 years ago and the first person who noticed and acknowledged the blog was Bill Rice. He was one of the first lead gen bloggers and CEO’s to really understand the power of social media. He still remains on the leading edge of lead generation, lead management and social media. Lets put it this way, he has been around the block a few times when it comes to lead management.

With that said, here was his response to my post last week.

lol, and I still get a chuckle when I read this tweet, but isn’t he right? When it comes down to it, isn’t it all about lead management and ROI? Is the transparency discussion just a red herring to poor lead management? Aside from knowing how your brand is being represented, does it really matter how your leads are being generated?

I don’t want to sit here and ask a ton of rhetorical questions, but really. When it comes down to being profitable with online leads and all the things that need to be done right to show just the smallest profits margins, shouldn’t we being having more passionate discussions about lead scoring, pricing, and analytics rather then transparency?

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There are a few simple things in life that we must do to have a good life. Things like treating others as you would have them treat you or not committing murder, etc. lol The same applies with marketing. Yes, don’t commit murder, but even more obvious is to always implement some form of tracking on your marketing campaigns.

I recently heard a story of a VP of Marketing who insisted that a tracking phone number or a unique URL not be used in his direct mail pieces. He simply tried to track the lift of relevant results across the company. There are clearly a number of issues with this method of “tracking”, but the biggest problem is that you are not able to correctly identify what is working and what is not. Many companies during the mortgage boom wasted thousands of dollars on campaigns that they thought worked but were simply benefiting from excellent market conditions. Once those market conditions began to deteriorate it became even more important to invest in the correct marketing campaigns. By the time these companies implemented the correct tracking it was too late.

So a quick message: Don’t be an idiot. Implement some form of tracking on every single marketing campaign you launch. Even if that means sacrificing using your fancy looking phone number. The benefit of tracking will far out weigh your branded phone number. I promise.

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It’s the same old story no matter what vertical you work in. The biggest reason for failed attempts at integrating internet leads is NOT the quality of the leads.It is the lack of proper lead management.

This is obviously not something new for most readers of this blog and could possibly be considered the biggest topic on this blog. The issue continues to arise in posts because I continually come across companies that fail, waste thousands of dollars and then eventually go out of business. The issue with lead management is that it is composed of a number of different pieces and without all the pieces in place you are losing money.

Aside from the top two most important factors which are employing an LMS and then calling the leads within 5 minutes of receiving them (hopefully even sooner then that) there is an old topic that has arisen in my daily conversations and that is the classic topic of sending feedback to your lead providers. This includes simply sending back returns/scrubs to the lead providers too. I have written a post on whether or not you should be returning leads or not and many of you weighed in on the topic.

I get the fact that its time consuming to aggregate all the returns and send them back to each lead source. That is why in many cases I would simply bake the scrub rate into the lead price. Obviously do this after you have discussed the lead price with the new source and then reduce the price based on the 7%-10% scrub rate. If you are not returning your leads or receiving a reduced rate based on an agreed percentage you are potentially losing thousands of dollars every year. More importantly you are not giving your lead sources the feedback most important to them. Negative feedback is so very important to lead providers. The more frequently you can give them this info the sooner they can spot potential problems.

There are a number of issues for not returning leads or giving any type of feedback to lead companies, but I think the biggest reason is that it is extremely time consuming. Another reason, especially in the EDU space, is that the data is seems to be very difficult to acquire from the different campuses/schools. A solution to the problem is to set up a simple API or even an HTTP post that would pass the status updates in real time. This is being done with a number of LMS companies already, but unfortunately these LMS companies only hold a very small percentage of the lead buying market. In fact many companies find it better to build out their own LMS. This is a big problem with companies that have a ton of resource, but typically don’t have the experience or the know how to build out a system that is comparable to the system that are already built.

I was thinking about this issue over the last few days and want to through out a very simply idea and then get your thoughts. My idea would to build a simple system that would work as a lead status hub for lead buyers and sellers to communicate through. This open platform would allow schools to integrate with only system to post the status updates to and then give the buyers the ability allow access to those updates to anyone they choose. The biggest challenge for companies is applying the IT resources to integrate or build out an API that lead sources can access. This status hub could reduce the amount of effort needed to allow for real time feedback. Plus its a third party and it would not matter what LMS you were using.

There has got to be a way for companies to pass data to lead providers without all the headache. Just the thought of the supposed additional work is the reason why most companies never even get started on such a process, but if they knew they only had to do it once and they would have full control over their data makes me think that more companies would start providing the feedback.

So whats wrong with this idea? Would it work? Would this help? Is it just another idea to help the lead buying industry that no one wants to participate in?

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Former Omniture executive brings extensive online marketing experience to Lead Performance Management firm

October 15, 2009 – Toronto, ON – Sparkroom, an innovative provider of Lead Performance Management™ software solutions for direct marketers, today announced the appointment of Dave Datars as the Vice President of Sales. With his extensive experience selling SaaS-based solutions to senior executives and marketers, Dave will lead the continued growth of Sparkroom’s sales activities in the higher education sector, while helping the company to expand and penetrate additional verticals.

“We are thrilled to have a sales leader of Dave’s caliber joining our team to help us continue growing our revenue and meet our rising sales targets,” said Jamie McDonald, Sparkroom’s Chief Executive Officer. “He is a great addition to our executive team, bringing extensive experience in revenue generation and business development, paired with a deep understanding of the online marketing space.”

Dave brings over 10 years of sales and management experience with world-class technology companies to the Sparkroom team. Previously, Dave was the Director of Business Development at Omniture Inc., a leading provider of on-demand software for online marketers. Prior to Omniture, Dave held sales management roles at DoubleClick (now Google) and Delano Technology. Dave also previously founded three businesses in the retail and commercial services sectors. He holds a bachelors degree from Wilfrid Laurier University.

About Sparkroom
Sparkroom delivers innovative solutions to direct marketers, including its comprehensive Lead Performance Management software and services. Sparkroom Lead Deliver and Lead IQ deliver a hosted business intelligence platform to give direct response marketers the tools and expertise needed to measure, manage and optimize their lead acquisition spending across every direct response channel. Sparkroom’s software, which it hosts and delivers to its customers on-demand, enables customers to capture, store and analyze information generated by their lead buying activities and to gain critical business insights into the performance and efficiency of marketing and sales initiatives and other business processes. Founded in early 2007, Sparkroom is privately-held, with funding from private investors and Matrix Partners. For more information, visit www.sparkroom.com.

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I had the pleasure of having lunch with Ed Powell of Sparkroom today and again left impressed with what they have to offer. You know from reading this blog that analytics is one of the most important factors for succeeding with leads and most of us fail at it. In fact most of us don’t even give it a shot or the slightest bit of effort. Its true! I talk to a lead buyers every day that do not understand what is happening with their lead buys and never truly know what is working or not.

Quite frankly I wouldn’t expect many of you to be efficient with analytics either. Many of us are sales people or sales managers not statisticians or come from an analytics background. Sparkroom gives you an out of the box application that will redefine what the word “optimization” really means. I am not going to go into the product again but you can view my original article here. You can also view a press release they sent out that officially announces the launch of LeadIQ.

Anyway, it was great to see and here about new products that are emerging into the industry thats main goal is to increase revenues.

Sparkroom also presented at Finovate today and you can check a few reviews here.

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I am finally to the last piece of my series on what I consider to be the three components of ROI. I know, I don’t want it to end either, but it is time, (yes, that would be sarcasm). So far we have discussed:

1. Costs:
   1. Costs Per Lead
   2. Cost Per Funded Loan (CPFL)
2. Conversion Ratios

The final component to ROI is the oft-forgotten: Income.

Income appears to be almost always overlooked as a component in evaluating a lead provider’s ROI. All lead providers are not equal, so if you are not measuring the income of each lead provider, then you suck. OK, that might be a little harsh, but you are almost certainly not optimizing your ROI.

There are several ways that you can influence your income via your lead buying, the most obvious method is by leveraging the minimum loan amount filter. In the olden days, lenders would want volume at $350,000+ minimum loan amounts so they could drive higher loan amounts and thus, higher fee incomes. If they were willing to shell out the higher cost per lead, I was always willing to play ball. But today, with the new Fanny/Freddie rules in place and most investors running from non-conforming loans like record companies running away from Brittney Spears, it is rare when lenders want to drive higher loan amounts because there are few places to place that loan. So, if you can no longer fill your pipeline with $900,000 subprime
California loans, how are you to still make money? Unfortunately there aren’t any easy answers.

The glaringly obvious answer is in FHA, especially with the increased loan amounts recently provided by HUD. But with lenders pouring into FHA like bandwagon fans to the Boston Red Sox, it reminds me of a comment that I think was made by Paul Knag on his blog (although I can’t seem to locate the post, I just didn’t want to steal your thunder, Paul!) when he said FHA could be, “the new ‘Sub-Prime.” There is sure to be ever-increasing competition so what margins exist now are likely to be driven down by the increased competition therefore how else can you drive higher incomes? The answer is increased efficiency, and in order to increase your efficiency, you need to know your data!

If you are able, you are going to see that certain lead providers fund very differently in some very key ways. A great example can be demonstrated by a recent visit I had with one of my best clients (names and faces changed to protect the innocent, as always). This client actually has the ability to look at the average fee incomes per lead provider. I paired this data with the average loan size per lead provider and it told a pretty compelling story.

Although all three of the lead providers’ filters were basically identical there were some pretty significant differences in:

1. Average Loan Size
2. Average Points per Loan

What this says is that:

1. My average loan size was lower than Company 2, but well higher than Company 1
2. The client’s average fee income is higher with Me, 1.14% vs. 1.07% with the other two
3. So, when you add a higher average loan amount with a higher average point income that makes for a greater ROI.

The reason why this info was so important was because I was not the lowest price lead. But since most companies are not this sophisticated, they will base their decision purely on lead price. But you can see in this case, that would hurt your profitability because Company 1 was the lowest-priced lead, but also the least profitable.

This is why data is so important. You can’t improve upon that which you don’t measure. If you are only looking at costs, then you are leaving profits on the table. I know what I am saying is not simple to do, it takes a very data-driven person and a fair amount of time to be able to best leverage the information, but there are a myriad of products out there that can help.

Firstly, use a lead management system if you are not already. (In no particular order) Kaleidico, Leads360, LeadMailbox and LeadROI all have ways to get at this data, but admittedly I am becoming more aware that while they are all effective at managing pipelines, workflow and costs, they do have some glaringly obvious shortcomings with regards to amassing income data (Bill, Jeff, Raj and Rick, if I am wrong, please let me know – I’d love to see it!). But these are all exceptional systems that I could not recommend highly enough. Use them religiously, but having access to the data is different than actually using the data.

If you are not good with data, or don’t have the time to do the mining yourself, LeadCritic did a write-up on new company, Sparkroom, that can actually do this for you (this is an unsolicited endorsement, for the record. I have clients that are currently using the product and so far I have liked what I have seen). Not only can their product mine the lead data and bridge the gap between costs and income, but they make that data actionable and tell you what to do with it via a consultative approach. Now, it still remains to be seen if their advice will be good, but I certainly am in favor of the concept.

Now I have to vent a little, here. I am tired of the endless conversations that I have with lenders about pricing. This was essentially the motivation for my 3-part-piece-turned-into-6. In short, don’t waste my time with conversations centered only around pricing. I am sorry, I don’t really care if, “Company 1″ sells you the same lead for $6 less unless you can also tell me your ROI for that lead provider, or your:

• Cost Per Funded Loan
• Conversion Ratios
• Income

Because unless you can provide me with that information, you just don’t know enough about your business for me to lower your price. I’m not taking food off of my kids’ table (I get paid on commissions, too), simply because you need a lower price because you don’t know how to run your own business.

Wow. That was cathartic. Hope the series was informative in some way. Now I have to find something else to write about.

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(Full disclosure…I am employed by Zipsearch! although did not participate in the writing or conception of the related press release, but because of my position was able to receive the news first. )

LeadCritic Exclusive:

Kaleidico takes action on the requests of a number of lead providers at the LeadsCon convention. This request can actually be traced back almost a year and probably further. One of the biggest requests from lead generators and publishers is the request for feedback and it again was a big topic on the LMS panel at LeadsCon this last week.

Lead generators will be extremely pleased to hear that Kaleidico has implemented a real time closed-loop feedback post to all providers.

Bill Rice, Kaleidico’s CEO, explains “online lead generation can be an expensive exercise in trial and error without feedback from your sales force.” Unfortunately, the typical lead buyer is constantly trying to guess what is working and what isn’t. “Our new lead performance feedback application programming interface (API) will uniquely enable lead providers to improve their lead generation campaigns in real-time to help each client’s unique lead buying success,” concluded Rice.

I can personally tell you that I am really excited about this development. Finally we will have the information needed to fully optimize our marketing efforts and improve our effectiveness to our buyers. I have always been a huge proponent of giving feedback to lead generators. This goes back to when I was purchasing 500 leads a day. It just made sense. The lead providers were my partners and I treated them that way and I have always expected other buyers to be as open as I was, but I found that this was not the case. Many think that the provider will raise prices, which is simply ridiculous, or that it was simply too time consuming to gather the data.

I am tired of talking about this and waiting for something to happen and I was extremely excited that Kaleidico opened its doors for this to happen. Along with Kaleidico, Rick Doyle at Lead Mailbox has also the ability to send real time feedback and has offered a similar solution. Rick, look out for a call from me to get things set up. If anything I hope we are paving the road for all lead providers to receive feedback, because ultimately it is going to benefit the lead buyer. It actually makes me slightly envious of lead buyers today.

“This partnership between lead management and lead generation technology is going to deliver incredible results to our clients,” says David Schneider, CEO of ZipSearch!. Schneider, continued by explaining, “in the past we have had to burden clients with requests for data and status updates on leads we provide, and often the data was too old to be effective in adjusting our campaigns to benefit them. Now we are able to tune each of our clients’ lead quality in real-time.”

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LeadCon is now over and what a great event it was. I want to recap the Lead Management session that I moderated on Friday. It turned out to be just what I expected and that was a highly energized discussion of features, analytics and transparency. The members of the panel included Raj Parekh of LeadROI, Jeff Solomon of Leads360, Rick Doyle of Lead Mailbox and Bill Rice of Kaliedico. It was bound to be exciting with these four highly competitive companies. They are all nice to each other in person, but behind closed doors its another story.

I started off the session by asking Bill Rice what the difference between CRM and LMS was. Bill came back with the answer by saying that there was a fundamental difference and it was the lack of  a customer. Meaning that a lead is not yet a customer, it is only a lead. This is a common misconception that you can attach any CRM to a lead management scenario and it will work and that is usually not the case. However, not to say that it can’t be done, LMS’ have lead specific processes in place that allow the users to convert a lead at the highest rate.

Throughout the conference the topics of lead quality, analytics and transparency came up in just about every session. eBureau, who is also an advertiser here on the blog, had a strong showing at the conference and discussed lead scoring in a number of the panel discussions. Another company, Sparkroom was discussed for its innovating analytics platform. Transparency was also discussed a number times with regards to retrieving success and failure data from the end lead buyers. Lead generation companies need the feedback and without it simply cannot fully optimize there marketing.

Are LMS’ Missing the Boat? 

The lead management panel covered each one of these topics because they are involved in each of them in one way or another. I asked the panel if they missed the boat with fact that 3rd party providers were introducing features that could have easily already been implemented into their own systems. Currently in most of LMS platforms are pipeline reports not marketing analytics. Many of them will only report how many leads are in a current pipeline and do not give an opportunity to analyze the performance of different segments of leads, which is what Sparkroom  offers. A little tougher case could be made that LMS platforms could also score leads as they come in similar to what eBureau performs for its clients. Each of the panel members claimed that they had not missed the boat and one even questioned if the mentioned companies would actually perform and that he would have to wait and see. I truly believe they have missed the boat, but that is just my opinion. The one thing going for them is the fact that they each have a solid user base and could implement the updated analytics and possible lead scoring and regain any lost users.

Transparency

We discussed transparency and the sharing of data with the lead generator. This was interesting  topic for a number of reasons. First, because it was a big topic throughout the conference and the true holders of this data are the LMS companies which many of them have already implemented ability to transfer action data in accordance with the lead ID back to the lead-gen companies. Rick Doyle of Lead Mailbox invited each lead company to give him a call Monday morning to create the real time post of information. With that said though, there was a little push back from Leads360 on the willingness to implement idea. I think the crowd was taken back a bit by the resistance and after the show came up to me asking if Leads360 was going to try and monetize the data. I of course have no clue, but I believe that Jeff simply did not want to commit to something he was not completely familiar with or ready too, which is reasonable. I think because of the heat of the moment and the intense drilling of the question it came off slightly defensive and gave the members of the audience reason for question.

LMS of Tomorrow?

Bill Rice announced a new product on the panel, SalesTwit. This new product is a mashup of Icosales and Twitter. It give user the ability to incorporate Twitter into there own lead management by receiving and dispositioning leads inside the social platform. Rice concluded that it was conceived to bring simplicity back the lead management.

The panel also discussed data standardization and the current feature race between each of them. It was an interesting session to say the least. Amongst the major topics little stabs were shot back and fourth at each other. One in particular occurred during the discussion of standardizing the data in the Lead Management Systems. Jeff Solomon brought up Kaleidico’s Lead MarketWatch Widget and its inaccuracies by saying “the widget, or what ever it is called” as if he didn’t know and Bill Rice responded by answering “it called the Lead MarketWatch widget…you know what it is…you go to the website every day…I see your IP” to the crowds amusement. Jeff responded by pointing out that it has been around for about a year and that no improvements had been made. Jeff concluded that the widget and all if its issues should have been improved by now.

It was a fun panel and could have easily lasted another 30 minutes and trust me I had some additional questions that would have definitely stirred the pot even more. Maybe we will save them for next year.

If I missed anything, which I know I did, I will touch back on the subject later this week.

Overall, LeadsCon was a great event and I want to thank Jay for putting in the massive amount of time and effort that LeadsCon required. GREAT JOB JAY!

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When times get tough many companies are forced to focus in more on performance measurement. So it’s no surprise that the words that seem to be on everyone’s lips in the leads space these days are data, measurement, metrics and ROI. Every day a new company seems to pop up with a new way of guaranteeing lead “quality”, lead integrity or sales performance. But, despite the talk, many of these companies are still waiting in the wings for the metrics revolution to take place.

Why is this? We all know that it’s the bottom line that matters. And at the end of the day we know that profitability is dictated by the ability to purchase leads that turn into sales at some definable ratio. What we are really bad at though is properly defining what the key metrics are that help us behave in a way that creates an attractive profit per lead.

I believe that it is the following metrics that are most important in ultimately driving profitability:

Behavior metrics

Average Speed to Contact: The faster your salesperson calls a prospective customer, the more likely you are to close the sale. You need to monitor this because calling a customer 5 minutes after they have made an inquiry is good but leaving the lead to go cold for an additional 25 minutes typically results in a 2100% decline in your likelihood to close the sale.

Contact Attempts: Salespeople need to be persistent. If they are calling often, they increase their chances of connecting and are far more likely to be the first to contact the customer. The chances of closing a lead when you are the first to contact the customer are exponentially better. Don’t forget that the average lead is worked by 4-10 of your competitors.

Contacts Made: Salespeople who are working leads need the customer to pick up the phone. If your salespeople are making a lot of contact attempts and making relatively few contacts, you may need to find a new lead source!

Actions: This is a measurement of overall activity going on in your salesroom. How many times do they make a disposition each day, week, month? If they are not taking several actions in your lead management system every hour then they are probably not doing their jobs properly. Maybe it’s time to quit checking ESPN.com and hit that phone.

Success metrics

Contact rate: What percentage of the leads in your system have resulted in an actual contact being made during the past day, week or month? If you are not contacting a high percentage of your leads, they are either poor quality leads or your organization is behaving badly (see metrics above)

Application rate: What percentage of your leads have led to an application being taken? Depending on the industry, this would be defined as having taken a loan or enrollment application for instance. Typically a good benchmark here is that less than an 8% application rate is fairly poor performance, although this depends on the type of leads your company uses and the underlying level of customer demand at the time. It is definitely possible to consistently hit in the high teens if you are buying good leads and have a team that is behaving in the right way.

Conversion rate: “The ultimate metric”. What percentage of your leads end up generating revenue? If you are in business today then your own performance regarding this metric is likely etched in your mind, it is that fundamental. If you don’t know this ratio cold then I’d suggest that you need to get your hands on a lead management system ASAP (although it needs to be one that measures your conversion rate, of course!).

I would argue that armed with these 7 simple metrics, you have everything that you need to build a cutting edge sales organization that can weather any storm. Furthermore, given the simplicity and comprehensiveness of these measures, it is probably high time that the industry embraces these as common standards. Once we do that, for the first time we will all speak a common language and can begin to benchmark ourselves against one another. Only then will we truly be able to say whether we are performing well or poorly in a market that changes dramatically from one day to the next.

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A little background:
“Lead Management is still a new field that is far from maturity. Because of this there is a lack of understanding of the key functions and approaches to Lead Management. Lead buyers have become increasingly sophisticated in regards to evaluating leads, but are often less prepared to evaluate an LMS. This series is intended to clear up common misconceptions and stimulate debate among other experts about best practices and the state of the industry.”

Lead Management Software Solution Part 2

Why Reports Matter
A business cannot function efficiently without the proper means of measuring performance.  Metrics reporting allows business managers insight into what strategies are and are not working within an organization.

For the purposes of this post, I will focus on reports and metrics for LMS users who are buying or generating internet leads. I think the landscape will hold true for almost any kind of lead or industry that you could insert into this discussion.

The key to creating valuable reports is ensuring that the appropriate data points are being measured and reacted to.  Functional reports will measure only the data you want to see and only in the way that you want that data displayed.  Too little data leads to bad decisions. Too much data can hinder efficient decision-making.  Sales and marketing managers should not spend time analyzing data; they should have the important data available easily and instantly, in order to quickly make correct strategic decisions.

All Reports Are Not Created Equal
Reports offer little value if they are not used regularly.  Some reports need hourly analysis while others should only be viewed yearly.  For any type of metrics reporting, the idea is the same: comparative measurement of multiple data points.  The data points can consist of daily call frequency to monthly or yearly conversion results.  Because of this need for regularity, reports should be easy to setup, use, and refine.

Lead Management Software is a critical component of measuring and analyzing performance.  Businesses using LMS have all of the data that they need, at their fingertips.  A good LMS should provide standard (“canned”) and custom reports, from within the system.  For a mortgage broker, a standard built-in report might show contact rates, contact speed, application rates, submission rates and overall conversion.  A custom report is built by the user, and might show a comparison between salespeople and lead sources, during a certain time period.  I like having standard and custom reports available and want them to allow for work within the report. I call this type of report “Actionable”.

Actionable Reports: Why an LMS Will Make Your Spreadsheet Obsolete
An actionable report combines reporting with the ability to work with the data–without back tracking or losing the context.  An example of an actionable reporting within an LMS could be viewing a report of leads which have not been contacted in a certain time frame and attaching reminders or reassigning those leads on the fly—from within the report.  Actionable reports are the most effective means for measuring, analyzing and reacting to the data within your system.  Data is only valuable when it is understood and acted upon, quickly.

Efficiency = Profitability
There is a direct correlation between creating an efficient sales organization and creating a profitable business.

Completing any transaction from an internet lead requires a special focus on speed to contact.  A 2007 survey conducted by PhD James Oldroyd, in conjunction with The Kellogg School of Management,  titled “How much time do you have before web-generated leads go cold” shows leads contacted within the first 5 minutes have the best and highest chance of converting.  “The odds of qualifying a lead in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 21 times. And from 5 minutes to 10 minutes the dial to qualify odds decrease 4 times.”

When I am asked to consult with a lead buyer and assist them improve profitability, the first metric I look at is speed-to-contact (STC).  For almost any client, focusing on STC will produce an increase in application rates and completed transactions.  The more applications you take, the greater your odds at converting prospects into closed loans.  Use your STC to benchmark current performance and set new goals for your sales team and optimize output.  Each time you monitor, adjust and speed up STC, you should see a positive impact on the bottom line.

Building on the STC analysis, move onto the next metric, which for a mortgage company would be submitted loan packages (SLP).  Once an improvement in STC and App rate occurs the ratio of submitted loans should increase.  Examining the fallout-rate of applications to SLPs (essentially measuring deals that are started but not completed) can identify if lead source’s or salesperson’s performance is above or below average.  It does you no good if you take a lot of applications but don’t fund many loans—it’s critical to determine where the bottlenecks lie.

Marketing – Get Granular
Lead buying is complicated and has only become more complex over time.  In the past one could buy a single lead from each source with blended criteria.  Today, the environment is different and you should monitor each criterion and filter separately, to identify which leads are producing the best return.

Analyze each lead source for contact and application rates.  Use this metric to get a “feel” for the quality of the lead provider and the operating efficiency of your company.  You would not stop buying from a lead provider based on a low contact or application rate alone, but it does give you a good deal of information about the leads you are buying, the receptiveness of the prospects, and the effectiveness of your sales team.

Knowing that your team converts “Good” credit in Georgia better then low LTV leads from Maryland is critical information that should direct how you optimize your marketing or lead buys.  Buy leads that make you the most money, period.

The Forgotten Metrics
Don’t forget to keep an eye on your work flow.  Measuring the effectiveness of the way your people work, not just how much they work, or how efficient they are, is key to long-term success.  Use your LMS to play with different distribution patterns, sales team structures, lead nurturing practices, and other ways you can affect the performance of your tem

Closing
I could go on about what to measure, how to improve output, etc. but the post would become a novel.  The bottom line is that today’s internet lead environment necessitates getting good data and acting on it nimbly. You cannot afford to turn like a cruise liner or accelerate like a row boat.  Use reports wisely, make adjustments and compare results.  Your job: demand good data and demand that it be easy to act upon.

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