A little over a year ago I was contacted by a gentleman named Bill Swift, who passionately pitched me on a new lead exchange that would could change the industry. Unlike the other exchange, this one would give buyers the opportunity to choose the lead provider they wanted to buy from. It would be completely transparent he said and you would be able to set your minimum and maximum bids for the best possible price. Mr. Swift also promised that historical data on the sellers would be available to the buyers for analysis. The promised data included performance data, return rates and lead duplicate data. The ability to make educated purchases at an optimal price, seemed perfect to me. Simply put, I was sold on the concept.

Now, a little over a year much of these promises have yet to be filled. Although this may be the case I have a new found hope for the exchange. I know some of you may be shocked to hear that on this blog. I will admit to being very critical of Root Markets and I will continue to be critical and opinionated, no need to worry, however a few day’s ago I had the pleasure of speaking to the gentleman that first sold me on the exchange, Bill Swift. A month ago Bill Swift moved into a new position at the Root Exchange. Bill, formally the Managing Director of Sales had been promoted to the Managing Director of the Root Exchange. In this new position he will oversee the strategy, sales and operations for the exchange.

When I heard the news I said “Thank God… Finally a change and a positive one at that”.

Last week I was able to catch up with Bill for a phone conversation and discuss what he had planned for the exchange. Many of the things he first mentioned to me a year ago came up in the conversation. Bill mentioned that one of his first objectives was to increase the quality of leads that are being sold through the exchange and eliminate many of the poorer performing lead providers. The second was to open their line of communication with the buyers on the exchange and begin to release performance data, return rates and duplicate data. I was also able to discuss with Bill the synergy or lack there of between the newly acquired LeadROI and the Root Exchange. From the discussion I really felt as though this was a major priorities on his list. He mentioned that the integration has been in the works for some time and was a very important objective for them to obtain. Once the integration is complete LeadROI users will be able to efficiently buy and return leads through the platform. The differnce in this conversation and the one a year ago is that Bill is now in a position to back up what he says.

The Root Exchange has an uphill battle, but with Bill Swift managing the direction of the exchange, the future is looking much brighter. Swift, formally of LendingTree and Goapply is a buyer advocate and knows what buyers want and aims to give it to us. The one concern that I have is the level of support that Root Markets plans to give him. I would hope that they listen to Bill and really try to make the exchange what it was pitched to me a year ago.

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on Root Markets RMI Lender Search ad and how horrible it was. Well here is a little update. They have scratched the creative and gone with a basic banner, which was good idea.

Here is also the RMI form that you may have heard about. It give the consumer the choice of how many banks are going to call them. Unlike the Root Exchange only banks and direct lenders are allowed to participate in the RMI Lender Search program.

I actually like the idea of giving the consumer the option to choose how many and which banks will call them. What do you think? What do you think about the new role of Bill Swift? Do you think he will be able to make a difference?

Good luck Bill, I am rooting for you!

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