I think it was on the call with Gariel Buck of ClickPoint where I we discussed the low barriers of entry into the lead gen industry. It was my view that they have been continually been lowering over the last few years at a dramatic pace. Sure anyone can get out there and generate leads, but the difficult part was building out an efficient code to distribute the leads. With implementation of ClickPoint and others it has become even easier. But first, I must say that not everyone can do it, even with the amount of out-of-the-box tools that are available. It takes much more then simply being able to generate and distribute leads to build a successful lead generation company. The evidence for that statement is the many lead gen companies that have not been able to survive the economic downturn of the past 2-3 years.

That said though, the stronger companies are looking for ways to better service their clients and provide them with tools that will enable them to close more leads. Example would be LendingTree’s announcement of their new client retention product. Now, the press release is fairly vague as to what it really entails, but it reinforces what I have been thinking for a while now and that is that companies are needed to invest more time and services into the success of their clients. Simply providing a reverse mortgage lead may not be enough value for the client to stay with a lead gen company.

“LendingTree’s Customer Retention product offers a proven, easy-to-implement method for lenders to easily service and retain customers who are in-market, ready to transact and actively looking for new financing options. As consumers look to take advantage of lower mortgage rates by refinancing, many have turned to LendingTree to identify and compare offerings from competing lenders. The Customer Retention offering provides banks and lenders with the opportunity to get back in front of existing customers to provide competitive loan offers, and reinforce the borrower benefit of securing a simple, streamlined refinance mortgage with their current lender.”

Its my belief that companies will begin to take a more hands on approach with their clients and begin to offer a range of services to help close their leads. The challenge will be providing services that can be monetized and tracked to the bottom line. Simply hiring someone to consult with clients will not work, but adding tangible add-on services will become more and more popular over the next 12 months.

Just my thoughts, what do you think?

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