Now while you were both running sales teams for a mortgage company, which I don’t know if matters, but I assume people know you both worked for Quicken Loans, they were not, I am assuming masking the source? However, I am fairly sure they are doing this now. I should wait to confirm this, but I am fairly certain they do this.
I think both strategies can be used wisely and I think everyone respects everyone else opinions here.

I really think this is a very tough decision that lead buyers need to make and if they can they should test both strategies out and make their own decision.

I agree with you Bill that culture may affect these points of views to an extent. It is extremely important to grow a professional sales team that is focused on giving the customer the experience they deserve every time, no matter what the lead source.

In my past role as a lead buyer we showed the source and there were long time LO’s that new their stuff and were excellent LO’s, but they would come to me and complain about specific sources and many times the source was good overall, but they struggled with them. Usually the conversation would include comments like “there leads never qualify” or “I can never close their leads”. I would go back and analyze the data and there were times when they were right and I was over looking certain data points and other times it was only the LO’s perception and the lead source was actually phenomenal.
So, I know from my experience, masking works, but I don’t know that adding the lead source into your phone introduction makes a difference for the consumer. Any surveys to prove this?

I would guess that 7 out 10 sources that come into Kaleidico or leads360 or LeadROI come in from companies that have different landing page names. I know Morelli made this point already, but..
Example: Adchemy uses RateMarketPlace. Do these leads come into your system as Adchemy or RateMarketPlace. I know you will say that the Account Holder should know this and replace the web page name with the company name, but that is not happening. That example is simple but we use multiple landing pages, this would be a little more difficult for unproven benefits.

Very good discussion though.

HEY LENDINGTREE, ARE YOU READING THIS? I HOPE YOU APPRECIATE THE FREE ADVERTISING! =)

Optimization. That is a marketing types favorite word, but it should be all of ours no matter who we are. The one time I can see exposing vendors as campaigns would be separate teams. I can name mortgage companies with dedicated Low.com teams, dedicated LendingTree teams, etc. Although I am not a huge fan of the concept, they do see good results and if a client of mine were to expose the source I would recommend it in this fashion.

It is obvious nobody’s opinion is going to change on the matter, and so long as we give our clients options and provide them with the pros and cons based on experience, then more power to us.

And, most importantly overall…there is nothing wrong with beer money. Nothing at all.

As stated, I agree with giving the consumer the total experience and closing the loop…I love it. But source disclosure is a no-no, and in my experience it always has been, and should be. You can give the consumer that great experience and be just effective, without having your loan officer know the source of the lead. Period. You’re asking for trouble if you do that, and you will not get the best bang for your buck the moment the discrimination kicks in, and it will.

If Noel cares to explain his method when he was at Equity Direct I will let him, but in my opinion it is the optimal method for masking sources.

This is why sales people, like me and Keith (yes, believe it or not Noel and Morelli are not the only ones that have been in the mortgage business, bought leads, and originated loans), get so frustrated at marketing types! You think we are a bunch of dumb monkeys wearing headsets. You probably would like to hook us up to dialers too so we don’t take too many pee breaks.

Obviously, there is humor in my prose here, but a thread of truth when you start making some of these arguments. Some will run their operations like beer money, boys clubs, but professionals looking to build a business don’t need these gimmicks to get performance from sales.

Owen Raun talks about it best–so I will quote:

“a step we had to overcome to change from a small Realtor focused broker to what I will call a “mid sized multi state” lender.

That step is one that centers on culture. We used to be owned and made up of loan officers that would source our own production, pay ourselves a good commission on our production and hopefully at the end of the year be able to split what was left in the checking account.”

If you haven’t read it yet you should (http://tinyurl.com/25d6an) it is about moving from a small-time broker to a business owner. It is about culture! Something great ones in the mortgage business, like Dan Gilbert and Bill Emerson, preached from the day you walked through the door at Quicken Loans.

I am with Raj on this. Give us a little professional respect. Hopefully, I can adjust my process to maximize a JuicyLeads lead as much as a LendingTree one. I may not get the same conversion rate, but I will maximize the value out of the channel and make the consumer feel like I care about their success/needs in the transaction regardless of the source.

Great discussion!