A company that does not get mentioned here as frequently as they probably should, for what ever reason, released their bi-annual benchmark study last week. I was going to cover it as soon as it came out, but I was actually going to make an effort to try and acquire the study, but did not have any luck, so this post isn’t as timely as I would have liked, but better late then never.

That said, many of you have probably already seen the press release, if not you can download it here, MortgageBot Benchmark Study. First, I love the fact that MortgageBot puts the time and effort into putting a report like this together for their clients. They have the data, so why not share it?

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Guest Post By Adrian Huth, friend and “good guy” in the industry.

Allow me to introduce myself…. I am an individual who has been in the lead generation industry going on 10 years.  I have seen the industry involve from the early days of the mortgage boom to the now recent collapse and repositioning to new verticals gaining increasing value such as loan modification and debt consolidation leads. I have seen the evolution of the search engines and SEO marketing and was there in the beginning of cost per click marketing.  I have witnessed how lead generation and lead quality was affected by the rise of the affiliate networks, display advertising, email marketing and incentivized leads.  I saw first hand how all these different types of marketing caused lead buyers to cancel and how some increased closing ratios.  Even back 4 years ago with all these types of lead generation I began to suspect that people are playing a game of buying and selling leads to each other and that everyone is becoming the enemy of the other.  Lead generation has now evolved into screwing people over and this has now become the de facto business model and state of the industry.

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Last post I gave a brief synopsis of the original complaint submitted by LG Technologies and also picked a few statements from Edwards Shin declaration.

One of the bigger complaints or allegations made by LG is that Shin purposely diverted payments into his own personal bank account that was supposed to have gone into LG’s account. They also claim that it is possible that LeadPoint or Marc Diana were involved with the misdirection of payments. Both Shin and LeadPoint refute these allegations in their declarations.

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I am going to come clean from the outset and say that, “no,” I don’t have the stones to make the call that we have indeed hit a, “bottom,” in the housing market. But I have seen a couple of things lately that lead me to believe we are at least close.

One revelation that I had recently was that consumers may have finally moved on from hoping that we will again see the market conditions experienced during the ref-boom. This dawned on me after a conversation with a client who was having particular success with a mail campaign. They attributed that success to the timing of the drop in conjunction with Bush signing into action the Housing Bill. I don’t believe that there was any correlation because if there was, we would have likely seen inquiry volumes spike in the Internet lead gen industry. But things have remained relatively flat and I think this is a good sign.

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It is funny how often times the simplest, most often overlooked, things are what can make us the most successful. Lead management is one of those things. Sure, some of the details can get complex, but the concept is simple. And lead management software has made the processes a snap to implement.

At the end of the day an effective lead management system is one that solves the much researched problem of efficient supply chain management. Read the full story

I don’t know about you, but I can feel the pressure building around the industry in more ways then one. Since Bush signed the H.R. 5140 stimulus package last week people have been waiting on the side lines for the new loan amounts to kick in. As a home owner in Southern CA I can benefit from the increase and yes I am waiting until the increase happens. It could possibly save me a few hundred dollars a month. In some instances though I feel like I am playing a craps game in Vegas.  Every week that goes by it seems property values decline more and more. Hurry up FHA!

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This is one of the biggest mistakes I see lead buyers making with their leads. An Internet leads, if generated with any level of integrity, is not a cold call. It is an initiated, hand waver!

Think about what a quality Internet consumer lead implies:

• There was a need
• They have done some level of research (i.e., did a search, read an email, had a discussion)
• They provided private contact information

They are asking to be called so don’t treat them like strangers–complete the experience. Read the full story

This went under the radar a few day’s ago and I have finally got around to talking about it here.

On the 27th, the Detroit Free Press announced that Quicken Loans and RockBridge Equity Partners purchased two California companies. The first was TransUnion Title and Escrow, which will help Quickens affiliate, Title Source to increase its reach to all 58 California counties.

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The Internet sales environment, which most of us are increasingly operating within, is demanding a redesign of our salesforce. This redesign is going to focus in on key new expectations of Internet consumers:

• Immediacy
• Responsiveness
• Follow up/through

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It’s definitely that time of year again. The NFL is drawing close to an end and my baseball stats sheets and forecasters are arriving in the mail–that’s right Fantasy Baseball is in the air!

This time of year gets me all excited about stats and predicative indicators. So, this weeks best practices post and whitepaper is in tribute to Michael Lewis’ ode to Fantasy Baseball–”Moneyball.” I am about to show you what ROI, %contact, %app, AttAR, AttCR, and many more quintessential key metrics and indicators can do to optimize your loan production. Read the full story

Are you feeling the market constricting around your neck? Is it harder and harder to find borrowers you can actually help? Have you shaken down every real estate agent in the tri-county area and found their pockets empty too?

Welcome to the crowd, but don’t panic.

The first step is to admit you have a problem. Stop saying, “I get all my business from referrals” and believing it. Take control of your success. Build a marketing plan to get fresh referrals, Internet referrals, and create a business that is bigger than you!

That’s right we are building a bigger vision here.

STOP! Before you run out and slap down a couple grand on a random lead provider, a recipe for 0% conversion and some pissed off loan officers or worse owner/manager, get a plan.

Here is the 10 step plan I used back in my lead buying days.

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Welcome to 2008! Time to reassess all your assumptions and set blockbusting goals for the New Year. I am guessing, if you are visiting Lead Critic to start your year, that smarter lead buying and higher lead conversion rates are centerpieces to these new goals.

I thought I might lend a hand by taking a deep dive into what makes an Internet lead and why you should buy them. Read the full story

How many of you have been in the mortgage industry longer than you care to acknowledge? It really doesn’t matter what your role is within the industry whether you sell leads, loans or houses you have more than likely found yourself in a rut. The hard thing is to realize that you are in a rut or that you are simply going through the motions.

I think we have all seen better days and when I say better days I mean easier days. Money is no longer falling out of the sky, if it ever did, it never really has for me. I have always had to put in late hours and long days to see any kind of success. The problem I have seen with many industry professional and the reason why many have recently fallen short is because they have not been able to find that driving motivation that they first had when they entered the industry. They forgot what it takes to really work for a sale. Now, I many of us have relearned what it takes, but for the others here is a little tip to get back into the groove.

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We have talked about core strengths over the months, training loan officers, reducing marketing costs, monitoring lead sources etc., but little attention seemed focused on the underlying causes and processes that are the leading source of productivity loss.

My wife works in the dental industry and she’s always telling me people brush their teeth but do not floss. That too little attention focuses on the underlying cause of tooth decay and that brushing teeth is not the solution to a healthy smile. If someone spends their time focused only on the looks and appearance but neglects the underlying needs of a smile, the tooth rots and a root canal is necessary.

It dawned on me the other night that the mortgage industry is in a similar fix. If we only spend our time thinking of the “appearance” or sales and marketing aspect of our firm we too will have decay.

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I have written about this subject before, but I came across a few sites that got me thinking again and I wanted to share them with you. So without repeating myself to much I will get straight to the point.

As blog author you can expect that I am a big proponent of blogs and think that every company should have one. I know you are saying, “I don’t have time”. Well you need to make some. Perfect example of successful blog marketing is Blown Mortgage, Bettercloser and the Blood Hound Blog. These guys are generating leads and good ones at that. They have already created trust and authority through their posts and they have already conquered the toughest battle. Blown Mortgage, in less than a year is generating 1000′s of visits to his blog a day. Is your site doing this? Can it be duplicated? yes.
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Although a first time writer for the Lead Critic site, I have been a relatively frequent contributor for quite some time.  Just to give you a little background, I come from the lead-gen side of the business.  I say that for no reason other than disclosure, but my intention with this contribution is to draw some attention to something happening in our industry that would have an affect regardless of your role in the industry.

I wish I had a more profound source of inspiration for one of my life’s more valued tenants, but the truth of the matter is, I dig movies.  Al Pachino’s ‘83 classic Scarface, I maintain, is the source of significant wisdom. But before we dive into that, I want to talk about something ripped right from today’s headlines

You may have read something recently about an event being referred to as the “Sub-prime Crisis.”  In all seriousness it is nothing to joke about as millions of people are losing their homes and the economy is facing recession as a result of this event.  But in classic political fashion, government is trying to swoop in like a cape-wearing super-hero to save the day. 

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From time to time I spend the evening playing with Google Trends and Microsoft’s AdLabs. There are a few keywords that I always check in Google Trends. The first is Mortgage Leads and the second is Mortgage Refinance.

Here is what I found: According to Google Trends there is a decrease in searches for mortgage leads. Not really all that surprising, I guess. Especially with so many brokers and LO’s shifting out of the mortgage industry.

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IAC falls short of analyst expectations due to LendingTree. IAC net income dropped by 24 cents a share, but excludinga few verticals (LendingTree) IAC actually beat estimates by 2 cents.

LendingTree revenue fell 41 percent to $63 million because of the deteriorating mortgage market and a decline in real- estate values, IAC said. The unit posted an operating loss of $5.6 million.

We can now have a little more insight to last months changes.

Commenting on results, IAC Chairman and CEO Barry Diller said, “With the exception of LendingTree, this was a satisfactory quarter for IAC. Trends at our businesses are good, and particularly so at HSN, where I believe that Mindy Grossman and her team have now become acclimated and are beginning to demonstrate the great retailing smarts that we knew they were capable of.”

This is from CNN Money:

TRANSACTIONS

Q3 2007      Q3 2006     Growth
Revenue  $ in millions
Ticketmaster                              $301.3       $265.5        13%
LendingTree                                 63.0        106.0       -41%
Real Estate                                    13.8         15.9       -13%
ServiceMagic                                24.6         18.5        33%
Intra-sector elimination              (0.1)         -           NM
$402.6       $405.9        -1%
Operating Income Before Amortization
Ticketmaster                            $61.9        $57.0         9%
LendingTree                              (3.2)        18.8         NM
Real Estate                              (3.9)        (6.3)       38%
ServiceMagic                              5.4          6.0       -10%
$60.3        $75.6       -20%
Operating Income (Loss)
Ticketmaster                            $54.0        $50.5         7%
LendingTree                              (5.6)        15.2         NM
Real Estate                              (4.8)        (8.0)       40%
ServiceMagic                              4.6          5.1        -9%
$48.2        $62.7       -23%

Hold on folks the ride is far from over.

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I have written a number of post regarding the movement of sales reps within the lead industry. Why you ask? I find it interesting to watch and make note of these changes because where they end up says something. Do you think that the more experienced reps are going to choose a company that isn’t going anywhere or that don’t have a solid product? Of course not, they are going to choose companies that have up side potential and that sell a quality product.

The same goes for people who choose to leave. Are they leaving simply for a change or have they lost faith in the company or product?

With that said LowerMyBills “very first hire”, from what I was told, has chosen to move on. Scott Shanker, whom LowerMyBills hired from GetSmart and who brought many of the large accounts that LMB still has. Accounts such as Quicken, Home Loan Center and Ameriquest were all created by Shanker.

My team generates the majority of company revenues; also responsible for the planning and deployment of all initiatives associated with the national client base. -Shanker

Shanker has chosen to to team up with Los Angeles based LeadPoint. For LeadPoint, which practically made up of all ex-LMB employees, this is a big catch. What’s in it for Shanker and why did he go to LeadPoint. Well, I don’t know for a fact, but I would speculate that they brought him on board to whip the sales team in shape and generate sales prior to the speculated liquidation.

There seems to be an ongoing exit of sales reps and key members of the LMB team. Moral is said to be lower than normal and I was even told from a lead provider that they had interviewed everyone at LMB except the CEO. Now this was probably an over statement but apparently the resumes are out.

This is clearly a transition period for many of us and LMB is clearly included in this bunch.

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I just wanted to rap up the week by sharing some of the great post and articles I came across this week

• BetterCloser chalks up a drop in lead quality to consumer behavior.
• Mr. Morgan Brown over at Blown Mortgage expresses his concern about WAMU and BofA.
• Seth Godin makes you think about being a leader and not a follower. (not mortgage related but excellent marketing blog)
• Monika McGillicuddy talks about the specualtion of a smack down by the NAR on blogs.

Have a good weekend!

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