So, here is some more information that may be useful in the spirit of fairness. I am still not certain it is a great practice, but there is probably some redeeming value in this explanation.

I received this information from a few lead providers that contacted me (one of which is in that list) to explain the practice in a lot more detail.

Here it goes:

1. Most likely Silence, based on the info provided in the inquiry form, was NOT matched to any of the host (BML in this example) lead generator’s lenders

2. Therefore, the borrower would not normally be distributed to any lenders and consequently would not have been helped

3. Consequently, a lead provider using this technique might use a service like SureHits listings (a vertical search network for financial services) to provide alternatives to help the borrower

4. This gives the borrower additional venues for hard problems in a market with ever tightening credit standards

If this is how the practice is executed then the borrow is NOT likely to be distributed by the original provider and will NOT likely get the blender effect.

This of course assumes that these services (like SureHits) and the lead providers that use the services do a good job of policing their publisher networks.

Thanks to those lead providers who took the time to reach out and educate me. Hopefully, this continues to round out the discussion.

Initially, when agreeing to test a new provider, the due diligence should involve just this: an examination of the methods used the generate leads, and the customer expectations and experience that result from it. As a buyer, I filled out countless “bogus” lead forms using my real name and phone #, to experience for myself, exactly what my consumers would be going through. From there, I was able to
1. Make a decision about whether or not to test a new vendor
2. Setup a customized plan of attack for the lead source, or put it into an existing execution path (ie. Do I send it immediately to a LO for a manual call, or do I send it to a dialer to get warm transferred, or do I send it to a LO assistant to manual dial and screen first, what opening scripting, if any, do I use…etc).

This is the beauty and necessity of a good LMS, it facilitates doing this, if you use it!

Who knows what BML is doing with their leads. It is not how I’d design a lead generation website for the best consumer experience, but hey, don’t judge a book by its cover. Alternatively, the most innocous looking lead gen site, could be rotten under the hood. What a good lead buyer must do is:

-Ghost shop them to death.

-Get a rough check their volume and traffic sources on compete.com (hey! Netmoneywizard.com has no volume ;-P
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/netmoneywizard.com/?metric=uv)

If you don’t like what you see, or hear, move on. The points around ancillary products, and ultimate conversion rates are taken and given, but premature I think.

http://siteanalytics.compete.com/netmoneywizard.com/?metric=

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This string is reminiscent of a group of adolescents who found someone to pick on and all jumped on the train. When a group of people is “picking” on one person or company that person ALWAYS loses the battle. I thought this board was supposed to be a place for positive information and for all of us to learn something from each other? That is not what’s happening here.

No I do not work with or have anything to do with BML…….