Rented Names Are Not Leads

Written By Ted Grigg

Deceptive Advertising Runs Rampant In The Mailing List World. Take Note Of The Pay-Per-Click Advertisements Taken From A Google Search Page Using The Key Words “Leads.”

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In every case, these “leads” are actually cold names.

By definition, leads refer to names that responded to an offer of some kind. They are inquiries that responded to an offer but did not buy. If they buy, they they become customers.

The names in the advertisements above are compiled from public records and have no proven interest in any product or service.

Turning those names into true leads requires spending money to isolate 1% to 2% leads that will likely end up costing a B2B business $50 to as much as $1,000 per name depending upon the product or offer.

True leads costs a great deal to interested prospects. 

Such advertisements are nothing more than businesses or individuals pulled from phone directories, associations, driver’s license files or other publicly available information.

It is true that with enhancements such names can be selectable by all types of demographics and psychographics. But they certainly are not leads.

Lead generation uses such data as mailing lists or phone files for prospecting. But any one using them as raw data will not find them very useful.

Put commissioned sales people on straight commission on them and they may survive 3 months to a year. But they will eventually starve leaving the company for greener pastures. What a waste of energy and talent. Companies that provide such names to their sales force deserve to fail.

So call these names cold names, a calling list, and a prospect list, anything but leads. Please do not deceive your sales force or waste their time with such unrefined prospecting.

Spend the money and pay sales people a lower commission to fund the lead flow. Your turnover will be a lot less and they and a chance of survival. Treating them otherwise is inhumane.

Ted Grigg

Ted Grigg is a direct response strategist who helps growth-focused companies reduce risk by identifying weak assumptions before they become costly mistakes.

Over the course of his career, Ted has evaluated several hundred million dollars in direct response testing across direct mail, digital, print, television, telephone, and other channels. His work combines direct response strategy, acquisition economics, customer analysis, creative evaluation, offer development, and disciplined testing.

Ted has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business. That experience gives him a practical understanding of the pressures facing executives, marketing teams, agencies, and service providers—and of the problems that arise when activity, media volume, or creative preference replaces a clear economic objective.

His consulting work helps organizations examine such questions as:

  • Are acquisition goals economically realistic?

  • Is the allowable Cost Per Sale supported by customer value?

  • Are targeting, offers, creative, media, and response paths working together?

  • Are tests structured to produce reliable business decisions?

  • Are unproven assumptions being treated as facts?

  • Is the organization measuring sales outcomes rather than convenient proxies?

Ted’s experience includes the development of direct mail and multichannel acquisition programs for insurance, healthcare, financial services, technology, nonprofit, manufacturing, retail, transportation, communications, government, and business-to-business organizations.

For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, he developed a direct mail format that defeated established controls and helped expand the productive use of compiled prospect lists from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent of total direct mail circulation within one year. He also planned Medicare lead-generation programs for more than 60 regional and national HMO and PPO organizations, with some programs exceeding sales projections by as much as 60 percent.

Ted founded Wyse Direct, a direct marketing division of Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, where he developed acquisition programs and helped launch a new technology product for Seiko Instruments by generating a predictable flow of qualified sales leads for its national sales organization. As vice president of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, he helped broaden the agency’s strategic capabilities and pursue new commercial and fundraising opportunities.

He is the author of The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan—A Step-by-Step Guide, published by Executive Enterprises, and has written numerous articles and conducted webinars on direct response strategy, testing, creative development, and marketing economics.

Ted earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University and completed two years of graduate study at Texas Tech University. He is the founder of DMCG, LLC.

http://www.dmcgresults.com
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