If done "correctly" you will only need like 4-5 sites. I know because I do local lead gen.
This guy has mentioned only 1 piece of the overall pie.
The right way to do lead gen is to cast a wider net.
And in my own experience, google local sucks for traffic. I still do it, but a website ranking
#1 will get a lot more traffic than a google local ranking #1. With that said, I rank google
local, the website, and set up a large geotargeted YT funnel.
Doing it this way, you can keep a business owners phone ringing all day long.
Also, the way most marketers monetize lead gen (imho) is terrible.
I've argued about this on WF countless times and its far better to position yourself
as a broker rather than a lead seller. Why? Because you'll make 10xs what you make
as opposed to selling leads individually.
For anyone who doesn't know what a broker does, they position themselves between
the buyer and seller, and anytime a transaction or sale is completed, the broker gets
a kick back or commission.
But if you're going to monetize this way, you can only target high end niches. Which is
not really a problem because there are hundreds of them (think home improvement).
I forward calls to businesses for FREE. Its an easy way to get in the door. Then anytime
they make a sale, I get a 10% kickback on the job.
So if a job sells for $16,000, I just made $1,600.
If a job sells for $5000, I make $500.
If I were to sell leads individually, I'd have to raise the price per lead so high, or sell the
same lead to multiple companies and have the businesses bid on the leads. Another problem
with selling leads individually is that it puts a lot of pressure on the company AND the person
generating the leads. So there is less qualifying (by both the marketer and business) and this
winds up ruining the quality of the leads. Just look at homeadvisors model. I know dozens of
business owners who buy leads from them and very few are able to grow their businesses
the right way.
So the smartest thing you can do is give the leads away for free. Let the company qualify them,
(you can record the calls) and if the lead is shit the lead is shit. I never try to rebroker those leads
and will let them burn. The reality is, out of every 30 calls I generate, only about 4-7 of those
calls are serious buyers looking to buy now. So I can make a few grand in commissions on those
4-7 jobs (usually between $6,000-$8,000), or I can sell 30 leads for $50 and make a measily
$1500.
Thats why, if you're going to do lead gen, don't be a lazy piece of shit and just try to sell the
leads off. Position yourself as a broker. Have biweekly meetings with the business. Follow up
on every lead whether through skype / phone / email. The thing marketers don't realize is that
many small businesses BROKER their own leads to OTHER companies. So they trust this model
a lot more.
Say you do roofing for a living, and get a roofing lead, then sell the job and the client tells you
they also need insulation... but you don't do insulation. What does that business owner usually do?
He calls a friend who does insulation and sends the lead to his friend. If the friend / business owner
closes the job, he gives the roofing company a 10% kickback on the sale.
So working this way has nothing but benefits. It allows you to get in the door immediately (noone
will turn down free leads). It allows you to build long lasting relationships. Companies will have more
respect for you. And you make a lot more money.
For instance, yesterday a lead I gave to a company sold the same day for $14,000. It turned out
to be a great lead. Not just because of how fast it sold. But the company was able to sell the job
at its first offer (they will usually drop the price if a client says no to the first estimate). The business
owner only owes me $1,400 but is giving me $2000 for that 1 lead. Why? Because its only costing
the company $3,000 to pay their crews... which leaves $11,000 left over. Of course the company
has other expenses like insurance, commissioning the salesman, but their profit will still be over
$8000 once you factor that in. So I get $2000, the company makes around $6,000.
Whats crazy, there are other better ways you can monetize local lead gen. You can basically hire your
own salesman and have him work for multiple non-competitors. Then you give leads to the salesman
directly, if he closes the job, you AND the him get 50% commission. And you can negotiate with
the salesman a higher commission. Because in this instance the company isn't doing shit. They're not
qualifying anything, no time wasted, all their doing is subcontracting the work for you.
Then if you REALLY want to get crazy, stop acting as a broker, and start up your own small business.
This is something I've started 2 months ago. I got my company licensed (LLC) I have a salesguy, crew
and insurance for this 1 niche. But my job hasn't really changed. I still generate the leads, give it to the
salesman, he closes the job, calls up the crew, they do the work, and our commissions will be around
60-70%. We don't need no secretary, we don't need a marketing team, we don't need an office, the
only overhead we have is insurance. All the equipment is owned by the crews.
So you can make a KILLING in lead gen. Thats if you're willing to do more than sit on your ass in front
of a computer screen. And I can tell you, I'm still on a small scale, and I can easily see myself 2-3 years
from now, earnings $250,000 / yr.
-SB
