Investigating “Lead Stores” offered by your FMO Via their vast conglomerate partner
This article originally appeared on LinkedIn on March 22nd 2023 and is written by Scott Nichols:
This article focuses on “LEADS”, Specifically these new online “LEAD STORES” being promoted to all of us from our FMO who has now “partnered” with one of the vast conglomerates. Many of us are being constantly marketed to by our FMO’s concerning their “LEAD stores. These are always touted as the next best thing to PB&J.
Depending on the “EXCLUSIVITY” of the lead for sale the prices range from $2.50 to $45 or more. There are promises of leads never being re-sold and “shared” leads only being sold to just a few buyers.
Here is what we discovered by looking at just one of the vast conglomerate “lead stores.” We found it interesting that the only leads for sale were in the category of “internet” We saw other areas of leads for sale with no inventory to buy. Direct Mail, Social Media, and Real Time leads had zero inventory. So without an investment by the vast conglomerates for these other lead sources, where do these internet “leads” come from? It is a good question.
We have heard horror stories about purchased internet leads having bad phone numbers, emails, or aged way too long. One story was about a “Live Transfer” lead that went out to agent. It was a 35 yr old guy who wanted to be taken of the call list. He was not on Medicare, but was on the National Do Not Call list. It’s ok though…. That “real time” lead only cost (several agents it was sold to) $45 each! No refunds……The transfer was completed.
By the way, the customer kept getting calls. You see the call center supervisor in Pakistan (that he finally got a hold of) told him he was considered a PREMIUM lead because he kept answering his phone!
Another story was an agent who wrote her own coverage since she was turning 65. She wrote herself a Med Supp and a stand-alone PDP. She submits her applications through her vast conglomerate up-lines system. The vast next day she gets a sales call. It is an agent wanting to tell her about a better Medicare Advantage plan she could have instead of the one she submitted. She told the “agent” she was her own agent and did not need his help. Yep. She got sold off as a lead.
So where do they get these leads from again? Oh, that’s right. The internet. I wonder who enters these leads? You? No!
Finally, many of you say “I don’t buy leads”
That’s great! Please remember, depending on the Medicare system you are using you will be subject to the privacy policy you never read. In many cases, this means you agreed to share your entered client data with all the entities owned by the vast conglomerate or FMO sponsoring the system.
This can be call centers, lead companies, advertising agencies, hundreds of brokerages and financial advising outlets just to mention a few.
So how do you protect your contact data, preserve your privacy and keep control over where the leads are coming from? At Search and Save, we’re focused on providing a secure integrated Medicare quoting and enrolling system with CRM capabilities. In addition, our PURL technology gives you complete ownership of your data by allowing you to create your own URL.
Use Search & Save where your client data is secure and private.
The first line of our privacy policy reads “We will never mine, sell, or share , your client data with anyone ever!”
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