Scotty Carter's Liquid Wonderland

I have personally known Scotty Carter for more than 20 years. He is a well-respected waterman along the Laguna/Dana Point Coastline. After many years of knowing him, I was introduced to his mini-wave art in the mid 2000's and I was taken aback by the striking beauty of his work. I already found myself fascinated by the ocean but Scotty was able to capture an element of the ocean that you and I would walk by and not even think twice about what we saw. With the naked eye we would not be captivated by what we saw. Scotty's magic is that he can take things that aren't magic at all but spin it in a way where it is nothing but magic. He would tell you, that making something out of nothing and being surprised and mesmerized is absolutely the magic!

How does he do it you ask? Let's just say Scotty Carter likes mysteries!!! One day Scotty will release secrets to the world and it will be an amazing day. Until then, we are left to enjoy the beauty of his images that would make a fine addition to any modern and stylish homes decore.

Sick Again After Surfing-No Surprise At All

The bottom line is the Southern California Coast is dirty. It is aggravating to get sick doing something you love. If I am getting sick after being in the water what about all the poor things that live in the ocean. Dolphins, Migrating Whales, Crabs, Lobsters, Star Fish, Sharks, Seals and Fish. They all have to be a little sick.

Human beings apparently can't keep sewage out of the water. Additionally we can't live without pesticides and fertizlizers. It is a wonder we aren't all sick. I was thinking back to a discussion I had with a lifeguard in Laguna Beach. He was telling families and kids to keep their kids out of the water due to sewage. Now there is a comforting thought! We don't care enough about our ocean to create local beaches that are safe for recreation. Meanwhile, we are poisoning the food chain in our local waters that may be making consumption of local fish a gamble at best. We have to stop this madness before Mother Ocean is unforgiving. Reality is we are killing the ocean and while the consequences of destroying the ocean aren't crystal clear just yet, it is obvious that with incidents all over the world that we are well on our way to finding out what it all means.

My hope for the future is a sewage and oil free ocean, where I or any other recreational user of the ocean does not get sick after trying to enjoy the only stress-free place on the planet that we know of. I also hope for a clean home for our friends of the sea as they are innocent bystanders suffering due to our complacency and ignorance. If we don't fix this now, what will we leave to future generations? It does not look good!

Attributes of A Knowlegeable Data Provider For Direct Mail and Telemarketing Campaigns

Who cares anyway? Well, companies that depend on their mailing and telemarketing results should care because their success is predicated on return on investment and keeping cost per acquisition down.

Purchasing Agents are out there acquiring data looking for the best price. Hey, I get! But, what if that strategy was creating ineffective mailing and telemarketing campaigns?

Do we tell the purchaser, " Great job, you saved us money on data", when the results were horrible. Heck No!!! You simply cannot allow this to happen.

Data has too many facets and attributes to discuss in a small blog. From experience, I can tell you it is challenging and involved. I spend off hours all week vacuuming up knowledge from compilers that have spent their entire working lives in the data business. I could not put a price on that.

I would love to help companies out there get more out of their targeting. There are filtering strategies out there that companies just aren't aware of. Like many industries, data has buyers and sellers of data that are so myopic that the the combination of this type of purchaser and seller is a recipe for "DATA DISASTER"!

To avoid common calamities in your data purchase, consider Rob Brack at Lead Research Group. 800-884-8371 Ext. 5430. My pledge to you is that I will lose sleep figuring out how to best filter your data.

Scripting: Avoiding The Fast Food Drive Thru Approach

If I were a call center manager and my livelihood depended on the sales of my agents, then scripting would be worked on daily. At Lead Research Group, I work with companies small, medium and large in the debt settlement and loan modification industries.

I have the ability with many of our campaigns to listen to recorded calls and consult on the quality of scripting. After listening to thousands of calls, the idea that companies lose money due to poor scripting has been cemented in my mind as a problem that would not go away.

Fast Food Drive Thru Scripting: XYZ Company, this is John, How Can I Help You?

If I were hired in an organization to manage sales, the first thing I would do is announce that the next person to ask "How Can I Help You"as an opening to an inbound call will be sent home for the day.

Why am I so fired up about this? Pretty simple really! I hear potential customers in recorded calls every day tell the person answering the call things like the following: " Yes John, you sent me a mailer, you don't know how you can help me?" or "Its your Television Commerical, so you tell me how you can help me."

They are calling because they need help. Do not insult people with " How Can I Help YouItis!!!!!!! If it is not these very sarcastic responses it is long sighs and exasperations and muttering under their breath. Prospects calling in on a product or service hate this and it is clear as day.

The best way to gain control of a conversation is something to the effect of:

XYZ Company, this is John, How are you doing today?

Why???? Because it is an ice breaker that gets a prospect answering questions from the onset of the call. In the sales equation, reps that get people to answer questions properly qualify people more than reps that do not.

Proper surveying requires you ask questions. When you have a prospect answering questions they are doing more of the talking than the rep is and that is the idea.

Help your reps by requiring them to ask every inbound call which advertisement they were responding to and what was it about the piece that has them calling in today. This is highly effective and gets them engaged in the process and more easily walked into a sale.

For effective direct mail and inbound tv campaigns for debt settlement and loan modification companies, Call Rob Brack Lead Research Group. A Free Webinar on call approach is offered Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10am Pst. www.explodeyourphones.com. Go to the site click on shortcut to the direct response webinar. Hope to have you there!!!

800-884-8371 Ext. 5430

Data Nostalgia-Cold Calling Sees Upswing

While many companies tussel with the ins and outs of media purchases for radio and television and sophisticated online ad word type campaigns, telemarketing seems to be on an upswing lately.

With a good phone script and transfer of enthusiasm from the rep to the prospect, telemarketing can be quite effective. That is where data comes in!

Lead Research Group is a wholesale data provider with a gnack for understanding ideal prospects and helping customers understand data filteration in a way that helps them reach their target market faster.

The data universe is so vast that you need people that work with it daily to truly consult your business. Sure, data may be a commodity. Many people sell it, but few sell it with the business acumen and customer centric approach of Lead Research Group.

While data and telemarketing will never be the "sexiest" or most "tantalizing" Sales Strategy Employed, it still represents a cost effective way to grow business.

Call Robert Brack of Lead Research Group to discuss your campaign needs. If you have an ideal target, let's talk!!!

800-884-8371 Ext. 5430

Manage Sales in the Holiday Mind Set

Just like any other employee, sales representatives are prone to drifting into the unproductive holiday zone. Some would call taking the foot off the pedal being festive and enjoying the holiday season. Many believe it is a rite of passage and earned in a year of hard work.

The question is can you afford to have employees mentally and emotionally check out for the holidays. My humble opinion is NO!! I too am thankful for the extra day off and family time but all sales are built on a pipeline. Maintaining a pipeline means consistent effort and not taking days off.

For Managers and Owners it is important that you show gratitude to your salesman and staff while reinforcing the need to stay on course and grow into the first quarter of 2010. The economy, unemployment and stagnant GDP growth means now more than ever we cannot take the foot off the gas.

No matter what your business does for marketing during the holidays, much of your competition will pack it in for the end of the year. Golden opportunities are out there to take advantage of a competitive battlefield with less players. Grab extra opportunity where you can and sail full steam ahead into 2010. Some companies will be kicking themselves for not heeding this advice.

Wholesale Data Provider Extraordinaire-Lead Research Group

Lead Research Group is a wholesale data provider. When comparing prices versus our competitors it is clear that we are fairly priced and very often beat the competition. Is that alone enough to change data providers? No, but I have not given you the whole picture. What separates us from the competition may be the human element that we bring to the table. As a performanced based marketing firm Lead Research Group cannot afford to give little thought to the filtering done for our customers. For that reason our discussions with end users of data are thoughtful and insightful with the focus on helping the telermarketer waste less time getting to a good prospect. It reduces cost and frustrates the sales staff less. A double victory!!!

Every customer has an ideal prospect and data can be molded around the characteristics of that person. That may mean filtering by age, gender, marital status, presence of kids in the home, homeowner, consumer, ethnicity, net worth, income, interests, mortgage holder, gun enthusiast, magazine subscriber, business opportunity seekers, homeowner new phone connects, businesses by number of employees and revenue, years in business and many, many more.

What is most notable about our data capability is our time spent with a master data compiler in thought and discussion about filtering. That helps you! We care! We want you to succeed! And yes, we want the re-order!!! Any time you can work with a marketing company that has the kind of dialogue that Lead Research Group has with its customers, do it, because that adds value and sales to your company that is measureable in sales growth and a reduction in cost per closed deal.

Holiday Marketing-To Market or Not To Market

A lot of companies and people start thinking about other things during the holidays. Family, parties, events, kids and time off school and all the busy work that goes into being prepared for the holiday season. For many, the shopping, the food preparation, the detail coordination and the time consumption is overwhelming. This presents two ways to look at marketing as it relates to the notion to pull back marketing or push forward marketing during the holidays for debt settlement, loan modification and tax resolution companies

Since many companies automatically pull back marketing for the holidays, many of you will find more opportunity and less competition because you marketed anyways and your competition did not. Those that pull back lose sight of the fact that their industries and sales staffs are built around the sales pipeline. The volume of marketing you do now affects the pipeline 2-4 weeks down the road. In this economy, I am not starting the first quarter of next year having let December get away from me. No way!!!

So, let's say the response is typically liter during the holidays. The response you get during the holidays should be better and convert at higher percentages because someone that calls despite the hoopla of the holidays is a motivated buyer with genuine interest.

So, this marketer says: " Do not let your competition take your pipeline for December and January with a pull back of marketing"! Strategically place marketing based on dates and timing yes, pull back for the holidays no. Your holiday sales performance and first quarter of 2010 will depend on marketing!

Sales Call Approach Webinar

I was spending time looking at marketing campaign performance statistics and call recordings and decided that we needed to offer companies sales scripting and sales call approach support. Let's face it. Sales Reps can and often are lazy and complacent. What is the verification of this you ask? Well, we do a ton of recorded call review to gauge lead quality and end user scripting for debt settlement and loan modification firms on Inbound TV and Mail Campaigns. From my time spent in recorded calls and lead quality verification, it was obvious that despite the efforts of marketing managers, upper management, ownership and sales managers there was a need for a marketing company to step up and assist them with their efforts.

Our webinar is ongoing. It happens every Tuesday and Thursday at 10am by registering at www.explodeyourphones.com. It should be helpful to anyone in the debt settlement, tax resolution and loan modification industries who want to enhance current sales numbers and get every member of the sales team on the same page. Honestly, coming from a 13 page scripted background in the mortgage industry, I can tell you that how reps approach calls in these industries needs work. But this is nothing new. Sales Reps sticking to a script and representing the company and the product perfectly takes ongoing review, training and work at it. I want to be clear about this. Our goal is to help the companies we work with and create awareness of the representation their company is given to the potential client. Where there are opportunities to shore up loose ends or create a different approach, we would like to help.

Bring as many people as you like. Make it a part of new rep training! Make it a part of refresher trainings or ongoing trainings! That would be great! All are welcome. We are looking for win-win partnerships. When we support your growth your support us with customer loyalty.

Wholesale Telermarketing Data That Won't Break the Bank

If you run a telemarketing room or have a large phone room humming with busy agents and predictive dialing, then you are using a ton of data. Lead Research Group is a wholesale data provider. We have access to literally 100's of data sets. Our wholesale data is not only cost effective but also helps our customers hit their ideal prospects. The reach of data seems limitless. You can get new homeowner connect data, auto data, pet owner data, age data, gender data, ethnicity data, mortgage data, credit modeled data and almost anything you can think of. Call Tony Singleton of Lead Research Group to discuss dialing data that won't break the bank!!

Tony
800-884-8371 Ext. 5433

Direct Mail Wholesale Data Lists

Hello out there!!! Lead Research Group is a wholesale data provider with the ability to help strengthen mail campaigns with filtered wholesale data. The mail lists can focus on those consumers and homeowners that are unreachable by phone(people on the National Do Not Call List) and those same people that have phone numbers(people that are scrubbed against the Do Not Call List). Some companies that mail prefer one way, some the other and some have no preference at all. You have an ideal prospect in mind and we will help you find those people. Give Tony Singleton a call today to discuss your direct mail list needs. We can run counts for you, discuss strategy and help you enhance your mail results today.

Tony
800-884-8371 Ext. 5433

Loan Modification Mail-Watch Your Provider

My sister has lost a lot of equity in her home so naturally she shows up as a targeted data record of a homeowner and potential loan mod customer due to being under water on the mortgage. I told her two weeks ago to start accumulating pieces so that I could compare Lead Research Group's pieces to the competition.

In one week, she received the same mail piece from the same company with a different call number. Experience tells me that the company probably does not know that it is paying for mail by the piece and then double mailing. Yes that means they are paying double the per unit cost on the mailing in this scenario. Not Good! It is one thing to mail to the same house over a longer period of time but twice in a week tells me they are getting screwed.

Lead Research Group works an ongoing data suppression list that keeps the various companies we serve in the loan mod industry from mailing to the same people in a 30 day period. We are not in the practice of double mailing for companies. The way to avoid this would be to request a copy of the list when you mail.

Also interesting was the fact that the mailers had no file numbers or eligibility codes. Use of a series of these codes allows identification of a data piece or a homeowner by their name and address based on input of the code. It is clear to me that the mail provider knows what it is doing and is doing it on purpose.

For an intelligently done mail piece and a mailing to a group of people that have not been mailed to in a 30 day period, call Robert Brack Lead Research Group. 800-884-8371 Ext. 5430. Lead Research Group will provide you with elgibility codes and a CRM to help monitor and track an effective turnkey mailer campaign for your loan modification business.

Loan Modification Mail. It's Gong Well When.....

When all the reps in the office ask if you are the person responsible for all the mail calls and then thank you. I had a chance to speak with reps at a clients office and received some great feed back.

Reality is that they are all happy and closing deals on high quality inbound mail calls for loan modifications. Nothing beats mail calls. These calls are highly targeted and effective. Proof is in the smiles on the reps faces.

If you have not given direct mail a chance for your loan modification business, call Robert Brack Lead Research Group to help blow your phones up and keep motivated reps with a ton of leads. 800-884-8371 Ext. 5430

Targeted Data Special-FHA Loans

For $250, you can get 5000 records of targeted data based on filters that you set. Common filters for that data include:

Minimum Loan Size
Current FHA Loan Holder
Origination Date Range
Loan Seasoning
Fico Score or Higher

FHA driven mortgage companies have made a killing employing this type of data. Call Robert Brack Lead Research Group to discuss your FHA Loan Campaigns.

800-884-8371 Ext. 5430
http://www.leadresearchgroup.com/targeted-data/target-data-leads.html

Talk Data With Robert Brack Lead Research Group

Data is an integral piece of a targeted marketing campaign whether you are calling or mailing. I wanted to provide a few examples of industries and how they target.

Mortgage Companies can target for credit range, loan to value ratio, loan amount level, interest rate range, type of loan, lender name and geographical area.

I had an interesting request by a great guy in Texas named Buddy that has a fantastic hobby creating promotional websites for highschool age kids that participate in sports.

We filtered for families with kids based on a highschool age that had an interest in athletics.

Alarm Companies can target for excellent credit, new home owner connect phone numbers, and geography.

Car Salesman can target by year, make and model of the car with a purchase date.

Mortgage and Loan Modification Companies have done well targeting ethnic data bases targeting by surname. Life Insurance Companies have been effective targeting by age. Home Based Businesses have done well with hitting a data base of people that have expressed an interest in a home based business.

As you can see their are lots of ways you can target with data. The only wrong answer is not testing to see what works best. To speak with an expert on how to maximize telemarketing and direct mail campaigns call Robert

Raw Targeted Data Lead Versus Opt-In Leads and Pre-Screened Leads

There is much confusion in the lead arena between Raw Data, Opt-in Data and Pre-Screened Leads.

Raw Targeted Data is records of consumers, businesses and homeowner that have been pulled with very specific filters.

Example: In the Mortgage industry, raw targeted data for a company focussed on FHA Loans may be filtered for an interest rate level or higher, minimum loan amount or higer, current FHA Loan Holder with loan seasoned 6 montths or greater and in the area the company is licensed to originate a FHA Loan and fico score level or higher. Rather than call homeowner blindly, this will help you get to people that can use the service quicker. It will require that you warm the prospect up afterall, it is a cold call.

This data by itself does not represent someone who has asked to be called or is currently looking for a Streamline FHA Loan. It does however allow the mortgage company to target people that fit their criteria for completing a new loan. The data however must be put into action in a mailing, predictive dialing campaign or cold calling campaign. Data by itself is useless.

Opt-In Lists are like an internet lead. People have requested information or contact based on clicking on a banner, contact form, landing page or website. These people fit a profile and are looking for help related to a particular product or service. This is a much warmer contact than cold calling based on filtered data.

Pre-Screened/Scrubbed Leads are usually inbound transfers or leads verified thru a telemarketing group that does some level of pre-qualification before transferring a call to a sales agent or sending an e-mail notification to contact an interested and pre-qualified prospect.

There is a benefit to all three of these. It is important to understand what you are getting and how they work so that you employ the right strategy and have the right expectation.

If you have questions about what will work best for you, call Lead Research Group at 800-884-8371 Ext. 5430.

Advantages of Targeted Data for Marketing

Remember the days when a boss handed you the phone book and told you to call away? Or maybe it was a print out taken from the white pages that your manager wanted to pass off on you as a hot lead!!! Cold calling requires you get through 100's of numbers just to get a sale or two. It's hard work and I know this because I have done it.

Whether you are originating mortgages, writing life insurance policies, signing up new members for that new and exciting home based business there are ways to target for people likely will be able to use the service.

Example: For Life Insurance the agent might prefer to meet with someone in their home or in their office. Setting a Geographical Radius would be a good start. Life Insurance Agents might also focus on an age range of families where there is a need to protect the family in the event of an unforeseen event. 45 and up with a marital status of married is effective here. Tightening of the filtering can be done by hitting also homeowners only because there are typically more assets to protect with family involved.

The days of cold calling white page data are over. It takes to long to find a qualified prospect let alone close them. To talk with a specialist at Lead Research Group on how to effectively target a telemarketing campaign call us at 800-884-8371 Ext. 5430.

Marketing Specialist Team Lead Research Group

Lead Research Group has a fantastic team of dedicated marketing specialists with call center, sales and sales management backgrounds in the mortgage and financial services industries that make them valuable assets to the companies that entrust their marketing dollars to them.

Nick Loera, Kyle Duncan, Tyler Stapley, Thong Phan and Rob Brack have accepted the challenge of helping businesses grow even in this sluggish economy. We are immersed in marketing for a variety of companies including the gamut of insurance services companies, mortgage providers, loan modification companies, debt settlement organizations, credit repair services, and many others.

We are constantly striving to better the marketing results of our clients. Each of the 5 specialists above is experienced, dedicated and ready to help you explode your business. With our visionary leadership and phenomenal management team, new products will be introduced to our customer base to enhance what they already do. The result will be that our clients will be able to increase their leads and grow their sales base. We are excited for a bright future with Lead Research Group and the explosion of business for our customers.

Until next time, let LRG Grow Your Business!

Sales Lunch With the Founder

Today,

Myself and Nick Loera, another top marketing specialist at Lead Research Group, got to eat lunch with one of the founders of Lead Research Group. It had been some time since I actually found myself in a position to be amongst the top sales people in a company. I almost forgot how good that felt. Anyways, it is always hard to pry me away from the phones and doing my best to be a life line to customers marketing campaigns.

I guess it is hard to pass up Ruth Chris and a steak! Anyways, it turned out to be a good opportunity to sit with Ryan our CEO and talk about forward business plans and where he envisions Lead Research Group to be. While Ryan is a young guy he is tremendously gifted. He was telling Nick and I about all the programs that are coming our way and how much more we are going to be able to do for our clients. Ryan's vision and business savvy are at an elite level and it is almost as if he sees trends or strategies before the rest of the market does. He is truly a marketing force and I have no doubt that his products and strategies will help sales organizations for many years to come.

I am so grateful to call Ryan Rasmussen a friend, a mentor and a great leader. When respect is earned much respect is given and my hope is to work with Ryan toe to toe in the effort to make LRG one of the most respected marketing companies anywhere.

Ryan, if you get to have a beer this weekend, have one for me. I will be back in the office working on sales for the first week of March!!!