Justin Rees of LeadPoint UK

We spoke with Justin Rees of LeadPoint UK to find out a bit about how he finds leads within the industry, and how brokers can benefit...

1) Firstly, what exactly does LeadPoint do?

We are a lead trading platform, which means that we provide the technology to enable lead buyers and lead sellers increase their return on investment from lead generation. We are a multi vertical company so our lead buyers could be a national brand for mortgages or they could be a debt management broker. Lead buyers can create their lead generation campaigns in our system in just a few minutes to start receiving leads.

2) How long have you worked for LeadPoint and what did you do before?

I have worked at LeadPoint for four years. In my career to date I have always worked for start-up companies because I really enjoy working in a growing business. Before I joined LeadPoint I helped set up a private members classic and sports car club in the US. Like my job with LeadPoint, my previous job involved helping to build something from scratch. Whilst I’m not driving around in a Lamborghini at LeadPoint just yet, I hope that I’m going to get there at some point!

3) What do you predict happening in the debt management sector over the next 12 months?

From a lead perspective, I think that the debt market has changed a lot in the last few years. There has been a definite increase in regulation and scrutiny. You always hear stories about the OFT getting involved, or people or companies getting banned. This has led to a number of lead buyers and sellers leaving the market, because it has become quite expensive to generate a good quality lead. In the future, I think that there will be fewer number of high quality suppliers left and a smaller number of lead buyers who can afford to purchase leads and generate a decent return on investment.

4) Why do you think that lead generation companies are useful or important?

I think lead generation companies are important because, effectively, they allow advertisers to harness the power of online marketing without the need for any online marketing skills. For example, any lead buyer could in theory generate leads themselves on Google but they would have to pay for every click on their advert with no guarantee anybody would submit their information to be contacted. By purchasing leads you get straight to the people that want to be contacted.

5) How straightforward is the procedure?

The procedure is quite simple if you buy a lead compared to doing the marketing yourself. However, as much as the process is about buying leads, it is also about turning leads into business and ensuring that your business is set up in a way that you have the process in place to make sure you can contact every lead and also deal with things like consumer objections.

6) How do brokers benefit from telling their colleagues about your company?

There is a general perception that many lead buyers hold – that if they tell their colleagues that they are buying leads successfully this will somehow have an adverse effect on their campaigns. in fact, the reverse is often true. The more demand we have for leads, the easier it is for us to supply those leads. Brokers should encourage their colleagues to buy leads because that will help them get a better deal – they are more likely to get good leads themselves.

7)  Do you think more people are facing up to their financial problems?

This is a tricky one. I think that a lot of people probably have their head in the sand and want to ignore their financial situation. For example, there are still a lot of people without income insurance protection, and it is probably people in the worst state who aren’t facing up to their financial problems.

8) Do you expect the financial situation to improve in the coming months?

The general consensus seems to be that we will see another 12-18 months of stagnating growth, before hopefully seeing an improvement towards the end of 2012. However, within the economy, some sectors are thriving – marketing, technology sectors are booming.

9) What are the best and worst parts of your job?

The best thing about my job is probably the fact that we are such a fast growing company with some really good stuff happening. LeadPoint has got to the stage where we are leaders in our field.

Not necessarily the worst, but perhaps the most challenging aspect of the job is the fact that I have been at LeadPoint for four years now, but I often find that I am still having to explain things to lead buyers and sellers. Lead generation is very powerful, but it is not enough to just buy a lead, you do need to have processes in place to make the leads work – and I have to keep on telling people this.

10)              Where do you get your leads from?

We have a range of suppliers generating leads predominantly through email, display and search.Through, email consumers receive emails about products and services and in the case of debt management would submit their details to be contacted about their debt problems. Through display and search consumers are clicking on adverts through to landing pages where they can submit their information to be contacted about the product.