MOVER SALES LEADS…NEED MORE? ULTIMATE GUIDE (2020 EDITION)
Every year the competition in the moving industry only gets more intense. The data proves that people in the U.S. are not moving as much as in the past for a variety of reasons. In fact, in the last 10 years the average family moved substantially less than in the past. Down to once every 13 years from once every 8 years in 2010.
We see it in the major players: Wheaton acquiring Stevens Worldwide. Sirva acquiring Cartus from Realogy. Consolidation is here in Moving and Storage as shipments decrease.
At the same time, floods of smaller players and start-ups crowd local markets for household moves. Many renting trucks as they need them. Many with no insurance. The consumer often doesn’t know this, but you still must compete with them as they woo the customer with rock bottom rates.
Add to this the growing number of brokers and lead aggregators bidding up Google Ad Words ads, and the state of competition for moving companies has never been greater. So what do you do?
Where do you turn?
After a decade in the sales lead generation business for moving companies we believe we can help you sort this out:
- NO CHOICE: We’ll start with our conclusion and build our case. You have no choice but to begin to implement a Website Lead Generation System. You can resist but you will lose market share everyday you wait.
- PURCHASED LEADS DO NOT CONVERT WELL TO SALES: In fact, our data from multiple sources confirms a 3% conversion rate.
- PURCHASED LEADS ARE EXPENSIVE: The security that you get from purchasing leads is illusory as they are not exclusive and convert poorly. Pull out a piece of paper and multiple what you paid for the leads by 3%. Scary.
- YOU COMPETE WITH YOURSELF: When you buy from lead aggregators you are supporting them in buying more Google AdWords which in turn bids up the cost for you to buy your own Google AdWords. Some lead aggregators spend over $150,000/month on Google AdWords alone. They can easily outbid you.
- YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL OF YOUR SALES: If you “out source” your sales department, you have no sales department. All you have is a room full of people waiting for somebody to call. If you don’t have repeat business, it’s pretty quiet in there.
- GENERATING YOUR OWN LEADS IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO: It only makes sense that you only have a stable, secure business when you have a mechanism for operating it yourself, and for a profit. Always relying on outsiders for business actually means you DON”T HAVE ANY BUSINESS.
- MOVING COMPANY PARITY: If there is a sure way to kill a business it is to not have anything to distinguish it from another competitor. If you buy leads month after month you are getting the same prospects as your competitor. When your rep calls the same prospect as the three other competitors that bought that same lead, the customer sees you as nothing more than a number. As in “what is your price?” They know nothing more about you than your price making it difficult to make a profit on the move.
- 20,000+ LEADS SOLD DAILY IN U.S: Seems hard to believe until you start talking to movers and they tell you that they think that’s a low number. Even large movers who should know better are still buying thousands of leads.
- BITE THE BULLET: Yes, setting up a lead generation system does require some time and money. Not much, but probably six months and probably about $15,000 of seed money. It’s actually not bad. We find it’s not the money, it’s the light bulb that goes off in the head of the owner. She or he sees the light. Money is no object. But unless they see the light, they’re calling the broker or lead aggregator, and hitting their credit card.
- WHO’S ON PAGE ONE OF GOOGLE IN YOUR MARKET? Only big movers? No. Only household names? No. Take a look. Find the movers on Page One and see who is optimizing their site. The company name is generally in the footer. Dimes to donuts they have an SEO company in there getting them to Page One. Once you’re on Page One for any set of keyword phrases life is good.
What are you waiting for? 2021 is not going to get any better. We don’t mean to sound smug, we’re only trying to help. We can’t control the marketplace, but you can. See the light!
