Are You Wasting Money On "Interviewed" Leads?

Telephone Interviewed Leads are becoming more and more popular, and as they become more and more popular, there are also some scams and things you need to be aware of. Let's cover the basics first.

Very few people actually like to "cold call" a stranger. With telephone interviewed leads, the prospect is contacted by a call center, or telemarketing center, and has been "warmed up" for you.

Here is how it happens - when a prospect fills out an online form at a business opportunity website, their information is sent to a call center (or telemarketing room) where an interviewer interviews the new prospect, confirms the information they filled out on the online form, and asks them 4 - 6 survey questions. The interviewer can help gauge the seriousness of the prospect and throw away the non-serious prospects... filtering out many of the tire kickers. Finally, the interviewer tells the prospect that someone will be contacting them shortly about a business opportunity.

Sounds pretty good, huh? Well, don't get too excited yet. Let me explain.

My estimate is - 90-95% or more of the leads that are advertised as telephone interviewed leads on the Internet are NOT interviewed at all.

Most leads advertised as "interviewed" are actually "verified" and not interviewed. Verification takes place through one of two ways:

1. through some type of computerized auto-dialer that contacts the prospect and conducts a computerized survey
2. using a phone-match verification process and the prospect is not even contacted at all. just their information is verified in a large database.

In other words, most leads being advertised as interviewed are really verified. which mean. no live person interview!

Now, is there anything wrong with a verified lead? NO! Please understand, I am not saying verified leads are bad. In fact, I would say that they are a strong lead. It would be my choice in building a business to get the best ROI on my leads purchase. I don't need a live interview. The extra effort of a verification helps save me time and money by not buying un-verified leads.

The main thing I am saying is "Don't be naïve when it comes to how leads are advertised." If a lead is actually interviewed, you should be able to receive the name of the person who interviewed them or a recording of the interview.

Also, consider what it takes to call and interview several hundred leads! You need a staffed call center, leads, all the computers and phones, etc. It costs a lot of money to run a call center.

Let's be real here. How can any company charge less than $5.00 - $7.00 per lead unless it is not actually interviewed?!?! If it was you doing the interviewing, what would you charge?

Let me give you one more scenerio and you see how full of crap these companies are that advertise "interviewed" leads:

You buy 50 leads from a company that is selling interviewed leads for $3.00 per lead. As soon as your order is approved, BOOM!! Leads start flooding in. I have heard stories of people getting 100 interviewed leads in 1 hour. What a joke! There is no way a call center can dial up that many leads, interview, sift, sort, and qualify, and pass them through to you. It's just not real! The Live Call Centers I have seen and witnessed cannot come close to generating those numbers, and you would be fortunate to receive 5 leads per day into your account.

My advice - if you want interviewed leads, then insist on getting the name of the interviewer with each lead, and be willing to pay more for these leads. Furthermore, armed with this new knowledge of the difference between interviewed and verified, don't think that when you call a leads company they are going to be straight with you and say, "You're right, they are actually verified and not interviewed." If they can't provide the name of the interviewer with each lead... then either accept the fact they are verified or go somewhere else to buy your leads.

Phone verified leads can be very good. It is just one more layer that is added to a lead to try and add quality to the lead. You just need to make sure you know what you're paying for. Interviewed leads should be interviewed. Verified leads should be verified.

A reasonable real time verified lead may cost between $3 - $4.