Repossession Rates Lower Than Expected According To Cml

3 ways to create income from a reverse mortgage

Investor Education Fund Published on Sunday, Mar. 29, 2009 2:12PM EDT

1. Borrow and invest a lump sum

Invest some or all of the money you get to produce a stream of income, and perhaps increase your savings. You can choose the investments that seems most sensible for you, based on your income needs and the risks you are willing to accept as an investor.

One of your aim might be to keep up with inflation by raising your money faster than prices rise. This is especially essential if these savings are your only source of income. But unless you choose assured investments, you do not know what you will make or how much income you will reap.

2. Set up monthly payments

Use the cash from your reverse mortgage to buy an annuity. You will get a fixed, tax-free monthly income for life or for a several years. You know for certain what your income will be.

Tip: With some annuities, payments cease after you die. If you want to be certain some money will go to family or your estate after you die, you have to buy a guaranteed annuity. This extra feature will lower your payments monthly. Likewise, if you want to be certain your income will go up when prices go up, you will have to buy an indexed annuity, which also has extra costs.

3. Borrow smaller sums when you need cash

This option is available only with the Home Fund Line of Credit Reverse Mortgage. You borrow cash only when you need it to cover expenses. Since you only pay interest on what you borrow, this type of reverse mortgage can cost less than a bigger loan. There is no tax on the cash you borrow.

Since you are borrowing small amounts, you are likely going to spend the money and not invest it. The outcome will be that you won’t be able to grow your savings.

Remember: There are different alternatives to create income from a reverse mortgage

There are some setbacks to each approach, so make sure that your choice fits well with your personal situation and financial goal. Dealing a reverse mortgage involves a lot of big decisions, so it’s always smart to get expert advice.

VIA Globe and Mail

Keyword: Mortgage Lead

Twitter Dos and Don'ts

1. Do tweet 5 to 10 times a day, but do not over-tweet. Nobody is interested if you're eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

2. Do not oversell. Selling is a turnoff and will intimidate people from your community.

3. Do not be a phony. Be authentic and transparent; let people know who you are.

4. Do charm your community. Engage your conversations, and get people talking to you and each other.

5. Please remember that your tweets are read by a lot of people. Be cautious about what you say, and think before you blast.

Source: Hilary JM Topper

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20100217/SMALLBIZ/100219911

Keyword: Business leads

You can find Monty Loree on twitter.. HQLinks

An Increase In Work-At-Home Business Leads To A Unique Option For Families

Submitted by Meredith Knechel, Heart Works LLC, on 2010-02-15.

One consequence of the recent economic crisis is that more parents are working from home. More new moms are staying in the workforce, and at-home moms who had decided to put their careers on-hold are opting to return to work. Furthermore, both men and women who have been retrenched are starting their own businesses from home to produce income.

Many parents believe they can raise their children while working from home, however the difficulties associated with this are a lot, and most find that something, whether it be the quality of their work, or the quality of their time spent parenting their children are affected. This can be exhausting and stressful for many. Traditional childcare choices tend to stray from the values of many eco-conscious parents, who uses attachment style parenting, which includes breastfeeding, positive discipline, babywearing and child-led learning.

One new program however, grants parents the ability to work in a peaceful space, while sharing childcare responsibilities in an eco-friendly play space. Heart Works Cooperative Parenting LLC is a shared workspace and childcare cooperative. Parents have the option to work either on their own laptop, or on one of the computer workstations in the facility. The work space boast of wireless internet, desks, tables, and sewing machines. All of the members, who are carefully screened, like-minded parents, using a lovingly planned structure patterned after the Montessori and Waldorf models for learning and discovery,
share in the care of children,

Local families interested in learning more about the cooperative can contact Meredith Knechel at 860-432-7495 or visit www.heartworkscooperative.com for additional information on the Heart Works program.

VIA Courant

Keyword: Business leads

Home Based Business Leads and Where to Get Them

by Charles Fuchs on February 16, 2010

Searching for home based business leads can be consume so much of your time, especially if you are just starting your home-based business. However, there are businesses out there than can help you muster home based business leads in order to boost your business and your profit. Is it better to go through an agency to get home-based business leads or are you better off developing the leads yourself?

The biggest benefit of going through an agency for your home based business leads is that it saves you money and time looking for your own home-based business leads. Many of these companies do a large amount of research to bring you home-based business leads. They not only bring you home-based business leads, but they also can give your home based business tools and resources that can assist you take your home-based business leads and create a thriving organization.

The downfall of hiring another company to provide you with home-based business leads is primarily the cost. Several home-based business lead companies charge not only a monthly fee but also a large set-up fee. When you outsource your home-based business leads, you should make sure you were working with a reputable company and also that you do not sign into a long-term contract with the company. This way, if the agency does not give you effective leads, you can get out without losing a large amount of money.

Getting for your own home based business leads can be much more time-consuming, but it can save you a lot of money. If you do not have a lot of overhead, then finding your own home based business leads may benefit you. Getting your own home based business leads will mean spending a lot of time developing direct mail programs, scouring the phone book, and using the internet.

Before deciding to do your own research to develop home-based business leads, you should decide whether the profit you would lose to research and development time is less than hiring an outside agency to generate your home based business leads. Also, make sure the company can meet your needs for home-based business leads. There are affordable companies out there that can provide you home-based business leads for a low cost that will allow you to focus on what you do best, building your home-based business.

Copyright © Charles Fuchs is an established online marketer who specializes in helping people start their very own Home Based Business. He has also created dozens of articles such as MLM Leads and Make Money Online.

VIA Antonomato

Keyword: Business leads

Real-time and Opt-in Sales Leads

Several companies sell real-time and opt-in sales leads. These companies compile leads online through Web advertisements, surveys and affiliate programs with online retailers. Let's look at some essential differences between real-time and opt-in sales leads.

Real-time sales leads cost more than opt-in sales leads because they are sent to salesmen just seconds after the lead has sent out an online form or survey. This way the salesmen can call the lead while the product or service is still fresh in the lead's mind. A downside of real-time leads is that there is little time to verify if the lead is a lead with legitimate contact information and a showed interest in the product or service being offered.

A new improvement in real-time sales leads is something called voice leads. With this development, voice mail inquiries from leads are sent to salesmen directly so they can call the lead back immediately.

Opt-in sales leads are less expensive than real-time leads because they are not as fresh. But the benefit of opt-in sales leads (or even double opt-in sales leads) is that the lead filled out an online form or survey and responded to a confirmation e-mail. Even if the lead is a several of days old, at least the salesmen is sure they have a real name with a legitimate e-mail address. The opt-in process also allows for promotion of additional product in the opt-in emails.

VIA How Stuff Works: Real-Time and Opt-in Sales Leads

Kword: sales leads

Tracking Sales Leads

Generating sales leads is only the 1st step in a larger process called the sales funnel or sales pipeline. The sales funnel is as such because it starts big at the top, with a lot of potential clients and it gets smaller as you get further along in the sales process.

At the apex of the sales funnel are all the ineligible sales leads and sales tips generated by the marketing department or salesmen using the methods mentioned on the previous article(Generating sales leads). As the salesmen continues to make their way down the funnel -- making contact first, evaluating the options and negotiating the prices -- many of those first leads will drop away.
It's essential for salesmen to have a well-defined and well-organized system available for tracking sales leads as they work through the sales pipeline. The more knowledgeable the salesman is about his leads, the easier it is to sell the right services at the right time. To be able to do this, each lead needs to be tagged or updated with essential information to help the salesmen do their job [source: Entrepreneur.com].

One example, has the lead asked for a product sample? Has the lead changed his addresses? Does the lead plan to initiate a large project in 6 months?

To keep track of all of this tagged data, many businesses use special lead tracking software or other customer relationship management (CRM) programs. The lead tracking software has several helpful features for managing a large number of leads at the same time:
* Automatically take note sales lead contact information into a database
* Easily update and tag leads through Web interface
* Appoint leads to salesmen by geographical area or product type
* Generate reports on success of different sales campaigns
* Measure the return of investment (ROI) of other marketing techniques
* Compile and import sales inquiries from Web site and other sources for immediate response automatically

[source: LEADTRACK]

VIA How Stuff Works: Tracking Sales Leads

keyword: sales lead

Generating Sales Leads

Generating sales leads is a process of contacting and collecting information about prospective clients. In larger companies, generating sales leads is the job of the marketing department, since they're in charge of creating all advertising and outreach materials. However, in smaller companies, the salesmen usually do their own sales lead generation.

There are several established techniques for generating sales leads:
* Networking
* Advertising (TV/print/Web)
* Telemarketing and teleprospecting
* Direct mail, fax or e-mail marketing campaigns
* Web sites and search engine optimization
* Buying a sales lead list

Generating sales leads usually begins with networking. This is as simple as contacting your family, friends, acquaintances and existing clients and inquiring if they know anyone who may have interest in your product or service [source: startupnation]. These referrals are also called sales tips.

Aside from networking, trade shows are wonderful opportunities for business-to-business (B2B) networking. Just by setting up a place at a trade show, you can accumulate contact information from a number of potential buyers and business partners [source: startupnation].


VIA How Stuff Works: Generating Sales Leads

Keyword: sales leads

How Sales Leads Work

by Dave Roos

The basic principle of sales is the same whether you're selling jumbo jets or Girl Scout cookies – there is no sale if there is no customer. Finding customers can be cost money and time, often is failure-ridden process. Just imagine those poor Girl Scouts going door-to-door with their Thin Mints and Samoas: half the people are not home; 6 homeowners just went on a diet; and the competition is formidable.

The first, and, some say, the hardest task for any salesman is generating sales leads. Sales leads are not clients; they're prospective clients. A sales lead is anyone who has shown interest in the product or service, whether by inquiring about it directly through a company's Web site, by responding positively to a sales call or by leaving a business card at a trade show. [source: Bitpipe].

VIA: How Stuff Works: 1. Sales Lead

Keyword: sales leads

Critical Mass Designs New Website for Hawker Beechcraft

PRESS RELEASE
Feb. 15, 2010, 12:46 p.m. EST

CALGARY, Alberta & CHICAGO, Feb 15, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Critical Mass (www.criticalmass.com), a digital marketing agency and a unit of Omnicom's Star Marketing Group (www.starmsgroup.com), announced today the launch of a new website it designed for Hawker Beechcraft Corporation (www.hawkerbeechcraft.com), a world-leading manufacturer of business, trainer and special mission aircraft.

Critical Mass crafted the new Hawker Beechcraft site with the aim of delivering a best-in-class online experience, celebrating the brand, focusing on customers' needs, and generating sales leads for the company's premium aircraft.

"In our research, we discovered that our decision to purchase an aircraft is complex--whether for private ownership, military or special mission--so personas were critical to our digital strategy," said John McLaughlin, the Senior Vice President, General Manager, Critical Mass. "Our broad experience in luxury and automotive has taught us that for such a high consideration category, we needed to model the site experience off of the customers' journey, delivering rich, engaging content to address the user needs and multiple stakeholder concerns throughout the purchase process," McLaughlin added.

For both the Hawker and Beechcraft brands, product exploration was uphold through interactive features such as a 360-degree virtual flight experience, model comparison module, a Google-powered range mapping tool, and custom aircraft configurator, while an emotional connection to Hawker Beechcraft's legacy of quality and performance was accomplished through dynamic product videos and owner testimonials. More than driving brand and product engagement, the online experience was designed to facilitate purchase by connecting users to global sales representatives and extending the brand's promise through to ownership via maintenance information and prominent customer support.

VIA MarketWatch

Keyword: Sales Leads

Private Finance recruits Katie Tucker

Katie Tucker has been appointed by the Independent mortgage broker, Private Finance, to the position of chief operating officer from 1 March.

Besides Tucker, Private Finance is selectively enlisting high performing consultants to support the development of its new agency agreement with Strutt & Parker, and the development in its existing relationship with Jackson-Stops & Staff. These exclusive agreements mean that Private Finance is now getting high net worth mortgage leads from over 80 estate agency branches.

The managing director of Private Finance, Simon Checkley, commented: “Katie's background at MortgageForce and John Charcol makes her a perfect fit; she will tailor our introducer experience, deal with recruitment, training and induction, manage marketing campaigns and also liaise with lenders. As we add to our consultant team we will be developing the product offering and looking for lender relationships best suited to the high net worth borrowers we advise.”

VIA Mortgage Introducer

Keyword: mortgage leads

Lead by example

Mortgage Solutions | 15 Feb 2010 | 09:00

Justin Rees

Purchasing leads is easy, but making a decent return on investment from lead generation is much more difficult, as Justin Rees points out
Whether you are a lead-generation veteran or buying leads for the first time, these 10 tips could help you make your lead buying a success.

1. Choose the right lead provider
Choose a lead provider that help you to make your lead buying a success. You should also choose one that has a simple platform. Don’t spend hours playing around with a computer trying to find the cheapest leads.

2. Make sure you have a good website
If you have a informative and clear website, by the time you speak to the client they will already have a good idea of your business and will be much more likely to convert. At the same time, if they don’t like what they will see, clients will often just go to another site and fill in another form.

3. Use filters
Using filters will give you a better chance of success.

4. Manage your own expectations
For your 1st lead-buying campaign you should set your expectations lower than these market conversion rates as you gain more experience with online leads.

5. A minute can make a difference
Always try to contact the lead as soon as you receive it. Studies have shown that even procrastinating for just one minute can affect contact and conversion rates.

6. Your processes are as important as your leads
Even with small volumes, assuming it might take more than 1 try to make contact with each consumer by the end of the first week, it can become unmanageable, so you need to have an automated system.

7. Every lead has value
Refer a customer to a company who can if you cannot provide service to the customer. There are thousands of pounds to be earned by referring business, and any revenue generated should be attributed back to the lead.

8. Commit a decent budget
You allot a budget that will allow you to get a large enough volume of leads to make a useful analysis of your lead-buying campaign.

9. Pay what you can afford
Calculate how much you can afford to pay for a converted customer and using a range of potential conversion rates work backwards to know what price you can pay for a lead.

10. Leads today, revenue tomorrow
Make sure you have the process to periodically contact leads that do not convert immediately. For every lead that you buy, you will pick up accumulative conversions over time if you have a contact process in place.
Justin Rees is the director of marketing and partnerships at LeadPoint UK

VIA Click here for the whole article

Keyword: Sales Leads

Lead by example
Mortgage Solutions | 15 Feb 2010 | 09:00
Justin Rees
Purchasing leads is easy, but making a decent return on investment from lead generation is much more difficult, as Justin Rees points out
Whether you are a lead-generation veteran or buying leads for the first time, these 10 tips could help you make your lead buying a success.

1. Choose the right lead provider
Choose a lead provider that help you to make your lead buying a success. You should also choose one that has a simple platform. Don’t spend hours playing around with a computer trying to find the cheapest leads.

2. Make sure you have a good website
If you have a informative and clear website, by the time you speak to the client they will already have a good idea of your business and will be much more likely to convert. At the same time, if they don’t like what they will see, clients will often just go to another site and fill in another form.

3. Use filters
Using filters will give you a better chance of success.

4. Manage your own expectations
For your 1st lead-buying campaign you should set your expectations lower than these market conversion rates as you gain more experience with online leads.

5. A minute can make a difference
Always try to contact the lead as soon as you receive it. Studies have shown that even procrastinating for just one minute can affect contact and conversion rates.

6. Your processes are as important as your leads
Even with small volumes, assuming it might take more than 1 try to make contact with each consumer by the end of the first week, it can become unmanageable, so you need to have an automated system.

7. Every lead has value
Refer a customer to a company who can if you cannot provide service to the customer. There are thousands of pounds to be earned by referring business, and any revenue generated should be attributed back to the lead.

8. Commit a decent budget
You allot a budget that will allow you to get a large enough volume of leads to make a useful analysis of your lead-buying campaign.

9. Pay what you can afford
Calculate how much you can afford to pay for a converted customer and using a range of potential conversion rates work backwards to know what price you can pay for a lead.

10. Leads today, revenue tomorrow
Make sure you have the process to periodically contact leads that do not convert immediately. For every lead that you buy, you will pick up accumulative conversions over time if you have a contact process in place.
Justin Rees is the director of marketing and partnerships at LeadPoint UK

VIA Click here for the whole article

Valuable Tips On Mortgage Life Insurance Leads...
Mortgage life insurance leads can be a nice profit earner for any insurance agent.
Mortgage insurance leads can be fun selling too. You meet nice families of every age and they can become wonderful clients.

There are several alternatives to generating mortgage leads. This article is focused on generating mortgage life insurance leads with direct mail. These advices will help you win against your competition (and the big mail houses) to the punch! So while many agents are waiting for their mortgage life insurance leads to be mailed or faxed to them from direct mail lead generation companies that mail everything in bulk (more on this in a moment), you'll get first chance on better quality mortgage life insurance leads.

Before you detract from direct mail to generate mortgage life insurance leads, think about this:
There is a HUGE change to the web right now, and for good reason. People are searching for information on the web. They are starving for it. So a lot of companies are concentrating on generating mortgage life insurance leads on the web.
To the companies credit, they can be very good quality leads.
BUT, this means there is a chance for you to use direct mail to get mortgage life insurance leads. Several years ago there were a lot of direct mail solicitations for mortgage life insurance and many companies were selling mortgage life insurance leads. Most of these companies are out of business because of the Internet and because the costs to mail were too expensive. They could not compete and be profitable.
Anyway, for the independent agent there is a chance in the mortgage lead generation arena...there are dramatically fewer mail houses out there competing against each other, which means fewer mail in mail boxes. Plus, tthey send everything bulk mail. This means the delivery of the mails are slower, and several of it gets thrown in the trash.

First step: Get the list.
Obtain a list of new mortgages and refinanced mortgages in your area. You can do this at almost no cost if you go to your county clerk’s office. But it will need little legwork and manual work. The other alternative is to find a good list broker on the Internet or out of the yellow pages. Be alert though. You might find some really bad list brokers out there. But if you find a good one, you've hit gold.
Mortgage protection leads can be a nice profit earner for any insurance agent. Bear in mind that list brokers don't mind a couple of small orders of two thousand or five thousand names the first couple of times you order, so compensate them well (and let them know you will reward them at the beginning) with a larger and larger order (if his/her list works well for you).

Ok, so now you've accomplished your list…

Second Step:
Design the mailer.
How will you send your direct mail piece? Are you going to mail a sales letter or a postcard?
I recommend mailing a sales letter with a Business Reply Card (BRC). The concept here is to get your prospective customer to feel interest to get more information after they read your sales letter. So allow them the option to call you directly and send in the card. Other agents had experienced success in sending the BRC alone to generate mortgage life insurance leads. So what they do is they include a little note in the envelope with the BRC. All the mortgage prospect has to do is tick off the box requesting information and fill in their dates of birth, contact info etc., and mail it back.

Third Step: Send it.
Mail your letter and/or BRC to your prospect. But DO NOT SEND IT BULK MAIL!!! Send it 1st class mail, and send it as soon as you get your new list of mortgages.
Don't procrastinate because you want to get there first…you want your mailing piece to get there before anyone else's. So use first class mail. Think about it. There might be a number of agents in your area generating mortgage life insurance leads, and on top of that there might be a some big mailing houses out there. Most agents are tardy about lead generation so you can count on them to procrastinate.
Second, the big mailing houses buy large lists and they take time to compile and send giant loads of direct mail. On top of that they are printing huge numbers of mailers. And thirdly they are sending everything in bulk mail which alone reduces response and you don't get as leads.

All this spells big OPPORTUNITY and hot fresh mortgage leads for you. Also, about the list. Not only should you send your mail to the new mortgages and refinances, you should also send your mail to the mortgages from 6 months to 2 years ago…BIGGER OPPORTUNITY!!! Because agents gave up on them, and so have the big mailing houses. If you manage your marketing right, you will find this to be a whole new center for profit for you.
Fourth Step In Getting Mortgage Insurance Leads: Keep mailing.
Just because you mailed once does not mean the list is accomplished. Keep sending mail to your list every month. Why? Because the other agents and mailing houses do not. So that means you will get a lot more good mortgage life insurance leads from non-responders who finally decide to make a decision.



VIA Insurance Leads Advisor

Kwords: insurance leads

Cold Calling Tips you Can Count On

To start, let us first explain the definition of cold calling.
Cold calling is a last option for those insurance agents or financial planners (or anyone getting ready to sell their products and services) that have absolutely no funds to spend on a prospecting letters system.
Cold calling is also not looked upon favorably by most business owners (and consumers, but the new law may not allow you to call customers at home in your state. Here are some information on the do not call list.)
So if you are going to call a business owner and you do have some funds to spend on a sequence of prospecting letters, do yourself a favor and make cold calling easier.
So you want to cold call and hammer up some business? OK, here are are some solid cold calling advice you can use in your prospecting efforts TODAY...

Cold calling tip #1:
Get an updated list of phone numbers and contact names. There is no bigger waste of time than acquiring an outdated list and then getting wrong numbers because you end up looking like an idiot when you find out the person you are trying to call is gone.
Find a good list broker, or use the SRDS.
If you use a free list spend some money and have your list cleaned by a professional.

Cold calling tip #2:
Be prepared. Prepare what you are going to say to the gatekeeper and the person you are trying to reach. Master it like the back of your hand. Know how to answer every doubts you'll get from the gatekeeper and the contact person (and take notes on objections you couldn't handle and work with someone who may be able to brush it out with you.)

Cold calling tip #3:
Smile. Make sure you are smiling each time you pick up the phone when you make a call. A smile radiates through the phone. It does. Just do it! Grab a mirror and make certain you see yourself smiling on the phone and check your posture as well. Smiling and posture WILL make a big difference.

Cold calling tip #4:
'How's it going?' Never ask the gatekeeper or prospective customer how they are doing. Be straight to the point of your call and don't waste their time with nonsense chatter.

Cold calling tip #5:
Know the business you are calling. You must be able to show that you are informed about the business you are calling so you can match up your dialogue with some aspects of the business that need 'fixing.'

Cold calling tip #6:
Know the person you are talking to. If the prospects are C level, for example, these people are thinking more in terms of the 'big picture'. So talking about technical things and sophisticated features will not land you appointments. Explain the benefits of what you can do for them if they meet with you. Build solid benefits that they can relate too...For example, how are they going to profit from it and how will it affect their bottom line?

Cold calling tip #7:
Acknowledge their time limitation, "I know your busy and your time is important, all I need is 30 seconds to go over why you should meet with me and how we can (name of benefit of your services... be very specific...percentages & numbers).

Tip #8:
Make a guarantee. "If after you meet with me you are not convinced that I can (name of benefit of your services) I will gladly remunerate you or your favorite charity $50, no questions asked. How does Wednesday at 11:30 sound? Or would Thursday at 10:30 be better?"
Sounds overconfident? Try it. I bet you will see amazing results. Or, read this article on appointment setting for more useful tips.

Tip #9:
Confirm. Ask your prospect to note down the appointment. This shows that they are serious.

Tip #10:
Feel Felt Found...
If you are stuck on any objection, always return to the ol' FEEL Felt Found...
'I understand exactly how you’re feeling. Several of our Platinum clients FELT the same way. But after they acquired (the benefits of your services) they DISCOVERED it was a perfect fit (or whatever...yada, yada, yada.)

These cold calling tips WILL help you get more appointments. But you can't take shortcuts. Read through these tips, and work on the ones you are not comfortable with.
Like I said at the begining, cold calling is only necessary if you do not have the money to send a sequenced mailing to your prospects first (and you have to create an effective letter system. An old letter and envelope will be a waste of your time). So only cold call if you are truly desperate for appointments today. Otherwise make life easier and MUCH more fun. Use efficient prospecting letters in your marketing efforts.

VIA Insurance Leads Advisor

kword: life insurance leads

Why is it Hard To Get Life Insurance Leads?
(Prudent Press Agency)---Finding life insurance leads can be difficult. It might be almost impossible. There is a lot of competition these days in insurance whether it is for car insurance, life insurance, or home insurance. Everyone needs insurance don't they? If something bad was to happen to you where would that leave your family? With expenses for funerals being sky high would your family be able to give you a proper burial? If something unfortunate happened to you would your partner be able to take care of the rest of the family?

Chances are you won't have the funds to pay for an unexpected funeral. If any of these things were to happen where would we be? This is not a circumstance that you would want to find yourself in. So if everyone needs insurance then it should be easy to get life insurance leads, correct? No, not really. Insurance isn't something that people like discussing.

And they especially don't like talking about life insurance. Plain and simple fact is that nobody wants to talk about it. It might be because they don't want to think about unfortunate situations, or because they just don't want to put money on something they feel that won't happen to them. People get angry when the think about the money they pay every month and feel slighted because the money is going nowhere. It's as if they would be glad if something would happen to them so it would make the insurance company give back some of the money. Well if they think the insurance industry is not giving anything back, then they are quite wrong. The insurance companies give us peace of mind. You do not have to lie awake at night playing scenarios in your head about what you would do if something bad happened. That's what insurance does for us. It is that net that you fall through when you have lost your balance, or when your usually smooth ride through life has been blown off of its course. So why is it so difficult to get leads then?

It is difficult to get life insurance leads because when people think of someone offering insurance they picture an opportunistic person that basically wants to take advantage of them. They are doubtful signing anything because they feel that the insurance company's only intent is to bleed them dry. History has played a role in our conception of what an insurance company is like. It is much like the IRS.

So why is it so difficult to get life insurance leads then? It is so difficult mostly because of our society’s misconstrued stereotype.

VIA Prudent Press Agency

AUTOBYTEL ANNOUNCED THE EXTENSION OF EMAIL MANAGER PROGRAM TO ALL DEALERS

The Email Manager Program was extended today by Autobytel Inc, the auto industry’s leader in providing online consumer leads and marketing services, to all online leads of any source. Now Autobytel Inc., member dealers can take advantage Of the Email Manager's customized programs to leads from OEMs, their own websites and other 3rd parties at zero extra cost and without having to engage more than one vendor.

Email Manager is designed specifically to assist auto dealers easily, regularly and economically communicate with car-buyers of today across a long purchase cycle -- one that has increased twofolds since 2001, according to CNW Research. The program regularly achieves high open rates, assisting dealers strengthen relationships with those customers who takes longer time deciding.

Mark Garms, COO of Autobytel said, "Communicating with today's less-decisive car-buyer first, faster and longer is critical to closing a sale which is why Email Manager has proved to be so popular with our member dealers". "In a resource-challenged environment, juggling multiple email vendors for each lead source takes valuable time away from what dealers do best, build customer relationships and sell cars. Our dealers have asked us to apply the advantages of Email Manager across the board, whether a lead comes from Ford, other third-parties, or their own website. Autobytel listened and Email Manager Deluxe delivers."

Email Manager presently sends out almost 200,000 branded, customized emails per month for Autobytel Member Dealers with an open rate over 50 per cent higher than traditional email campaigns. The program is one of many highly effective "lead treatments" entailed for the dealer’s Autobytel's new car lead program and is the industry’s only product to present a real-time "Dealer Alerts" sent as soon as a buyer opens or clicks on any of the links in the email. This important aspect increases sales production and efficiency by allowing dealers to interact with a potential car buyer right at the point when that consumer is drawn with the campaign email -- and equipped with knowledge of the consumer's particular vehicle interest and place in the buying cycle.

Garms observed that - in combination with the company's recently announced Quality Advantage and iControl programs, the Email Manager Deluxe is a part of Autobytel's mission to make a new standard for third-party leads that 1. Grants dealers with greater control and 2. Allow the best of its value-added programs and lead treatments to apply to every online leads, at zero extra cost, regardless of source.

VIA marketwatch


Keyword: Sales Leads

Tomato Racketeering Starts the Scrutiny Into the Food Sector

Randall Lee Rahal is a simple food salesman to his friends. He is someone who routinely left his home to traverse other places to sell California tomatoes. He sold the tomatoes pureed, crushed, or roasted and mashed into paste. He sold them to buyers who turned the tomatoes into soup, salsas and ketchup. These clients are usually food manufacturers, supermarket chains or commercial buyers.

But in the Justice Department's eyes, Randall Lee Rahal is a produce criminal who allegedly carries $100 bills and envelopes filled with cash to bribe buyers from leading food companies in a decade-old scheme that cause prices to soar up for consumers at the grocery stores.

In 2008, a series of court filings by the Sacramento federal prosecutors claim that Rahal, with 9 others and the SK Foods of Monterey used more than $330K in bribes starting from 1998 till 2008 to destroy competition and establish deals to sell SK Food's products to Kraft Foods, Safeway, Frito-Lay North America and B&G Foods, among other companies.

Everyone save for one pleaded guilty to the offenses (racketeering, bribery, collusion, bid rigging, and money laundering). Five of them worked for SK Foods; 4 were employed by their customers. SK Food's Sales went down as the case unfolded so the company went bankrupt and was sold to a Singapore firm last year.

Rahal, who pleaded guilty to the offenses, are up to 20 years in prison in his sentencing scheduled in May.

The investigation of SK Foods is just the beginning of the scrutiny into the food sector, according to federal prosecutors.


VIA modbee

keyword: sales lead

Mortgages Showed Decline Below 5%

US mortgage rates declined this week, with the thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages average rates declining below 5 per cent as US Treasury profits fluctuate, according to the mortgage rates weekly survey by Freddie Mac.

The US housing markets recovery has been frail. The market demand for used and new homes declined in December after the recovery in earlier months. This could be due to the cold weather and the continuous lack of jobs. Furthermore, home buyers sought to establish purchases before a federal tax credit comes to an end in November, pulling earlier sales.

The thirty-year fixed-rate mortgage resulted to 4.97 per cent for the week ending in Thursday, this is down from the 5.01 per cent average last week and the 5.16 per cent from the previous year. The rates on the fifteen-year fixed-rate mortgages were 4.34 per cent which is down from the 4.4 per cent and 4.81 per cent, respectively.

The 5-year Treasury indexed hybrid adjustable rate mortgages went into an average of 4.19 per cent, which is down from 4.27 per cent and 5.23 per cent last week. The 1-year
Adjustable-rate mortgages were 4.33 per cent which is up from 4.22 per cent the week before but down from the 4.94 per cent last year.

To achieve the rates, the thirty-year fixed-rate mortgage need a payment of 0.7 poiny average, while the others need a 0.6 point average. A point is 1 per cent of the amount of the mortgage which is charged as a prepaid interest.


VIA tradesignalonline


Keyword: Mortgage Leads

Does the Lack of Insurance Impose Higher Mortality?

How many people die from lack of insurance? It's a question not often disputed as much as the question “how many people are without insurance?” But it turns out to be really difficult to find out how many people die uninsured. Studies were done to determine the number; the most recent one found that insurance has no effect at all, while other studies say that it numbered to tens of thousands. Some people can't help but be doubtful of the numbers. Some studies are done shadily, with the authors influenced by political beliefs. The criteria for these studies conspire to produce the author's desired numbers for their own interest. All the studies seem to be affected with a measure of bias.

There are factors why people end up uninsured, most of them reciprocates poorer health results, and not of them ended up being registered in the surveys. For example, the Institure of Medicine and the Urban Institute's study showed that being on a government health program constitutes the highest mortality, not the lack of insurance. This is true even if the authors initiated some controls on their studies. Is Medicaid, then, killing people? It might be possible but not really true. The paper failed to point out that Medicare and Medicaid patients have higher rates of disability. It might be that the study looked at patients taken to the Emergency Rooms which showed a large number of uninsured patients. But this does not show that lacking insurance may result in higher mortality, merely, it might be showing us that uninsured people have more factors that cause them to have poorer health results.

This doesn't ensure that no one dies from being uninsured. Even if the facts are unclear and the studies do not agree with each other, we should be cautious about saying that a lot of people die from lack of insurance because the truth is we don and we may never find out.

VIA theatlantic

Keyword: insurance leads

Repossession Rates Lower than Expected According To CML

The Council of Mortgage Lenders predicted a large number of homes to be repossessed in 2009, but the numbers were not as they expected as the number of people who lost their homes are unexpectedly lower than they anticipated.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders forecast seventy-five thousand repossessions in 2009 but it was recently recalculated to just forty-eight thousand. This shows a 15% annual increase in repossessed homes but it also shows the start of the rapid drops in repossession.

The 4th quarter of 2009 showed 10, 200 repossessed properties, this is a 13% fall compared to the prior quarter and a 2% fall on the same quarter the year before.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders are also worried about mortgage back obligations. They anticipate that 195, 000 homeowners will have payment difficulties towards the end of 2009, which is 3% more than the homeowners working to pay at the end of 2008, it was not as much as they anticipated at 188, 300 borrowers.

Mortgage arrears were also beginning to get better at the end 2009 which shows 3% fall in the 4th quarter compared to the three previous months.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders are in the opinion that those borrowers with lower arrears are helped by low interest rates while those with higher arrears have managed to sustain their arrears but not to pay them back.

Michael Coogan, the director general of the Council of Mortgage Lenders commented on the numbers and said that the arrears are lower than what they anticipate because of low interest rates and a great deal of efforts concerted by lenders, the government and the advice sector to help the borrowers to discuss their financial problems when they happen.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders advise against assumptions the these numbers conveys a smooth housing recovery because the inflation pressures build on the Banl of England could still cause the interest rates to go higher. Mr Coogan said that 2010 proves to be a challenging year for some households when the interest rates se eventually, but he also reassured that the lenders are willing to help the borrowers keep their homes whenever possible. He suggest to seek advise as soon as a financial hardship occurs to help against losing control of the financial situation.

VIA fairinvestment

Keyword: Mortgage Leads