One of the fastest growing departments within LeadPoint is our United Kingdom division. One of the benefits that our UK cousins have is the fact that lead generation is still in its infancy in the UK compared with the US. This can be both a benefit and an obstacle.

As in the United States, the lead generation pitch makes a lot of sense – reach prospective customers, buy the results of somebody else’s marketing spend, and speak to prospective customers within moments of their requesting to be contacted.

Our UK office felt marketing such a concept to a new market would be a slam dunk and that prospective partners would be lining up around the corner to buy leads.

As evidenced by their 300% growth in 2008, the reception of lead gen in the UK has been strong. However, as is generally the case, success does not come without challenges. Despite our UK team’s best efforts, they were not always able to communicate the value of how lead generation and technology are interlinked.

In the US where work shuts down if the Internet should happen to go down and many of us cannot fathom life without a Blackberry, it appears that the need for technology in the UK (at least in some business sectors) is not as pervasive as in the US.

In one instance our UK office was contacted by a prospective buyer who read in the press about the merits of lead generation and was excited at the prospect of buying them. Unfortunately, the gentleman did not have an email address to receive leads, nor a computer for that matter.

When trying to explain how online lead generation and owning a computer go together like the British summer and rain, he promptly told our sales person that he didn’t like typing so he would not be changing his working practices any time soon.

Our UK office assumed that this was just an isolated incident. Apparently this wasn’t the case. Not long afterwards, another prospective customer contacted them who also did not have a computer. However, this gentleman did not see the lack of a computer as an obstruction to buying Internet generated leads. Instead, he came up with the solution that our UK office should just call him every time he received a lead and read him the lead detail over the phone. He could then just copy the information down himself.

Despite such setbacks, lead generation is continuing to grow in popularity in the UK as it has in the US as word of its value spreads. We congratulate our UK office for their 2008 success and look forward to a successful 2009.

It is rare, these days, to turn on a news program and not hear a story related to the housing crisis. Just think about events since 2007: the collapse of Bear Stearns and the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, snowballing Fed rate cuts, the government take over of Fannie and Freddie, not to mention countless other bailouts…all due to homeowner inability to make mortgage payments. In an environment where financial institutions scramble to prevent more mortgage write downs, a new industry is gaining momentum, that of Loan Modification.

A “loan mod,” in common parlance, is a series of negotiations between a mortgagee (or their representative) and the holder of the mortgage note. The goal is to create repayment terms that allow the homeowner to continue to afford their mortgage payments. Modifications to the mortgage note may change the interest rate, the term of the loan, or even provide a principal reduction.

A representative with insight into the loan mod process can often make a real difference to the homeowner and substantial profits. Consequently, demand for the ideal consumer has gained traction in the lead generation space. To address this growing demand, LeadPoint launched our own Loan Modification products.

By leveraging the LeadPoint trading platform technology we are simultaneously releasing both a Voice product as well as a Voice Verified Data product.

The Voice product delivers calls initiated by homeowners who respond to Loan Modification TV and radio spots. In these commercials homeowners are informed that they may avoid foreclosure if they are qualified for a low fixed interest rate and reduced monthly payments.

Data leads are generated from the same advertising, but are screened by an on shore call representative at a LeadPoint call center and converted into data format and sent in real-time to up to two buyers.

Tough economic times provide opportunities for innovative companies. LeadPoint’s Loan Modification Leads are another example of our continuous promise to such innovation.

LeadPoint recently gave an exclusive interview on CRMBuyer.com.

The article is the first in a of a multi-part series on marketing automated solutions.

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