You Have More Clients Than You Think

We recently caught up with Lead Tech CEO Nigel Borwell to have a look at lead generation in the financial industry, how extra FCA restrictions increase the need for transparency, and why lead generators always have more clients than they think…

Below are some of the key ideas discussed in the podcast, but be sure to check out the entire call at the bottom of the page to really go deep into this week’s latest B2C Lead Generation piece.

Can you explain a little about how lead generation works in the Financial Services sector? Is there anything different from other sectors or niches?

Nigel Borwell: Fundamentally, how we generate leads is - I’m sure - very similar, but essentially, whilst it’s not a regulated activity in this space, I think we’re very acutely aware that we’re generating leads for our partners - the clients and brands that are regulated and they’re accountable to the FCA, and obviously we are accountable to them so we have to be even more sensitive to how we go about that lead generation activity.

I think it’s a good thing, it really tunes us into the best practices.

Does this mean you have to work more closely with your partners? Are they consequently more thorough in their approach?

Ultimately, they’re responsible for a lead’s journey and I think they are in theory quite transparent about how they acquire customers. Part of what we do is work with them to help evidence that. Being transparent about our journeys is part of that process. But yes, they (the painters) are much more sensitive to how leads are generated.

In terms of how we work with them, I guess that is quite a broad subject, but essentially we try to build really close working relationships with out partners, and over the years we’ve set out a little bit of a framework for that. That may change slightly based upon the size of the business and the resources that have available to them, and how much experience they’ve got working leads.

Do you think having the FCA makes the industry as a whole more inherently transparent than other sectors?

Absolutely. I think it’s a really, really good thing. It really encourages best practices which we hugely believe in.

As a business, we almost see our role as sat between two customers essentiality. We’ve got our partners which we work with and supply leads to, but ultimately we see a consumer as a person whose got a need, rather than a piece of data, so it really is quite aligned with our beliefs. It’s one of the reasons why we really enjoy working in this space.

When you operate transparently lead generation can be a really valuable service, not just for the brand getting the leads but also for the consumer, right?

Absolutely. It’s quite a basic concept really, but we’ve kind of instilled it in our business over the years and it works really well. I think the people who work for Lead Tech really get it, you know, thinking about customer experience and how we can improve that experience, it really cascades down and is good for the partner, good for the consumer, and every one wins. That is the general philosophy - How do we produce really good journeys where the consumer understands what’s in it for them? There is always that level of transparency.

The idea is just to pass over a consumer to our partners with that level of intent and expectation is already there.

What are the biggest challenges you face with your lead buyers and partners in terms of getting them to act on leads in the best way?

We’ve built a bit of a framework out as a result of the challenges we face, just built on years of experience working with different types of companies. But what has really stood out over time is that most companies aren’t great at handling leads, certainly a lot of the smaller businesses. So we’ve developed a number of services to help them if they’re not very good at handling the leads, so that might be taking the lead engagement away from them, handling the contact piece for them. And not just that initial aspect, we might work with them to continually nurture what are essentially their prospective customers.

The name of the podcast is You Have More Clients Than You Think, which refers to a quote of yours which you have on your office wall saying that you have “two clients.” Can you explain what that means?

It’s quite a simple concept and it’s something we thought about really early on. You ask yourself “What is our purpose? What is our role? What is it we’re here to do?” And it always kind of felt like we were in the middle connecting people. That’s a very, very simplified version of it, but that kind of resonated with me.

And another thing I really like, and it’s just another way of looking at lead generation, it’s connecting people and trying to improve somebody’s life. In the space we’re in, consumer trust is the number 1 challenge for us all. Trying to overcome that by making better introductions between clients AND consumers and working for both of them.

That’s all I mean, being really clear about our role and acknowledging the fact we’re not just working for our clients and our partners but we have another customer - the consumer.

Making plans for - working with - Nigel? Be sure to check out the entire conversation on Apple, Spotify or Databowl’s YouTube Channel.