LEADCRITIC

I know many of you are mortgage guys and gals, but I also know that many of you are diversifying into the debt vertical, so I hope this is a little helpful.

As you know I spent the first part of the week at the USOBA conference, which was a small conference filled with, what seemed like only to be a bunch of attorneys who loved to talk about rule, regulations and cases they won. Unfortunately, there were zero sessions or discussions on how to work leads or lead management. There were a few sessions that preached, “do the consumer right and they will do you right” and “customer service should be a number one priority”, which in my opinion is a no brainer and just barely scratched the surface. However one session did stand out and I found very beneficial and I will share some the key points very quickly with you.

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I would have like to have gotten this out yesterday when it was released, however my server was down again, sorry.

It was announced yesterday that MostChoice has been ordered by the court to pay NetQuote $4.8 million dollars for punitive damages relating to MostChoices acts of fraud. According the the Denver Post, MostChoice hired a person specifically to fill out NetQuotes lead inquiry forms. The person apparantly filled out 3500 forms in the months of September and October of 2006. With his work schedule of 25 to 30 hours a week he filled out about 18 forms an hour.

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This years biannual USOBA (Untied States Organization for Bankruptcy Alternatives) conference is being held in my home town of San Diego, more specifically Coronado California, so I decided to drop on by to see what is new in the debt settlement industry.

Let me tell you there is a lot going on in the debt settlement industry, a lot of regulations!

I happenend to have missed the first session and walked in right into the session lead by either Robert Knight or Jim Christie, not sure which, but one of the two was discussing  regulations and training. The need for documentation was made to be a very very important procedure even down to the smallest things like testimonials on your website. The fact is that the FDIC will look at every little thing you do if a red flag is raised and I quite frankly it was a little scary to think about and listen to. Ongoing training and 3rd party audits need to happen regularly to keep your operations clean and trouble free.

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Update: Confirmed the layoff of employees, however the parting ways with Charles Chase was a mutual decision that both parties made.

Update: Total of 11 were laid off not 12.

Tough times call for tough decisions and eliminating staff is always a difficult one to do, especially when it is one of the founders of the company.

It is being reported, but has not been confirmed by Leads360 that Charles Chase, COO and co founder, along with approximately 12 others have been laid off today at Leads360. This likely is a result of a few different factors. One, being the  economy and the decline in the mortgage industry and the decrease of business revenues from industry. Second, is the recent infusion of VC funds and the slow diversification process into new verticals and industries.

Leads360 is not going anywhere, lets be clear that this is a normal and unfortunate adjustment that all companies at one time or another will face and when it involves a co founder, a reminder that business and VC capital infused companies can be very cut throat, especially in this current environment.

Good luck to all those smart people who are now preparing to enter a very challenging job market.

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Frankly, LeadPoint’s new site design might have been launched weeks or even months ago, but being that I don’t visit the company websites as frequently has you may suspect, I just came across it last week.

Nonetheless, the site is a very nice upgrade from their previously stale and outdated design. lol, I am kidding, their previous design was not stale or out dated, but the new design is a very nice. Digging through the new site you will come across a new “beta” product call LeadPoint Connect. What is LeadPoint Connect? It is a slight shift in the core fundamentals at LeadPoint.

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It was announced today that LeadCritic friend and co-founder of LeadROI was named CEO of Vidshadow, Inc.

Atul Patel, who along side Raj Parekh played a role in the creation and developement LeadROI and help lead the company to the acquisition by Root Markets and then left shortly after, has had is hands in a number of developements from founding companies LeadIdentity,  ThirdPop and BankAround to consultative roles in companies like Financial Freedom and CPM Advisors.

At time when marketers are experiementing more and more with video advertising  and video monetization, i.e lead generation, VidShadow makes it easy and seemless to integrate site targeted videos to your website and as well as allowing advertisers to market via professionally produced videos.

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Jay Weintraub, the founder of LeadsCon recently updated the LeadsCon website to announce the dates for next years conference.

The event last year received rave reviews from all the attendees, including me. It was a great meeting of the minds, as well as a great opportunity for networking and closing deals. I have a number of partnerships and current clients that I met specifically at LeadsCon.

Next years show will be held at the Mirage March 4th and 5th. I highly recommend attending this show whether you are a marketer or a lead buyer you will leave the show with ideas and relationships that will justify the minimal cost. If you can sign up prior to November 30th you will receive a significant discount.

Register HERE.

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Tree.com announced its 3rd quarter earnings this morning and stated a $22.5 million loss.

Doug Lebda, the company’s chief executive, called the results “acceptable” given the current market environment, and he lauded the hard work of his employees and the company’s discipline on costs.

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I just received the following letter from BlogRush, which was a company that created a widget that was supposed to help drive traffic to your blog or website by posting the titles of your posts on other sites that had the same widget and it reiterates that fact that not all ideas will turn out like Facebook.

The days of thinking of a good idea and building it without taking into count how and if it will make money and it then being valued has a billion dollar company, are few and far between.

I would suggest that you insure your idea can produce a revenue before building out of the goodness of your heart.

Just a thought, though.

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While loan modifications seem to be as popular as standing on the corner of Main Street with a “Vote Yes for Prop 8″ sign in my conservative neighborhood, the government is set to announce their own loan modification plan of its own.

According to the AP today,  the gov’t discussing the possibility of using $50 billion of the $700 billion financial industry bailout plan to guarantee about 3 million mortgages. This is the point where you start running around the room hysterically with your hand raised saying “pick me, pick me, pick me” and then your realize that your not sure you can use the excuse of the financial meltdown as your hardship or the fact that this is not going to help everyone who has at least 1 late on their mortgage and possibly not the 500,000+ that are in the foreclosure as we speak, but and a big but for that matter, this is a really good start.

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Late last week a few more companies took fatal shots from the credit crisis. E-Loan and Ace Mortgage Funding could no longer withstand the intense battle ground that is the mortgage industry.

According to an ml-implode tip, Ace simply could not make the change from a sub prime lender to an FHA specialist.

Previous yearly volume of about $3 billion was said to currently be down by half as much. One AE told us “They were funding about $100 – 125 Million per month from their branch operations.”

Its clear that we are far from a bottom  as housing starts hit 17 year lows and job losses are happening everywhere from financial companies to Internet based companies like Yahoo.  There is one common things that does seems to be proving itself as true. Companies that would like to be around this time next year need to take quick and decisive action. I am not convinced that holding out and laying low is the right answer. For some companies this might be the best action, but I would be hard pressed to see a company be able to sustain revenues without diversifying their offerings. Ultimately, I guess that is the million dollar question.

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