Ah, there’s that “marketing” thing again. (I just wrote an article about the word “marketing.” Find it here.) Now consider the parties involved: on one end there’s a Loan Officer who’s trying to “market” his business. He gets an email or a phone call from a marketing company. The best they have is late-night infomercial tactics like you’ve mentioned, Doug, and there are many more. Variable data print methods that are “tailored” to the client by inserting their first and last name throughout the piece as if it’s actually personalized. 

The marketing company is more than willing to sell the loan officer anything he’ll buy and both parties now rely on the unsavory tactic of getting the phone to ring by any deception necessary, no matter how slight. But what about the person who sold the LO on this trickery? He’s just a guy or a gal trying to support his or her family, right? Then there’s the person on the other end of the phone when the unsuspecting homeowner “bites.” It can either be the LO who purchased the lead program OR it’s the phone room telemarketer for said “marketing company” or better yet, a “lead generation” company that then distributes the lead to any number of LO’s who’ve paid any manner of amount to get the lead first or the description I love the most is “exclusive.” This salesperson or telemarketer is in the same position, he just needs to support his family or maybe I’ll go as far as to say his or her habit(s), who knows. It’s a free country and what people do is their own business, right? I fully support the free market system and Milton Friedman has yet to prove himself wrong at any point.

Two very important things are always overlooked. #1, the consumer! In this scenario, the consumer is the least considered; they are the pellet, the prize of food when the LO hits the button and buys the lead-generation program. Then there’s #2, the proposed program, merely just a matter of words designed to entice an unsuspecting victim.

In my personal opinion, this is the I Pencil story gone rogue, since the intention is pure profit, which I’m all for. But at what cost? Believe me, I could go on and on about this, but your time as well as my own have previous engagements.

For those unfamiliar with the story of I PENCIL you can find it here — http://tinyurl.com/36xkhq.

or watch it below 

Thanks for the post this morning, Doug. I’m posting it on my blog at xomark.com.

End of Rant

Keith Shapiro

P.S. There’s no substitution for integrity!