January 2025 is currently set to completely upend the way that a lot of companies get their leads.

The FCC (and I am not an expert, so definitely follow someone like Michele Schuster for the latest/greatest info) has ruled that the only acceptable lead generation option is a one-to-one relationship between the lead and the company. Meaning that if you are a solar business, you cannot buy a ‘list’ of people or leads through a 3rd party publisher/advertiser. The only option could become where they help you specifically generate a lead where that person is expecting to be contacted only by your company.

Impact on the Lead Generation Industry

What will this do to the industry of lead generation? Some people I have spoken with recently say it will decimate it. Well, most people who work in and around the 3rd party lead gen space say that. Others are optimistic about finding ways to shift their focus to advising companies to help them generate 1st party leads (with their own branding and consent language). Some are focusing on different ways to help a company generate leads, outside of display, PPC, etc. (Like the team at Massive+ led by my non-cousin David Cutter).“I closed 18 deals this quarter!”

No matter what, things will change. They will get harder on the industry. The new season of the House Of The Dragon just came out…reminding us all that “Winter Is Coming”.

Potential Benefits for Companies with Sales Teams

If we step back from the people who have made a metric ton of money off creating, brokering, and/or selling leads, then this ruling should be great for companies with sales teams, right? It would mean that the leads they reach out to are truly exclusive. No more calling a lead to be told that you are the 8th person to call, that they signed up already, and if you don’t stop calling, they will report you.

It should also mean that since the lead is exclusive and high intent – they want to talk to your company about your insurance offerings – that the lead should almost close itself. Right? As long as your salesperson doesn’t screw it up, your conversion percentage should go up, even if your cost per lead has skyrocketed. Right? Wrong. That logic doesn’t play out in the real world. Here’s why.

Cost Per Acquisition vs. Cost Per Lead

At the end of the day the CPL doesn’t matter, it’s all about the Cost Per Acquisition. If it took your rep 10 leads at $25 each before closing one deal (CPA = $250), then if they now have better leads at $75 each and can close 1 in 3 you are winning (CPA = $225). Now the question is, do you think your team is capable of going from a 10% closing to a 33% closing rate? Because I promise you the leads won’t be 3 times easier to enroll.

Remember, just because they are exclusively first party leads (they filled out your form on your site or responded to your Facebook ad), there is nothing in the FCC rule that is stopping that consumer from filling out 3 other forms on 3 other roofing sites.

Sales Operational Questions

To prepare for Winter, here are 9 sales operational questions to ask yourself and your leadership team:

1. Speed To Lead – what are you doing to ensure that a new lead is reached out to (phone, email, text) within moments?
2. Are you making all your leads communicate with you only over the phone at first, or are you meeting them where they want to be met? (email/text/chat)
3. What do you have in place to filter out the fraudulent leads that get submitted?
4. How many times does your system automatically reach out to a lead, and over what period of weeks/months?
5. Does the outreach to your leads require your salespeople to take action or is it automatic?
6. Currently, what are the reasons or places in the sales process that your team loses most of their opportunities?
7. Do you have training and coaching focused on supporting the sales team on achieving your necessary, profitable CPA?
8. How many times is a salesperson following up (phone, email, text) with a lead that doesn’t enroll on the first call?
9. Do your compensation plan/requirements for salespeople include closing effectiveness %/metrics?

When you have solid answers to all those questions and the right, best next tools/tactics in place, you will be ready ahead of January 2025. Winter is coming. Are you ready?

Conclusion

Having developed scalable sales operations, systems, and processes for dozens of companies, where the goal is a profitable CPA and scalable enrollment volume, I know how to find the gaps in the sales ops and put together solutions. If you need help identifying the gaps, email me so we can talk about your needs and goals.