Pourquoi l'achat de leads est risqué pour un CGP ?
L'achat de Leads dans le domaine de la gestion de patrimoine est devenu une pratique de plus en plus courante. On voit des CGPs débutants (mais pas que) avoir recours à cette stratégie pour se faire leurs premiers clients et accélérer leur croissance. Dans cet article, je vais vous donner mon avis sur la pratique de l'achat de leads pour les CGPs.
My aim is to share a balanced version of this practice, looking at the advantages, disadvantages, risks and alternatives associated with lead buying for heritage players.
What is lead buying in wealth management?
A wealth management lead is someone who has expressed an interest in your financial services and who could become a client. Buying leads in the wealth management sector involves acquiring information, often the names and emails of people who have expressed an interest in the services offered by a wealth manager. These leads are collected via online forms, inbound calls, etc. By purchasing leads from specialized companies, you gain direct access to pre-selected prospects, which can save your sales team valuable time.
Le plus souvent, on trouve des plateformes qui proposent d'acheter des informations sur des personnes souhaitant un conseil pour des problématiques de défiscalisation ou parfois pour l'achat d'un produit financier particulier (Pinel, Girardin etc.). Il existe des plateformes qui collectent des informations sur des personnes qui ont des objectifs plus vagues comme « préparer sa retraite » ou « comment investir 100,000 euros en 20XX ». Ces leads sont obtenus à partir de différentes sources, comme des formulaires en ligne, des bases de données professionnelles ou des entreprises spécialisées dans la génération de leads.
Pourquoi les CGPs ont-ils recours à l'achat de leads ?
Les conseillers en gestion de patrimoine sont des acteurs incontournables de la commercialisation des produits de défiscalisation comme le dispositif Pinel. Ils aident les investisseurs à comprendre les rouages complexes de ces placements. L’achat de contacts présente des avantages indéniables, et les CGP utilisent l'achat de leads pour plusieurs raisons stratégiques:
Acquire new customers: buying leads will enable you to reach a wider audience potentially interested in your services, which may be difficult to achieve through referrals or networking alone.
Saving time: finding qualified leads is a time-consuming task, especially if you haven't mastered Internet lead acquisition techniques. By purchasing leads, you can free yourself from this activity and save time by concentrating on converting prospects who are already qualified.
Fast results: Buying leads enables rapid expansion of your customer base. More often than not, leads are qualified, have expressed a need and are already interested in a type of financial service, which shortens the sales cycle.
Better manage your customer pipeline: Buying leads is a bit like buying Google ads. It's a lever that makes it very easy to control your lead flow. You can activate when you want and stop just as easily. It's also easy to anticipate the cost of a lead and offload marketing activities.
Des leads ciblés permettent aux CGP d'atteindre plus facilement les prospects déjà sensibilisés aux opportunités de défiscalisation. Cela optimise les efforts commerciaux.
Lead providers will use a variety of methods to generate and resell these contacts:
Ils vont créer des sites Web très spécialisés et les optimiser pour le référencement naturel.
Ils peuvent investir dans des campagnes de publicité en ligne ciblées (Facebook Ads, Google Ads...) sur des mots-clés stratégiques tels que « comment préparer sa retraite quand on a 40 ans » ou « comment investir dans l’immobilier ».
They will facilitate the collection of information via forms or free reminder services.
This combination of efforts enables the lead provider to supply its customers with committed, qualified leads. It's a bit like marketing outsourcing - fast and sometimes effective. I say sometimes, because you need to be vigilant and set your expectations carefully. Poor-quality leads carry risks, such as the feeling of spending unnecessarily, a disappointing ROI and sometimes a demotivating effect on sales teams. It is therefore essential to rigorously evaluate quality before purchasing any leads.
Les inconvénients de l'achat de leads pour un CGP
The cost
The cost of leads can vary according to quality, source and competition in the market. Buying leads can be expensive, especially for high-quality leads. The cost of a lead can vary from 40 Euros to 350 Euros.
Lead quality can be uncertain.
La qualité des leads peut varier. Certains leads peuvent ne pas être sérieusement intéressés ou ne pas correspondre aux critères souhaités – ou tout simplement ne pas répondre aux sollicitations commerciales du CGP.
Regulatory compliance
The purchase of leads must comply with current regulations, particularly with regard to data protection and privacy, including RGDP rules.
The risk of a single-channel strategy
Les CGP qui dépendent exclusivement de l'achat de leads peuvent devenir vulnérables si cette source de prospects venait à se tarir. C'est la base de la règle de diversification.
Obligations of the service provider when selling leads
The main obligations of a lead seller are :
Supply of contacts promised in the contract
Compliance with data protection laws
Please note, however, that the seller has no obligation to achieve results in terms of lead conversion.
Tips to avoid unpleasant surprises
To guarantee the quality of your leads :
Check before you buy.
Compare offers from several suppliers.
Negotiate a service level agreement (SLA).
Alternatives to buying leads
As you'll have gathered by now, I'm of the opinion that investing in yourself and your marketing will yield a tenfold increase in results over the medium-to-long term. So what are the alternatives to buying leads to attract new customers?
Creating and distributing informative and educational content on personal finance and wealth management can help you attract potential customers organically. To get started, you need to implement an editorial strategy and take the time to create content. The advantage of this so-called "inbound marketing" strategy is that it's a one-time effort. Of course, it's an effort, and it requires an investment of time and money to produce the content. But this investment allows you to create what are known as "marketing assets" that can be used many times or on many different marketing channels, and you control the message.
2. Marketing on Social Networks
Les réseaux sociaux offrent une plateforme incroyable pour interagir avec des clients potentiels et se faire connaître. Pour les CGP, le réseau social de prédilection reste LinkedIn. Il existe déjà quelques « influenceurs » LinkedIn dans la gestion de patrimoine, mais cela reste un canal d'acquisition intéressant. Pourquoi ? Parce que c'est une cible professionnelle où le contenu se consomme de manière intentionnelle. Certains CGPs l'ont compris et génèrent des centaines de commentaires par leur contenu éducatif sur la finance personnelle.
E-mail is, I think, the most underestimated marketing tool. Unlike social networks, e-mail allows you to establish a direct link with a prospect (or a customer), to make yourself known, to give yourself credibility by sharing your expertise, and to establish a relationship of trust even before making contact. It's so much easier to convince people when you've already demonstrated your expertise and communicated your USP. Email also makes it possible to personalize communication and ensure asynchronous marketing follow-up, thanks to email automation and sequencing tools.
4. Your network
Le réseautage est une stratégie efficace pour beaucoup de CGP pour attirer des clients. Pourquoi ? Parce qu'il élimine le besoin d'instaurer de la confiance, chose qui se fait naturellement pendant l'exercice de la mise en contact. En revanche, l'inconvénient du réseau est qu'il faut le créer, que cela prend du temps et qu'on n'en contrôle pas l'efficacité.
My opinion on lead buying:
If I had to use a concrete example, I'd compare buying leads to choosing between buying real estate and renting. Both have their merits, but
What bothers me about buying leads?
"You finance the owner's purchase." Indeed, it's much the same thing. You're financing someone else's customer acquisition, when with a little effort and training or outsourcing, you could be investing in your own marketing and implementing long-term strategies.
Even a qualified lead hasn't chosen you. The lead has generated interest in a financial service, but not in you. You're operating in an extra-competitive industry that's also based on trust. When canvassing a purchased lead, even a qualified one, they may not be cold, but they don't know you and will inevitably compare you to other providers. And more often than not, this comparison will be based on the simplest element to compare: price. Your efforts at persuasion will inevitably be put to the test.
It's like investing in a Livret A when you have 50,000 euros and nothing else. For some people, it's just what they need. For others, it's a monumental loss of earnings. For those who understand, investing in your image and marketing will have the advantage of differentiating you from your competitors and controlling what is said about you.
Ultimately, the decision to buy leads depends on the specific needs of each wealth management advisor and their assets: their network, their budget, their marketing expertise, the time available. It's an effective option if you're looking for speed without effort. However, when you outsource prospecting, you have to accept a lower conversion rate and more persuasion work.
There are alternatives that are more effective in the long term. Today, an online presence is essential to reassure and convince, but also to set up a marketing machine that does the work for you. Whether it's content marketing, social network marketing or e-mail marketing, the tools are there to help you identify your target, communicate your expertise and convince before you even pick up the phone.
The key lies in combining different strategies to ensure constant growth and a quality customer base.
If you'd like to set up an alternative to lead buying, I invite you to book a free discovery call.
