LeadPoint, a lead generation portal, is to expand its offering and launch into the protection arena,...
LeadPoint, a lead generation portal, is to expand its offering and launch into the protection arena, writes Lucy Quinton.
Justin Rees, head of marketing at the firm, said the expansion was "due to the mortgage market decreasing so we have been looking at other areas". He added that in a few months, LeadPoint wanted protection to be a big area and overtake the mortgage side.
He said LeadPoint had been piloting the scheme for a month. "We wanted to do a month of trading to see how it works. It is currently open to existing customers and we will release this to new ones in a few weeks," he added.
LeadPoint already operates in the private medical insurance (PMI) market and recently launched a corporate health insurance lead scheme. Nick Chapman, managing director of LeadPoint UK, said the firm had already been successfully trading PMI leads for over a year and adding corporate health insurance leads was a "natural evolution".
However, industry figures have been sceptical over its success. Commenting, Alan Lakey, principal of Highclere Financial Services, said there were often "clipboard merchants who ask the public what they think about this and would they like that. These people are beguiled into releasing their names and addresses and are then sold on as 'leads'. If one of these 'leads' was genuine, would he or she have not already purchased the product?"
Peter Chadborn, principal of CBK Colchester, said he would not use such a firm as he gets introductions from existing customers, solicitors and accountants. "Leads should be a last resort as referrals would carry more weight," he said. "The fact that they already have experience in other areas such as mortgages is fine but they have experience in dealing with debt management which suggests that they will need to know how to source leads differently as the customer base will be different."
