I've Worked Millions of Leads. Here's Everything I've Learned.

I'm obsessed with sales systems. Not the glossy, theoretical kind you read about in business books, but the messy, practical, real-world systems that actually work when you're staring at a spreadsheet of 10,000 leads wondering which ones to call first.

There's a science to designing a sales operation that performs consistently and generates predictable revenue. But there's also an art to it—the human psychology, the timing, the tonality that makes someone who requested a quote six months ago suddenly ready to move forward. Most people in this industry only understand one side. I've spent two decades mastering both.

That's why HowToWorkLeads exists. This is the living culmination of everything I've learned working millions of internet leads across insurance, mortgage, solar, and home improvement. Every counterintuitive secret. Every hard-won insight. Every system that actually moves the needle. No fluff. No theory. Just what works.

My path to becoming an expert in lead conversion systems wasn't conventional, but it makes perfect sense in hindsight.

I started in Air Force intelligence operations. That experience taught me something invaluable: the power of systematic thinking. Intelligence work is about taking massive amounts of raw data, finding the patterns, building the processes, and executing with precision. You don't get to guess. You build systems that work every single time.

That mindset followed me into my next chapter—spending 20+ years designing and building online consumer-direct banking and lending platforms. I wasn't just marketing financial products. I was building the entire infrastructure: lead generation, qualification systems, conversion processes, and the technology that made it all scale. I worked with major institutions like Quicken Loans, but more importantly, I built my own mortgage companies from scratch.

Here's where it gets interesting. I didn't just buy leads for my mortgage operations. I generated them with my own marketing. And when I bought leads, I worked them personally. I built the scripts. I tested the follow-up sequences. I tracked every data point. I lived in the trenches of lead conversion because my business depended on it.

Over the years, I worked millions of leads. Literally millions. Across multiple verticals. And somewhere in that process, I discovered something that changed everything: the economics of most lead generation is completely broken. Sales professionals are getting crushed by lead costs that destroy their margins before they ever close a deal.

That's why I became the marketing director and creator of all content for Aged Lead Store. I saw an opportunity to solve a real problem—giving salespeople access to high-quality aged leads at prices that actually make sense, combined with the systems to work them effectively.

Here's the truth that most lead vendors won't tell you: it's not about the lead quality. It's about your system.

I've watched thousands of agents blame their leads when the real problem is they're using the wrong approach. They treat aged leads like real-time leads. They give up after two calls. They use generic scripts that sound like every other salesperson. They don't understand the psychology of someone who requested information weeks or months ago.

Aged leads require a completely different strategy. And here's the counterintuitive part: when you work them correctly, they often convert better than real-time leads. Why? Because the sales pressure is gone. Because they've had time to research. Because they're making a more informed decision. Because you can buy them in volume and build a predictable system.

The secret isn't the lead—it's the process you build around it. The scripting. The timing. The follow-up sequences. The persistence combined with value. The data tracking that tells you what's actually working.

Predictable revenue comes from predictable processes. That's what I've spent two decades building. That's what I teach.

My expertise isn't theoretical. It's built on actual platforms, real businesses, and tangible results:

I'm not someone who read about this in a book and decided to teach it. I'm someone who built businesses on this foundation and won't shut up about what actually works.

HowToWorkLeads is my passion project. It's not a lead sales site. It's not a course funnel. It's a resource for sales professionals who take this craft seriously.

Everything I publish here comes from real experience. The strategies I share are the ones I've tested with real money on the line. The counterintuitive insights are the ones vendors won't tell you because it might hurt their real-time lead pricing. The systems are the ones that have generated millions in revenue across multiple industries.

I'm done watching good salespeople fail because they don't have access to the right information. The knowledge exists. The systems work. The economics make sense when you know what you're doing. But nobody's pulling it all together in one place and being straight about what actually matters.

That's what this site is. Twenty years of experience. Millions of leads worked. Every lesson learned the hard way. No BS. No vendor speak. Just the practitioner's guide to building a lead conversion system that actually performs.

This is part of the Bill Rice Strategy Group family of resources because I believe in empowering professionals with real, actionable intelligence. Not theory. Not fluff. The actual playbook.

Here's what drives me: I genuinely believe that sales professionals deserve better than what they're getting from the lead generation industry. They deserve honest information. They deserve fair pricing. They deserve systems that actually work.

I've been in this industry long enough to see all the games. I've seen agents get crushed by lead costs. I've seen vendors oversell and underdeliver. I've seen people give up on internet leads because nobody taught them the right approach.

That pisses me off. Because it doesn't have to be this way.

When you build the right system, when you understand the economics, when you have access to plentiful lead sources at fair prices, and when you execute with the right strategy—this works. Consistently. Predictably. Profitably.

That's why I create this content. That's why I share these systems. That's why I'm transparent about what vendors won't tell you. Because the more salespeople who understand how this really works, the better the entire industry becomes.

If you want to follow my ongoing work, check out my main site at billrice.com and subscribe to My Executive Brief, my weekly newsletter on B2B marketing strategy. But if you want to master lead conversion specifically, you're in the right place.

You've got two options from here:

Either way, you're not going to get vendor BS. You're going to get straight talk from someone who's built this from the ground up.

Let's build something that works.