APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A LEAD EXCHANGE FACILITATING HUB

• US 20110288962A1
• Filed: 12/06/2010
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: MG Technology Company Limited
• Original Assignee: MG Technology Company Limited
• Inventors: Rankin, Claiborne R. JR., O'Brien, Patrick A.
• Application Number:
  US12/960,637
• Publication Number:
  US 20110288962A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/27.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24573 using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2117 User registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

The APPARATUS, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A LEAD EXCHANGE FACILITATING HUB (“HUB”) facilitates the generation, evaluation, and recording of information and activities related to property transactions and associated communications. In embodiments, the HUB may be configured to transaction and/or exchange of lead information, such as contact information, real estate site drives, market comparables, marketing ideas, and/or the like. The HUB may engender a tailored and efficient forum for coordinating transactions of lead information based on a centralized database of contacts and other lead information associated with and/or belonging to users. In one embodiment, users may submit lead requests comprising parameters and/or criteria based on which one or more queries may be performed on that database. Other users having leads matching the request may then be notified and may decide whether to share their lead information with the requesting user. In one implementation, users may include a bounty or other user-specified offer price with their lead request, which may be provided to a lead owner upon transfer of the requested lead information. In some implementations, users may submit lead quality rating scores and/or the like subsequent to receiving lead information, which may assist future requestors in selecting the lead providers with whom they wish to engage in transactions.

Claims

1. A lead service exchange facilitating processor-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a lead request comprising lead criteria from a requestor;

querying a lead database based on the lead criteria to retrieve a plurality of candidate lead matches, wherein each candidate lead match is associated with at least one of a plurality of candidate lead match owners;

generating a lead sharing request message;

providing the lead sharing request message to each of the plurality of candidate lead match owners;

receiving at least one lead sharing acceptance in response to the lead sharing request message from at least one of the plurality of candidate lead match owners;

providing at least one lead candidate identifier corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of candidate lead match owners for selectable display to the requestor;

receiving selection of the at least one lead candidate identifier from the requestor;

effectuating a compensation to the at least one of the plurality of candidate lead match owners; and

providing access to at least one of the plurality of candidate lead matches associated with the at least one of the plurality of candidate lead match owners.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the plurality of candidate lead matches comprises contact information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the plurality of candidate lead matches comprises site drive information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the lead request further comprises a proposed compensation, and wherein the compensation is equal to the proposed compensation.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein querying a lead database further comprises:

comparing the proposed compensation to minimum compensation values for lead matches in the lead database; and

retrieving the candidate lead matches having minimum compensation values less than the proposed compensation.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the minimum compensation value associated with the at least one of a plurality of candidate lead match owners depends on a quality rating associated with the at least one of a plurality of candidate lead match owners.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein providing at least one candidate identifier corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of candidate lead match owners further comprises:

providing at least one quality rating for display in association with the at least one candidate lead identifier.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one lead sharing acceptance comprises a plurality of lead sharing acceptances and the at least one lead candidate identifier corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of candidate lead matches comprises a plurality of lead candidate identifiers corresponding to each of a plurality of accepting candidate lead matches.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

sorting the plurality of lead candidate identifiers based on sorting criteria to generate a sorted list of lead candidate identifiers; and

wherein providing at least one lead candidate identifier further comprises providing the sorted list of lead candidate identifiers.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the sorting criteria is based on an order of response to the lead sharing request message.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the sorting criteria is based on differences between a proposed compensation included in the lead request and benchmark compensations associated with each of the plurality of lead candidate identifiers.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the sorting criteria is based on priority placement statuses associated with each of the plurality of lead candidate identifiers.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the sorting criteria is based on a match quality associated with each of the plurality of lead candidate identifiers in relation to the lead criteria.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the sorting criteria is based on a quality rating associated with each of the plurality of accepting candidate lead matches.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a lead quality score from the requestor; and

updating a lead quality rating associated with the at least one of the plurality of candidate lead match owners based on the lead quality score.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing abridged candidate lead match associated with each of the plurality of candidate lead matches information for selectable display to the requestor;

receiving a selection of at least one of the plurality of candidate lead matches from the requestor; and

wherein the lead sharing request message is only provided to the at least one of the plurality of candidate lead matches.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the lead request further comprises a payment account identifier and wherein effectuating compensation comprises deducting an amount from a requestor account associated with the payment account identifier and crediting the amount to an account associated with the at least one of the plurality of candidate lead match owners.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein effectuating compensation comprises:

receiving indication of a transaction associated with the lead request; and

effectuating a payment to the at least one of the plurality of candidate lead match owners comprising a percentage of a transacted amount associated with the transaction.

19. A lead sharing processor implemented method, comprising:

receiving a lead share request from a requestor, the lead share request comprising at least one lead share parameter and a bounty offer;

querying user records based on the at least one lead share parameter;

retrieving at least one matching lead based on the querying;

retrieving a user quality rating corresponding to the user record associated with the retrieved at least one matching lead;

determining a bounty premium based on the user quality rating; and

offering the at least one matching lead for display to the requestor in exchange for payment of an acceptance amount equal to the bounty offer summed with the bounty premium.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

receiving an acceptance indicator from the requestor, the acceptance indicator signifying a willingness to pay the acceptance amount; and

providing the at least one matching lead for display to the requestor.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

debiting a requestor account for the acceptance amount; and

crediting an account corresponding to the user record associated with the retrieved at least one matching lead for the acceptance amount.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

receiving a payment for the acceptance amount from the requestor; and

providing the payment to a user corresponding to the user record associated with the retrieved at least one matching lead.

23. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

receiving a payment for the acceptance amount from the requestor;

deducting a service fee from the payment to yield a net payment; and

providing the net payment to a user corresponding to the user record associated with the retrieved at least one matching lead.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the lead share request further comprises a target filter, and wherein querying user records based on the at least one lead share parameter is restricted to user records matching the target filter.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein the at least one matching lead comprises a plurality of matching leads.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

sorting the plurality of matching leads based on selected sorting criteria; and

wherein offering the at least one matching lead for display to the requestor further comprises,

providing an ordered list of user identifiers corresponding to user records associated with the plurality of matching leads based on the sorting.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the selected sorting criteria comprises a quality rating of users corresponding to user records associated with the plurality of matching leads.

28. The method of claim 19, wherein the lead share request further comprises a request type selection.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the request type selection comprises at least one of contact information, marketing idea information and site drive information.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein querying user records based on at least one lead share parameter is restricted to user record fields associated with the request type selection.

31. The method of claim 19, wherein the bounty offer further includes a currency unit selection.

32. The method of claim 19, wherein the bounty premium is zero.

33. An access permissions setting processor implemented method, comprising:

retrieving a list of user contacts associated with a user;

providing an access permissions setting interface, including the list of user contacts, for display to the user;

receiving at least one access permission setting in association with at least one user contact via the access permissions setting interface, the at least one access permission setting comprising at least one of a contact access setting, a marketing idea access setting and a site drive access setting; and

storing the at least one access permission setting in association with the at least one user contact and the user.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the at least one access permission setting comprises at least one of a contact access setting and a marketing idea setting, and further comprising:

providing a second list of user contacts for display to the user;

receiving a user contact selection from the second list of user contacts; and

wherein storing the at least one access permission setting is further in association with the user contact selection.

35. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

receiving an access request from a requester;

determining an access permission via the at least one access permission setting and the access request; and

if the access permission is true,

then;

querying requested information from at least one user record associated with the user based on the access request,

retrieving the requested information based on the querying, and

providing the requested information for display to the requester;

else;

denying the access request.

36. A lead service exchange facilitating apparatus, comprising:

a memory;

a processor disposed in communication with the memory and configured to issue a plurality of processing instructions stored in the memory, wherein the processor issues instructions to;

receive a lead request comprising lead criteria from a requestor;

query a lead database based on the lead criteria to retrieve a plurality of candidate lead matches, wherein each candidate lead match is associated with at least one of a plurality of candidate lead match owners;

generate a lead sharing request message;

provide the lead sharing request message to each of the plurality of candidate lead match owners;

receive at least one lead sharing acceptance in response to the lead sharing request message from at least one of the plurality of candidate lead match owners;

provide at least one lead candidate identifier corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of candidate lead match owners for selectable display to the requestor;

receive selection of the at least one lead candidate identifier from the requestor;

effectuate a compensation to the at least one of the plurality of candidate lead match owners; and

provide access to at least one of the plurality of candidate lead matches associated with the at least one of the plurality of candidate lead match owners.

37. A lead service exchange facilitating medium, comprising:

a plurality of processing instructions stored in the medium and issuable by a processor to;

receive a lead request comprising lead criteria from a requestor;

query a lead database based on the lead criteria to retrieve a plurality of candidate lead matches, wherein each candidate lead match is associated with at least one of a plurality of candidate lead match owners;

generate a lead sharing request message;

provide the lead sharing request message to each of the plurality of candidate lead match owners;

receive at least one lead sharing acceptance in response to the lead sharing request message from at least one of the plurality of candidate lead match owners;

provide at least one lead candidate identifier corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of candidate lead match owners for selectable display to the requestor;

receive selection of the at least one lead candidate identifier from the requestor;

effectuate a compensation to the at least one of the plurality of candidate lead match owners; and

provide access to at least one of the plurality of candidate lead matches associated with the at least one of the plurality of candidate lead match owners.

38. A lead sharing apparatus, comprising:

a memory;

a processor disposed in communication with the memory and configured to issue a plurality of processing instructions stored in the memory, wherein the processor issues instructions to;

receive a lead share request from a requestor, the lead share request comprising at least one lead share parameter and a bounty offer;

query user records based on the at least one lead share parameter;

retrieve at least one matching lead based on the querying;

retrieve a user quality rating corresponding to the user record associated with the retrieved at least one matching lead;

determine a bounty premium based on the user quality rating; and

offer the at least one matching lead for display to the requestor in exchange for payment of an acceptance amount equal to the bounty offer summed with the bounty premium.

39. A lead sharing processor-accessible medium, comprising:

a plurality of processing instructions stored in the medium and issuable by a processor to;

receive a lead share request from a requestor, the lead share request comprising at least one lead share parameter and a bounty offer;

query user records based on the at least one lead share parameter;

retrieve at least one matching lead based on the querying;

retrieve a user quality rating corresponding to the user record associated with the retrieved at least one matching lead;

determine a bounty premium based on the user quality rating; and

offer the at least one matching lead for display to the requestor in exchange for payment of an acceptance amount equal to the bounty offer summed with the bounty premium.