Summit Debt Solutions recovered 70% of "lost" leads with re-engagement

About Summit Debt Solutions

Summit Debt Solutions is a national debt settlement company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. With a team of 60 debt counselors handling over 5,000 inbound and purchased leads per month, Summit helps consumers navigate overwhelming debt through consolidation, settlement negotiation, and hardship programs.

Summit's services span the full spectrum of consumer debt relief. Their counselors work with clients carrying an average of $28,000 in unsecured debt, guiding them through settlement programs that typically run 24 to 48 months. The company purchases leads from multiple sources and also generates inbound traffic through digital marketing campaigns.

A mountain of "dead" leads hiding real opportunity

Summit's sales operation had a significant blind spot. Nearly 40% of all purchased leads were being marked as "not interested" after initial contact, and the team had no systematic process for revisiting those contacts. The result was thousands of potentially viable leads being written off every month.

• 40% of leads labeled "not interested" after a single contact attempt, with no process to distinguish between a firm "no" and a soft refusal driven by bad timing or uncertainty.
• No systematic follow-up process for declined leads. Once a counselor marked a lead as unresponsive or uninterested, that contact was effectively abandoned. There was no re-engagement workflow or cooling period strategy.
• Purchased leads costing $45 to $80 each were being written off after one attempt. With over 2,000 leads per month going to waste, Summit was burning through $90,000 to $160,000 monthly in lead spend with no second chance at conversion.
• Agents following up only 2 to 3 times before giving up. Counselors were overwhelmed with fresh leads and had little incentive or bandwidth to circle back to contacts who had previously declined.
• Compliance concerns around re-contacting opted-out leads. The team lacked clarity on which contacts had explicitly opted out versus those who had simply not responded, creating legal uncertainty that discouraged any re-engagement efforts.

The core problem was not lead quality. It was lead lifecycle management. Summit was treating every "no" as permanent, when the data would eventually show that most of those responses were temporary.

Intelligent re-engagement built on timing and context

Summit partnered with Arnis to build a re-engagement system that could distinguish between leads who were truly uninterested and those who simply were not ready at the moment of first contact. The solution centered on five key capabilities.

• Re-engagement campaigns with 14-day cooldown periods. Arnis automatically held leads in a waiting queue after initial contact, then re-initiated outreach with fresh messaging after two weeks. This spacing respected the lead's experience while keeping Summit top of mind.
• Soft refusal detection. Arnis analyzed the original conversation to distinguish between "not now" responses and firm "never contact me again" opt-outs. Phrases like "I'm not sure," "maybe later," and "let me think about it" were flagged for re-engagement, while explicit refusals were permanently honored.
• AI-driven personalized re-approach. Instead of sending the same generic pitch, Arnis crafted follow-up messages that referenced the original conversation. If a lead had mentioned concerns about their credit score, the re-engagement message addressed that specific worry.
• Custom opt-out keyword handling with TCPA compliance. Every message included clear opt-out instructions, and the system maintained a comprehensive suppression list. Leads who had texted "stop" or "unsubscribe" were permanently excluded, while those who had simply not replied were eligible for a single, carefully timed re-engagement attempt.
• Question templates for common debt relief inquiries. Arnis was equipped with pre-approved response templates covering the most frequent questions about settlement timelines, credit impact, fees, and program eligibility. This allowed the AI to handle initial qualifying conversations before routing warm leads to a counselor.

The entire system was designed to operate within strict compliance boundaries while maximizing the value of every lead dollar Summit had already spent.