Getting quality leads is half the batter won. What’s next is every agent’s biggest challenge: how to turn those leads into sales. No leads, of course, are guaranteed to convert. It is up to the agent to make sure that he will maximize the leads in terms of ROI. No leads can instantly make an insurance business a customer’s first choice for insurance. On the other hand, the agent can. Here’s a few ideas to get started.
1. Follow up on the lead ASAP – Purchased leads are delivered fresh because there is an advantage to this. Hot leads, or those that are less than a day old, are more likely to convert. The prospects are still highly interested in insurance, which works in favor of the agent. Also, following up on the lead as soon as it is possible makes hard selling unnecessary.
2. Wow the customer – Calling leads does not only entail providing a quote or offering your products. You have to build rapport and get to know your customer really well. This will help you a lot when the time comes that you will give him a quote. It helps that you get a sense of what the prospect really needs. If you get it right, the prospect would like you for it.
3. Consider your first call – Think through the first contact you will have with the lead. It is ideal that on your first call, you plan ahead and make sure that: 1. you are not interfering with the lead, such as calling him when he is working or in the office. 2. You explain yourself briefly and not bombard the lead with too much information at once.
4. Organize. Systemize – It is highly unlikely that you will close a sale on your first call. Be sure to keep track which lead is which. Use well the lead management software that comes with purchased leads. Organize your prospect according to their level of interest on your product, which of them feels like ready to buy, who are still unsure, and other categories you see fit.
Leads cost. Even the leads you don’t pay for, and still get, by visiting businesses and universities can cost you some money. This may come in the form of marketing expenses. Additionally, generating leads this way will cost you time, which in business has its equivalent in dollars.
There really is no such thing as free. The best that an agent can do is to find a balance and know when to follow free leads and when to buy insurance leads. In most cases, an insurance agent does not need to pay for leads if he has the resources and capacity to conduct his own leads generation. For small businesses, buying leads makes more business sense.
An event-driven mailing list can be a good source of free leads. Here, the agent can hold events for his target customers, with the aim of getting the prospects sign up for an insurance quote.
Another way is to approach businesses. This is not always effective, but can provide good returns for an agent. HRs are always on the lookout for competitive insurance packages for their employees. If you have good products, you have a good chance of being considered.
On the other hand, you can use a portion of your operation and marketing dollars to buy insurance leads. Buying removes the need to spend on lead generation. In a way, you outsource your hunt for prospects to an insurance leads provider.
Leads for sale can either be shared or exclusive. Shared leads are cheaper, but competitive. It means you share the leads with other agents, which may lower your chance of getting the sale. Exclusive leads, on the other hand, costs more. But they make up for their price with their high ROI. Exclusive leads providers boast of conversion rate of as high as 50 percent.
As soon as you realize that you can’t always count on free leads, your business gets more room to grow. Purchased leads can boost sales, and are a great addition to your free leads.
Leads come in great quantities. What you have to find are quality leads. They do not come often and they are not superficial. As a result, quality leads are high in ROI. When they go right, they convert easily. How can such leads be generated? Let’s take a look.
The single most important information you should ask when buying leads is the medium used to acquire the potential customers. This will determine the quality of the leads you get and, as a consequence, the ROI. There are many strategies that leads providers use to gather leads, all of them with their own pros and cons.
Telephone Marketing
Telephone marketing is the most popular, although outdated, leads generation strategy. It reaches many people and can give you a regular flow of leads. It is basically an agent’s job outsourced. Instead of the agent cold-calling a potential customer, teams of telephone marketer do it for him.
Organic Online Leads Generation
A rising trend in leads generation is Web outreach. Here, customers who shop for insurance products online form the bulk of the content of the leads that an agent receives. Compared to cold-calling and telephone marketing, organic lead generation gives highly relevant prospects because the leads have already expressed interest in an insurance product.
Event-Driven Mailing List
Insurance leads may also come from databases gathered during a relevant event. These events could come in the form of a company wellness program or another. This strategy is similarly targeted to relevant customers.
The downside, though, is that the event might be offering some sort of a premium or a prize to the customers so they would sign up for an insurance quote. The result is that not all of the leads are legitimate. Some might have signed up just to satisfy the event organizer and not really because they are in the market for insurance. Be sure to check on this and be certain that you’re dealing with a reputable insurance leads provider.
Thinking out of the box has always been a part of every business. In most cases, it can spell the difference between success and failure. Businesses have to be creative in meeting their bottom line, especially those in competitive niches like insurance. The old, traditional way of doing things might still work. But it wouldn’t hurt to try a few different things.
In the insurance industry, one avenue of sales leads that has kept agents competitive is the Internet. It has proven to be an efficient and cost-effective way to generate leads, particularly to enterprising agents who understand online insurance leads thoroughly and know how to get the most out of them.
Online leads typically come from websites that offer insurance quotes to consumers. As technology changes the way that consumers do their shopping, so are the consumers who now go online for their insurance quotes rather than going to an agent’s office.
The popularity of online insurance leads gave rise to a complementary business: the leads generation industry. As the name suggests, these are service providers that generate and sell insurance leads. They sell it either exclusive to an agent or shared among many.
The difference between an exclusive and shared lead does not only cover who has access to the lead. It spans to the cost of the leads as well as the conversion rate. Exclusive leads cost higher, but convert higher because only one agent chases after the leads. Shared leads, on the contrary, are cheaper but with lower conversion rate.
Finally, the most important thing that an agent needs to know about online leads is that they are served hot. Leads are delivered soon after the prospect signed up for an insurance quote. This works greatly in favor of the agent, as the level of interest of the customer from an online lead is still high. This also means that an agent needs to act fast. A lead that is a couple of weeks old is stale and may be worth nothing.
Buying insurance leads online not only gives you sales prospects. At the same time, they prevent you from overspending your marketing budget. It costs, but it is considerably cheaper. You get the leads without spending on marketing and advertising. You can then focus your time and budget on closing the sales.
For every investment made on one batch of leads, you get a sure ROI. Exclusive insurance leads have been reported to give a conversion rate of as high as 40 per cent. While it is always a great idea that in every aspect of your business you weigh the cost of your investment versus the returns, it should not stop there. That is important, and easily quantifiable. The harder part is weighing the efficiency of the service provider that can give you the most out of your insurance leads budget.
A sign of a suitable leads generation partner is its accreditation from the Better Business Bureau or other business ratings entities. Almost always, these ratings speak for the quality of service that you’re going to get from the provider. Reputation goes a long way in the business world. Nobody would want to transact with shady firms that doesn’t operate in a trustworthy manner.
Pay attention to customer reviews. It takes real satisfaction for a customer to take some time off his busy schedule to write a review of the service provider. Of course, you should take customer reviews with a grain of salt. Go to independent review sites and reputable professionals groups to get a head start in finding the right insurance leads provider for your business.
Leads are central to any agent’s insurance business. They take up a majority of the time and resources that a business has at its disposal. Because of this, it just makes perfect sense to devote a lot of strategic planning when generating insurance leads.
Today, we take a look a look at three of the top sources of insurance leads: business institutions, tertiary schools, and insurance leads companies. When understood completely, these sources could be the bread and butter of your own insurance business.
Business Institutions – Nowhere is there a great demand for insurance than business institutions. As part of their benefits packages, companies big and small offer competitive insurance policies to attract and keep talent.
PROS: Demand is high. Businesses are always on the lookout for competitive rates, year in and year out, as a way to offer good insurance packages to their employees and also save on their annual budgets.
CONS: This is perhaps the hotspot of insurance business. Because of high demand, the supply catches up real quick and there is stiff competition.
Tertiary Schools – Insurance is not exclusive to the old and the employed. Some strategic insurance agents have made real headway in turning insurance leads from universities and colleges to successful customers.
PROS: There is less competition, as this remains an untapped source of good insurance leads. College students have substantial purchasing power, especially those in higher-income schools. Not as much as people already in the workforce, but enough to buy themselves some insurance policy.
CONS: Conversion is low. Although the money is there, a majority of college kids are still at that point in their life when they feel like they can do anything. Most of them feel no need for insurance. There is less chance you can get lots of customers here.
Insurance Leads Companies – The easiest way to get a continuous flow of fresh insurance leads is through an insurance lead company. They do the difficult part of generating leads so you won’t have to, allowing you to focus on sales.
PROS: Offers high-quality leads for a fee. They solve an agent’s constant problem of scouring for good leads. The key here is finding a reputable insurance lead provider to partner with. Once you find one, you get yourself a business that is poised to succeed.
CONS: Prepare to spend because insurance leads will cost you, not as much especially if you consider that you have to advertise and market your products only to get good leads. Think of it as outsourcing your marketing and advertising. You get good leads without you having to do anything.
Paying for leads may deter a lot of new insurance agents, especially those who have yet to see a proof of concept of how an effective insurance leads provider can increase their sales. It isn’t only because of the price, but due to trust as well.
Insurance leads, when you think about it, costs much less than the advertising and marketing that you would eventually do in order that you get good leads. What deters insurance agents is the thought of partnering with a lead provider.
Depending on another company for insurance lead may sound very risky. It may look as if you are handing them the reins of your insurance business. You count on them for something as crucial to your business as leads.
Yet that isn’t the case with a reputable leads provider.
You will know that a lead-generation service is trustworthy if it binds you under no contract. This setup frees you up from any obligations, which means you can do business independently from the service provider’s operations. Without any contract, you can leave the partnership as you see fit.
Also, a reputable insurance lead provider does not incentivize. It doesn’t offer prizes or freebies to leads just so they will sign up for an insurance quote. Almost always, these leads do not work. Good leads generation are organic. It comes natural and real.
Lastly, a good insurance lead provider may be defined by its clientele. If the company has many positive reviews, from many respectable insurance agents, it is a good sign. It doesn’t end here, though. It would be good if you continue doing your due diligence and some background check on the insurance provider. After all, your business is on the line.
An online insurance lead is one of the trump cards that every agent can have to make his business thrive. It has high ROI, is easy to procure, and has been proven to save agents considerable time. If you’re still thinking twice about purchasing an online insurance lead, consider these:
First, buying an online insurance lead saves you substantial advertising and marketing dollars. Without having to promote your products, insurance lead providers give you a list of people who are interested to talk to you about insurance. You can then focus on sales and worry only about turning these leads into customers.
Next, online insurance leads are the most cost-effective. You can generate leads by scouring HRs and universities to sell your products. That would be hard, though, especially for a small business. Also there is no real guarantee that you will get a business from these prospects. Online leads are from people who have already signified an interest in insurance by applying for an insurance quote.
Another reason to buy an insurance lead is that, it is fresh. As soon as a person applies for an insurance quote, his information is screened and delivered to agents looking for a customer with the same criteria as the applicant. This makes sure that the lead is still “hot” and interested. While not a guarantee, freshness is one characteristic of an exclusive insurance lead that makes them converts easily.
Last, and most important, is the competitive edge that online insurance leads will give you. As online commerce gets traction, more and more people do their shopping online. You and your business would be at a disadvantage if you fail to meet the opportunity that the Web offers now.
In the course of providing top-notch service to our customers, we often receive questions from them about our services and why we are better than other insurance lead providers. We found a few themes to these questions and thought we might share them here with you.
1. Is your lead exclusive? 100 percent. ParasolLeads does not recycle leads that other agents have already prospected. You can be sure that our insurance leads will be exclusive to you. This exclusivity is designed to give you the highest ROI possible. Our clients have reported a lead conversion rate of as high as 40 percent.
2. Do you require a minimum purchase? No. if you want to test a partnership with us, you can do so with very little investment. If you’re just starting out and do not have a big capital to spend on insurance leads, you can buy as many or as few as your budget would permit.
3. Can I cancel my account when I wish to? Yes. We do not bind our customers to any contract. You can cancel your account at any time. Any funds that remain under your account will be refunded back to your credit card at the termination of services.
4. How are your leads better than others? Simple. We work based on highly ethical standards. Our unique insurance leads generation service makes sure that we connect agents only with real people looking to buy an insurance product.
Still need more information? You may read our Services page to learn more about what we can do for your business. Or head on over to our LinkedIn community page to see what our clients say about us. Join the conversation, or drop us a comment if you have other questions.
Some leads fail, some leads convert. It is unavoidable that, no matter how good your leads are, there would be those that might not give you the desired results. The reason could be anything, be it the economy or the competition. It wouldn’t look good though, if the leads fail to convert because of your lead management software.
A good lead management system is an integral part of every insurance agent’s sales success. A lead would just be a lead if not managed correctly. A typical lead management software should allow you to do the following:
1. Categorize Lead Status – a properly categorized list of leads allows the agent to get the most out of his investment. It gives the agent a direction to recognize which leads could convert. By spending the majority of his time only on good prospects, the agent puts himself in a position where he could get high ROI from his purchased leads. Some of the must-haves categories in your insurance lead management software should include Hot (ready to close), New (No Connection Yet), Dormant (Little Activity), among others.
2. Easily Update Status of Individual Leads – this is the primary use on an insurance management tool. It should allow the agent to update the status of each lead as he goes through each of the prospects. For easy management, the software should be accessible from anywhere and any computer. A software as a service insurance management tool, which you can access online 24/7, goes a long way in allowing the agent to access his leads database whether he works in the office or remotely.
3. Real-Time Lead Delivery – leads are best served fresh. It gives the agent the advantage of making the first contact. By being the first to get in touch with a prospect, the agent beats the competition and improves his chances of closing the lead. However, it could be difficult if there is an unmanageable flow of leads. Your insurance lead management software should allow you to set a cap on how many leads would be delivered.