Archive for October, 2009

Insurance Lead Generation – Tips For Getting The Good Ones

Sales careers can be rewarding and frustrating all at the same time. Anyone in sales knows what it’s like to work on a client for ages, and finally get a huge order. After your boss pats you on the back he says, “Now, go do it again tomorrow.” So much for your celebration! Your first thought is, “where do I get more leads like this one?” Insurance lead generation can be the worst part of the business and many sales people quit when the going gets tough.

A good source of leads is your present customer base. Many sales people especially in service industries like insurance or finance will call their clients every quarter or so to discuss how things are going, ask for more business, and ask for more referrals. These referrals can be a valuable source of leads and income. Others can be a waste of time. There’s no sense calling a single 22 year old college student in debt up to his eyeballs to see if he’d be interested in buying life insurance.

One fairly effective method people have used for decades is a simple mass mailing. Nowadays mailings are much less expensive and with computer imagery to help design anything you want, a project can go from concept to the post office in a few days. Of course, the success rates haven’t changed much over the years and the average of 4% response is industry wide. These people could just go to your website and ask for more information or they could visit your site with buying in mind. Out of that 4% you can then hope for less than 1% to become paying customers.

Out of 10, 000 postcards, in effect, you might get 100 that have potential to become customers. Of course, that could mean different levels of success to different areas of finance and targeting. Obviously your target audience must be susceptible to what you have to offer. And the product you have to offer needs to convert at a high percentage.

Another option that has been around for quite some time are companies that sell what they call qualified life insurance leads. These names are garnered from a variety of sources, some fairly reliable, others are questionable. There are different methods to pay for these leads. Some companies offer monthly membership programs and you can access either their entire database or portions of their database, depending on the level of your membership and your needs. Other programs allow you buy leads and you use this list just once (usually for a mailing).

When you buy leads, however, you have no guarantee how recent they are or how viable they are. Timing is important.

These companies usually don’t even know where these leads come from because they, in turn, are working with various marketing organizations that conduct all types of surveys and mailings. All someone needs to do is put a check mark next to a box on a post card or take a survey and answer a few questions. Their answers could be meaningless, or worse, they find someone to do business with long before you get their information to contact them. Always proceed with caution when it comes to insurance lead generation companies.

Life Insurance Lead Cautions

Anyone whether qualified or unqualified is able to obtain a life insurance lead via a well planned direct mail program as well as an internet lead provider online. In order to be able to obtain these valuable leads you need to invest money as both the direct mail and quality internet insurance leads are rather costly. If you are professional you may be able to earn yourself a significant amount of money from the commissions.

You have also got to bear in mind that of the list of leads you receive not everyone will result in a sale. You also need to make sure that the internet life insurance lead provider is honest and truthful and has integrity, as this is extremely important. Should you sign up and find that you’re not even breaking even abandon that source immediately. Just be really very careful not to just jump into the first lead offer you find. This is probably the most important point in utilizing life insurance lead generation companies. You may have to spend some time hunting around for a good one.

The days of insurance salesmen cold calling is fast becoming a thing of the past.  Obtaining life insurance leads is one of the most ideal ways to quickly locate qualified prospects.  Combine an interested prospect with a quality presentation and you’ve the odds in your favor.  The end result is you’re closing more deals, which will increase your income substantially, and that is why it’s important to look into an option like using quality internet insurance leads. Just be very cautious.

You are also able to walk the road alone and generate your own life  insurance leads which will save you a considerable amount of money and time.  You just need to be really careful as these lead companies will try to persuade you to buy in bulk or participate in expensive lead generation programs. Have them prove themselves to you before any significant investment.

Cheap leads are extremely suspect as the companies selling them are not concerned about you making appointments or building a long term business relationship. They sell these unqualified leads, which might as well be right out of the phone book with no intention of getting your repeat business so they can just make a quick buck. Unfortunately, the lead business is littered with these types.

You also need to be warned that when buying a life insurance lead list from a particular site, which could cost you say $500 or even more, that same site could be easily re-selling the same list. By selling the list to you and many others for the same price can advertise on a huge scale, which is where they then deviously lure the people into buying useless lead lists. The same life insurance lead list can be sold hundreds of times over and are termed as shared leads. Rather be safe than sorry by doing loads of research before you purchase.

Life Insurance Lead Development

In the economy today people are holding on to their money and preparing their nest egg’s in case of an emergency. Because of this the sales rates for life insurance and other financial products have dropped off drastically. Life insurance sales representatives are turning to a life insurance lead development to help increase their sales.

Life insurance leads are developed by online services. These services use web banners and advertisements to promote interest in purchasing a life insurance policy. They ask people to fill out some simple information on an online form and give them the promise of a personal call from an agent within a particular time frame.

This information becomes a life insurance lead. The person that hosts the site that collects the information from the potential customers sells the leads to insurance agents in the area of the potential customer. This agent then contacts the customer and arranges a time to meet with them.

How soon the meeting takes place will probably depend on if the lead was purchased as an exclusive life insurance lead or not. Some sales leads are sold for a very small price but are sold to multiple agents. These agents then begin a race to get an appointment set so they can give their sales presentation and hopefully make a sale before their competition.

To purchase an exclusive lead the agents do spend a much larger amount of money. The extra costs are worth it if the agent is not interested in competing against other agents from other companies. They can then take their time to reach the potential customer. They also can give them the flexibility to schedule the appointment at the customers convenience.

People tend to respond better if they do not feel as if they are being pressured to make a purchase. They will be more willing to listen to what you have to say and your chances at making a sale will be higher indeed. As you meet with the customer you can feel sure that they are listening and that they feel at ease.

Another great aspect of purchasing a life insurance lead is that the lead is verified. This means that the person has reached out to get the quote on their own. The agent that comes to meet with this type of customer knows that they are already very interested in purchasing a policy. Their time is much less likely to be wasted.

The availability of the business is another great perk. Many agents spend a large amount of time on the telephone trying to drum up some business. Either that or they are making door to door calls trying to find just one person that may be willing to listen to their presentation. Even when they find someone who will listen they cannot be sure that they will come away with a sale.

Agents everywhere are getting life insurance lead prospects to increase their sales. It has increased many sales and gotten many agents the success that they need to remain profitable. Get online today and see who can give you the best life leads. You may end up saving a lot of money while developing your business.