This article will focus on leads in insurance. It’s becoming more popular for insurance shoppers to use the internet to compare quotes. They seem to be here for the long haul. They are either your best friend or worst enemy. You have two options to handle the situation. Either we can shut our eyes and complain, or we can take control of the situation and make a plan to get our bread toasted.
There is a lot to be done online, and I’m not the only one who sees it. Even the big players in the industry are turning to the internet for leads when it comes to insurance. They even build entire sales processes around them. Five steps will help you get a piece of this pie if you want to take part.
Step 1: Perform the calculations. It is amazing to see how few agents actually take the time to do the math. You sell all types insurance, and your average annual revenue for new clients is $1000 (this includes up-sells as well as cross-sells).
Imagine if 100 leads were purchased per week at $10 each and you closed only 3%. How much money can you make in a year? It would be amazing if your net profit was $104,000.
What if you could make half of that amount and increase the conversion rate by 1 percent? What would this amount be for a year? With a conversion rate of 4%, 50 leads per week would bring in as much as $78,000.
Imagine if you could only generate 20 insurance leads per week but were able to sell and increase the conversion rate to 10%. What would this make you annually? It would yield a $93,600 annual income if you used the same parameters.
Step 2: Gain an advantage over your competition The conversion ratio can influence your sales and income. The conversion ratio can be improved to make more sales and less work. To increase the number of insurance leads, you need to have a competitive edge.
This is a fact: There are no exclusive leads for insurance on the Internet. This holds true regardless of whether a lead provider sells a lead once. Consumers are known to shop at multiple sites. What does this mean for you? You must stand out! Ask yourself “Why me?” For a second, imagine yourself in the shoes of a potential buyer and then ask yourself why they would choose you over someone who is selling insurance leads. Your answer should be clear.
Once you have answered the question correctly, communicate that information to your prospects in all your communications, including email and sales copy. If you do it right, prospects will not be able to question your business and who you are.
Step 3 – After completing the first two, it is time to find a reliable insurance lead provider. It can be difficult at times. There are good ones and bad ones. Unfortunately, the reputations of honest businesses have been damaged by those who just want to make quick buck. My best advice is to only cooperate with companies that are willing to offer insurance leads for free. This is a dangerous practice. They may claim they can provide insurance leads for free, but then request a contract or minimum purchase. If they ask you to purchase something, it is likely that the leads are not free. If a company has confidence in its own abilities, they will offer you some insurance leads.
Step 4 – Measure your results. This is an important step in the entire process. It is important to keep track of each insurance lead. You should also consider the time spent to make a sale. If you have 10 leads and only one convert, then ask yourself how much time was spent to make the sale. This time also includes time spent following-up on the 9 leads that didn’t convert as well. Calculate how valuable your time is and add it to the acquisition cost. Once you have this information, you can now compare the insurance leads purchased with the data from other sales and marketing tasks. This allows you to identify the areas where leads are performing well and where you should focus your time and resources. It is also a smart idea to test different lead providers to compare the results and determine which ones offer the highest return on investment.
Step 5: Polish your sales process to improve results. There will be patterns when you begin working with insurance leads and measuring the results. These patterns will tell you how your sales process is progressing. Is it too late to reach prospects? How about losing a large percentage of prospects the first time you call them? Here are the steps that can lead to problems. These areas can be improved. Although it may seem obvious, too many agents don’t use a scientific approach to managing their business and complain about the results.
Remember this: It takes time and effort to create a system that works. Be patient and continue to work. You can make improvements by following the five steps and polishing your processes. It may even be fun to work with insurance leads.
