By Paul Hurst, Senior Copywriter for GCI Media
Let’s start by agreeing that there are only two basic ways of acquiring insurance leads: using traditional methods or following today’s consumers to the Internet. It breaks down to Old School vs. The Future.
A quick comparison clarifies your choices. Traditional methods include cold calls, list buys, mass media and x-dating. They are all expensive, time-consuming and increasingly ignored by people besieged by hordes of marketers coming at them from every direction, usually at inconvenient times. Match these methods with the purchase of Internet leads which are inexpensive, pre-qualified, targeted to your market and delivered to you whenever and wherever you want. Seems like a slam-dunk, doesn’t it? Then why isn’t everyone switching to the Internet?
Truth be told, some agents have poor closing rates using Internet leads. The phenomenon of consumers moving their insurance shopping online has sparked agents to realign their marketing programs to keep pace with their clients. They see how easy it is to have a constant flow of high-quality prospects appear in their inboxes mornings, afternoons and evenings. But somewhere between acquiring the leads and closing the contract, something goes wrong. Here’s how to fix it.
Rule One: Speed, Speed and More Speed
The consumer who goes online and completes a comprehensive questionnaire in order to receive insurance quotes is probably an Internet veteran, someone who is used to exchanging information rapidly. Most online commercial inquiries and purchases get immediate responses, and your new prospect expects a similar reaction from you. One of the wonders of Internet leads is that they migrate automatically to your PC, cell phone or PDA. You can make that critical first contact from wherever you are.
Reaching your prospect quickly and demonstrating how committed you are to learning his or her needs goes a long way toward closing a sale. The third or fourth agent to call has probably lost the sale, and goes away thinking that online leads are unproductive.
Rule Two: Think Long-Term; Do the Math
It’s easy to fall into the trap of treating the online prospect
as just a quick sale. After all, there is no personal contact with
this individual; he or she is just a name that appeared in your email.
That may be a huge mistake. Instead, work to earn the consumer’s
trust. Treat every prospect as a long-term client and convey your genuine
concern for the welfare of them and their family.
Having a customer for life probably means that you’ll get renewals, referrals and cross sales. Consider what you have to gain by taking the long view, and you’ll discover that it’s the only logical option. If you did the math, you’ll agree.
Rule Three: Think Short-Term
Of course, you can’t have a long-term client if you don’t close the first sale, so let’s discuss some tips for working the lead:
1. To begin with, don’t simply hand out quotes before you interview the prospect. You know that an individual is seeking insurance, but you don’t know the personal and financial conditions that determine which policy would be best. Tactfully ask questions about the prospect’s specific situation, and you will be given critical information that will allow you to highlight features of your policy that have particular merit for that person, strengthening the chances that your policy will be chosen over your competitor’s.
2. Read the shampoo bottle: apply, rinse, repeat. That’s how to approach online leads: call, email, repeat. The successful agent keeps plugging away, no matter what the source of the lead may be. The unsuccessful agent gives up when he or she fails to reach the applicant.
3. Repeat tip # 2. It cannot be overstressed that follow-through is the single most important thing an agent can do. Just because online leads are easy to acquire, they shouldn’t be taken casually. If you give up and move to the next name on your list, you are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. Pretty soon, you convince yourself that online leads don’t work, and a wonderful source of business is lost.
4. Understand that you are only one of the many options available to the prospect. Today’s consumer literally has dozens and dozens of choices for every purchase he or she makes. When a person requests quotes from your online lead source, at least one or two other agents get the lead as well. That consumer probably requested quotes from other sources at the same time. Consumers love options, and that increases the competition. If consumers don’t believe they have been given all of the options, they will keep searching.
5. To stand out from your competition, educate the prospect about the quoting process and the details of the plans available. Instead of presenting one plan, help each person work through all available choices. When you go through that process, you turn the prospective client’s comparison shopping to your advantage. They have been forming ideas about what they want, and listening carefully will help you discover one or two significant issues that are particularly important to them. Find the policy that addresses those points, and use them as hooks to close the sale.
Rule Four: It’s a Numbers Game
There are some hard truths about selling insurance. You can make the best business decisions possible, choose the best agency and the best lines of business to represent, but in the end, it’s all about the numbers. What are your costs and what are your gains? ROI, return on investment, trumps everything when you analyze your business methods.
If you are going to be successful using Internet lead sources, you have to believe they are your best marketing option. Comparing the ROI’s of different marketing techniques is the smart thing to do. You can’t make an intelligent decision based on subjective impressions. The best idea is to keep careful records of marketing expenditures and the commissions earned from different lead sources. More and more agents are performing this analysis, and most of them reach a clear and decisive answer: Internet leads have the best ROI of any marketing option available today.
Going beyond ROI, consider the time and effort needed to acquire each lead. Internet leads require almost no effort and no time, yet they deliver exactly the type of clients you request, in exactly the area you choose. There’s every reason to be a believer in Internet leads.
Rule Five: Avoid the Great Expectations Trap
The Great Expectations trap has seduced too many agents, and hopefully, this rule will stop it once and for all. To simplify the concept, follow this advice: don’t expect great results, just work at being a great salesperson. If you are focused on arbitrary and unrealistic goals, failure will be your unfortunate result.
There are reasonable and achievable goals for Internet leads, and they are based on beating the ROI’s of other marketing techniques. That formula leads to success. Expecting to close every lead may result in disappointment.
What is a reasonable goal when you apply sound sales techniques to high-quality Internet leads? NetQuote, one of the insurance industry’s largest Internet lead sources, states that an agent will double his or her investment if 5% of their leads result in the purchase of a policy, and this doesn’t include renewals and cross sales. In reality, the closing rate claimed by many agents is closer to 10%. NetQuote is so confident in their products and services that they offer a COA (Cost of Acquisition) calculator to help agents compare the true cost-effectiveness of traditional and online leads. Hopefully, we all will permit The Great Expectations Trap to die in peace.
A solid bottom line is what every business wants, and the solid bottom line of this article is that there are no magic answers, no instant solutions that make selling insurance a snap. Fortunately, there are Internet leads that are inexpensive, easy to obtain and as ready for closing as any leads can possibly be. All you have to do is appreciate their value and approach them as a great opportunity that deserves your best effort and dedication. Bring your Great Expectations down to earth and you’ll see your bottom line grow. What more can you really expect?
