For all insurance agents that follow up on leads, it goes without saying that timing is everything.

For example, if you follow up on a lead a week after you are tipped off about it, than chances are the customer is already working with another insurance company.

When people need insurance, regardless of the kind of insurance, they usually need it right away. The same holds true when working with insurance lead companies.

If you are an insurance professional considering working with an insurance lead company, it is imperative that you make absolutely certain that they are offering real time leads.

When I say real time insurance leads I mean leads that are hot off the press and delivered to you immediately. Leads where the customer is actually waiting on your phone call.

The best way to determine if an insurance lead company is selling their leads in real time is to speak with someone in their sales or customer service department. The main question you will want to ask is "where are the leads coming from?"

Here is what you will want to hear. You will want to hear that the leads they provide are coming from lead generation web sites that they own and operate.

This is the best way to determine that the quality of the lead is good and that you will be receiving it fresh and in real time.

Any other way of obtaining insurance leads should raise a red flag. The last thing you need is a lead that has been recycled dozens of times and is dated. This will obviously do you know good. So take the time to research the companies that you are considering.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jay_Conners

How many people are you following-up with right now? I'll bet you have a lot of people in your CRM that you're contacting every couple months to just "follow-up". Now let's be real honest painfully honest with each other. How many of these people are actually ever going to buy from you?

I'd venture to say very few of them. Most of the people you're following up with think of you as a pain in the neck, and they'd like to get rid of you. They just don't know how to politely make you go away.

Is that the kind of relationship you want with your clients? Do you want them dreading your call avoiding you in public looking for another agent so they can dump you? Of course you don't.

The way you start the relationship between you and your new potential client with your first contact predetermines the outcome of your relationship. First impressions are lasting impressions that taint every interaction you have with a potential client moving forward. It takes a long time and hard work to charge perceptions.

So when you contact someone and you talk about your insurance, and you, and then you push for the appointment you've just doomed yourself to failure before you even had a chance to start. Most people will tell you "no" in no uncertain terms ending the possibility of a relationship now, or any time in the future. Using this pushy selfish approach is a quick way to burn through a lot of really good potential clients, and damage your reputation in the process.

So how are you supposed to get appointments with people if you can't do it by pestering people you shouldn't be pestering in the first place? You do it by first becoming and behaving like a professional. Let me ask you, "how many times has an accountant called you on the phone out of the blue and pressured you to meet for a free tax review?" Let me guess that would be "never".

How does a professional get qualified potential clients looking for them wanting to know more about what they can do for them, so they don't have to chase after people? It starts with understanding and recognizing a problem that exists that a large number of potential clients for you want to do something about. The key words here are problem and want.

For example, you may have potential prospects who want to shelter money from taxes now to use to supplement their retirement later that they don't want locked in an IRA. These prospects have a problem. Plus they want to do something about it because they're thinking ahead, and planning for a future they want to build. Let's call our prospect Bob.

Now if you called Bob on the phone and spoke to him the way you do now, in a self-serving pushy way, Bob would get rid of you and fast. He'd tell you any objection he could come up with just to get you off the phone and more importantly out of his life. Contrast that with a conversation where instead of even mentioning the word "insurance" or any "product" you talked about a problem. Now Bob recognizing that you're talking about the exact problem he has asks you to tell him more about that.

Could we make this situation even better yet? You bet. How about if we get Bob to call you the expert? That's not a problem that's what good marketing is all about.

Using effective marketing you present your problem based message in all your marketing communications. You make those communications in person in places where you know Bob is likely to be, in literature Bob already reads, in places Bob is already listening.

When Bob receives your communication he'll be all ears so to speak because you're talking directly to him. You've gotten Bobs attention. The next step is to get Bob engaged.

That's easy to do you just give Bob something to do. That's right you just tell Bob exactly what to do and how to do it and he will because Bob wants to know more. Now Bob is in essence chasing you rather than you chasing Bob.

Something big just happened here in both your mindset and Bob's. Bob doesn't think you're a pesky insurance sales person he wants to get rid of. Bob thinks you're an expert a professional who possibly has the answers he's looking for. Why, Bob thinks you may just be the trusted advisor he's been looking for.

Because you have qualified people contacting you and wanting to learn more you no longer feel like a desperate loser like you do now. Instead you feel like the trusted advisor the expert you are. This shift in mindset is huge. It leads to the increased sales you want.

All you have to do from this point on is back up this good first impression with a lasting impression that you're a professional by acting like one. That's means no high pressure tactics no coercive language no self-serving closing techniques. All those behaviors are counter-productive. Remember you don't want a one-time purchase you want a life-time client. That means you have to treat your clients with the respect and dignity they deserve from the beginning.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cheryl_Clausen

Often the going price for an internet generated life insurance lead is around $15.00. However some vendors might charge $6.00 and others $45.00. The internet lead costing $6.00 generates more interest than the rest, and countless agents leap forward in a raging fire to miss the prize and receive third degree burns. A true qualified lead allows you to present your insurance product to an interested prospect that is medically and financially qualified.

Be careful if you purchase a shared non-exclusive lead. These recycled leads are the lowest cost, and for good reason. If the lead firm says they will sell this same shared $10.00 lead to 6 other agents, double that figure. Perhaps your normal closing rate is 35%. With this style lead you might close 10 percent. Now your lead in reality cost you $35.00 plus extra time and gas. $Over 100.00 total would probably be the total cost to make a sale.

An additional choice you have is the exclusive luxury lead. You are the only agent calling on the internet that will get this lead. That's true in part. Here's a tip that has dawned only on a tiny amount of internet lead buyers, and should save you hundreds. Not being in the business of selling internet leads to agents, this is a freebie tip.

Check closely to see if the internet lead company selling you the exclusive lead is licensed to sell insurance. Examine their web site entirely, looking for the form clients fill out asking for insurance. If you can't find the form, ask the internet firm where on the internet you can see it. If they are reputable they will tell you. Does the client first have the opportunity to buy the policy directly from them. Are they rehashed? Another internet firm that sells insurance direct to consumers over the internet, may have sold them the lead, after the 1st firm could not convince the client to buy. What closing ratio opportunity do you potentially have on the Exclusive lead?

Another tip. Some internet insurance lead producing firms receive 90% or 100% of their leads from shotgun email blasting. Sometimes they purchase a responder list. This is a list of people that have at least once responded to any kind of internet product offering. There are countless people that just love to respond to everything. These names are shuffled into your list. This truly does not make them an exclusive prospect for you.

So which vehicle is going to get you there with the best return on investment? Test and don't commit to a long term commitment. Stay away from any firm offering free leads. Does the post office give you free stamps to test? Every darn internet lead company is out to get your attention. I'd rather answer an internet lead producers ad giving free gas. At least I know that way I received something useful.

Youi want to increase your closing ratio, and lower wasted appointments and gas costs.

You forgot about the baby born long before the internet. Check the internet for Direct Mail insurance leads, where all the leads come back only to you. The initial cash outlay is higher. However if you plan on making a career of selling insurance, you will see that the return on investment is the true measure to evaluate. Your appointment rate is higher, your sales ratio is pumped up, and the average sales amount will make you proud.

Rehashed, recycled, and unsuccessfully sold insurance prospects hold your career from progressing faster. These are not true leads, just true grit.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Donald_Yerke

Anything can be marketed effectively, and the basic principles of marketing remain the same, no matter what's being sold: You focus on what the benefit is to the person who's buying the product, you emphasize the points of differentiation between your product and the others in your market segment, and then close with the pitch.

We're going to make an example out of insurance marketing here to illustrate the point. The reason for insurance marketing is because everyone needs insurance, and the market is saturated with a lot of products competing. Writing insurance marketing tips for a saturated market is an example of how you, as an internet entrepreneur, can make money by being a liaison to local businesses in your area.

So, let's look at the big questions from up top - what's the big benefit for taking insurance? It's buying a specific sort of peace of mind. It's providing coverage in case there's a disaster. Let's focus that into marketing insurance: "Wouldn't you like to know that your family will be taken care of, if something happens to you?" is one way to state the benefit. Another one is "It's cheaper to buy insurance for your car than to get into an accident without it. And while you may be a good driver, can you be certain of everyone else?" Both of these are fairly straightforward ways to insurance marketing and its benefits to the end customer.

Now, when I write insurance marketing tips, I'm constantly looking for the edge, the out - the hook. What makes this product work for the reader and prospective buyer?

To answer that question, I start with doing some research on Google, and look for page ranks for specific permutations of insurance buying search terms, like "cheap health insurance" or "cheap life insurance" or "auto insurance Michigan" - anything that will help narrow down the search fields. Then I look at what others are doing on those pages that pull up. It is extremely important to understand what your competitors are doing. It helps you keep track of market trends and makes sure you keep your edge.

Are they competing primarily on price, or are they competing on features? Insurance is a mature product category, so it's difficult to differentiate on new features. Difficult doesn't mean "impossible", though. There are combinations of features on policies that can form a competitive advantage; in the field, these tend to be short lived, because someone else will notice what you're selling and emulate it. Unlike technology where an advance can last for six to eighteen months before you get significant product penetration from competitors, writing a new policy package doesn't take much (indeed, they'll figure it out from your own marketing text...)

So the other differentiators are on price (which is the primary driver in insurance policies) and service (which is where insurance companies trying to maintain margins on policies try to set themselves up as upscale.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Ledoux