Suddenly and rather unexpectedly, you receive a document file three times as large as you ever thought it would be. Moreover, the cost was cheap and the source was official. That source being the State Department of Insurance. Sensational. At least it sure seems that way. It appears you have just discovered this jumbo directory, that you and most insurance marketers think will solve many recruiting problems. An Insurance Department Agent List is designed merely to provide state data. It is not designed to be your income source for mailing and telephone calling agents.

For the thousands of insurance marketers that use department lists, here are my hands on, experienced opinion. Especially of those marketers who rely on these lists to do more than half their recruiting. My opinion relates to over 70 percent of your fellow insurance marketers. This marketer/recruiter is stupid, ignorant, uninformed, ill-trained, cheap, selfish, ego-centric, unrealistic, impractical, immature, out of touch, naïve, penny pinching, green, untalented, unrealistic, unskilled, incompetent, amateurish, inept, unqualified, incapable, and in need of help but unwilling to look for it. Thousands of marketers have failed in the last year for this same reason.

You will NEVER become successful in insurance marketing by using state department of insurance lists as source that is going to provide your income. Your recruiting source is your investment in yourself. Certainly, it is not logical to think that going the cheapest route is the best route. I doubt if you own the cheapest car made, buy the cheapest suits, suits, ties, and shoes, and buy all our presentation supplies at yard sales. For the cost of investing in one new suit, you could have invested that same amount in your prospecting source. See the difference your career could have held.

Does it matter when you receive certain Insurance Department lists that they are 30% to 35% undeliverable when you first obtain them. Apparently not, to the insurance marketer that obtained them. He saved money by not using a more refined list from an insurance broker, or a custom designed recruiting list from an insurance list compiler. He found a treasure trove, full of fool's gold. Who can you can complain to when you are investing so little in obtaining the list. Certainly a marketer cannot perceive negativity if the state produced it. Who could be more accurate. Beware the list broker or compiler who has a list 10% to 15% undeliverable, their entire list is junk. 500 annuity specialists have been mailed, and 60 returned as not reaching the intended destination .They refuse to mail the other 3,000 producers, considering the list to be junk

You can never make money off deliverability. It is possible to have a 4,000 name list that is 98% deliverable and never receive a single reply. On the other hand, you could mail a targeted list of 4,000 agents and receive 500 undeliverables and 42 interested responses. Do not go any further until you can honestly say and believe which is better. An established list broker or compiler has a refund policy for excessive bad addresses, while the DOI does Mailing and phone calling never have guarantees. If you are afraid to expose yourself to risk, never become an insurance marketer. A phone directory can change up to 25% in a 12-month period, with an agent list, that amount of change can easily exceed 33%.

Consider these factors to stop wasting time and money. The agent names are often not separated by experience. The masses of insurance reps with under two years of experience, are intermingled with the pros. Further polluting this list by up to a third, are the super captive, Allstate, S.F., Nationwide, Farm Bureau, Geico, AAA, Liberty Mutual, and similar agents. Where is that big red warning label? There should be one stating:, "CAUTION, over 90% of the agents with fewer than four years experience will no longer be licensed and appearing on upcoming list updates." Are you building your operation to last 4 years or less and then fade away. If you do not heed this advice, you are.

Here is the mother load dream list of dreaming insurance recruiters. Out of the deep blue it appears. You discover a jumbo Department of Insurance list with agent names and almost all with phone numbers. You easily forget the information already mentioned, instead grabbing a phone and your dialing fingers. Portions of the list are passed along to your sub-marketers so they can feast in this bonanza before the competition attacks. Big meetings take place, carefully crafted is what is considered to be a masterpiece plan. Over 90% of the agents have phone numbers, and these are numbers from the official insurance department. It takes at least 50 phone call attempts, until smartness squeezes through your fat brain. All the phone numbers listed are those that the agents entered on the form when first becoming licensed.

HERE IS A FLASHING NEON BILLBOARD so you sink in another point. Almost all the desirable agents have over 4 years experience, and have obtained new phone numbers in the mean time.

Let us be fair and compare. One list is the state insurance department list of agents, which it never promoted for or claimed was ideal for getting agents to market your products. The other list does claim to be ideal and contains mainly names of agents already selling a product similar to what you are brokering. The state list contains 20,000 licensed life and health agents. The compiled list has been refined to just 5,000 agents. The state charges you only $200.00 for their list, while the list compilers cost of slightly over $400.00 is twice the amount, and you get a measly 1/4 the number of agents.

Is this $200.00 an internet rip-off? Be fair and do not jump to a conclusion. Depending on a variety of factors, it costs $400.00 to $500.00 per thousand to print your mail piece and used standard mail postage. You have a maximum of $5,000 to spend. Using the state DOI list, three thousand names were not on the compiled and 2,000 were. Realistically 45 leads were obtained, and 18 were of quality. On the compiled lists, the replies added up to 40 leads, of these 35 were top-notch. Now you can answer, which recruiting campaign had the superior results?

What trap is your mind caught in? Is it of thinking DOI lists are great? Alternatively, do you think that phone dialing is fantastic, ever though your fingers have phone letters/numbers tattooed in them? Take out a permanent magic marker. On you left hand write the word target. On the right hand, write the word marketing. Staring you in the face are two words that when practiced can make you an insurance marketing recruiter legend.

Well published author, Don Yerke likes to concentrate on what you don't know or what no one else dares to print. Tell it like it is.


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