Lead Preference for Tele-Sales

[theinsuranceman]

Well thought out analysis.Don't forget it's profit per hour that is the true metric of success. Lower acquisition costs is very important, don't let it lower your profit per hour.

For ex: I can spend a 40 hour week calling phone numbers from a phone book and might make 2 sales with zero lead cost. My acquisition cost is zero. But my profit per hour is not that great.

Give me 25 fresh hot off the press TV leads @ $34 each, I close 6-10 deals, and my profit per hour is much higher.

 

[theinsuranceman]

I don't know anything about that guy. But I was a little shocked to see someone claiming they thought direct mail was his favorite telesales lead.

But Josh Jones just claimed he likes direct mail for telesales leads and he has spent a year trying to convince agents that Facebook leads work best for Face to Face agents. Lol.

Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. But unless I know that they have some successful history with telesales I don't put any value on their info other than food for thought. Just like when people talk about field sales that you can tell have very little experience.

I know Jeff Root and guys from his group are knowlegible. I've told Jeff that I think he was beamed here from the future. (He's high tech) James Campbell and Ramiz and Greg from a Senior Life are all legit on phone sales. I guess Thad Sipple too. I don't really know much about a Thad other than his lead businesses.

I'm hoping I don't need to rely on it too much after the next month or two. I can do it. Don't like to.

 

[theinsuranceman]

That's a dead give away that this telesales guy is either a rookie or never worked TV leads or live transfers. Maybe he was saying DM leads for telesales are better than tele-marketing leads?

DM leads can work for telesales just not as effective as those golden TV leads. Here's why: Field agents know all too well that when setting appointments on the phone DM leads seem to have forgotten they even mailed the card in. That's because they get mail 6 days out of every 7 days and the memory of mailing that card back in gets lost in the blur of mail 6 out of every 7 days.

You can show them their handwriting at their front door but you can't do that over the phone.

On the other hand they don't call TV commercials 6 days out of every 7 days. (If they did then they would also forget they called the TV commercial). Since they rarely call a TV commercial for anything they will usually remember calling that commercial a month later.

If a DM lead is super fresh it can work also. The problem is by the time an agent gets that DM in their hand it's been a week or longer since the prospect mailed the card in.

This is not theory but real world FE telesales experience. Hope it helps.

 

[BarryNY]

YES - I 1,000% agree with you - it's about time spent. The leads I was referring to - being that they are more transactional in nature - actually turn the session into a quick and easy quote and write situation...time spent...

The GREAT lead is all about buyer intent. And buyer trust. Inbound vs. Outbound. So, from my perspective, a person proactively searching and looking to buy FE insurance is immensely more valuable than someone who gets outbound contacted and agrees to a callback just to get the telemarketer off the phone...also, someone who contacted us (inbound) is much more likely to trust us versus getting that random intrusive unexpected call ("who's this and what do YOU want?" I'm just responding to your request for info..."NOT interested" click)...

With an inbound the entire process is in our court not theirs...it's ours to F up. We're the cat they're the mouse. We're the expert they're the novice. We're in control of the process not them. Hey - you called me!

And an inbound call/request (acted on by the agent as fast as possible) most likely has that prospect in the right FE frame of mind versus our calling back later and now "intruding" on what they are doing at that point in time - we all blow off incoming calls all day long...don't we?

So, yes absolutely - having fresh, hot incoming (right now live on the phone) TV leads meet the criteria for phenomenal leads. They are about as good as you can get...(as long as the ad itself is not misleading about FREE this or that) to me they are #2 after the "free" lead I mentioned earlier (yes ongoing work and maintenance necessary to keep those free leads coming).

The important point is that the prospect made the first move not the agent...intent. This is the most important differentiator of all when comparing lead to lead. Even with F2F direct mail leads..the first thing the agent does when he gets the push back "what do you want and why are you here" is to prove buyer intent...We show them the card in their handwriting..YOU filled this out...YOU asked for the info...

We all know the number one FE sales agent in the country admits he basically just facilitates the application process from an inbound request for the product. The prospect already feels the need. The prospect already trusts the agent. They don't need to be sold for an hour on need and trust...they just need to be placed into the most competitively priced product that best meets their unique health/wealth situation...

Well thought out analysis.Don't forget it's profit per hour that is the true metric of success. Lower acquisition costs is very important, don't let it lower your profit per hour.

For ex: I can spend a 40 hour week calling phone numbers from a phone book and might make 2 sales with zero lead cost. My acquisition cost is zero. But my profit per hour is not that great.

Give me 25 fresh hot off the press TV leads @ $34 each, I close 6-10 deals, and my profit per hour is much higher.

 

[HoosierLife]

I was making a joke... why would I be recommending DM when I've been hocking digital marketing leads for almost 2 years?? Calendar Leads - The Leads That Schedule Themselves

Direct mail is obviously a horrible option for telesales. It's great for the field when you have something to show them at the door and/or trigger their memory with.

Never tried a TV inbound lead. Figure they're kinda costly unless you have a huge national presence or a big call center.

We use all opt in leads and live transfers.

We purchased a million 0-30 day old leads to give for free, but those ended up being junk. We've got a new source that scrubs the numbers and emails for validity now. Much much better. Costs a lot more, but it's worth it.

We're giving 100-200 of those away for free to all our agents each week.

Then we have $3.50 opt in leads from landing pages. Basically overflow stuff that has never been purchased and is exclusive. Min 100.

Then we have $6 banner/google display ads. Fresh and exclusive. Min 20.

Facebook leads for $12. Min 20.

Live Transfers, with a 2 minute buffer to pre-qualify them to death before you have to pay, for $25. Min 25 per week.

We have a pre-built Dialer with text and email drip campaigns already set up. Agents just have to upload their leads and make calls. The presentation pops up right on the screen with the prospect's info. All the disclosures, Rx Guides, UW Guides, Quote Engine are just one click away.

(The joke, by the way, was that Brandon did get his start in this business in telesales. But he was in call center with OLA and manually dialing off old walmart gift card dm leads. Wrote $200,000+ doing that, won the Americo trip back in the day, and won all sorts of awards with OLA.)

Good phone skills and work ethic will make up for a lot of things. But adding in technology, automation and quality lead sources will increase your ROI tremendously.

CLICK HERE to see more about our platform.

 

[Todd King]

Hey Todd,

Most of the time I hear agents say "Direct Mail" is King.
In your opinion why would direct mail leads not be suitable for Tele-sales?

Just like Josh said....too expenseive.

 

[BarryNY]

"Too expensive" is not the reason why DM are not the best lead type for telesales...would you pay $100 for someone on the phone saying PLEASE cover me right now...$150?? Price per lead is irrelevant.

The problem with using DM leads in a telesales environment is timing. Telesales lives in the here and now. F2F via DM lives in the future.

Just like Josh said....too expenseive.

 

[theinsuranceman]

Just like Josh said....too expenseive.

No. DM leads are not too expensive.....TV leads are more expensive than DM and they also are much more effective than DM. So it's not the price of the lead.....it's the effectiveness of the lead.

For ex: I'd be happy to pay $150 per lead if I averaged an 80% close ratio.

 

[Todd King]

"Too expensive" is not the reason why DM are not the best lead type for telesales...would you pay $100 for someone on the phone saying PLEASE cover me right now...$150?? Price per lead is irrelevant.

The problem with using DM leads in a telesales environment is timing. Telesales lives in the here and now. F2F via DM lives in the future.

The whole point I'm making is that there are much less expensive ways (and better ways) than to buy DM when you are not actually going to go out and see the person. Might as well be cold calling to begin with. DM isn't the type of lead you buy for telemarketing. Not that you can't sell them, but you are spending more money than you need to...thus...too expensive.

Now, transfer leads or TV leads.....those are expensive, but they will work better than DM in this situation.

 

[theinsuranceman]

Here's 3 links to 3 of Sr. Life's TV commercials that generates high quality FE leads. These are the BEST FE leads in the industry period. Perfect for telesales or face 2 face sales!

If anyone would like to chat about this opportunity call me TODAY! You can work 15-50 of these leads per week over the phone. You decide what you can handle.

Senior Life Insurance Company Affordable Life Plan TV Commercial, 'Important Message'

Senior Life Insurance Company TV Commercial, 'Important Announcement'

Senior Life Insurance Company TV Commercial, 'Return of Premium'