My Experiences and Caution for New Agents

[thespur1]

I do not post much on this board unless I need something or just bored ..

I want to share my experiences with several sources of leads I have used in the past. I am not trying to offend any lead company out there, just want to let other agents know some of my experience using them.

I have been a life agent for about 2 years.

Voice Blaze Dialer Leads,
When I signed up, at the time there was a 300 dollar per month fee for data and dialer cost.
now, on top of that, there is a fee for minutes used,
one thing I would advise for somebody who wants to try this service, is to ask for some results in your area before signing up, and also do not put more than 50 dollars in your initial "minutes" account. To see results before putting anymore money into it. I did the mistake of paying 300 and then 100 in minutes, and did not get one single sale. I would highly advise to have dialer leads as a last result for a lead source, most of the so called "transfers" were old people playing on the phone, and threats concerning the do not call list. If you still want to try it, start with a minimum amount, and if no results first week , run like hell.


Leads 2 success Mailer,
I would highly advise agents to stay away from this mailing house, although they are cheap in price, the quality of the mailer is terrible. Leads are e-mailed only once a week, and return times are very slow. Every lead I received was cold, and they did not follow my criteria on the mailing. I also had a 0.6% return which is really really low. and also customer service is no good, no one ever picks up the phone, and voice messages are not returned. I would highly advise to go for a quality mailing house and pay a couple extra bucks .

Appointment Setter,
when hiring an appointment setter, make sure they are going to be committed to calling every day on your behalf, and make sure they are not working for any other agents, and pay them per appointment, that way if he/she does not produce then you do not incur cost.


I wanted to post these three experiences I had with these lead sources so other agent could proceed with more caution if they intend to use them.

 

[Josh]

Appointment Setter,
when hiring an appointment setter, make sure they are going to be committed to calling every day on your behalf, and make sure they are not working for any other agents, and pay them per appointment, that way if he/she does not produce then you do not incur cost.

I wanted to post these three experiences I had with these lead sources so other agent could proceed with more caution if they intend to use them.

I'm going to have to agree to disagree with you about the telemarketers in reference to paying them only on a straight commission basis or per appointment. If you pay someone per appointment then you're going to get them to put a bunch more garbage through than if you pay them straight hourly, the challenge is finding a good caller. If you're going to hire a so called "appointment setter" or any other kind of telemarketer then it'd be good to build a relationship with the telemarketer and take the time to train them correctly and realize that paying them an hourly is just a cost of doing business. I don't love paying the hourly on a telemarketer when they're getting trained and the first few days they dial without getting a great response, but once I've done that I find the initial investment in training them pays great dividends. Today we got a 3% response rate cold calling small businesses for health insurance and I'm only paying them hourly. I'm fortunate to have a good team, but if you're only paying folks on a per appointment basis then odds are you should find another way of prospecting. Just my two cents.

 

[thespur1]

i def agree with you

 

[TheKoenigGroup]

Good point about paying hourly, I agree. However, for the pros, we discussed poor lead sources, any good ones?

 

[Josh]

Good point about paying hourly, I agree. However, for the pros, we discussed poor lead sources, any good ones?

The only times I've had success with lead generation using telemarketers is when I've directly managed it myself. I've helped some agents get setup, but I charge quite a bit.

 

[thespur1]

I think that's one of the problems with this industry,
every one is selling some kind of lead generation, even agents themselves. and they all say the same thing,
" my system is the only one that works " .

people need to be careful out there.

i am going to stick to traditional methods of lead generation.
I tried 7 or 8 different "systems" from companies and agents,
and none of them worked.

i think the best advise i have learned from this forum is not to
re invent the wheel.

 

[VaDwayne]

Could it be that the common denominator in the suckiness of the mailers is the inexperience of the agent him/herself?

 

[theinsuranceman]

Could it be that the common denominator in the suckiness of the mailers is the inexperience of the agent him/herself?

Excellent point!

 

[Josh]

Another problem is the gap between where the lead generater left off and the agent picked up. My agents know exactly what the next step is with a prospect when the telemarketers get done with them. If they tried to skip that and go to the next then they would have huge problems. Sometimes the agents try to move too fast too quickly and sometimes to the lead generator did not do enough work (too vague of a lead card/"just drop off some information" from a telemarketer).

 

[thespur1]

Could it be that the common denominator in the suckiness of the mailers is the inexperience of the agent him/herself?

VAdwayne how much experience do you have?
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Another problem is the gap between where the lead generater left off and the agent picked up. My agents know exactly what the next step is with a prospect when the telemarketers get done with them. If they tried to skip that and go to the next then they would have huge problems. Sometimes the agents try to move too fast too quickly and sometimes to the lead generator did not do enough work (too vague of a lead card/"just drop off some information" from a telemarketer).

i def agree with you there