Thinking of Starting a Lead Company
- Thread starter jaugusta
- Start date
- 7,790
To whom are you referring?
agent2011
Expert
I have seen the cost from the inside. I worked for a company that had its own mail house. It can be very expensive to produce leads, depending on the part of the country you are mailing to. The market you decide to mail to is also a factor. Stay away from MP and focus on Med Sup and FE.
- 167
starting a lead company is a great idea.. but it's not easy. Most lead companies aren't out to get us, it is just very hard to generate good quality consumers on a consistent basis . you need to get rid of the price shoppers and focus on people who are online ONLY LOOKING TO PURCHASE insurance .. there are certain keywords they type in that are similar to buying signals. You need to focus advertising efforts in those areas so that you only get good quality people...now the problem here is that when you do that, you narrow down the amount of leads that you actually generate. So you need to either sell the leads for a high price or have 3-4 agents in one area in order to make a solid profit. It is not an easy industry to enter. The best thing you can do is offer the best possible guarantees that you can think of . I know of a company that offers a guarantee of CONTACT on every lead. That's a great guarantee. Then you have companies who offer a guarantee of exclusivity. Whatevers clever!
- 692
Jaugusta - I worked as a Telemarketer for 5 years... I watched the crappiest leads ever get sent to agents... So I did just what you are talking about in October of last year. WE are not mail though its in person appointment setting. We love to make sure that all bad appointments replaced. Its our mission to care about the agents. I feel you about if only a company would not lie and do what they said. LEads/Appointmetns arent hard enough to get to lie lol... I would love to share perspectives with you. [email protected]
- 1,076
There are too many lead companies and too few good lead companies... and by too few I mean next to none. It is too expensive to generate quality leads and make a profit, so they generate weak leads and circulate it to several agents and then sell it to other lead providers who circulate it... and then 30-60-90 days later they "refresh" the lead and resell it all over again. 70% of all Internet leads are trash but most agents return less than 20%. The 30% that are quality leads go to the agents that have the best conversion system and their ROI is good enough to keep going. There is always a new and/or desperate group of agents willing to give it a shot.
sludgesurfer1
Expert
- 42
I personally believe that the idea of building a good book of business from internet leads is very unlikely to happen. I've spent thousands of dollars trying, and hiring folks to hammer the leads as soon as they come in. The typical customer is bombarded with calls as soon as they click "enter". The folks that you DO write for the most part repeat the process year after year.
- 882
I personally believe that the idea of building a good book of business from internet leads is very unlikely to happen. I've spent thousands of dollars trying, and hiring folks to hammer the leads as soon as they come in. The typical customer is bombarded with calls as soon as they click "enter". The folks that you DO write for the most part repeat the process year after year.
I understand what you are saying but let me offer you this perspective. There are many different ways to build an insurance book of business. Some agents are great sales folks & they do an incredible job, MDRT, Top of the Round Table [life/health guys]...but they suck at managing others & processes. They cannot build a business that has any value in the future other than the value of their BOB itself & that is less than it could potentially be because once someone buys it the personality that built the BOB is gone so the retention sucks.
Then there are the agents that might not be the best sales person ever but, they understand how to manage people & processes. They can build a very large BOB by leveraging other folks' efforts. They might have 10-20+ staff that specialize in different aspects of the insurance business. This model continues to grow even if the agent decides to work part time. When it comes time to retire the agent has a Business that is not built on his personality & is worth a lot to the next buyer because it is a well running business.
I know both models work and that of course, there are many varieties in between because there are all types of personalities that are in the insurance business.
I know of agents today that are working internet leads very, very successfully to the point they spend over $5,000 month on them & I know of agents that for some reason, can't make the very same sourced/type leads work at all.
I think one has to find what works best for them & do it. I've had agents tell me that direct mail doesn't work after making just one mail drop & others that understand direct mail just clean up & smile when other agents tell them that.
I know of an Allstate agent in Nashville, TN that only dials for dollars and has done that for over 20+ years & continually makes all the trips/awards that Allstate offers. I haven't talked to him in a couple of years but he used to make 4000-5000 outbound calls per week out of his office. Did he make all the calls himself? Of course not! He had staff & processes in place & it works quite well for him.
Bottom line: Find what works best for you & do it! If you are interested in learning how you can make interenet leads work for you give me a shout...always happy to share what I have learned personally & what I've learned from working/talking to agents on a weekly basis still today.
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