What Do You Want in a Lead Company??

[Crabcake Johnny]

I'll argue, and win, that for every one agent that internet leads has really helped and launched their career, it has killed the careers of 10. (I might even argue that starting out in this biz by trying to sell online is a complete failure...)

Insurance used to be about learning to prospect and market. Now agents getting into the business think they can simply buy leads. They never learn marketing skills and it's almost guaranteed failure.

I don't do much with my local chamber of commerce. Once in a blue moon I go to an event. But when I do it's telling to get around successful agents who are doing well and literally laugh at the prospect of buying leads.

My advice stands for every new agent who contacts me wanting my advice about getting into this business regarding internet leads; without at least $5,000 in lead money to spend, don't even bother. And that's without getting into learning products, UW and a sales process.

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

And John those agents at the Chamber aren't niche selling (health only) agents either, are they?

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Correct. It's mainly life and P&C. There seems to be a definite current that selling indie health is the "trailer trash" of the insurance business. I'm absolutely not viewed as their equal.

It's "oh...you sell individual health? Sorry 'about that" mentality.

I'll stick to my statement however, the most agents - health included - are better off starting out by prospecting and meeting face to face until they build up their chops.

 

[LGilmore]

What do I want in a lead company?

One who provides real leads where the person can say yes or no to my proposals.

Right now, that is running about 25% of the time. The other 75%? Well that's where it get interesting.

In the old days (4-5 years ago) a bad lead was a HS kid wanting quotes for Mike Hunt. Or a pissed off ex-employee signing his boss up for every free quote they could find.

In the last couple years a new "fake" lead has come about. The "manufactured" affliate lead. These fake leads are real people, their real address, real phone and then a made up email and personal info. They have no idea why anybody is calling or just the other day told me they submitted a quote request 3 years ago.

These manufactured leads are able to pass through any parameter restrictions set up by the lead vendor and it is up to the agent to catch them. In other words the end user. If caught, it flows back through and if the vendor gets caught they refund, but they have to be caught. They have to have a certain number of these leads get called before the vendor will break contract with them. So they mix em in with the idea that only a few will get caught. And even though this is fraud plain and simple, who is going to charge them with the crime?

Another aspect that if I were in the lead vendor business is the cross selling leads between vendors. I have to ask, do a majority of your fake leads come from purchases from your competitors?
Did it ever cross your mind that your competitor may knowingly be selling you fake leads to resell to your clients?
Why? because when the agent gets pissed he leaves and complains about the company he bought the leads from, not the company who actually generated the leads. So which company is that best for? the company selling to another company or the company selling to the agent?

For one, I really don't want leads from certain vendors because I already KNOW they produce bad leads. In a trace back of one of my bad leads, it turned out the lead came from a vendor through NETQUOTE. Well, I fired netquote years ago because the quality they provide is crap. Now I am using a better vendor? who is using netquote for my leads and they are bad leads. So if I get p issed, and decide to leave, and drop the vendor I use, how does netquote lose for providing the bad lead in the first place?

lots more to say but I'm tired.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

So what's an affiliate make? Let's say it's $6 per lead. Most of the fraud is from foreign countries where labor is cheap.

And when I say labor, I mean they have real people creating email accounts, then using data and submitting it through their sites and off to the vendors. Nothing gets past filters better than 50 people huddled in a room at their computers.

It's near impossible to catch but vendors asked for it when they stopped offering credits for bogus phone numbers. It's near impossible to create a real number. But I can create 100 Yahoo email accounts today.

So the game changer was idiotic lead vendors who up and decided that "all" information had to be bogus for a credit to be issued. Since a valid email = no return, why rob a bank. Just be a lead affiliate.

 

[Frank Stastny]

Frank, how many hours of cold calling does it take you to generate 1 med supp sale?

A whole lot less time and money than it does going on appointments with people who have no interest in making a purchase or who don't qualify.

Cold calling is not an exact science nor is it an experiment conducted in a laboratory under controlled conditions. You've heard me say this tons of times before but one more time for the "hard of hearing". haha

There are so many outside influences that come into play that the amount of time is going to vary dramatically from agent to agent. If it were possible I could take the exact list that another agent is using and make more sales. Not that I'm better than other agents but using the phone is a learned art to do it successfully. I've discovered that most agents don't have a clue. They try to "wing it" and fall flat on their face.

I would never say something like "for every 100 calls the agent will set 8.59 appointments and sell 3.78 policies". This is the kind of information agents want to hear and there are those who will tell agents what they know they want to hear.

I also know what they "want to hear" but they aren't going to hear it from me because I know better than to make blanket statements like that. I could tell you 2 hours and 37 minutes. Some days I can do it in a lot less time than that, some days it takes a lot longer. The amount of time it takes isn't important to me. I have tried all other ways and this is the easiest, simplest, most cost effective way for me to get new clients. Bar none!

I usually can sell a policy after only a short time on the phone, most days. Other days it may seem like I couldn't give one away if I was including a new car.

Oh, the weather can also play a huge determining factor.

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

I was just looking for an average Frank thats all

 

[Frank Stastny]

Sorry about that, guess I got a little carried away. I put my fingers in motion and they just wouldn't stop.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Telemarketing for health - one client per 300 dials. More drilled down is 20 answers per hour and 2 "decent" leads per hour generated.

So 6 leads per hour, three hours to gain one client. If you farm it out, triple those numbers - so 1 out of ever 18 leads closed.

 

[tlmarketing]

All life leads that I sell are generated from my own sites...organic search engine traffic only. I don't work with affiliates, or other lead vendors.

Most of my stuff is impaired risk...insurable impairments.

I guarantee $100k minimum face amount, generous credit policy, no limits on # of credits...and I only sell the lead 1x.

But in order to make this work for both parties, agents I work with have to be licensed in multiple states, and understand how to shop impaired risk..

my pricing is based on age of consumer...the better the demographic I drive to agents, the better it is for them in premium potential, and better for me in revenue...

I'm always trying to generate more leads, and there is always a waiting list.