Since the dawn of insurance sales, Agents have yearned for viable leads. Those who found the best leads enjoyed success, prosperity, and exotic travel. They built empires that stood for decades.
The source of those powerful leads remained a closely guarded secret, known only to the Old Agents and the gods they worshipped. But time passed and the age of the Old Agents was replaced by waves of New Agents who worshipped the false idols of Internet Leads. As New Agents waited for the Internet to magically make sales for them, the knowledge of the past slipped away.
Editor’s note: This is the last of a three part series, “Lost Secrets of the Best Insurance Leads,” that reveals great tips for finding quality leads.
• Read Part 1: Drink water from your own well
• Read Part 2: The hunt may bring glory, but the farm delivers wealth
Yet, modern “Agentologists” have uncovered three powerful secrets of the Old Agents, and we present the third of these three secrets now for your study.
Secret #3: “Only the fool hunts when his field is ready to harvest”
Translation: “Sell everything you can to your existing customers before spending time and money trying to win new customers.”
When you have sold all that you can to your existing customers, then it makes sense to go after new customers.
Take a careful look at all the additional coverages you could offer to an existing mono-line customer. Are there are discounts and savings available to customers who bundle coverages through you? Are you communicating that benefit to your customers? Are you asking them to buy more from you? Your best leads are those already in your book of business.
Search your customer database to identify mono-line customers, by category. For example, break out your customers by those who have:
- Auto only
- Home only
- Life only
- Health only
Then, determine the next and most logical insurance product for those customers, based on what you know about the customer, and the typical buying patterns of customers with similar demographics. What new target lists do you create? Home, no Auto? Auto, no Home? Life, no Health? Others?
Need motivation? Consider the extra income you receive by adding that second policy. Assume the lifetime value of one customer is $500. When they add that second policy, it jumps to $800. This means, your office gains $300 by writing that second policy. There is virtually no cost of selling the additional policy (remember, selling to existing customers costs 1/7 as much as finding new customers) so that $300 is almost 100% profit.
The Old Agents knew it is a far better use of time and effort to work on turning mono-line customers into multi-line customers than to hunt for new customers.
The collective wisdom of the Old Agents fueled predictable, sustainable long-term growth. The three secrets cannot be overlooked:
- Drink water from your own well (Your best leads are the people who have already bought from you)
- The hunt may bring glory but the farm delivers wealth (Prospecting can bring occasional big wins, but long term success comes from cross-selling and up selling to your base of existing customers)
- Only the fool hunts when his field is ready to harvest (Sell everything you can to your existing customers before spending time and money trying to win new customers)
Will you continue in the ways of New Agents who make supplication to the false gods of Internet Leads as they hunt for new customers? Or will you apply the wisdom of the Old Agents and build a modern empire?
About Boyd Karren
Boyd Karren is an “Agentologist” and the Chief Marketing Officer at Engagex Corp. Always passionate about helping small businesses grow, he has provided marketing advice and direct consultation to growth-minded sales professionals and owners of small businesses for 20 years. He has particular expertise in helping businesses establish and optimize their online presence, and brings “stomping, screaming, soccer fan-type enthusiasm” to the world of Inbound/Content Marketing. Boyd holds an MBA from Indiana University, and a Master’s in Global Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
About Engagex
Engagex sets up selling opportunities for insurance agents, specifically by helping agents market to their existing books of business, with the goal of uncovering all insurable interests and strengthening customer retention. Engagex enjoys approved partner status with several major insurance carriers who contribute cost-share, co-op or subsidy money to its agents to help pay for these vital marketing services.
