To become a successful insurance agent you must be able to find a large quantity of leads on a regular basis. The more leads coming across your desk the better chance there is of making a sale. When first joining the industry, you may be confused as to the best ways to find leads. While this is natural, there are some methods that can put you on the right path in no time at all.
Cold Calling
Although cold calling is not as popular as it once was, some agents are still relying heavily on this strategy. This is often times best when selling to businesses as opposed to consumers. Calling private resident numbers typically requires an opt-in list due to the do not call registry.
Getting started with cold calling is as simple as compiling a list, firing up a dialer (or going old school and punching numbers) and speaking with anybody who is interested in what you have to sell. You are going to be told “no” quite a bit, but when you finally make a sale you will realize that all of the calls were well worth your time.
Direct Mail
For many years, direct mail has been a favorite marketing strategy among insurance agents. This is not going to change anytime in the future. With direct mail, you never have to speak with consumers who are not interested in what you are selling. Your goal is to send out useful information via snail mail, hoping that the recipient will contact you via phone or email on his or her own time.
Even though direct mail is more expensive than other methods of lead generation, if done the right way it can lead to lots of sales. Track your return on investment if you are going to use direct mail, ensuring that you are not throwing money down the drain. Tracking is easier said than done with DM but it can be done by utilizing tracking phone numbers or a unique email address or domain name.
Take Advantage of your Website
Do you have a website for your insurance business? If not, this is something to build sooner rather than later. On the other hand, those with a web presence are in position to immediately take advantage.
One of the first things you should do is audit the content. Are you supplying accurate and informative information on your site? Is there a page for receiving a quote or contacting you for more information?
Moving on, consider hiring somebody to optimize your website for the search engines. The higher your site ranks in the search engines the more organic traffic it will receive.
Word of Mouth
This may not be something you can put a lot of time into, but it is definitely one of the best ways to spread the word about what you have to offer. Don’t be shy about asking current clients to share your information with friends, family, and coworkers.
Word of mouth marketing will begin to roll down hill as your client base grows. The more people you have talking about your services the better chance there is that you will begin to receive inquiries.
Purchase Leads Online
Over the past 5 to 10 years, this marketing strategy has become one of the most commonly used. There are many benefits associated with purchasing insurance leads via the internet.
Getting started is simple. Once you find a reputable provider, you can set a budget and purchase leads based on your exact specifications. With multiple filters, including location based, you can target leads that have the best chance of converting.
Like direct mail, you are going to spend money purchasing online insurance leads. This scares many new agents away, despite the fact that you are getting a lot in return.
How to Choose
Now for the tough part. Deciding where are you going to spend your time and money.
There are pros and cons associated with the five strategies above. Along with this, there is only so much time in a day. For this reason, you need to know which lead generation methods are best and how to focus your time on the strategies that are going to yield the best results.
Here are three questions that can lead you towards the appropriate strategy at the present time:
- Am I willing to spend money on generating insurance leads at the present time?
- Which strategies am I most comfortable relying on?
- How much time will it take to complete tasks related with each of these methods?
By answering these types of questions, you can weed out some of the methods detailed above while focusing on others.
Final thought: finding insurance leads can be a trial and error process. You may start out by focusing on one strategy, just to find yourself switching because you are not getting the results you were hoping for.
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