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Essential Things to Consider When Buying Insurance LeadsBuying Insurance Leads
Jun 8, 2021
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6
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Buying property and casualty (P&C) leads is a great way to keep your agency’s pipeline full with new prospects. Besides providing an attractive ROI, insurance leads also give you something to look forward to: the possibility of new sales.
Maintaining business growth for the long term requires not only increasing profits but also a feeling that you’re succeeding. And if your agency has unlimited leads to engage, it’s hard not to feel like you’re winning.
Agencies that keep their sales pipeline full also gain even greater benefits over time. As your agency grows, you get renewals, more word-of-mouth referrals, and you have more profit with which to invest in leads. These advantages create an upwards spiral where momentum carries you inexorably towards your goals.
P&C insurance leads are important for short-term wins that bolster profit margins and for long-term success in the industry. However, there are many options available as to what to buy, and many factors to consider when purchasing. Let's take a look at some keys for success in your lead-buying strategy.
P&C leads, in particular, are rife with opportunity. Though you certainly face a lot of competition when it comes to selling P&C insurance, every single lead represents the possibility of selling multiple lines of insurance. When approaching P&C leads, it’s important to keep in mind that cross-selling is your best friend. If employed correctly, cross-selling can dramatically increase your ROI from each lead.
Sixty-one percent of policyholders only have one policy with their agent. This means that a lot of agents aren’t selling the multi-line discounts available to their clients. If you point out that, by getting more lines of insurance with you, your prospects will save on their home and auto (and even life insurance), then chances are good that they’ll be happy customers.
Amazon, one of the best companies at cross-selling to their audience, with personalized product recommendations that go along with every sale, credits an estimated 35% of its purchases to cross-selling. Imagine filling your sales pipeline with as many P&C leads as you can handle, then focusing on cross-sales. How much could your agency grow in a couple of years with a strategy like that?
If you’ve never purchased insurance leads, the process with most companies is fairly simple. Purchasing leads is supposed to make your life in insurance easier, after all, so the right company should provide you with a user-friendly experience.
Depending on the company from which you choose to purchase leads, you should be able to adjust your leads-buying experience with the following customization options.
When purchasing P&C leads, you should be able to target auto, homeowners, renters, or even commercial insurance. One of the best parts about P&C leads is that, even though you’re technically purchasing for one type, there are no rules saying that you can only talk to the prospect about that one type of insurance.
The type of insurance leads you purchase represents only the beginning conversation, but your own sales skill dictates how you’ll move forward from there.
If you want to find P&C leads with less competition, look at renters and commercial policies.
Almost no insurance agencies specifically target renters insurance leads due to the low monthly premium. However, you never know how you might be able to cross-sell prospects in that underserved market. Additionally, many agencies don’t target commercial prospects because their company simply doesn’t write (or doesn’t write competitive) policies for that niche. But new businesses almost always need some form of liability insurance. Being new in business and relatively small, it may not even have occurred to them that they need coverage.
The more accurately you can geo-target leads, the greater your chances of converting the sale. If you get a lead that’s very near your office, you can more easily set an in-person meeting and build a real relationship. Alternatively, if you’re only ever able to talk with leads over the phone, your conversion rate may decrease.
Given an unlimited amount of leads, phone sales may be easier to manage with a busy schedule — and they may be easier to scale with a growing agency. However, if you want to maximize your ROI for each lead, mixing in face-to-face sales when you can is a big advantage.
There are almost certainly times of your workday when you’re more capable of following up with leads right away. There may even be times of the day when you’re better able to receive real-time, live-transfer leads who call you directly.
To make the most of your schedule, look for a leads company that allows you to customize not only what types of leads you receive, but when they’re sent to you.
High-quality lead companies provide integration with commonly used CRMs. Before choosing an insurance leads partner, find out if they can integrate with whichever CRM you’re currently using. If it's possible for you to automatically track leads within your system, you’ll save yourself a lot of time in the long run.
Even if you use a CRM that doesn't integrate with any lead providers, those companies that do make the effort to integrate with any CRM are almost certainly of higher value. This means that the leads they provide are likewise likely to be of a higher value.
No one enjoys paying for something once they’ve decided they no longer want the service, right? It’s a no-brainer. Yet many companies like to “lock in” buyers, to keep their profits predictable.
When searching for the right P&C leads for you, find a leads company that’s flexible with subscriptions, or doesn’t require them at all.
Not all insurance leads are created equal. Some companies sell leads that are quite old, others sell ones that are from people who never wanted insurance in the first place, and some that provide steaming-hot leads who want insurance right now. Each type of lead comes with its own respective price point.
Once you’ve decided what kind of leads you want, where you want them, at what price point, and what company you want to work with, the rest should be as easy as setting a budget and letting the system work for you. From that point on, the process is as simple as following up with each lead and doing your best to close the sale.
Once you decide to purchase leads, there are a few things you can do to make the most of it.
Once you have a lead make its way to you, make sure that you respond to that lead as quickly as possible. The first sales agent to respond to leads wins 35%-50% of sales. In some cases, even more. The reality is that when it comes to high-quality leads, people are looking for insurance coverage right at that moment. So, if you can strike while there’s interest and the desire’s fresh, you’ll get more ROI for each dollar you spend purchasing leads.
When buying leads, you also need to consider whether you want live-transfer leads. These leads come directly to your phone. Someone gets on a call with a lead company, that company ensures they’re a quality prospect for you, and then forwards the call directly to you. These calls can be quite fruitful, as you not only have a highly interested prospect, but the lead company did all the work of getting them on the phone for you. Getting people to call you (instead of the other way around) is probably a nice change from what you’re used to.
Whether leads are calling you, or you’re calling them, only 2% of sales are made during the first point of contact. On the other end of the sales spectrum, 80% of prospects are converted between the fifth to 12th contact. This might not be an encouraging statistic, as first-contact sales are certainly more exciting. To be successful, though, it’s worth investing time and energy into your follow-up process.
While Nectar can't help with your P&C lead needs, we do offer real-time Medicare, health insurance, and life insurance leads. With Nectar you can customize your lead options, and our leads are always subscription-free.
When you work with us, you also get the best possible leads available anywhere on the market. We utilize the industry’s latest marketing techniques to source our leads, and the best data analytics available to ensure that your conversion rates for the leads you buy are as high as possible.
We understand what you as an agent want from your lead company. When you work with us, you’ll find the process smooth, simple, and profitable for your agency. Give us a try by setting up your account today.
This article reflects the features of Nectar as of the date of publication. Features are subject to change at any time. This article is meant for informational purposes only, it is not a guarantee that using Nectar will help you achieve specific business or financial results and is not intended to serve as the sole recommendation for any business financial decisions.
