The Best Insurance Leads

12 ways to know you are buying the best insurance leads

February 16, 2016

1. The leads are real time. Speed is critical with insurance calls and insurance leads. The information should be immediately sent to you when the consumer is looking for a quote. The faster you get the information, the faster you will be able to quote the consumer and write the policy.

2. Flexible return policy. Sometimes consumers change their mind about wanting to receive a quote and when that happens you should be able to request a refund. Purchasing insurance leads that come with an agent friendly credit or return policy is an essential part of buying the best insurance leads.

3. You have control. The best insurance leads come with controls that allow you to select the type of insurance leads you buy, when you receive them and allow you to pause them when you need to. They also allow you to change your settings in real time.

4. Leads are verified. Verified leads are ones that have gone through a vetting process to make sure the information is correct and that the consumer genuinely interested in receiving a quote. Verified leads give you a greater opportunity to connect with the prospect and provide a quote.

5. Consumer initiated. Insurance leads that are initiated by the consumer have been proven to have higher purchase intent. Anytime a consumer makes an active effort to start the buying process, the lead usually has a higher conversion rate.

6. No contracts and pay-as-you-go billing. You should be able to buy leads as long as they are working for you and shouldn’t have to make a huge financial commitment.

7. No minimums. You should be able to buy as many leads as you need to in order to achieve your business plan objectives. Without minimums, you can shift your buying and priorities to meet the needs of your agency.

8. Customer service. If you need help with your insurance leads, you should be able to call or email for assistance. .

9. System to track your conversion rate and ROI. When you have access to a system that helps you to track your conversion, you will be better able to maximize your ROI. When you know what leads convert, you can buy more and write more policies.

10. You can customize with filters. You know your business and the types of customers you are most competitive with. The best insurance leads allow you to filter out certain groups of insurance buyers that you may not be as competitive with.

11. Rewards and referral bonuses. Being rewarded by your insurance lead company for referring other insurance agents and for buying lots of leads, enables you to grow your agency faster.

12. Have a full spectrum of lead types. No one wants to buy leads from a large number of companies. When you can buy all your insurance calls and leads from one company your job is easier and you are better able to manage your costs.

16 Tips for growing your Independent Insurance Agency

January 28, 2016

Owning and operating an independent insurance agency, that sells P&C or Life and Health insurance, can be an extremely lucrative endeavor. The upfront commission and ongoing residuals can provide you with a substantial ROI, if you are able to profitably sell clients and keep them for many years. The insurance industry is highly competitive and to be successful it takes a significant level of investment, hard work, drive and persistence.

Below are 16 tips that will help you to grow your independent insurance agency. The tips can be used whether you are a 20 year veteran or have recently opened your own independent insurance agency.

1. Maintain strong carrier relationships and know your carrier agreements. As an independent agency owner you may offer several different carrier policies to your clients and this enables you to have more options to offer your insurance prospects as they come in for a quote. The better relationships you have with your carriers, the better terms you may be able to get. Knowing your carrier agreements will enable you to maximize your income from the sales you make and take advantage of every opportunity to increase your commissions and residuals.

2. Focus on reputation and branding. As an independent agency, you will be competing with captured agents that represent some of the most well know brands in the world. As such, it is important to develop and maintain the best possible reputation in your community and licensed territory. This is where you will be able to compete and win. You will also need to build a strong online presence with a website and digital marketing.

3. Hire relationship building producers. Consumers will buy from you, even if the price is more expensive, if they trust you and you offer them something more. That something more could be a good experience with you and your staff or your insurance expertise. Building a strong lasting relationship with your clients will enable you to sell more and keep them as clients for longer.

4. Be aggressive with insurance calls and leads. The easiest and most cost effective way to grow your agency is through purchasing insurance calls and leads. Leads and calls are sold on a cost per basis and as such you can know upfront how many people you will speak with and quote. From that you can make some assumption of what you will close. There will be little to no wasted resources when you are purchasing leads and calls. You should also purchase auto insurance leads, home insurance leads, life insurance leads, commercial insurance leads and more.

5. Have your very best ‘closers’ work your insurance leads and calls. Some agency owners will purchase home and auto insurance leads for their lowest performers, in an effort to improve their sales. The better strategy is to have your proven closers work those leads as they will be able to close more and help you achieve a higher ROI. You should have your low performers cold call, work older leads or even former clients until they have proven they are able to close deals at a higher rate.

6. Have a business plan. Many agency owners are first time business owners and manage their business like they do their personal finances, by managing the money in their bank account. If you ask some of these agency owners their plan for the coming year, they will tell you to ‘sell more and make more,’ without any concrete plan on how to accomplish that. Independent insurance agents should have a plan of where they are going and documented strategies and tactics how to achieve that plan.

7. Ask for referrals at every opportunity. When you bind a policy you should ask for a referral, when you take a customer service call you should ask for a referral and when you talk with your friends and family you should ask for a referral. At every opportunity you should be asking the people in your sphere of influence for referrals. This is a cost effective way to help your agency write more business.

8. Hire only licensed producers for sales and non-sales positions. Everyone on your team should be licensed to sell insurance. Your receptionist, your customer service representative and any other staff members in administrative or management roles should be licensed to sell insurance. When everyone can write insurance, everyone is making money for our agency.

9. Follow-up, follow-up & follow-up. Your leads are never dead. A former customer may become a customer again. It is critical to work your leads and former clients on a regular basis. This will help you to build lasting relationships and close more sales.

10. Develop strategic partnerships and establish referral partners. Partnerships or referral partners such as real estate brokers, car dealerships and others in your local area can help you to grow more quickly. In return you can refer your clients to them for their services.

11. Master the use of technology. The use of technology in your office will help you to stay on top of what is happening with your insurance leads, clients and finances. It is easy to just hope that everything works out, but it is important to be an active manager of your business and technology can help you to do that.

12. Focus on cash flow. In the insurance industry, you have to pay the upfront acquisition costs prior to receiving commission for a sale. This can cause issues with some agencies, especially ones that do not have a big residual income stream for their client base, as they try to grow and manage their finances. Insurance agents need to consider this as they make spending decisions so that they can meet their financial obligations and at the same time be able to buy more insurance leads and calls. Having a line of credit or credit card can help with your cash flow needs, as long as you do not have high interest costs.

13. Focus on your core competencies. You are an insurance agency. You are licensed to sell insurance. You should focus all your energies doing this. Tasks like generating auto insurance leads and calls should be handled by an expert or company that can do it for you. Other tasks that are operational in nature, such as accounting and human resources are things that you should do to keep your expenses down to allow you to put resources towards your growth.

14. Don’t become an absentee owner. It is the dream of many business owners to create a business, have others work and then sit back and enjoy benefits of ownership. This is usually a recipe for long term failure. No one will work harder or care more about your insurance agency than yourself. It is important to stay engaged and involved. The more you detach from running the agency, the more likely your agency will suffer.

15. Quote as much as possible. Selling insurance is a numbers game. The more people you talk to, the more people you quote, the more policies you will write. Your number one objective should be to quote as many potential clients as possible. All of your marketing efforts should be directed towards this goal.

16. Build a diverse portfolio of clients. There are some independent agents that want to focus on selling home insurance. They buy home insurance leads and hope to build a agency that is dedicated to that, as home insurance clients usually have lower turnover and higher premiums. The challenge with this is if there is a charge in the insurance market, you will be negatively impacted without any recourse. For example, if insurance carriers decide to “pull out” of your state, you will eventually lose a good number of client due to no fault of your own. To protect the long term stability of your agency you should have auto, home, life and commercial clients.