Over the past year or so I have seen an uptick questions related to insurance leads.  Many of the questions have come from agents and financial advisors after they have already tried various types of life leads and the main question I get is where to find a good lead company.

After digging a bit I typically find the underlying issue is not the source as much as HOW the lead is processed.  If the method of working a lead is not sound the producer won’t realize success on a consistent basis no matter how good the lead source might be.

So….today I want to go over a few basics regarding contacting a lead.

Reminder: This advice goes along with the speed to contact advice posted here.

Here are three steps to follow when a working a life insurance lead (or just about any other type of insurance lead):

1. First attempt to make contact on the telephone as soon as it comes in. As you know, it is much easier to close a sale over the phone because you can work with the consumer to better understand their situation.  This also gives you an opportunity to make content at the peak of interest before other distractions come into play (assuming it is a real-time lead).

2. Make use of email. There are going to be times when a consumer wants to communicate via email and it is important that you meet the prospect at their preferred medium. When you contact a lead via email, make sure you are concise and complete with your answers. Since you are not communicating in real time, you need to make as much progress as possible with each message you send.  Take a forward looking approach and try to answer any questions or objections you could encounter beforehand. If you have already spoken with the person on the follow use email to recap and pitch your unique value.  If you have exhausted all efforts add the lead to on ongoing drip email marketing series and follow up manually on renewal dates.

3. Don’t give up after one failed attempt. You may call an online insurance lead just to find that they don’t answer their phone. As frustrating as this can be, you don’t want to give up. Continue to make contact until you finally get the person on the phone.  I suggest making at least 7 attempts via phone before moving a lead to an auto responder list.  You will probably be surprised  to see how many leads end up converting at 5 call attempts.

Are you confident in your ability to follow these three steps? If so, put them into practice and you will be ready to make progress with online life insurance leads.

For a good look at life insurance lead sources I recommend checking out this site.  You can also check out Kevin’s ILR or our Where to Buy Leads post.