The Best Insurance Leads are Fresh Leads

Regardless of how you acquire and cultivate leads, there's one thing that's certain: the warmer the leads, the faster you sell. This is especially true when you buy life or health insurance leads, as these prospects will most likely be contacted by numerous agents in a short amount of time.

Unfortunately, in the rush to sell to business leads, many agents simply overlook the quality of the leads they themselves are buying. This is a huge mistake that may cost them their entire business. While there are definitely many types of leads you can buy, you want to get the best, regardless of the niche you operate in. In general, the best leads are the freshest. Keep in mind there are plenty of unreliable lead generation companies out there willing to sell you stale, month-old (or in some cases year old!) leads that turn out to be a dud after you waste your time and money chasing them down.

This is a common practice among the poor quality companies that sell life insurance leads. Many will sell leads that go on and on, circulating amongst dozens or hundreds of agents for years! Fresh leads that have been captured within the last day or even hour of someone requesting information is important, because these people are still in the market to buy. They haven't moved on, and they are waiting to hear from agents who can give them more information and quotes. The fresher the business leads you buy, the greater your chances of selling a policy.

You've probably been in the business long enough to understand that getting a potential customer on the phone quickly, discussing their needs, answering questions and providing great service puts you a lot closer to a fast sale than calling someone who has just spent the last week receiving and dodging calls from nearly every agent in town. When you're working to make a profit, the last thing you want is wasting your valuable time on unproductive calls with leads who don't want to hear what you have to say.

That's where fresh health or life insurance leads come in. You get to leads no one else has spoken to yet, which greatly increases your chances of making a sale. Remember, this is not like cold calling either; insurance leads from a reputable company are people who have requested information from agents. Fresh leads tend to close quickly, assuming you work with due diligence. Just because you're the only person getting the leads doesn't mean you can let them fall through the cracks and not work them as fast as possible.

If your leads aren't interested in buying the day you call, don't forget the importance of follow-up, just as you would with any other type of lead. Some people take up to 6 weeks to purchase a policy after requesting a life or health insurance quote online, so you'll probably lose a sale if you only call once. Don't make assumptions or try to make up the person's mind for them. Offer information and leave the decision up to them, but don't forget your follow-up procedure to see greater success when you buy leads online.

Guide to Buying Life Insurance Leads Online

Gone are the days when insurance agents were forced to spend long hours tracking down prospects the hard way, with hours spent making connections, building relationships and meeting with people one-on-one. Today, many agents grow their business by purchasing high-quality leads from a company that specializes in insurance and business to business lead generation. These companies generate leads online from qualified prospects interested in buying insurance, and the agent buys the leads, typically at a flat price per lead.

With life insurance leads, the cost will typically be determined by the quality of the lead itself. Common lead types include substandard, final expense, standard and premium life insurance leads, with substandard leads being the cheapest.

Premium life insurance prospects are typically between the ages of 45 and 70 with no major health conditions, such as drug or alcohol abuse, hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, vascular disease, cancer, heart disease, mental health problems or emphysema. Standard life leads are those aged 25 through 44 with no major health conditions. Final expense life leads are between the age of 50 and 80 with a maximum $25,000 policy, while substandard leads fall outside of these groups and may have pre-existing conditions.

When you buy life leads or health insurance leads, for that matter, you will usually receive a full profile of the prospect, including contact information, current insurance and provider, when their current policy expires, coverage options and their health conditions. Many companies that sell business leads also allow you to filter leads to receive only the leads that make sense for your business. This includes geographic filters, lifestyle filters and demographic filters to help you maximize your investment.

As with anything though, quality is important. When comparing the cost per lead, remember to consider the potential return. Many agents start out with a batch of 50 to 100 leads to help them determine their return on investment (ROI), but it's also important to keep in mind most agents take some time to get their process down, so the success rate should climb after a bit of experience.

It's also essential to work only with companies that sell high-quality, fresh insurance and business leads. Unfortunately, there are poor quality companies who will simply resell old leads dozens or even hundreds of times. While their pricing is very low, you're getting a poor value because these leads will not lead to conversions, and you'll be wasting your time tracking down prospects who may have changed their contact information and are most likely not interested in insurance any longer.

Buying insurance leads truly is the way of the future, allowing any agent to maximize their budget and gain access to qualified leads with little time and money. If you're still doing things the old-fashioned way, consider going a test run and buying a batch or two of high-quality life insurance leads to see why millions of agents turn to this strategy to grow their business.