Best FE/Final Expense Leads

[theinsuranceman]

As of a couple months ago, you could not write a SL policy if initial draft date was more than 7 days out, due to Covid 19. I'd be interested to know if this is still the case.

That's true. And there are no covid questions on the eapp. The only time the 7 day rule is a hurdle is if you're writing an app around the 20th of the month or after.

Here's the way I train my agents to handle this:

If I'm writing Ms. Jones up on the 22th, and it's time to discuss the bank draft date, I never ask when do you want to start this? They'll almost always say on the 1st or the 3rd or the 3rd Wed. of next month. They'll even say "start it on the 3rd of next month" if I'm writing them up on the 4th, the day after they got their check!

So what I say is "Ms. Betty, they'll send this to your bank tomorrow night....that's what everyone else is doing". Special note: use the phrase "that's what everyone else is doing" when you need to have Ms. Jones to step over a small hurdle in your presentation. Psychologically it reduces any worries in the back of her mind that she's making any kind of mistake doing business with you. After all, if everyone else is doing that it must be OK. If you use this phrase where needed you'll be surprised at how powerful it is.

If Ms. Jones doesn't object to "sending it to your bank tomorrow night" it's smooth sailing forward.

However, if Ms. Jones says she won't have the money till the 3rd of next month here's how you'd want to address this objection:

Say "OK, that sounds pretty good".
Then I pause for a second (field or tele-sales makes no difference) and say "Hey Ms. Betty I just realized that you're eligible to get about a week and a half for free! I continue on with "one of the great things about these state regulated burial insurance plans is they never bill you twice in a 20 day period. Since today is the 22th, if they can send this to your bank sometime in the next 7 days, the 2nd payment won't be on the 3rd of next month coming up which is about a week and a half away. They skip over the 3rd coming up and payment #2 is the following month! That way you get about a week and a half for free and we can get your plan started a little quicker...just in case something unexpected happens to you. Sounds pretty good doesn't it?" If she says "yes" it's smooth sailing forward getting the draft in the next 7 days.

If Ms. Jones says "it sounds good but I just won't have the money till the 3rd" I'll say "Hey I understand perfectly, no worries. Can you borrow the $50 from a family member so you can get your plan started....you know...so you can get that free week and a half and also start your policy a little quicker just in case....something happens...sooner they we expect"?

If all of this fails then all I have to do is contact Ms. Betty sometime within 7 days prior of the 3rd (if the 3rd is the day she gets her check).

Hope that helps. And Barry....I still love you...lol. Wish you well with your lead program.

 

[theinsuranceman]

I want to make sure I understand clearly what this means. Are you saying that if a SL agent is licensed in all 50 states, he will get all the live TV transfers he can handle and therefore, will not have to rely on outbound leads?

Sr Life is in 40 states and DC if memory serves me correct. I may be off 1 or 2 states. A 23 year old young man wrote just over $37k in a 7 day period in early Dec. (Dec. is the month when people aren't buying...lol). He was doing tele-sales with $34 live transfer TV leads from Sr Life.

He's licensed in about 30 states, not 40, and he works live transfers only, based upon what he told me, Mon thru Fri. There are no live transfer on Sat and Sun so obviously he was making outbound calls on those 2 days. The leads on Sat and Sun were TV leads just a few min. old.

Sr Life has a lead program on steroids. They can always open the throttle up and run the commercials more frequently as they add more and more agents.

 

[theinsuranceman]

What the exact verbiage is means little to me . Your $150 lead will have the same persistency as mine but I promise you’ll be out of the business fast paying that for a lead .

If you really don't think the verbiage has an influence on "intent" of the responder you could always have the card say "free smart TV if you mail this card back in 5 days". (Rather than using that free Wal-Mart gift card lingo).

That way your response rate would go thru the roof making your lead costs $5 each? You'll have a lot of people to talk to with cheap lead costs. The only problem is the "yield" from those leads would not be too good. Profit per hour is the true metric, not just profit.

 

[theinsuranceman]

Once again you're focused on the wrong metrics. Who gives a damn about lead cost it's the acquisition cost and efficiency of your invaluable time.

Let's say each agent takes 10 appointments a day for an hour each.

Cheap lead guy spends $300 for 10 appointments. Closes 2 sales (20% conversion) for $600 AP each or $1,200. So this dude spent 10 hours talking to 8 confused time wasters to net $900.

I'd rather spend $1,500 for 10 appointments and close 5 (50% conversion) because they're higher quality more informed about what they want and you're not misleading them with a lead card filled with BS wording. I'd write $3,000 AP on those 5 and after subtracting lead cost I net $1,500.

Explain how they could ever possibly do more business wasting so much time just because they have a cheaper lead. At the end of the day we're all limited to the same 24 hours. Do you prefer spending your hours converting at 20% or 50%??

Hey Tyler, 22 years of exclusive FE experience here and I agree with you 100%.

 

[theinsuranceman]

Out of those 5 you close you’ll lose 1 to 1.5 of them . So $1500 for leads makes you 3.75 sales x $600 ap . So around $2300 yet . For $1500 I’m going to get 50 dm leads and close at least 15 total policys for $9 k in premium . Face to face I’ll only lose 2 policy’s so I net $8 k . You net $800 .

Where do you get those weird figures from? They make no sense. Maybe you made a typo?

 

[DHurd]

Then I pause for a second (field or tele-sales makes no difference) and say "Hey Ms. Betty I just realized that you're eligible to get about a week and a half for free!

Wouldn't people find this sort of suspicious? This would kinda make my raise my eyebrows, but I dont know much about this market. What percent do you lose the sale with in these situations?

 

[theinsuranceman]

Wouldn't people find this sort of suspicious? This would kinda make my raise my eyebrows, but I dont know much about this market. What percent do you lose the sale with in these situations?

Why would they find it suspicious? It's the truth. The FE market loves free things. I never lose the sale in these situations. Once I'm filling in the application it's a done deal.

 

[BarryNY]

Hope that helps. And Barry....I still love you...lol. Wish you well with your lead program.

Thanks Greg. It's all good...and I'm actually such a sarcastic clowner that 95% of the NY bravado is just to get someone worked up...but that "I'll pay you $50k...if you did make $1.25 MILLION in one year selling anything" challenge ...still stands...LOL...

 

[DHurd]

Wouldn't people find this sort of suspicious? This would kinda make my raise my eyebrows, but I dont know much about this market. What percent do you lose the sale with in these situations?

Yea I mean I know it's true, but the way its worded just sounds like some kind of buzz phrase.

 

[DonP]

If you really don't think the verbiage has an influence on "intent" of the responder you could always have the card say "free smart TV if you mail this card back in 5 days". (Rather than using that free Wal-Mart gift card lingo).

That way your response rate would go thru the roof making your lead costs $5 each? You'll have a lot of people to talk to with cheap lead costs. The only problem is the "yield" from those leads would not be too good. Profit per hour is the true metric, not just profit.

Your speaking from the pt of Tele sales . Yes it matters as there’s no face to face . The argument I’m making is I’d rather have a $30 vague lead than a $150 high intent lead . A $150 lead doesn’t guarantee a sale . I’m that good a salesman that I’d rather have vague interest at 1/5 the price . I can always pivot to Medicare which I do if no interest . I sell a ton of fe leads .