Reputable Lead Company...

[Bob Klee]

Okay, I'm going to take this softball & hit it out of the park!

Open Season on Lead Companies here right now: What is a Reputable Lead Company to you?

Many of you are small business owners and have overhead to pay & some have employees that rely on them to feed their families too. So a lead company, like you, must make a profit. I think we could all agree on that, correct?

So, if you were King for a Day & could build your own lead company, what Values would you hold dear? What would your mission be? How would you build your company so folks on the Insurance Forum wouldn't say your leads and/or your company sucked?

We are working on our Strategic Plan for the next 5 years right now. Managers & hourly folks are involved. So I was asked today: What can we do to make the agent experience better? What can we do to make raving fans out of our agents? To retain agents longer & to help them grow their agencies..

So I told them I'd post on this forum this evening & see what you all would say.

I'll leave you with five principles that drive us at HometownQuotes.com
S = Serve Others
H = Honor God
I = Improve Continually
N = Navigate by Values
E = Earn Recommendations

Blessings to all!

 

[Josh]

HometownQuotes.com is great. I had a better experience with them, both in terms of quality and customer service, than any of the other real-time lead vendors I've worked with.

Two thumbs up!

 

[Ramond B]

Good post! Being in the online space is very tough industry if you are honest. From our discussions, I can tell you know your stuff!

Okay, I'm going to take this softball & hit it out of the park!

Open Season on Lead Companies here right now: What is a Reputable Lead Company to you?

Many of you are small business owners and have overhead to pay & some have employees that rely on them to feed their families too. So a lead company, like you, must make a profit. I think we could all agree on that, correct?

So, if you were King for a Day & could build your own lead company, what Values would you hold dear? What would your mission be? How would you build your company so folks on the Insurance Forum wouldn't say your leads and/or your company sucked?

We are working on our Strategic Plan for the next 5 years right now. Managers & hourly folks are involved. So I was asked today: What can we do to make the agent experience better? What can we do to make raving fans out of our agents? To retain agents longer & to help them grow their agencies..

So I told them I'd post on this forum this evening & see what you all would say.

I'll leave you with five principles that drive us at HometownQuotes.com
S = Serve Others
H = Honor God
I = Improve Continually
N = Navigate by Values
E = Earn Recommendations

Blessings to all!

 

[Frank Stastny]

I have a lot of experience, eighteen years, dealing with lead companies offering Med Supp leads. The Med Supp "leads" when I first started were nothing more than a piece of paper with a name and phone number and they haven't changed. They are still a piece of paper with a name and phone number. No different than what an agent can get from a list.

Calling a Med Supp "lead" warm is a mind set to make agents feel like they aren't "cold calling". It is no different than calling a name out of the phone book. The only difference is that the piece of paper develops a different mind set for the agent. Many agents have convinced themselves that it is a "warm" lead and pay through the butt for them. In my experience nothing could be farther from the truth.

The only "leads" I would consider purchasing would be those that were six to eighteen months old. In my opinion those are the closest thing an agent will find to a "warm" lead. They were curious back then, not necessarily interested in making a purchase, which means they are probably more curious now because they have probably received a premium increase since then.

If an agent has a lot of money to piss away then purchasing "leads" may be the way to go. If not, learn to prospect.

 

[Uniquote]

Good post! Being in the online space is very tough industry if you are honest. From our discussions, I can tell you know your stuff!

I would probably pay whomever runs this board to let me post positive opinions. Funny how Hometown quotes is the ONLY banner advertising I see for leads. Can't Netquote and Insureme afford to advertise here?

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

I would probably pay whomever runs this board to let me post positive opinions. Funny how Hometown quotes is the ONLY banner advertising I see for leads. Can't Netquote and Insureme afford to advertise here?

sure they could afford it. but Sam ain't sold us to the slave ships yet.

 

[Bob Klee]

I would probably pay whomever runs this board to let me post positive opinions. Funny how Hometown quotes is the ONLY banner advertising I see for leads. Can't Netquote and Insureme afford to advertise here?

Well Uniquote,

You've been around since 2008 with a total of 8 posts. Does that make you a troll or a "plant?"

I think if you'd take time to read the posts, we've taken some good hits on this Forum. Some rightly earned unfortunately, some...I'll let others judge.

Also, it is not easy advertising on this Forum. Fairly easy to get "beat up verbally" by folks here. Plus the competition is not owned by agents that have written policies like you have. Doesn't have the passion to talk to & work with you guys from what I've seen. They have some "pretty girls that talk sweet" answer the phones but they don't have a Clue how to help you grow your business. They can't talk to you about strategies to work internet leads, overcome objections or sell a policy. But we can & do.

Again, you've been around since 2008 so I'm sure you've seen some interesting comments here.

For me, I'm here because I want to be part of the solution, not the problem. I want to give back to a profession that has been good to me. I'm very proud to say I have a 27 year old daughter in the insurance business in San Diego that is doing quite well for herself. Much better than I did at her age. Grew up in her daddy's agency & loves to do what he did.

Do you have any +/- things to say about how the Insurance business is working for you? Is your agency/sales growing? What is working for you today to find new business? What do you specialize in: P&C or Life/Health?

What is the single Best thing you've done in the last 12 months to find new business?

Where/what is the Pain in your business & what are you going to do about it so you can grow this year?

To me, these type questions are ones we all should be asking & sharing with each other. What nuts/bolts issues can we help each other with so we can all make more $$? Work smarter, not harder.

FYI: Both companies you mention are now owned by BankRate.com. You can buy stock in them if you'd like vs. buying leads

RATE: Stock Quote - Bankrate Inc Stock Price Today - TheStreet

Bankrate Announces Second Quarter 2011 Financial Results - TheStreet

I Reserve the Right to get Smarter!

 

[Josh]

I would probably pay whomever runs this board to let me post positive opinions. Funny how Hometown quotes is the ONLY banner advertising I see for leads. Can't Netquote and Insureme afford to advertise here?

I'm not sure this is what's happened, but I've had a better experience with HQ than any other real-time internet lead vendor, so it may be that Sam made the decision to allow HQ to advertise her because they are as good of a company as I believe they are.

 

[Uniquote]

Well Uniquote,

You've been around since 2008 with a total of 8 posts. Does that make you a troll or a "plant?"

I think if you'd take time to read the posts, we've taken some good hits on this Forum. Some rightly earned unfortunately, some...I'll let others judge.

Also, it is not easy advertising on this Forum. Fairly easy to get "beat up verbally" by folks here. Plus the competition is not owned by agents that have written policies like you have. Doesn't have the passion to talk to & work with you guys from what I've seen. They have some "pretty girls that talk sweet" answer the phones but they don't have a Clue how to help you grow your business. They can't talk to you about strategies to work internet leads, overcome objections or sell a policy. But we can & do.

Again, you've been around since 2008 so I'm sure you've seen some interesting comments here.

For me, I'm here because I want to be part of the solution, not the problem. I want to give back to a profession that has been good to me. I'm very proud to say I have a 27 year old daughter in the insurance business in San Diego that is doing quite well for herself. Much better than I did at her age. Grew up in her daddy's agency & loves to do what he did.

Do you have any +/- things to say about how the Insurance business is working for you? Is your agency/sales growing? What is working for you today to find new business? What do you specialize in: P&C or Life/Health?

What is the single Best thing you've done in the last 12 months to find new business?

Where/what is the Pain in your business & what are you going to do about it so you can grow this year?

To me, these type questions are ones we all should be asking & sharing with each other. What nuts/bolts issues can we help each other with so we can all make more $$? Work smarter, not harder.

FYI: Both companies you mention are now owned by BankRate.com. You can buy stock in them if you'd like vs. buying leads



I Reserve the Right to get Smarter!

So they are both owned by Bankrate now? Does that mean they sell the same leads? I used sell only health but I am aggresive into life and thiking about P&C, since health is going down the tubes and has been for while. Dont beat me up too bad, United American did that already when they dumped health insurance.

As far as buying from one lead vendor, I have had bettter luck buying from different sources and mixing it in, but in the last few years Insureme and Netquote seemed to have the same performance, I guess now I know why. This weekend I am going to cold call on Sunday, as reccomended to me by another Internet lead vendor, but I only bought aged leads. They sent me a free "analysis" of my area.

How am I improving? trying to cold call smarter, not more often. And I am now pouring over all these forums, learning some very great stuff. I also logged into two two other forums accidentally, geeze I wish they were all the same one, one is .com the other one is .net. gimme a break.

I guess I am little bit cynical, because I have read lots of bashing of every lead company here, but not hometown. I remember when Insureme was Insurance Shopping network and they were pure quality - the gold old days.

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

I also remember Insurance Shopping Network. $5 leads and a lot of sales. Great leads.

I wonder if Stacy is still in business at Leadco?