Insurance Agent Forum

[lacy_amy]

I have been an independent agent for the last few months and am getting discouraged by the results I am getting from purchased leads. I was thinking about cold calling local (probably small) businesses in my area. I was wondering if anyone could share some stories about what has worked and not worked for them. Also, I was wondering if anyone was willing to share a script that they use to cold call. Thanks!

[healthagent]

Which line of insurance?

[lacy_amy]

Well, right now I am only selling health. But I am looking to get into selling life and disability also.

[healthagent]

Well I have to ask and don't mean to to come of as rude in any way, but if you can't do well with people requesting quotes how much better to you expect to do calling people who didn't?

Cold-calling is generally used by new agents coming into the business with lacking funds.

[MedicarePlanSolutions]

Originally Posted by healthagent

Well I have to ask and don't mean to to come of as rude in any way, but if you can't do well with people requesting quotes how much better to you expect to do calling people who didn't?

Cold-calling is generally used by new agents coming into the business with lacking funds.

I'm glad you bring this up! Buying internet leads that a bunch of agents are working is a tough gig for a few reasons:
1. Other agents are calling
2. They're probably calling with the same carriers
3. The people who filled out the form occasionally think the computer will give them a quote and then they get punked at the end and can't answer their phone for days because agents keep calling them (I know this because it's happened to me AND I've worked internet leads).
4. Adverse selection, if they can't get insurance anywhere else, why not fill out every offer on the internet.

My experience with either cold calling personally or paying others to cold call is you have much better luck finding people that aren't getting hounded to death and usually have someone who's not necessarily a bad risk. If you cold call businesses you should use a dialer and not spend too long on the phone with each business you call and make a list of callbacks. The reality is that if you called 100 businesses/day you'll probably find 2 or 3 that will express some level of interest, if you use an dialer you can probably make 200-300/calls/day. I'm not saying it's a golden solution, but for some folks it works a heck of a lot better than paying for leads. Cold calling is also the way a lot of agents get the chance to talk to people about health insurance that wont go on the internet and look for it. Today my callers averaged 3 leads each and the people are expecting me or one of my agents to call them back and talk about saving them money on their health insurance or helping them get better coverage.

[lacy_amy]

Originally Posted by healthagent

Well I have to ask and don't mean to to come of as rude in any way, but if you can't do well with people requesting quotes how much better to you expect to do calling people who didn't?

Cold-calling is generally used by new agents coming into the business with lacking funds.

interesting.....I can't seem to do well with people "requesting" quotes because they either had no idea what they filled out or they have 15 other agents calling them for the same thing. I thought cold calling businesses would be a good idea because they aren't being hounded by other agents. I could be wrong though. If you can point me in the direction of a place where I can buy leads that 15 other agents haven't already bought I'd love to check it out. I'd gladly spend the money.
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Originally Posted by MedicarePlanSolutions

I'm glad you bring this up! Buying internet leads that a bunch of agents are working is a tough gig for a few reasons:
1. Other agents are calling
2. They're probably calling with the same carriers
3. The people who filled out the form occasionally think the computer will give them a quote and then they get punked at the end and can't answer their phone for days because agents keep calling them (I know this because it's happened to me AND I've worked internet leads).
4. Adverse selection, if they can't get insurance anywhere else, why not fill out every offer on the internet.

My experience with either cold calling personally or paying others to cold call is you have much better luck finding people that aren't getting hounded to death and usually have someone who's not necessarily a bad risk. If you cold call businesses you should use a dialer and not spend too long on the phone with each business you call and make a list of callbacks. The reality is that if you called 100 businesses/day you'll probably find 2 or 3 that will express some level of interest, if you use an dialer you can probably make 200-300/calls/day. I'm not saying it's a golden solution, but for some folks it works a heck of a lot better than paying for leads. Cold calling is also the way a lot of agents get the chance to talk to people about health insurance that wont go on the internet and look for it. Today my callers averaged 3 leads each and the people are expecting me or one of my agents to call them back and talk about saving them money on their health insurance or helping them get better coverage.

I'm glad you brought this up. This was exactly the point I'm trying to make. I find that most people get irritated when you call them from internet leads because they have gotten 10 other calls from agents. Can you tell me how much an auto dialer generally is?

[GreenSky]

Despite the fact that 1/2 of 1% of agents with 5 or more years of experience are doing well with internet leads, in my opinion they are a colossal waste of money and time.

You need to go F2F, cold call or pay someone else to do that. Grab a predicitive dialer for about $100 a month and have at it.

Rick

[MedicarePlanSolutions]

Originally Posted by GreenSky

Despite the fact that 1/2 of 1% of agents with 5 or more years of experience are doing well with internet leads, in my opinion they are a colossal waste of money and time.

You need to go F2F, cold call or pay someone else to do that. Grab a predicitive dialer for about $100 a month and have at it.

Rick

Although Rick and I don't usually agree on things, it's been happening a lot more lately. I even like that he pointed out paying someone else to do it can be a good idea.

Mojo is $100-$150 depending on if you ask around or not, then all you need to do is load up some cheap data which you shouldn't pay more than 5 cents a record for. If you want to hire a telemarketer I know a few experienced reps that are looking for work and have their own hardware.

[lacy_amy]

[/quote]If you want to hire a telemarketer I know a few experienced reps that are looking for work and have their own hardware.[/quote]

What would you say on average it costs to hire a telemarketer?

[pomfin]

If you want to hire a telemarketer I know a few experienced reps that are looking for work and have their own hardware.[/quote]

What would you say on average it costs to hire a telemarketer?[/quote]
How much per hour for the telemarketer? You figure.
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Originally Posted by MedicarePlanSolutions

Although Rick and I don't usually agree on things, it's been happening a lot more lately. I even like that he pointed out paying someone else to do it can be a good idea.

Mojo is $100-$150 depending on if you ask around or not, then all you need to do is load up some cheap data which you shouldn't pay more than 5 cents a record for. If you want to hire a telemarketer I know a few experienced reps that are looking for work and have their own hardware.

You can buy a predictive dialer a few hundred dollars. Then you use your cheap telephone plan to avoid per minute charge. It all depends on what you do.

[MedicarePlanSolutions]

What would you say on average it costs to hire a telemarketer?[/quote]

If you want to go the stay at home route like some folks do you're probably looking at $10/hr or more and they'll probably make 100-120 calls/day. I mostly user overseas callers and they're about half that, but take much more work to get started and need a predictive dialer to be really effective.

[Amber Scherloz]

You can also try appointment setting tool, it will be a good way to generate quality leads.