Auto and Life Leads for Starters
- Thread starter apesako
- Start date
I have used Hometown quotes and have had decent success. I would suggest cold calling and door knocking. It works if you are willing to do it.
- 1,473
Like jimmy said..add to that friends and family.
I like to use Direct marketing with a follow up calls. You may want to join a network group as well to get leads that way.
I used insurme for a few years they are okay.
- 11,995
You probably are going to want to focus on the auto (and I presume homeowners) to get started. Life insurance is a tough sale and it's a different type of critter. Statistically you'll be much more likely to be successful as a knew agent if you're marketing a commodity type product (like auto and homeowners) vs a product you need to create a need for (like life insurance).
Another nice thing for you as a new agent is that cold calling on commodity products usually doesn't take expensive leads; generally a raw consumer list that's been scrubbed against the DNC registry will have you in good shape.
Were I in your situation, I would buy a list or raw consumer data for cold calling on auto (married homeowners 30-50 is usually a good starting point) and then start buying leads from Hometown Quotes for the life insurance so you' attacking both, but working the life leads as they come in and then spending the majority of your time building up your auto book.
Another nice thing for you as a new agent is that cold calling on commodity products usually doesn't take expensive leads; generally a raw consumer list that's been scrubbed against the DNC registry will have you in good shape.
Were I in your situation, I would buy a list or raw consumer data for cold calling on auto (married homeowners 30-50 is usually a good starting point) and then start buying leads from Hometown Quotes for the life insurance so you' attacking both, but working the life leads as they come in and then spending the majority of your time building up your auto book.
- 558
You might want to look into aged insurance leads where prospects went online to get insurance quotes.
Agents can get a good return on investment with aged leads because these leads are sold at a much lower price than real time leads.
Agents can get a good return on investment with aged leads because these leads are sold at a much lower price than real time leads.
- 882
Good advice, but Please don't think of P&C as commodity products. When one starts thinking of P&C as a commodity then the only reason to buy YOU is if you have the Lowest Price! Not the customer I want to shop for.
Also, if you sell homeowners, do you not realize how EASY it is to sell a life policy? Mrs. Homeowner: I'm sure you'd like to have the complete homeowners package, you know, the one that pays off the home if something happens to your husband....
Amazing how many times you get a YES to that statement. I've even had folks tell my staff when they bring out a life application: "I didn't buy life insurance, I bought the policy that pays off my home in case my husband dies!" duh...
I can only tell you that it works. I can't make you ask the right questions.
Works the same way with internet leads. "Those leads I bought are junk because not one of them bought a policy!"
I can't sell the policy for you, I can only give you an opportunity to quote the business. Unfortunately, too many agents treat All insurance as if they are selling a commodity and don't sell value...they just sell price.
Lastly: if you sell on price you will Lose the customer via price the next time the Aged Lead buyer solicits your customer. That is just a fact. [FYI: HometownQuotes.com does not re-sell their leads to aged lead buyers.]
From my experience: X-dating works Great for P&C products. Dialing for dollars.
- 558
Apesako, some agents do well with real time leads and some agents do well with aged insurance leads. The investment is much lower with aged leads and the return on investment with aged leads for many agents is higher, which can be a big issue for someone starting out.
Aged insurance leads on the market come from several sources. Some come directly from the real time lead companies who sell the leads to re-sellers. But even real time lead companies who don't sell their leads directly to re-sellers does not mean these leads are not being sold as an aged lead in the marketplace.
Here are examples of how the lead you bought from a real time lead vendor who does not sell aged leads to re-sellers gets on the market as an aged lead anyway:
Real time lead vendors when they don't sell the lead the maximum number of times, say their max is 5 times and they have only sold it 4 times or less, then many of them will put it out on the ping post system real time lead vendors use and will sell it to another real time lead vendor. One of the real time lead vendors in this scenario may not sell the lead as aged lead to a re-seller but the other real time vendor does, so the lead goes out on the market as aged lead that way.
Some real time lead vendors won't sell to re-sellers but they will do lead swaps with another fellow real time lead vendor, one of which may sell the leads as aged leads.
Some real time lead vendors won't sell aged leads to you as a solo agent because they don't want to deal with small orders but they are selling the leads as aged leads to a large call center (I've had clients who were buying their leads from real time lead companies who would tell agents they did not sell aged leads yet the call center was buying aged leads that was being extended to them as a favor because the call center was also buying a lot of real time leads from them).
Sometimes a call center will be buying a large volume of real time leads from a real time lead vendor who does not sell the leads as aged leads but the call center will sell those leads to a re-seller when they are done calling through the leads.
Real time lead vendors get many if not most of their real time leads they sell from affiliates and since some of the affiliates will do anything to make an extra buck, they'll put the leads out in the marketplace as an aged lead, or sell to just one large call center who then puts the leads out into the marketplace, where agents are now buying an aged lead that was orginally sold through a real time lead vendor who does not sell aged leads, but regardless those leads are now being sold as an aged lead because it made it into the marketplace this way.
Aged insurance leads on the market come from several sources. Some come directly from the real time lead companies who sell the leads to re-sellers. But even real time lead companies who don't sell their leads directly to re-sellers does not mean these leads are not being sold as an aged lead in the marketplace.
Here are examples of how the lead you bought from a real time lead vendor who does not sell aged leads to re-sellers gets on the market as an aged lead anyway:
Real time lead vendors when they don't sell the lead the maximum number of times, say their max is 5 times and they have only sold it 4 times or less, then many of them will put it out on the ping post system real time lead vendors use and will sell it to another real time lead vendor. One of the real time lead vendors in this scenario may not sell the lead as aged lead to a re-seller but the other real time vendor does, so the lead goes out on the market as aged lead that way.
Some real time lead vendors won't sell to re-sellers but they will do lead swaps with another fellow real time lead vendor, one of which may sell the leads as aged leads.
Some real time lead vendors won't sell aged leads to you as a solo agent because they don't want to deal with small orders but they are selling the leads as aged leads to a large call center (I've had clients who were buying their leads from real time lead companies who would tell agents they did not sell aged leads yet the call center was buying aged leads that was being extended to them as a favor because the call center was also buying a lot of real time leads from them).
Sometimes a call center will be buying a large volume of real time leads from a real time lead vendor who does not sell the leads as aged leads but the call center will sell those leads to a re-seller when they are done calling through the leads.
Real time lead vendors get many if not most of their real time leads they sell from affiliates and since some of the affiliates will do anything to make an extra buck, they'll put the leads out in the marketplace as an aged lead, or sell to just one large call center who then puts the leads out into the marketplace, where agents are now buying an aged lead that was orginally sold through a real time lead vendor who does not sell aged leads, but regardless those leads are now being sold as an aged lead because it made it into the marketplace this way.
- 882
Good overview TBRep.
Some of us in the insurance space are beginning to get together to deal with this in various ways so that our leads won't end up in the aged lead space.
Please hear me: I have no problem with your business model.....until it hurts my agents! Those that bought the lead as fresh did not sign up to have someone else come in behind them to try & take their hard won customer away from them. [or buy the same consumer data for pennies!...I wonder what the Consumer feels like?:( ]
So to me, IF an aged lead is an "un-sold" exclusive lead, then sell all that you can & more power to you. But if one of my agents received the lead....then shame on the company committing the fraud.
Of course I'm not going to share what we are doing to combat this. It will not happen overnight but with the consolidation in the insurance leads space, it does allow for a bit more control. This practice hurts my agents & I will do whatever it takes to help stop this practice.
Again, not about you but just about doing the Right Thing...
To everyone's success!
Merry Christmas.
Some of us in the insurance space are beginning to get together to deal with this in various ways so that our leads won't end up in the aged lead space.
Please hear me: I have no problem with your business model.....until it hurts my agents! Those that bought the lead as fresh did not sign up to have someone else come in behind them to try & take their hard won customer away from them. [or buy the same consumer data for pennies!...I wonder what the Consumer feels like?:( ]
So to me, IF an aged lead is an "un-sold" exclusive lead, then sell all that you can & more power to you. But if one of my agents received the lead....then shame on the company committing the fraud.
Of course I'm not going to share what we are doing to combat this. It will not happen overnight but with the consolidation in the insurance leads space, it does allow for a bit more control. This practice hurts my agents & I will do whatever it takes to help stop this practice.
Again, not about you but just about doing the Right Thing...
To everyone's success!
Merry Christmas.
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I would be curious to hear your thoughts on your auto leads at HQ. As a newr agent I am full steam into I-leads, and found as the months went buy that the HQ auto lead quality got worse and worse, and my ability to get refunds on legitimately bad leads got harder and harder. I finally had to cancel my account last week as the ROI just did not add up at all. Additionally, I track every lead I buy from every lead source every month, we have a great sales and follow up process on every i-lead we buy, and our word tracks are great. In general, we do very well with I-leads, but I am sad to say that my experience with HQ (your company) got worse as the months wore on, so I find it hard to believe that your life leads would be any better. Just my .02.
Thanks,
Eric
Thanks,
Eric
- 882
Hey Eric,
Late night I'm pulling here so forgive me if I am brief. Thank you for posting.
I checked your account out & here is what I find. [I won't post # of leads unless you give me permission] Since last July 11 you bought some leads from us & we gave your credit for 28% of the leads you bought.
In January we gave you credit for 7 leads you requested credit on. We declined 5 for various reasons like this:
"01/12/2012 01:41:55PM Eric ** Lead does not meet filter selections - Did not request quote. HTQ Response:-----declined, meets filters. Perhaps agent gave wrong reason for request? emailed agent of credit policy.
We ask the QC folks to stick to the rules as they make over 150-200 calls a day each to verify leads that agents request credit for. In this case, if you re-submit for a valid reason we would give credit of course.
I looked at all 5 of the declined requests. Frankly, I don't get why you weren't credited for 3 of them. I copy pasted the info to one of my managers to check out.
This is one we had already Given credit to an agent before you asked for credit & why we gave it:
01/23/2012 01:09:12PM Jerad **** Fraud incentivized or never requested - said was tricked never wanted or asked for quotes ---HTQ staff: verified not looking or interested; credit---
And yet for some reason we Declined to you. All I can figure is our gal clicked the wrong button on you. I really wish you had submitted a "[email protected]" request to recheck these three. [faster than calling] But I realize that time is money.
At the moment I don't have an answer as to why we made these mistakes but I've already put it #1 on my manager's plate for this Monday morning. We will give you credit of course.
Also, one email request you made back in October stood out. You were frustrated we didn't answer your call & that you had to submit via email. Our staff literally live on the phone all day. Daily they'll be on the phone 30+ minutes with some agent or another. If you submit by email you'll most likely get a faster response...
I wish I had an answer for the three declined requests right now & I don't. We'll follow up with you on Monday for sure.
Have a Great weekend
