Lead Service - Shhhhh, Top Secret!!!

[Hollywood]

This thread is intended to be more philosophical in nature and not get into opinions and review about specific lead service companies.

I have not been able to get much of an opinion on lead service companies through my professional circles. And as I stated, I don't really trust those guys.

There is very little discussion of lead service companies outside of 'Insurance Forums'. Many other forums have little discussion or actively block the discussion.

Is a good lead service Top Secret? Does an agent or advisor that finds a good lead service feel that it is so valuable that they will refuse to talk about it in person or on-line? I would highly appreciate any comments and this thread to discuss this topic.

Lead service companies exist, yet after looking through many posts and my in-person conversations, I see little to no strong endorsements of specific companies.

 

[burnt]

I am starting to agree with you Hollywood. I have emailed a few people on here that have been in discussions concerning or mentioning direct mail and have received very few responses (actually only one). Do you people think they have such a good thing going that they don't want anyone competition (which I can totally understand), or are these many lead service companys really not all that.

I don't mind making an investment of money and time into a lead service, but I just would like to hear what others have to say about particular companies and advice they might have.

I am considering doing direct mail for MP and FE. From what little I have found I am leaning towards direct mailers, about a 1000 a week to start off (want to determine a return rate), doing letters and not postcards, paying for first class mail. I would really like to write about 10-15 apps a week, so around a 2% return would really be nice. I have looked at leaddiscounters.com, Anyone have any dealings or experience that they might be willing to share.

I have previously been with NAA and saw that ship was listing very early on, and now I'm contracted on with another IMO with a great contract %, but they really don't do much in the area of lead generation (and I knew this going in). Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[Hollywood]

As an extension of these thoughts, I think there are some producers that do reasonably well that have a lot of flow of leads coming to them. Whether through agency channels or a lead service company, they get a lot of flow. They keep the source of this flow secret. Their close ratios are not great or even good, but because of the flow they have solid production.

 

[STIBROKER]

Insurance Agent Forum - Search Results

 

[patch36]

This thread is intended to be more philosophical in nature and not get into opinions and review about specific lead service companies.

I have not been able to get much of an opinion on lead service companies through my professional circles. And as I stated, I don't really trust those guys.

There is very little discussion of lead service companies outside of 'Insurance Forums'. Many other forums have little discussion or actively block the discussion.

Is a good lead service Top Secret? Does an agent or advisor that finds a good lead service feel that it is so valuable that they will refuse to talk about it in person or on-line? I would highly appreciate any comments and this thread to discuss this topic.

Lead service companies exist, yet after looking through many posts and my in-person conversations, I see little to no strong endorsements of specific companies.

Experiences vary from one agent to the next regarding any particular lead service you want to discuss. MANY discussions go on here daily about a bunch of lead services.

My experiences have been reasonably good with several, but I have issues with all of them. Most sell leads that are not exclusive. Many resell their leads to other lead services. I can name a couple I have had good experiences with that would evoke a passionate disagreement from someone who hates them and labels them as conniving thieves.

To me, it is not worth the energy or thought to get involved in a discussion with well meaning fellow members over the subjects of leads or annuities. I would rather discuss politics and religion here than those two subjects.

I see Stibroker actually did the search for you newbies As I found out after only a few days here, most of my questions have already been answered in detail, if I use the search function.

 

[burnt]

thanks sti, i didn't realize there was such a thing as a search function, wow the power of this internet thing is just amazing.
Are your other 3000+ post this helpful.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sorry, for being such a smarta$$, but 99% of those post are not answering the questions that hollywood or myself asked, I have read them. I took STI post as shot, that since I only have a couple post here that I didn't try to research anything.
Nothing personal STI

 

[Guest]

I understand your frustration. I happens to most people who come into sales from a salaried position. When you had a boss who paid you a wage he/she taught you what to do and you did it that way (or were fired.)

In sales there IS NO WAY. There are lots and lots of ways. The problem is that sales is also very personal as well as geographical. What works for a guy out in rural MO is not going to work for a guy in urban LA.

Everyone is looking for the holy grail in this biz. That makes it "ripe" for there to be lots of vendors who (can) claim to have it.

You have the FMOs with their "can't miss" seminar methods (i.e. spend lots of $$$ on mailers and appointment confirmation)

You have direct mail companies.

You have predictive dialing companies.

You have tele-marketers.

You have the internet lead companies.

You have BMI-like networking (tips) organizations.

You have MLM outfits like HBW, NAA, PrimeAm.

You have NAHU, NAIFA, Chambers, etc. all saying "Join and you will make contacts to get referrals.)

(It makes you ask yourself the question: Who made more money in the 1849 gold rush... the miners or the guys who sold jeans, tents, and shovels to the miners?)

The bad news is that those who have a methodology that works for them are probably not going to share it any more than Coke is going to give Dr. Pepper the formula for Coca-Cola!

The good news is that there IS no holy grail in this biz... or any sales-related endeavor.

There is no "big thing." It is a lot of little things:

Your personality.
Your sales ability
Your prospecting ability.
Your phone ability.
Your product knowledge.
Your personal or professional network
Your relatives, friends, family
Your agent population in your geography
Your area of expertise
Your technical abilities and computer skills
Your area's demographics
Your work ethic
Your health
Your golf game or bridge game
Your sports or hobbies
... and on and on and on.

I'm the one most often touted as the forum *** so don't pay me any attention. But I'll tell you this for what it might be worth. I've never, ever, ever known anyone in this biz (life, health, DI, FE, annuity, P&C, commercial, LTC, stocks, bonds, mutuals, commodities, IRAs, CDs, etc.) who spent a minimum of 180 minutes a day... every damn day of the week... cold calling on the phone AND taking someone (client, prospect, friend, relative) to lunch every damn day of the week (hey, you gotta eat... why eat alone?) who was not comfotrable successful after their second year, and earning at least six figures (sometimes seven) at the end of their fourth year.

You're new here so you don't know that I'm the "list fruitcake" so please dismiss me as everyone else here does. You will be better off if you do... and if you live in my area (Sacramento) I don't want the competition!

Al (the forum ***)
Preserve your memories

 

[Frank Stastny]

This thread is intended to be more philosophical in nature and not get into opinions and review about specific lead service companies.

I have not been able to get much of an opinion on lead service companies through my professional circles. And as I stated, I don't really trust those guys.

There is very little discussion of lead service companies outside of 'Insurance Forums'. Many other forums have little discussion or actively block the discussion.

Is a good lead service Top Secret? Does an agent or advisor that finds a good lead service feel that it is so valuable that they will refuse to talk about it in person or on-line? I would highly appreciate any comments and this thread to discuss this topic.

Lead service companies exist, yet after looking through many posts and my in-person conversations, I see little to no strong endorsements of specific companies.

The main reason is they don't exist.

Some are better than others for a while but that can fluctuate dramatically and does. There are companies that are a total rip-off and others that may be sorta kinda okay most of the time.

Although I can't back this up with stats, my guess would be that a new lead company may have decent leads for a while. As more and more agents sign up with the company the demand for "leads" will increase. It that increase in demand that will usually cause their leads to go from good to poor to just plain crappy.

I believe a lot depends on what kind of leads the agent is looking for and the type of lead the company is offering. Direct Mail is the worst. Internet leads use to be pretty good, I used them a lot about five years ago with acceptable success. Telemarketed leads can be super or pure crap. They are when the telemarketer works for agent and the agent does the training. (I wouldn't pay a nickle for telemarketed appointments unless the person setting the appointments is my employee.)

There are only so many people in a given area who may express an interest or be curious about a particular insurance product at any given time. The more agents that company has who are interested in contacting those people the less valuable that lead is going to become. The agents who will have the greatest success with shared leads are the ones who are sitting at their desk with their finger already on the telephone key pad when they receive the lead.

Lead companies will sell the same lead to a number of agents. Some companies will claim only to sell to five agents, others will make the same claim but sell them to fifty agents. Truly exclusive leads, where only one agent is given the lead, not five, ten or fifteen agents, are almost not existent.

Remember, lead companies are in business to make as much money from each lead as they possibly can. This does not work in the agent's favor.

I work the senior market and over the past fifteen years I have tried everything, twice. The one single method that enables me to write more apps with a minimum amount of time invested is for me to do my own telemarketing from a list. It is quite easy compared to telemarketing for other insurance products

 

[Guest]

Al your post is 100% dead on, and anyone who disagrees with that post is a fool.

"From your mouth... to God's ear" as my old "bubbie" would say.

Rick will be here soon... and the usual crap will start.

Al (the forum ***)
Preserve your memories

 

[Hollywood]

FWIW, I looked at this forum when I first started, but did not sign up and have spent time on other forums since then. I appreciate that there is more flow of certain topics here.

Not looking for a magic bullet, but I view a lead service as a possible additional bullet.