The Life of an Internet Insurance Lead

[mike-]

I was thinking last night how much money could one John Doe internet lead produce. For example, John Doe is looking for insurance quotes and comes across a Netquote landing page, he puts in his info and the fun begins. Netquote sells the lead to 6 insurance agents and 6 other lead vendors (A-F). 3 lead vendors sell the lead as exclusive and the other 3 as a shared lead. Within minutes the pyramid begins forming.
Now lets assume John Doe goes to two websites and inputs his info, you can imagine how many more people are getting their hands on that lead.

Okay, day two comes around and one of the lead providers sells the lead to 11 buyers and has a chance to sell it one more time and chooses to sell it to LeadsClearance. LeadClearance then sells it 4 more times as a shared lead.
So day three and 178 calls later, John Doe's phone stops ringing every 5 seconds but wait now the Aged Internet lead wholesalers come in and buy the lead from lead vendors A-F. They now redistribute John Doe the internet lead to 6 more agents and the phone cycle begins again.

It sucks to be John Doe. Internet leads, can't live with them and can't live without them.

 

[somarco]

Re: The Life of an Internet Lead?

Most internet leads are born into good homes but then something happens to make them go bad. They are passed around, used and abused and before you know it they are tossed out like yesterdays garbage.

Most will die shortly after that, but some will find a home with NAA or Mega.

 

[whatyouwantfinally]

Re: The Life of an Internet Lead?

I was thinking last night how much money could one John Doe internet lead produce. For example, John Doe is looking for insurance quotes and comes across a Netquote landing page, he puts in his info and the fun begins. Netquote sells the lead to 6 insurance agents and 6 other lead vendors (A-F). 3 lead vendors sell the lead as exclusive and the other 3 as a shared lead. Within minutes the pyramid begins forming.
Now lets assume John Doe goes to two websites and inputs his info, you can imagine how many more people are getting their hands on that lead.

Okay, day two comes around and one of the lead providers sells the lead to 11 buyers and has a chance to sell it one more time and chooses to sell it to LeadsClearance. LeadClearance then sells it 4 more times as a shared lead.
So day three and 178 calls later, John Doe's phone stops ringing every 5 seconds but wait now the Aged Internet lead wholesalers come in and buy the lead from lead vendors A-F. They now redistribute John Doe the internet lead to 6 more agents and the phone cycle begins again.

It sucks to be John Doe. Internet leads, can't live with them and can't live without them.

While it is bad, the above scenario isn't really realistic. What happens a LOT that never gets mentioned is someone fills out a quote form on-line, gets a few automated emails and gets few or NO calls.

Most agents only buy leads on weekdays during business hours, be it due to account settings or daily limits. It just so happens that the call centers who blow up the leads only work leads during the EXACT same time. So, to those (most) agents, it's going to seem like every lead gets passed around more than it actually does due to the 20-50 man chop-shops that call over and over.

 

[bill3173]

Re: The Life of an Internet Lead?

While it is bad, the above scenario isn't really realistic. What happens a LOT that never gets mentioned is someone fills out a quote form on-line, gets a few automated emails and gets few or NO calls.

You're actually making a bigger point than was intended. These "untainted" leads can actually show up any time of day. I picked up one mid-day on Monday, put very little effort into it, just emailed and left a message. The lady calls me back and wants to discuss health and life. She calls me back two days later and wants to do apps.

Okay, I'm thinking did I fall into a black hole, what's going on here? I asked her "have you been getting slammed with calls?" She says no, I said what the hell do you mean no? You should have been called at least 300x by now. She told me that she'd received one other call, but the guy sounded like an asshole and that was it.

Some of these just pass thru the system, and I don't know why or how. They just don't get linked.

 

[FL P&C Broker]

Re: The Life of an Internet Lead?

Its amazing how sometimes people say you were the 10th person to call and other times they tell me they have been waiting for my call for 2 days.

 

[Tampa Bay Rep]

Re: The Life of an Internet Lead?

There are many agents who don’t bother to call on a prospect after the first week so in many cases most of your competition disappears after the first week. Granted there are those who will have bought insurance the first week from some agent be it you or someone else but there are many prospects who who will not have bought anything yet when you call them in the weeks after the initial inquiry.

A good way to do a test to see how long other agents typically call on a lead where you buy your real time leads is to ask the lead company what their quote sites are that they are generating their prospects from and fill out the form for quotes yourself and see how many agents contine following up after a few voice mails.

What you will find is that most, if not all, of those agents won't bother contacting you after the first week. Try it with your lead vendor's prospect generating quote sites and see what your results are. Also be sure to inform the agents after the test by email that you are an agent so they can get a credit from the lead company.

Lack of follow up by other agents is good news for agents who do call in the weeks after the initial inquiry, calling on those prospects that they couldn't reach early on, because now they can reach someone who is not being bombarded by tons of agents anymore.

 

[Guest]

Re: The Life of an Internet Lead?

Try exclusive leads through a reputable company. The thing I don't like about a shared lead is the guy who calls AFTER me, finds out that I quoted the diabetic Table 4, claims he can get the guy preferred, and my business vaporizes. Can't do it. Wouldn't be prudent.

 

[whatyouwantfinally]

Re: The Life of an Internet Lead?

You're actually making a bigger point than was intended. These "untainted" leads can actually show up any time of day. I picked up one mid-day on Monday, put very little effort into it, just emailed and left a message. The lady calls me back and wants to discuss health and life. She calls me back two days later and wants to do apps.

Okay, I'm thinking did I fall into a black hole, what's going on here? I asked her "have you been getting slammed with calls?" She says no, I said what the hell do you mean no? You should have been called at least 300x by now. She told me that she'd received one other call, but the guy sounded like an asshole and that was it.

Some of these just pass thru the system, and I don't know why or how. They just don't get linked.

Yup, there's nobody buying them. The percentage of agents who just don't contact their leads is astounding. If a health lead doesn't go to a call center but goes to, say, 4 agents, I'd say there's a 25% chance no one contacts the prospect at all.

 

[Davis]

Re: The Life of an Internet Lead

RBK2000 - Can you recommend any exclusive lead companies? I am new and tried the internet leads for InsuranceLeads.com in the Georgia market and was disappointed in the results. I received 20 free leads and half of them were no good and had to get credited back to my account. I was also on a timeline to use the free leads up before they expired.

 

[Charly]

Re: The Life of an Internet Lead

I am a new agent and I thought I read somewhere in this forum that VMO has some pretty good leads.I will let you know what my experience is with them next week.