It’s safe to say that the gray hairs in the insurance sales industry have secrets that they’ll never reveal about insurance lead generation.  They know – as you probably do too by now – that insurance lead generation is what makes a business tick.  What they also know, that you probably don’t, is that lead generation is only half the picture.  The other half is what separates them from you and what separates the ultra successful from the agent masses.  But what some of the older agents don’t know is how to profit from Internet insurance leads.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last ten years or have totally resisted information evolution, you know that the Internet is revolutionizing the lead generation business.  An Internet insurance lead has become the standard to which all other leads are held.  They’re the cheapest to generate, the fastest to respond and, depending on the source, the easiest to close.  That is, if you know how to use the Internet insurance lead you just generated.

And quite possibly the greatest aspect of any Internet insurance lead is the instantaneous transmission.  In this age of “got to have it now,” you get the lead within minutes of the prospect completing a request.  Within seconds of the prospect completing their request, your auto-responder acknowledges the request and replies, even if you’re out on an appointment.

Of course, one of the hardest steps for wet-behind-the-ears insurance agents to conquer is to convert the Internet insurance lead into business.  Normally, instead of focusing on closing the leads they have, newer agents focus on generating more.  Nobody ever told them that one in the hand is better than two in the bush and that the true key to success is having a great appointment-to-closing ratio.

So what should an agent do with a new Internet insurance lead?  Should they call, email or otherwise contact them?  What will the prospect expect to receive?  The answer actually lies in the way the lead was generated and whether it’s a shared lead or an exclusive lead.

First, we’ll tackle the method of generation.  The lead may be an email-only lead, where they’ve entered their email as an Internet insurance lead who’s interested in obtaining information about plans that you may have to offer.  These leads are usually sold relatively cheaply and in bulk, and they are also usually shared leads.

Your approach with email-only leads should be to differentiate yourself from the crowd of agents that will be sending them emails.  Place the Internet insurance lead in your auto responder and let your system follow-up with the person automatically.  Studies have shown that most people don’t commit to purchase until five to seven different contacts, so it’s vitally important to keep in touch – even if it’s simply to check in to show that you’re still thinking about them.  There are plenty of examples of someone who waited for over a year before making an insurance decision and you don’t want that decision to go to one of your competitors.

If the internet insurance lead filled out a form that included their phone number, immediately call them before the lead goes stale.  Even though the company you bought it from may have told you the lead is exclusive, many times they have time limits on the exclusivity and, in a short period of time, your lead will be receiving many other phone calls from dozens of agents that sound, at least to the prospect, exactly the same.  So the key is to identify and communicate your unique value.

While the Internet can generate great leads at great prices and efficiency, the true advantage goes to the person who can best capitalize on those leads.  Once you  learn to identify the value of different types of Internet insurance leads, you’ll be able to identify those that best fit with your product offerings, enabling you to focus on only those leads that are likely to result in sales.

Insurance leads are what make the insurance industry go ‘round.  There are plenty of companies that will gladly take your money and give you leads, but there are very few that offer you the right customer service, quality of leads, training and technical support of a world class insurance lead company.   But if you interact and use the resources of the insurance lead company correctly, you can be quite successful.

Insurance lead companies make a business out of selling insurance leads, which consist of personal information from people who are looking for more information – or perhaps even a price quote – on a certain type of insurance.  They range from the completely unqualified leads that will never become sales, to the perfect leads that have their wallets out and ready to pay for insurance from you.  Of course, most leads fall somewhere in between those two extremes and it’s up to the lead purchasing agent to keep the insurance lead companies performing to their expected standards.

Even working with the best insurance lead company, remember it’s a numbers game.  For every 10 leads, maybe 4 of them are not qualified and not that interested.  But from the other 6 leads, you make 2 sales.  You should be very satisfied with these results and consider your experience over large numbers, not just by the last 2 leads you called.

The key to working with an insurance lead company over a long period of time is to make sure that both parties are happy at all times.  The only way to achieve this is by opening a line of communication with your lead generation company.

Before you even start, you should sit down with the insurance lead company and go over certain details, such as how many leads they’re able to send your way, how many times they sell their leads to other agents and what their technology is to ensure you’re getting a functional and accurate email address, phone number and first and last names.  They should have some sort of scrubbing technology in place to ensure that their quality is top notch.  Also, get the guarantee or credit policy in writing.

When first approaching a company about this matter, it helps to at least know the basics behind marketing and lead generation from the insurance lead company’s perspective.  When you’re up to 50 or 60 leads per week, you’ll find that it’s nearly impossible to track the quality very well, so you need to lay the right foundation on which to build a great relationship with your lead generation company.

Once you decide which lead company is right for you, you should spend some time learning a little about marketing in general.  It pays to be familiar with what the insurance lead company has to go through in order to generate the leads you’re going to use.  For example, are they soliciting through paid advertising or freebie giveaways?  If so, the lead may not be as well qualified as one generated through direct mail.  Use this information sparingly, because what happens at one company may not happen at others.

When it comes time to talk about price with the insurance lead company, remember that usually, the more leads you buy, the lower the cost.  While you immediately think of price per lead, think about all other things that are part of the contract you’re about to sign.  Do you like their bad lead replacement policy?  How about their marketing material?  Does it fit with the way you’d like to portray your company?

Just like anything else, what you get out of the relationship with your insurance lead company is what you put into it.  If you’d like to maintain a good relationship with their company, initiate a discussion that addresses all of your concerns and tries to work them out – otherwise, you’re in for a long and unsatisfying contract period.  So if the leads are not working for you, call and ask for their assistance before you just give up.