If you’ve been in the business for an appreciable amount of time, you’ve probably heard that insurance sales leads are the most important aspect of a successful insurance business.  While this is generally true, it’s the whole truth.  Leads are great, but without a good system to follow up and produce closed sales with these leads, they aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.

Unfortunately, this is the hardest step for most new insurance agents to master.  Instead of focusing on closing the leads, they focus on generating them.  They’re then left with hundreds of insurance sales leads that they can’t close because they either have a fear of closing with them or they have a terrible system – or no system at all – for contacting, following up, and closing those leads.

The process begins by selecting the medium through which the leads are generated.  The options of mail, Internet, and fax are all possibilities, and all of them have their own advantages and disadvantages.  The foundation to a successful system, however, is knowing where those leads were generated, how they were generated, and why the lead responded to the marketing.  Without this information, the chances of closing with the lead are already reduced by 60%.

Next, a successful lead follow-up system will be able to respond to the leads quickly and in a repeatable manner.  If the lead is a shared lead – and most of them are – your lead will receive between three and ten phone calls from other insurance agents right off the bat, all competing for the same business.  If you can be the first to reach the lead before they become weary of talking to salespeople, your chances of at least receiving their attention – or of the lead even answering the phone – are greatly increased.

Once you get a hold of the lead, the magic starts to happen.  You should always have a follow-up phone script that’s proven to quickly engage the insurance sales lead in a professional, friendly, and caring manner.  First impressions truly are the most important, and if yours is a bad one, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle throughout the entire pitch.  If you don’t yet have your own script, ask a friend or mentor in the field for help developing it.  Users of the SeniorLeads insurance sales lead system are provided a script that has been scientifically proven to increase results by 300%.

Throughout the conversation, it’s important to be courteous and professional.  High pressure sales tactics are short lived and globally hated – you’ll turn your prospect off for good if you resort to those.

Instead, think about your conversation with your prospect as a conversation with a friend.  Try not to think of yourself as a salesman selling your services, but instead a friend looking out for their best interests.  This attitude will come across in your voice when you talk to them, and if your concern seems sincere, you’ll quickly find that you’ll need a bigger office to handle all the business you’ll receive.

Insurance sales is a very emotional profession, and recognizing this will get you far.  People come to insurance companies when they’re either in turmoil or are thinking about the possibility that bad things could happen to them.  It is your responsibility to stand above that chaos as the strong tree in the middle of a storm.  Do this, and your clients will not only do more business with you, but they’ll thank you every step of the way.