Daily sales & marketing tips for insurance professionals

As September,  and therefore 2009’s third quarter, draws to an end, all of our thoughts will inevitably turn to the economy.  Without a doubt, this has been one of the most chaotic years in US economic history – a veritable roller coaster – and if you’re still in the game as an insurance agent, then you’re one tough cookie!  As I speak to insurance agents on the phone every day, one question will stubbornly come up every now and then: is anyone out there actually buying insurance, or are they all just rate shopping?  I could tell you the answer is a resounding yes, even offer up the testimonies of agents that I work with that purchase leads and say that this year, purchasing leads has helped them to make this their best year yet… but don’t take my word for it, take the people’s:

 According to a new survey released by the nonprofit LIFE Foundation (and found through Insurance News Net), 56% of Americans believe that it is more important to have life insurance now than it was a just year ago.  Even though there were 33% of Americans that have lost coverage this year – due to a job loss or a job change, an even higher 39% increased their existing coverage and 28% of consumers went out and bought life insurance for the very first time.  So what are these numbers saying?  To me, and to LIFE Foundation, they’re saying that even during times of economic crisis or hardship, or perhaps even because of it, people value security for their family.   People are still buying and maintaining insurance coverage. 

 Again though, don’t take my word for it.   According to Insurance Networking News, New York Life Insurance Co. sponsored another survey that shows that 83% of Americans age 30 and older agree that economic hardship has increased their desire to provide financial protection for their family.  So the silver lining in the hail cloud of economic woes is that consumers aren’t just shopping; they’re purchasing.

As you well know, on occasion a lead will come through under a fictitious name such as Superman, Yogi Bear, or Iwana Sayhello (Austin Powers comes to mind)….something along those lines. Your first reaction may be to say, ‘bogus lead,’ and then you want to toss the lead or ask for a credit. Although the lead very well may be bogus, I ask that you first call the phone number on the lead just to be sure.

 Consumers are concerned in this day and age with identity theft- no news there- and they are hesitant to enter certain information online. Therefore, a lead may enter the correct telephone number and other contact information but may not want to enter his or her name. Case in point…we recently found that a consumer provided correct information on the lead form and wanted a quote but entered the name Superman, because he didn’t want to enter his name for reasons only known to him.

 In addition, some consumers may enter an incorrect name and phone number but the email is correct as they only want the quote via email. Therefore, before you quickly decide that the lead is “bogus,” based on the name or funny-looking email, exhaust all resources by completing the following:

 Call the lead ASAP and leave voicemail if provided

• Send an email
• Check an outside source such as www.whitepages.com to verify the contact information

 You may be surprised that Superman very well may need an insurance quote!

Do you know that your first contact with a lead is not by phone but through the content of your elevator pitch? You are probably scratching your head and thinking that first contact is via phone. Well, that is part accurate. Allow me to explain.

When a consumer completes a quote request and clicks submit, the lead will be matched to you based on your specifications. The consumer then sees what we call a marketing page. The marketing page contains the following information about you: contact name (optional, but a name is good so that the consumer will know who is calling), company, address, office phone, email (optional), web site (optional) and your elevator pitch (optional) if you choose. I highly recommend creating a description about yourself since you are not only selling insurance products but essentially yourself. What can you write that sets you apart from other agents? Be creative!

Oh! Did I say the marketing page is FREE?! Yes, free marketing, which is included as part of your InsureMe account.

As you may know, the elevator pitch is essentially a quick and concise description of yourself and what you have to offer. Just type in “elevator pitch” on the web and there are many great examples, or you may need to obtain permission from your company as to what the description should state. The elevator pitch is not intended include quotes. For example, I believe that consumers like to read about your experience in the industry, the company or companies you represent, maybe a personal tidbit to help them remember you. Please keep in mind that the consumer is your audience.

So, don’t strike out on your first contact opportunity with a lead…hit a home run! Get it? Pitch…home run…okay…sorry. Give InsureMe a call today if you need assistance with your marketing page.

Just when you thought that InsureMe couldn’t find another way to make our service even better – we have.  We’ve recently revamped our system for our Auto, Home, Health, and Life leads to make the system easier to use, easier to understand, and (best of all) more cost effective.  You’ll be noticing these changes soon.

Another change is the ability to receive new insurance types.    Now you can create profiles specifically for Renters leads, Health leads with pre-existing conditions, Med Supp leads and for Life leads with pre-existing conditions.

Cell phones are practically a staple in our lives today…for some, the necessity seems to be up there with air, water, and food, and although some may disagree, cell phones are a convenient business tool. We understand that many insurance agents are constantly on the road for appointments and/or want the ability to contact a lead right away; therefore, we can create an option in which to send your leads to your cell phone.

As many agents have explained to me, being the first agent to contact a prospect will lead to greater success; therefore, having the option to have the leads sent via text to your cell phone will provide you with the opportunity to call the lead ASAP. No, we don’t expect you to forego sleep in order to call a lead at 3:00a.m.

Therefore, if you want your leads sent to your cell phone, please take note of the following:

• First, please contact your cell phone provider to determine the cost of text messaging and to see if you have the option
• InsureMe only guarantees lead delivery via our server on the agent site
• We recommend secondary email addresses to ensure lead delivery
• The lead information provided on the text message may only include the name and phone number; therefore, please think of the cell phone option as notification only and check your email or the InsureMe agent site for complete lead information

Call us today and we will be happy to discuss lead delivery via your cell phone!

For further reading, Penny, InsureMe’s talented copywriter, recently wrote a great article 7 Facts about Texting That Could Save Your Life .

Wishing you successful sales!!

Disclaimer: InsureMe does not endorse cell phone use while driving, eating while driving, brushing teeth while driving (yes, I have witnessed), putting on makeup while driving, drinking and driving….I think you get the idea. Just remember….don’t text and drive!

“Do or do not, there is no try.”  Yoda said this to Luke when he was trying to get his X-Wing out of the Dagobah swamp.  That’s one of my favorite lines from Star Wars.  I also love:  “I have a bad feeling about this.”   That line is said in each of the Star Wars movies basically every time they went up against some big problem.

Back when I was an insurance agent, there were many days when I would say “I have a bad feeling about this,” and my manager would reply by saying “Do or do not, there is no try.”  He was my Yoda.  I learned a lot from him.  One thing I remember him telling me the most was that the best marketers sell the most insurance.  He would ask me what I was doing to market my agency, and that’s when I would evaluate my marketing programs.

One thing I found out early on was that I needed to give marketing programs time to work.  I couldn’t give in to the temptation to give up early because I was not seeing instant results.  I knew how many leads I had to buy to sell one policy.  When I quoted more leads, I made more calls.  When I made more calls and followed-up on them, I sold more policies.

When you call on leads, do you call once and not call again, or do you make several attempts before you give up?  I found out that I was a lot more successful with my leads if I followed up with them at least six or seven times.  Usually by the time I talked to them, most other agents were not calling them any more and they were ready to buy.  I found that with consistent follow up, I saw consistent results, and I had fewer “bad feeling about this” days.

Everyone purchases insurance to safeguard themselves against the great Unknown, against what might happen to them one day.  But there is one thing that I can guarantee is likely to happen to each and every individual reading this, and you likely don‘t have a safeguard in place against it.  No matter how safe you think you are, no matter what protection you think you have to keep this from happening, one day – one day­ - your email will fail you.  I’ve seen it happen dozens, nay, hundreds of times.  It doesn’t matter what kind of email you have, public or private; at one time or another they all will stop delivering your valuable emails to you.  Just this last Tuesday, 9/1/09, Google’s Gmail suffered an almost 2 hour system-wide outage due to simple system upgrades.

This is why it is so vital for business users to adopt backup practices for their email accounts.  A missed email from a friend is an inconvenience, but if you currently purchase leads from a company like InsureMe, that’s a missed business transaction, and plain old money down the drain.

Fortunately, all is not lost.  Though we can’t prevent these outages from occurring, we can take out our own personal insurance against them.  One way to protect yourself is to always have a secondary email address on file with anyone you do business with (banks, credit cards, etc.)  Companies like InsureMe will happily forward your leads to multiple email addresses at no additional cost.  Yes, you might end up just deleting the duplicate lead unless there is an issue, but wouldn’t you rather pay for the lead once and have the assurance that you’re always receiving it than end up paying for a lead you didn’t receive because your email is unreliable?  Remember that if you decide to create a backup email that it should exist on a different server.  For example, I have one Hotmail and one Gmail email account.  If you haven’t had a chance to get around to that backup email yet and your email does crash, don’t worry!  InsureMe has created some extra protection for you: you can also access all of your leads real-time (i.e. hot off the press) by using Agent Connection, located in your InsureMe account, which will deliver your leads to your desktop similar to email.  To access Agent Connection, you simply need to log into your InsureMe account, no installing, no extra sign ups required.  So while we keep our fingers crossed that it isn’t our email that stops working next time, do yourself a favor and give yourself a little extra insurance.

Welcome to my first entry for the agent service blog!

 My goal is to provide you, the agent, with information pertaining to service topics, tips, and FAQ’s. Speaking on the phone and corresponding via email with agents on a daily basis provides me with an excellent opportunity to hear your questions, concerns and feedback. I hope that this forum will create discussions that will be helpful for you in building your book of business and in creating a long-term relationship with InsureMe.

 Now…enough with the formal introduction.  Let’s get moving on to a topic we both can benefit from…referrals. I see many emails from agents that include the quote in their personal signature, “the best compliment you can give is a referral.” How true that is! And, I bet you have many great methods on how to obtain referrals; however, I want to tell you how YOU can earn money from InsureMe by referring other agents to our service.

 How you ask? Through the InsureMe Agent Referral Program. For those agents who are already referring other agents- a big thank-you! Maybe you have some tips for us. For those agents who are not familiar with the referral program, take note that the next time you are conversing with other fellow agents, mention InsureMe and if they open an account and mention your name, your account will be credited 5% of what they spend with us at the end of each month…easy money! In these tough times wouldn’t extra money be helpful in purchasing leads?

 So, the next time you are in an agent meeting, conference, or just networking, mention the InsureMe Agent Referral Program and see how our service works for you.