Lead Closing Strategies Blog

3 Steps to building a sales pipeline optimized for more submitted applications.

By Rey Villar

Whether you call it an assembly line, sales conveyor belt or bins, top sales teams discovered long ago that you need an effective system if you want to close a large number of sales.

Unfortunately, too many agents are losing deals because they…

• Don’t have a lead management system
• Have a poorly designed sales pipeline
• Fail to use the tools they already have

So why do so many agents fall into this trap? It’s primarily because the courses you need to get licensed usually don’t have much in the way of sales training. And there are few sales and marketing courses that offer continuing education credits.

An effective pipeline not only helps you close more of your leads, it also allows you to project what your sales will be down the road. Using the right sales pipeline will help you plan for contingencies. And it’ll tell you when you may need to open up the lead faucet a little more.

An effective and well-tuned lead management system will also tell you exactly what your closing ratio is. You can then use that metric to determine how many leads you need to meet your goals.

For example, if you can improve your close ratio to submitting five percent (5%) of your leads, then you know that 1 out of every 20 leads turns into an application. And if your goal is 30 submitted applications each month, then you need to adjust your lead flow to only 600 leads.

Here’s a 3-step process to make sure your pipeline delivers the highest close ratios possible.

1. Set Up Your Lead Status Category

Do you have your bins set up? The traditional sales system organized prospects into bins.

The bin in which your prospect folder is filed gives a ready indicator of which leads are hot, which leads are cold — and which leads are at key points in between.

You also need to take the time to define what leads are considered hot or cold. For many top producers, a hot lead is one where the prospect has indicated that they plan to buy health insurance in the next 30 to 60 days. A cold lead is one where the prospect won’t decide for at least six months.

If you have an automated lead management system, your lead’s “status” has replaced bins. One of the big advantages of an automated lead management tool is that you won’t have to worry about finding space for all your bins — because everything is kept online.

But before you can use this powerful feature in top lead management systems, you need to set up your bins. Here are a few of the status categories or bins you should include in your system:

• Hot – Ready to Close
  These are leads you have personally qualified. In addition to qualifying for multiple plans, you’ve also confirmed that they can afford them and just need your help in making a decision.
• New – No Connection Yet
  These are leads that have just come in, but you have not yet contacted. This would include leads you have called multiple times but have been unable to get on the phone. Keep in mind that this bin has a time limit for many of its leads, because many lead providers will only replace leads if they’re returned during a specific window.
• Current Clients – Up For Renewal
  Many agents take for granted that they’ll lose many of their individual health insurance clients as soon as their policy is up for renewal—and they get a notice of rate increase. But top producers have found that they can increase their retention rate and overall revenue by contacting their current clients a few months before their current policy expires and help them shop for the most affordable plan on the market.
• Current Clients – Recently Added
  Too many agents file away prospects who become paid clients. They forget that these new clients are an excellent source for referrals. Make sure to follow up with new clients to thank them for their business, build a long-term relationship…and ask for referrals. And if you sell other products, such as annuities and life insurance, you may be able to increase your revenue through cross selling.
• Lead Nurturing – Qualified But Not Ready
  Some leads offer good prospects that just aren’t ready to pull the trigger. Some may have been shopping in expectation of a coming lay-off or loss of coverage. Don’t make the mistake of abandoning these leads just because they’re not ready to close right away. They’re perfect for a drip marketing program that can automatically nurture them to a buying decision.
• Invalid Leads – Replace
  Most lead providers give you about a week to ten days to return invalid leads. You need to have a routine for submitting invalid leads. But don’t interrupt your prime calling times to request lead replacement. Put it in your file and make the request during the afternoon or at night, when you don’t have other prospects to call.
• Dormant – Little or No Activity
  These are leads you previously qualified or have been nurturing for quite a while…but no longer respond to messages. You can’t waste too much time on these prospects, but you don’t have to completely abandon them either. Here’s where an automated lead nurturing system can help you stay in touch—without taking you away from your hotter leads.
• Dead – Do Not Call
  This category includes all invalid leads submitted for replacement, as well as prospects who asked to be taken off your marketing lists. You need to save this list, as a lead may re-enter your main list in the future. Remember that the federal CAN-SPAM Act also prohibits you from transferring, selling, leasing or assigning lists that include consumers who asked to be removed.

You can add even more bins or statuses, but make sure that each additional category helps you push leads toward a buying decision.

2. Regularly Update Each Prospect’s Status

A lead management system will only help you if you actually use it. This means immediately updating each prospect’s status as soon as it changes.

The easiest way to do this is to get into the habit of updating each file after every contact you have with the client.

Once you’re doing this on a regular basis, you’ll soon discover that using your new system will save you time and money.

For example, you won’t have to waste any time on invalid or dead leads, when you have hot leads and current clients waiting for your call. Put that lead in the right file and get it out of your way.

Have you awoken a dormant lead? Put it in the hot lead file right away.

Note that lead statuses are dynamic. They can change at any time, and they can go from cold to hot — or hot to cold.

The bottom line is that your lead management system can help you increase your productivity and efficiency—but only if you maintain it.

3. Budget Your Time Accordingly

Maintaining your lead management system is only the start. Now that you’ve got your statuses or bins in operation, you need a strategy to fully exploit your system.

This strategy comes down to a basic question of income-generating priorities. Which status categories offer the greatest potential returns? Which bins give you the biggest bang for the buck?

Your priorities will shape which bins receive most of your attention each day. For example, many top producers will spend 75% to 95% of their day handling leads in the most promising categories:

• Hot – Ready to Close
• New – No Connection Yet
• Current Clients – Up For Renewal

These are the prospects most ready to sign up for a plan — today. Failing to connect with prospects in these bins will have severe consequences. At best, they’ll fade into other categories. At worst, they’ll buy their individual health insurance from someone else.

The little that remains of your regular workday can then be spent on leads that offer more “long term” prospects:

• Current Clients – Recently Added
• Lead Nurturing – Qualified But Not Ready
• Dormant – Little or No Activity

Many of these prospects will turn into submitted applications in the future or provide valuable referrals. You need to stay connected, but they’re lower in priority than hotter leads.

Top producers have learned that the best way to nurture their thousands of unclosed, long-term leads is through automation. For example, an email autoresponder geared for health insurance can deliver a regular stream of marketing emails to thousands of long-term prospects — with just a few clicks.

Finally, you need to do whatever you can to avoid wasting time on dead leads. If you’re able to replace invalid leads, avoid doing it during your workday.

Instead, wait until you’re done with your higher-priority sales calls and marketing tasks. Then submit these invalid leads for a replacement credit.

Early last year, we received a surprise call from a health insurance agent about a test they were running on ProspectZone’s Exclusive leads.

In addition to having decades of experience in insurance sales, her company also trained agents for other companies and regularly tested and tracked their lead sources. They found that for every 10 exclusive leads they bought from ProspectZone, they closed over 30% of them.

There’s no guarantee that every agent will close 30% of their exclusive leads. However, exclusive leads are supposed to have higher close ratios and generate more sales than standard shared leads.

That’s why every agent prefers exclusive leads. But there are pros and cons to consider before you jump into exclusive leads.

The #1 Issue With Exclusive Leads

Regardless of where you buy them, exclusive leads have one big issue that makes most agents think twice: the cost.

Exclusivity always comes with a price, regardless of the product. But there are obvious reasons why exclusive leads cost more than standard shared leads. If your lead provider sells that lead as a shared lead, they can charge less but sell it more often for greater overall revenue.

With exclusive leads, your lead provider cannot sell that lead data to anyone else — so their total revenue is limited to what they charge you.

Is that higher price worth it? If exclusive leads can also increase your close ratios, the answer is yes.

The down side is that exclusive leads can sometimes come with side effects that agents and brokers still need to avoid:

Poor sales skills

As we discuss later, exclusive leads can get you connected to genuine prospects. But you still need to close the sale. Even if you’re new to sales, exclusive leads will help your closing ratio. But you still need to invest in learning how to sell, especially over the phone.

Procrastination

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can make an exclusive lead wait for you. Just because your lead provider sells the lead only to you doesn’t mean that the prospect will wait for you. There’s nothing stopping them from contacting other agents.

Lastly, keep in mind that “exclusive” does NOT mean “quality.”  Lead quality depends on how your lead provider generates and delivers leads.

Before you buy exclusive leads, make sure that your lead provider never incentivizes consumers to become prospects and that they deliver leads to your inbox without delay. Otherwise, you’re wasting even more of your budget on overpriced low-quality leads.

How Exclusive Leads Help Your Sales

Exclusivity is a selling strategy.

Many successful agents and producers use this strategy because it gives them real advantages that can help them triumph in a competitive marketplace:

Less competition

You’ll still have competition, because there’s nothing to stop prospects from shopping around. With exclusive leads, however, you won’t have to compete with dozens of agents to be the first to connect with your lead. You can also minimize the “annoyed prospect syndrome” you sometimes encounter with leads who have already heard from 20 other agents before your call.

Higher Contact Ratios

Did you know that leads are more likely to convert into clients if you’re the first to contact them? With less competition, exclusive leads give you much better odds of actually contacting and connecting with your prospects. Exclusive leads give a better chance of getting your foot in the door…and that is where the sale really starts.

Higher Close Ratios

It’s a numbers game. For many top producers, their close ratio is directly related to their contact ratio. The more prospects they can speak to, the more leads they’ll close.

For example, if you close 20% of every prospect you actually get on the phone, and you’re able to actually contact 100 prospects a month, then you’ll submit 20 apps each month. Now what if you’re able to contact 150 prospects a month — without buying more leads? You would then be submitting 30 apps a month…a 50% increase. That’s the advantage exclusive leads offer.

Less Wasted Time

Your budget may be able to buy more cheap shared leads. But then you have to dive into the scrum and fight with dozens of competing agents on each of those prospects. The same budget will get you fewer exclusive leads, but you’ll be able to spend more of your time on genuine prospects. Exclusive leads will also give you more free time — that you can use to close even more sales.

Higher ROIs

Many agents have discovered that less wasted time and higher close ratios result in higher ROIs. You’re getting more out of every dollar you invest in your leads.

Will Exclusive Leads Work For You?

There’s no question that exclusive leads will help. When you compare exclusive leads versus shared leads of the same quality, basic statistics tell you that you will have a higher success rate with exclusive leads.

The question is whether they’ll help you enough to offset the higher cost.

That’s why you have to run some of your own tests and then measure the results. As you do, I recommend that you focus on the “Revenue per Lead” calculation.

Ask any agent who uses leads how much they pay, and most can give you their “cost per lead” (CPL) in under a second. Now ask them how much revenue each lead generates?

The revenue per lead calculation turns the CPL on its head and looks at the lead’s production — instead of price.

Although price is important, it doesn’t give the full picture of how effective your leads truly are. The revenue per lead measurement, on the other hand, focuses on results and your bottom line.

Consider the two scenarios below, which assumes average commissions of about $400 per submitted application.

Shared Leads

Cost per lead: $8
Total leads bought: 100
Total cost: $800
Close ratio: 5%
Applications submitted: 5
Commission generated: $2,000
Net revenue (commissions – total cost): $1,200
Net revenue per lead: $12
ROI (net revenue / total cost): 150.00%

Exclusive Leads

Cost per lead: $18
Total leads bought: 100
Total cost: $1,800
Close ratio: 15%
Applications submitted: 15
Commission generated: $6,000
Net revenue (commissions – total cost): $4,200
Net revenue per lead: $42
ROI (net revenue / total cost): 233.33%

In this scenario, you work the same number of leads for both types. But with the exclusive leads, you generate:

• More applications. With the higher close ratios, you should see a dramatic increase in applications submitted.
• More revenue. In this scenario, each exclusive lead generated an average of $42 per lead — that’s 3.5X more revenue than the average standard shared lead.
• Higher ROI. The ROI for exclusive leads is more than 1.5X greater than standard shared leads.

In the end, the issue isn’t whether exclusive leads will boost your sales. They probably will. The question is “by how much”?

The best way to answer this question is by running tests and comparing results. Split a portion of your current lead budget between exclusive and search leads. Then compare the ROIs and revenue per lead they produce.

Chances are you’ll see a clear winner — which will make it easy to make the right business decision for your future lead purchases.

The Pros and Cons of Exclusive Health Insurance Leads

By Rey Villar

Early last year, we received a surprise call from a health insurance agent about a test they were running on ProspectZone’s Exclusive leads.

In addition to having decades of experience in insurance sales, her company also trained agents for other companies and regularly tested and tracked their lead sources. They found that for every 10 exclusive leads they bought from ProspectZone, they closed over 30% of them.

There’s no guarantee that every agent will close 30% of their exclusive leads. However, exclusive leads are supposed to have higher close ratios and generate more sales than standard shared leads.

That’s why every agent prefers exclusive leads. But there are pros and cons to consider before you jump into exclusive leads.

The #1 Issue With Exclusive Leads

Regardless of where you buy them, exclusive leads have one big issue that makes most agents think twice: the cost.

Exclusivity always comes with a price, regardless of the product. But there are obvious reasons why exclusive leads cost more than standard shared leads. If your lead provider sells that lead as a shared lead, they can charge less but sell it more often for greater overall revenue.

With exclusive leads, your lead provider cannot sell that lead data to anyone else — so their total revenue is limited to what they charge you.

Is that higher price worth it? If exclusive leads can also increase your close ratios, the answer is yes.

The down side is that exclusive leads can sometimes come with side effects that agents and brokers still need to avoid:

• Poor sales skills
  As we discuss later, exclusive leads can get you connected to genuine prospects. But you still need to close the sale. Even if you’re new to sales, exclusive leads will help your closing ratio. But you still need to invest in learning how to sell, especially over the phone.
• Procrastination
  Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can make an exclusive lead wait for you. Just because your lead provider sells the lead only to you doesn’t mean that the prospect will wait for you. There’s nothing stopping them from contacting other agents.

Lastly, keep in mind that “exclusive” does NOT mean “quality.”  Lead quality depends on how your lead provider generates and delivers leads.

Before you buy exclusive leads, make sure that your lead provider never incentivizes consumers to become prospects and that they deliver leads to your inbox without delay. Otherwise, you’re wasting even more of your budget on overpriced low-quality leads.

How Exclusive Leads Help Your Sales

Exclusivity is a selling strategy.

Many successful agents and producers use this strategy because it gives them real advantages that can help them triumph in a competitive marketplace:

• Less competition
  You’ll still have competition, because there’s nothing to stop prospects from shopping around. With exclusive leads, however, you won’t have to compete with dozens of agents to be the first to connect with your lead. You can also minimize the “annoyed prospect syndrome” you sometimes encounter with leads who have already heard from 20 other agents before your call.
• Higher Contact Ratios
  Did you know that leads are more likely to convert into clients if you’re the first to contact them? With less competition, exclusive leads give you much better odds of actually contacting and connecting with your prospects. Exclusive leads give a better chance of getting your foot in the door…and that is where the sale really starts.
• Higher Close Ratios
  It’s a numbers game. For many top producers, their close ratio is directly related to their contact ratio. The more prospects they can speak to, the more leads they’ll close.

  For example, if you close 20% of every prospect you actually get on the phone, and you’re able to actually contact 100 prospects a month, then you’ll submit 20 apps each month. Now what if you’re able to contact 150 prospects a month — without buying more leads? You would then be submitting 30 apps a month…a 50% increase. That’s the advantage exclusive leads offer.

• Less Wasted Time
  Your budget may be able to buy more cheap shared leads. But then you have to dive into the scrum and fight with dozens of competing agents on each of those prospects. The same budget will get you fewer exclusive leads, but you’ll be able to spend more of your time on genuine prospects. Exclusive leads will also give you more free time — that you can use to close even more sales.
• Higher ROIs
  Many agents have discovered that less wasted time and higher close ratios result in higher ROIs. You’re getting more out of every dollar you invest in your leads.

Will Exclusive Leads Work For You?

There’s no question that exclusive leads will help. When you compare exclusive leads versus shared leads of the same quality, basic statistics tell you that you will have a higher success rate with exclusive leads.

The question is whether they’ll help you enough to offset the higher cost.

That’s why you have to run some of your own tests and then measure the results. As you do, I recommend that you focus on the “Revenue per Lead” calculation.

Ask any agent who uses leads how much they pay, and most can give you their “cost per lead” (CPL) in under a second. Now ask them how much revenue each lead generates?

The revenue per lead calculation turns the CPL on its head and looks at the lead’s production — instead of price.

Although price is important, it doesn’t give the full picture of how effective your leads truly are. The revenue per lead measurement, on the other hand, focuses on results and your bottom line.

Consider the scenario below, which assumes average commissions of about $400 per submitted application.

In this scenario, you work the same number of leads for both types. But with the exclusive leads, you generate:

• More applications. With the higher close ratios, you should see a dramatic increase in applications submitted.
• More revenue. In this scenario, each exclusive lead generated an average of $42 per lead — that’s 3.5X more revenue than the average standard shared lead.
• Higher ROI. The ROI for exclusive leads is more than 1.5X greater than standard shared leads.

In the end, the issue isn’t whether exclusive leads will boost your sales. They probably will. The question is “by how much”?

The best way to answer this question is by running tests and comparing results. Split a portion of your current lead budget between exclusive and search leads. Then compare the ROIs and revenue per lead they produce.

Chances are you’ll see a clear winner — which will make it easy to make the right business decision for your future lead purchases.

Speak to a ProspectZone exclusive lead specialist today to see how big of a difference exclusive leads will make in your business! For more information about exclusive leads, call 1-877-561-9663 ext. 1; or go to the More About Exclusive Leads page.

Getting an answering machine when you first call a new lead can be frustrating.

Some agents don’t even bother leaving a message, with many reporting that only 5% of their answering machine messages ever get returned — if that!

Top producers, however, understand that answering machines are a fact of a salesperson’s life. They also see it as an opportunity to get an edge over other agents and brokers who never really prepare for answering machines.

Ready to learn the secrets for creating and leaving messages that get returned? Here are 10 tips from phone sales experts that you can put to immediate use today.

1. Think radio commercials
Remember that commercial from the local auto dealer or jewelry store you heard on your drive today? Because you’re currently not in the market for a car or diamond ring, they may not have gotten you to act.

But many of the elements that work for local radio commercials apply with answering machine messages. So think about what works on these local ads the next time you compose your answering machine script:

• Keep it short
  Your messages should last no more than 30 seconds. If you’re given more time, use it to repeat your contact information.
  Some machines may even limit you to only 15 or 20 seconds. So the most important part of your message – such as your contact information – needs to be at the front … just in case you get cut off early.
• Speak clearly
  Record your messages before you use them and have others listen to them. You need to make sure your delivery is crisp, clear and understandable. Unlike a radio commercial, you’ll only have one “take” with each phone call to deliver a clear message.
• Not just once
  Radio ads don’t just run once and disappear. Similarly, you should plan on making a strategic follow-up call within a day. If your first call is in the morning, you may want to follow up with another call later that day.

2. Use hot button phrases
Top advertising writers know that every word counts with radio commercials. They also know that certain words carry a lot more weight than others … which is why the most effective ads use these “hot button” phrases and words.

“Free” and “affordable” are common in many ads, because they do grab people’s attention. But most hot button phrases are specific to each audience.

For example, here are a few phrases that may do a better job getting a health insurance shopper’s attention:

• “Affordable premiums”
• “Pre-existing conditions”
• “Low deductibles (or co-pays)”
• “Quick approvals”
• Significant numbers – like 1/3 or 20% off
• “Guaranteed coverage”

And don’t forget to mention the brand names of the most popular carriers in your area. These carriers have spent millions of dollars making sure they’re brand is recognized by their target audience.

You may not be able to use their brand names in your radio commercials, but you can use them in your phone conversations.

3. Personalize your message
One of the strongest “hot button” words is actually the customer’s name. And this is where your phone messages have a clear advantage over traditional ads and commercials.

So make sure you practice pronouncing each prospect’s name before you call. Keep in mind that you also personalize your message when you include your own personal information. And because every word counts, I recommend that you skip greetings like “Hi” or “Hello”:

“Mr. Smith. Janet here with XYZ Insurance, following up on your online insurance quote request…”

4. Acknowledge their annoyance
If you’re working a standard (shared) lead, chances are there’ll be other agents calling this same prospect. Even if you have an exclusive lead, there’s no guarantee your prospect hasn’t shopped around.

First, this means that you can’t wait even a minute when calling new leads. Secondly, your prospect may have already fielded calls from other agents. There’s a chance you may run into an annoyed prospect.

But you can still use this to your advantage.  By acknowledging their annoyance, you can lower their frustration level and give them a reason to make you one of the few messages they’ll return.

“You’re probably frustrated with all the calls you’ve been getting. But…”

5. Connect with their problem
Want to really personalize your message?

Make sure to review your lead sheet and come up with potential solutions — before you call them. Then when you have to leave a message, try to connect with their specific problems.

For example, if the lead sheet shows a pre-existing condition, consider adding a reference to it in your message such as…

“…I recently got a client with ____________ (pre-existing condition) into an affordable plan. I know I can help you find similar coverage…

6. Dangle the benefits
Always leave them wanting more. To this end, your message should tell prospects what you can do for them … with just enough specifics to whet their appetites for more.

Here’s an example:

“I just put a client in a major carrier plan only knowledgeable agents know about and slashed her premiums by 30%. I can do the same for you…”

Notice that this example has some of the hot button words we mentioned earlier, like “slashed premiums” and “30%.” But it doesn’t try to give the whole picture. Curious prospects will need to call to get all the details.

You can also tell them that they can claim a free gift when they call, such as a free guide for lowering their health insurance costs.

7. Give them a deadline
Another tactic for reinforcing the urgent need to call you back is setting a deadline. But don’t go overboard with this scare tactic. If anything, blame it on forces beyond your control.

For example, if you’re expecting a rate change from your preferred carrier, you may want to note that in your message.

8. Contact options
Your message should reiterate your preferred contact method, i.e. your phone number.

But if you have a self-service website with a multi-carrier quote engine, you may want to give your prospects a second option for starting their purchase with you.

Online consumers often feel more comfortable if they can shop and compare plans on their own — without the worry of being manipulated by a “salesperson.” With a fully functional website powered by a multi-carrier quote engine, shoppers can compare dozens of plans to find the right one for them.

There’s also a potential time-saving benefit when you offer a second contact option. Many agents today now receive commission checks on web-submitted applications where they never spoke to the client.

9. Get up!
Standing up when you make a call is an old sales trick … and it still works. Before you leave your answering machine message, get up!

But in addition to standing, you should also make sure that your energy is up. An exciting message will be useless if it comes off like a read script.

Go back to the radio commercial models I mentioned at the top. Have you noticed how all those announcers seem upbeat? Well, they actually have to work at reaching that level.

A rule of thumb is: if you think you’re voice is TOO upbeat, then you’re probably just right.

Just as television can add 15 pounds to your look, radio takes down your excitement level a few notches … because there are no facial cues or body language to emphasize your words. So, get up!

10. Practice your scripts
Finally, it should go without saying that you need to practice your scripts.

Yes, that’s “scripts” plural. You should have at least 5 scripts ready to use, based on the most common types of leads you find yourself facing.

And by practice, I don’t mean just one or two quick run-throughs. You need to know these scripts so well that you don’t even need to look at a script or pull a brain muscle trying to remember.

Your message must sound natural and conversational. To put it another way, when a prospect checks his answering machine and hears your message, it should sound as if he’s hearing from a friend or colleague.

Jeremiah Desmarais is vice president of marketing at ProspectZone, a company whose web-based tools and high-quality health insurance leads help agents consistently increase productivity by 2500%. He is the recipient of 9 awards for his marketing and design initiatives online. He is also editor of the ProspectZone Newsletter, which delivers helpful sales articles, tips and marketing strategies to 15,000+ insurance agents monthly. Author of several white papers, Jeremiah is a contributor to the Agent’s Sales Journal, Health Insurance Underwriter and Broker World, as well as a guest speaker at various carrier events and workshops. He is a member of the Society of Industry Leaders.

ProspectZone Reviews Nearly 1/2 Million Leads To Reveal Surprising Trends About Online Insurance Shoppers

Most producers know by now they need to get online. A recent study by a leading national carrier found that nearly 85% of its individual health insurance sales involved the web.

But who are those online shoppers? And how should you market to them?

A 2008 study by ProspectZone of 446,597 individual leads it generated last summer now provides some answers to your online marketing questions. It also provides a glimpse of what you need to know to capture your share of this market.

Here are some of the secrets it uncovered.

The South Rises Again
If you already sell nationally, you may have already noticed that many of your leads seem to have a southern accent. That’s no coincidence.

According to ProspectZone’s analysis, almost half of all Internet-generated leads are coming from southern states. The other 3 regions (East, Midwest and West) each accounted for only 16% to 19% of the leads collected.

Florida and Texas, in fact, generated more online health insurance leads than any other state — with California coming in a distant 3rd.

Why is there such a huge regional disparity? Population trends are part of the answer, as the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 1 out of every 3 Americans do live in one of the southern states.

But the biggest factor may be the rate of uninsured. The South led all regions for the number and rate of uninsured. At the other end of the spectrum, the Midwest had the lowest rate of uninsured shoppers!

Now what if you’re not licensed in one of these southern states?

First, there are other individual states that are generating a large flow of health insurance prospects.

The top 10 states in the study produced half of all the leads. And 6 of these top 10 states aren’t in the South: California, Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Massachusetts.

Secondly — and just as important — the Internet has made it very easy for an agent to get licensed and sell policies in almost every state in the country. So if you want to improve your lead flow, consider getting licensed in one of the top 10 states right away.

Women In The Lead
According to the Pew Center on the Internet and American Life, women make up slightly more than half of all Internet users.

But ProspectZone’s analysis of online health insurance shoppers revealed that almost two-thirds (2/3) of all prospects had a female primary shopper.

This gender difference cut across all regions and even across all age ranges. Women are also more likely to be uninsured than men.

Unfortunately, the two areas that women did achieve parity with men were in obesity levels and rate of uninsurability.

These gender trends come as no surprise for many top producers. Many of them have already seen anecdotal evidence of women taking the lead in shopping for health insurance.

On a practical level, though, you need to start considering this trend when considering the plans you want to highlight. Make sure your selected programs have features that address women’s issues, such as pre-natal services, maternity coverage, expanded gynecology networks and related prescription drugs

Young and Old
The study revealed two opposing age trends.

On the one hand, almost half of all online health insurance shoppers were under 40. This isn’t as surprising, when you consider that this age group is more likely to shop on the web.

This age group is more likely to be single and less likely to be uninsurable. But they’re also more likely to be uninsured. Those three factors make them easier-to-place prospects.

But the study also found that the 50-64 “pre-Medicare-eligible” age range accounted for almost 1 out of every 4 online health insurance shoppers.

FREE Market Intelligence
Every business planning guide on the bookshelves today advise business owners to research their market before planning their strategies.

This report helps to solve that problem.  To receive your free copy, please call your ProspectZone lead consultant at 1-877-561-9663 ext. 1.

Jeremiah Desmarais is vice president of marketing at ProspectZone, a company whose web-based tools and high-quality health insurance leads help agents consistently increase productivity by 2500%. He is the recipient of 9 awards for his marketing and design initiatives online. He is also editor of the ProspectZone Newsletter, which delivers helpful sales articles, tips and marketing strategies to 15,000+ insurance agents monthly. Author of several white papers, Jeremiah is a contributor to the Agent’s Sales Journal, Health Insurance Underwriter and Broker World, as well as a guest speaker at various carrier events and workshops. He is a member of the Society of Industry Leaders.

3 Questions To Ask To Ensure You’re Not Breaking The Law

You’ve probably already heard about the big opportunity Medicare has brought to the health insurance industry. Guaranteed approvals, expanded private carrier options and potentially higher commission rates over the long-term have many producers excited about this fast-growing market.

But new legislation designed to protect seniors have forced many agents to stay on the sidelines for now. The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) of 2008 enacted this summer placed strong restrictions on how insurance carriers and producers may market to Medicare-eligible seniors.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency under the Department of Health and Human Services, recently issued new marketing guidelines for health insurance professionals based on the new law.

To the surprise of some agents, many of their traditional marketing and sales tactics are no longer legal when selling to Medicare-eligible seniors.

Many of these new restrictions focus on unsolicited calls. Specifically, cold calls to Medicare-eligible seniors are no longer allowed. The ban even extends to calling past clients or contacting “referred” prospects.

Unfortunately, many types of senior health insurance leads are also no longer allowed under these new guidelines.

To ensure that your leads are CMS-compliant, you’ll need to verify that your lead providers are generating their leads legally – by asking these three crucial questions.

1. Were Leads Generated Through Unsolicited Calls?

For all practical purposes, the CMS guidelines are a serious body blow for many telemarketing companies who target Medicare-eligible seniors.

Just as agents can no longer cold call prospects, lead providers can no longer cold call seniors to become Medicare-eligible leads.

The good news is that CMS doesn’t put third-party leads in the same category as “referred” leads. As noted earlier, CMS prohibits agents from initiating contact with leads referred by friends, family members or even current clients. You can return a call IF the referral calls you first – but agents must not initiate the call.

Third-party leads that are NOT generated through unsolicited calls may be acceptable. It all depends on how the leads were generated. The following are the most common of the acceptable sources for third-party leads:

• Websites
• Advertisements and commercials
• Mailers
• Public sales events

Note that even though mailers are considered acceptable sources for leads, they cannot be used to create an opening for a cold call. For example, producers and lead providers cannot send mailers to Medicare-eligible seniors and then follow up with cold calls to “make sure they received the brochure.”

The bottom line is if the consumer didn’t ask to be contacted, then it’s an unsolicited call. And all cold calls are prohibited.

2. Did The Lead Provider Cross-Sell Other Products To The Consumer?

The situation in which the lead was generated is just as important as the method used. So even if leads are not generated through unsolicited calls, they may still be invalid if the situation is wrong.

One of the new CMS restrictions apply to the tactic known as cross-selling. This is when a producer or carrier markets non-health insurance products to a Medicare-eligible prospect. Similar rules apply for lead generation.

Just as producers are no longer allowed to market other “non-health insurance” products while selling Medicare Advantage or supplemental plans, the same restrictions apply for lead generation. In other words, Medicare-eligible leads should only be collected through health insurance websites, advertisements or sales events.

If your Medicare-eligible lead came through a website that also marketed life insurance, annuities, property insurance or magazine subscriptions, then that lead may not be legal.

Unfortunately, too many health insurance leads are generated through such cross-marketing websites. You’ve probably been through them yourself. These websites will often promise you a free iPod, iPhone or laptop. But first, you have to go through pages of questionnaires that collect your personal information and sell it to various agents and businesses.

Medicare-eligible leads generated through such sites are now officially prohibited. To be safe, ask your lead provider for specific websites it uses to generate its Medicare-eligible leads. Then check out those websites. Make sure that those consumer-oriented lead-generation websites are solely focused on health insurance.

3. Did The Prospect Specifically Request To Be Contacted?

Perhaps the most important question to ask is whether their leads requested to be contacted by agents or were informed they were going to be contacted.

As long as the consumer understands that they are requesting to be contacted by agents, those agent calls will not be considered unsolicited.

But make sure that those prospects also asked to be contacted – about health insurance. Contacting a life insurance or annuity shopper about Medicare is not allowed. If they didn’t ask to be contacted about health insurance, then your call is unsolicited.

Unfortunately, these new CMS guidelines may mean that you are now prohibited from calling former clients and prospects who may now be Medicare eligible. If you call them to market your Medicare products, CMS may consider that a cold call.

The best way around that kind of situation is to mail them messages asking them to contact you about their Medicare options. Once they do, you’re free to begin marketing your Medicare-related products.

Even better, consider using a drip marketing email autoresponder to revive your dormant leads. An autoresponder like LeadMiner, for example, can send marketing emails to thousands of your past clients and leads with one click. It will even embed customized rate quotes and notify you as soon as a prospect opens the email or clicks on the link to compare available plans.

Seizing The Potential

It may seem on the surface that these new CMS guidelines are just burdensome regulations. But recent history has shown us that not all regulation is bad.

And the fact that these new CMS guidelines are keeping many agents from entering the potentially lucrative Medicare market may be a very good thing – for you.

Jeremiah Desmarais is vice president of marketing at ProspectZone, a company whose web-based tools and high-quality health insurance leads help agents consistently increase productivity by 2500%. He is the recipient of 9 awards for his marketing and design initiatives online. He is also editor of the ProspectZone Newsletter, which delivers helpful sales articles, tips and marketing strategies to 15,000+ insurance agents monthly. Author of several white papers, Jeremiah is a contributor to the Agent’s Sales Journal, Health Insurance Underwriter and Broker World, as well as a guest speaker at various carrier events and workshops. He is a member of the Society of Industry Leaders.

Share the knowledge:
Would you like your agents to learn about the latest insurance lead generation tactics and insider news in your own publication? So would we! Please contact jdesmarais@prospectzone.com to inquire about reproducing our content.

The Key To Increasing Your Closing Ratios On Senior Leads Begins Before Your First Call

Are you getting into senior health leads, or thinking about it? You’re not alone. By now, you’ve heard that the senior market is big and getting bigger.

Seniors account for 3 out of every 5 dollars spent on health care today, even though they make up less than 15% of the population. But their numbers are rising.

It will be a lucrative market for top insurance producers – but not all. Like other sales fields, tapping into the senior health insurance field requires the right approach and resources. Here are 3 tips to help you increase your success and closing ratio with senior health leads.

1. Drop the Stereotypes

If you think you know seniors and how to sell to them, think again. For many agents, the first step to capturing the growing senior market is to get rid of tired stereotypes about seniors whiling away their days in a rocking chair on the front porch.

Here are three myth-shattering lessons to know about today’s seniors:

• Active
  Today’s seniors are living longer and are avoiding settling down. They tend to be more committed to maintaining full, active lives even after they retire.
• Purchasing power
  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, almost 2/3 of seniors (age 65+) have household incomes of at least $25,000 per year. A quarter of them are over $50,000. That may not sound like a lot, but remember that most no longer have to worry about raising a family or paying a mortgage.

  Their average net worth is twice the national average-and they control 3/4 of the country’s financial wealth! More importantly, seniors account for 60% of all spending on health care – and they purchase nearly 3/4 of all prescription drugs sold in the U.S.

• Web Users
  A large majority of the Baby Boomers about to grow the senior market into a 78-million-strong bubble are full participants in our Internet age. Many helped to create it. It’s true that seniors were late to enter the Internet, but they are now the fastest-growing segment of new users.

The senior market is as diverse as the rest of the population. Although most may share similar concerns, today’s seniors reflect the rest of the country’s variety of viewpoints, lifestyles and activities – all the more reason to drop old stereotypes.

2. Understand The Need For Information

During the next 25 years, the over-60 segment of the population is expected to grow more than 80%! But the 18 to 59 crowd will only expand by 7%. By 2050, the senior market will increase nearly 150% to about 85 million people.

Medicare has promised to provide health insurance for qualified seniors at least 65 years old, including private carrier programs offering more options and better coverage with certain issues than basic Medicare.

However, Medicare’s rules and these options can be confusing for both current and new Medicare beneficiaries. That’s where true health insurance professionals like yourself become crucial resources for this huge market.

But with this opportunity comes the responsibility to fully understand Medicare, Medigap and Medicare Advantage programs. Succeeding in the senior market will require that you keep up with regular changes to these various programs and continually look for ways to bring the best value for your senior clients.

3. Have the Right Programs and Tools

At the end of the day, you need to be able to offer the right programs and tools for your senior clients.

Medicare handles its Part A and Part B programs directly. But they rely on carriers and agents like you for its other programs:

• Part D Prescription Drug Program.
  Although Medicare subsidizes much of it, seniors must select a private carrier to provide prescription drug coverage.
• Medigap supplemental plans.
  Medicare’s basic programs still incur premiums, co-pays, deductibles and coverage limits. Various private-carrier supplemental programs help seniors cover those potentially large out-of-pocket costs.
• Medicare Advantage (MA).
  Although it’s provided by private carriers and agents, Medicare Advantage (or Part C) premiums are heavily subsidized by Medicare. MA plans combine Part A, B and D coverage into a convenient policy.

These programs need to be part of your senior leads toolbox – along with a senior quoting engine so you can compare multiple plans in seconds rather than hours.

Don’t Delay

We recently conducted an online survey of health insurance agents and their plans to serve the senior market. Nearly 9 out of 10 of the responding agents already sell an average of 27 senior products a year! And those numbers will continue to grow as more Baby Boomers reach their senior years.

The opportunity is there, and you already have the basic recipe for success – the next step is up to you.

Jeremiah Desmarais is vice president of marketing at ProspectZone. He is the recipient of 9 awards for his marketing and design initiatives online. He is also editor of the ProspectZone Newsletter, which delivers helpful sales articles, tips and marketing strategies to 15,000+ insurance agents monthly. Author of several white papers, Jeremiah is a contributor to the Agent’s Sales Journal, Health Insurance Underwriter and Broker World, as well as a guest speaker at various carrier events and workshops. He is a member of the Society of Industry Leaders.

Share the knowledge:
Would you like your agents to learn about the latest insurance lead generation tactics and insider news in your own publication? So would we! Please contact jdesmarais@prospectzone.com to inquire about reproducing our content.

An experienced agent and trainer shares strategies that help him convert up to 40% of his Internet leads.

Rob Liano runs a one-person insurance business serving 30 states from his seaside home in Long Beach, NY. In addition to putting his proven strategies and tactics to work with his own pipeline, he trains other agents and call centers in effective insurance sales.

What’s the biggest challenge and benefits of being a one-man shop?

Rob: The challenge is multitasking. I sell over 12 companies in 30 states. I have a book of business that needs to be maintained. I also train other agents and call centers over the phone, web and on location. Can I do it all? Of course. But it comes down to time management and using the right tools.

The benefits? I’m able to live on the beach, play in a band and travel – while I’m building a sweet residual business.

What’s your philosophy regarding customer service?

Rob: It should be your entire focus! My dad was a strong influence on my sales point of view, and he taught me “take care of the customer and the money takes care of itself.” If my sole purpose is to please the consumer and keep their best interest in mind, I’ll be successful.

Now that’s much more involved than it sounds. But I’ve found from personal experience that this philosophy, combined with effective sales techniques, will explode any agent’s business, increase retention and generate more referrals.

What have you found to be the most common sales call issue among agents?

Rob: Learning how to sell. Too many new agents and some veterans never received much in the way of sales training. Yes, they learned the basics about their insurance products and the application process. But they never really learned how to sell.

To illustrate this point, look at it from the most important perspective – the clients. How many times do health insurance shoppers run into agents who haven’t taken the time to thoroughly master their product line? Too often, those agents don’t offer the right product to the right person.

To make it worse, agents don’t bother to spend enough time educating the consumer. Instead, they just put more pressure on people to buy. Buying is emotional and psychological. If you or your sales team can’t close someone who’s actively looking for insurance, you really need to take another look at your overall sales training.

What has been the biggest weakness of agents you’ve trained?

Rob: Number 1 is adapting to phone sales. Number 2 is a disregard or ignorance in regards to a professional sales process.

From their intro to their post-sale process, including how to overcome stalls, objections and rebuttals, so many of the agents I’ve trained were just never taught properly about sales. You wouldn’t work on a car if you weren’t a mechanic right? Consider this: over 60% of sales people don’t even close. That says a lot. The problem with many agents and the offices that hire and train them is that they never took the time to ramp up their sales skills. They hand them a pitch and off they go to sink or swim.

What are the most common objections you think agents need to learn how to overcome?

Rob: There are 6 common objections that I stress in training:

• Can you send me information?
• I’d like to speak to my spouse.
• I’d like to think it over.
• I’m just shopping around.
• I already found insurance.
• I can’t afford it.

But before I go into effective scripts, I always urge agents to understand why objections come up in the first place. It’s always been my experience that a professional sales presentation will eliminate all or most objections!

How do you handle a new lead that hits your inbox?

Rob: I immediately call and email. Actually, I use a LeadMiner email autoresponder to send them an immediate welcome email and keep in constant touch with leads afterwards. If I don’t get them on the phone, I fine-tune the content of the email I send and the voice message I leave to ellicit a response from the buyer. And that content changes on the second and subsequent emails and voicemails. But it also must be on a regimented schedule.

Should a “belly to belly” agent consider moving towards selling over the phone?

Rob: 150% YES!! How much time in a day does an agent spend selling? How much of that is wasted generating leads and then arranging meetings? Would you write more if you could spend 90% of your day actually selling? Of course! Not only that, quality statewide leads like ProspectZone’s Select leads, allow you to cover everyone in your state AND region – not just what’s within driving distance.

How about new agents? Where do you think they should invest their time and money?

Rob: This is easy. Leads, leads and more leads – plus proper training. I can’t stress enough how important it is to start out effectively. I’ve seen countless agents spend their money, spin their wheels, get discouraged and go nowhere! Quality training and quality leads will help any new agent launch a successful career.

What are the most important lessons you try to teach to your sales trainees?

Rob: You can’t grow beyond what you know. In other words, what you currently know, will keep you where you’re currently at – so exceed to succeed! Keep trying to learn more and keep improving your skills.

Rob Liano was also a recent participant in a Norvax University webinar on customer service and sales. He can be contacted at robliano@optonline.com or 888-379-8315.

Jeremiah Desmarais is vice president of marketing at ProspectZone. He is the recipient of 9 awards for his marketing and design initiatives online. He is also editor of the ProspectZone Newsletter, which delivers helpful sales articles, tips and marketing strategies to 15,000+ insurance agents monthly. Author of several white papers, Jeremiah is a contributor to the Agent’s Sales Journal, Health Insurance Underwriter and Broker World, as well as a guest speaker at various carrier events and workshops. He is a member of the Society of Industry Leaders.

Share the knowledge:
Would you like your agents to learn about the latest insurance lead generation tactics and insider news in your own publication? So would we! Please contact jdesmarais@prospectzone.com to inquire about reproducing our content.

We recently heard that Judy Balter, a certified Life Underwriter Training Council Fellow (LUTCF), was testing our ProspectZone exclusive health insurance leads and closing 30% to 40% of them.

After learning about the sales and marketing principles she has adopted and taught to countless other agents, we knew we had to speak with Judy to share her insights.

With 37 years in the industry, Judy Balter is president of The Balter Company, National Agency Services and Affordable Health Options, three separate companies that focus on the insurance business. They provide life, health, dental, disability, Medicare plans and retirement plans.

PZ: Why did you begin using ProspectZone leads?

Judy: We train insurance agents for other companies and that was our primary reason for testing ProspectZone. We had previously tried five or six other lead sources, all of which were dismal failures.

We tested (ProspectZone) the month of December, and we’re still testing because we didn’t have time to do zillions. We didn’t do zillions, but for every 10 that we bought we found that 5 were serious purchasers attempting to purchase.

PZ: What’s the best way to handle internet leads?

Judy: On working both the shared and the exclusives, we work each lead multiple times.

We work them six times. We immediately contact them by e-mail and by telephone. If we have to leave messages and don’t get a quick response, we mail something hard copy; and we work each lead six times before we call it dead. I would say on our testing with [ProspectZone leads] that probably it was all done over the phone and through the mail.

PZ: How does using the phone & mail compare with face-to-face?

Judy: Actually probably 80-85% of everything we do is over the phone and through the mail.

When I went to school years ago – and they still teach the same thing in life underwriter training – the first thing they teach you is that “you can’t sell unless you can see the person; they’re not going to buy unless they can see your eyes.”

Well, I didn’t believe it 37 years ago and I still don’t believe it. You’re going to exhaust yourself seeing 4, 5 or 6 people a day. You’re going to spend at least a third of your day driving back and forth and all around.

Yes, you can close probably 20% more people by seeing them. So if you’re a really, really super salesman and you kill yourself and see six people a day, and close 80% of those people, you’ve closed 4.8 sales.

But on the phone and through the mail you can talk to approximately 40 people a day. So even if you only close 60% of those, 20% less, that would be 24; and even if your sales aren’t that big you still close six times as many sales as you did eye to eye.

Is there a magic formula for insurance sales?

Is there any magic? Have we figured out something that nobody else knows? No. Everybody who’s looking for magic I think is going to be disappointed.

I think success in this business is based on hard work. We try to provide the very best customer service that we can, and I really think it shows. I think our clients feel that they’re important to us. They’re not just a face or a number. So really our mission is to try to incorporate modern technology, which is what we would consider ProspectZone, with old-fashioned service.

This is only a small portion of our interview with Judy Balter. We’ll be releasing the rest of her amazing insights and tips next month. Stay tuned for a special announcement.

Jeremiah Desmarais is vice president of marketing at ProspectZone. He is the recipient of 9 awards for his marketing and design initiatives online. He is also editor of the ProspectZone Newsletter, which delivers helpful sales articles, tips and marketing strategies to 15,000+ insurance agents monthly. Author of several white papers, Jeremiah is a contributor to the Agent’s Sales Journal, Health Insurance Underwriter and Broker World, as well as a guest speaker at various carrier events and workshops. He is a member of the Society of Industry Leaders.

Share the knowledge:
Would you like your agents to learn about the latest insurance lead generation tactics and insider news in your own publication? So would we! Please contact jdesmarais@prospectzone.com to inquire about reproducing our content.

7 Lead Quality Questions To Ask Your Internet Health Insurance Lead Source

Technology gives us the ability to zero in on qualified consumers actively shopping for the health insurance products you offer. This is why Internet leads hold so much promise.

But not all so-called Internet leads deliver the same quality. And you know how lead quality can mean the difference between setting new sales records and wasting hours chasing worthless leads.

The good news is that you can avoid wasting your money on low-quality leads by posing some simple questions to any potential lead provider.

The 7 questions in this 2-part article will help you to quickly separate the trustworthy lead providers who will partner with you to create a lead package that works — from the low-quality fly-by-night operations just out to make a quick buck.

1. What are your top lead-collection websites?

Internet-generated leads are collected through websites. The top lead providers have dozens of websites targeting online shoppers. Before you sign any lead provider contract, examining the websites they’re using to generate these Internet leads is an absolute must.

If they’re hesitant about naming their sites, they may have something to hide.

Once you do get a list of their main lead-generating sites, take some time to check them out. Look at them from a shopper’s point of view. If you were shopping for health insurance, would that website answer your typical questions and make you want to ask for a quote?

If it looks shady or untrustworthy to you, real insurance shoppers will probably feel the same way and stay away from that site.

2. What kind of incentives do leads get to complete a request form?

Quality leads NEVER “bribe” potential prospects with free iPods, gift certificates or digital cameras.

Such incentives do increase the amount of leads that a website can generate, but those extra leads aren’t really interested in health insurance. They want the free giveaways.

More importantly, these leads are a big waste of your time and money — which is why smart agents and brokers avoid companies who use incentives to hit their lead quota.

Incentivized leads are also a sure sign of a lazy lead generator. Instead of investing in search engine optimization (SEO), strategic pay per click (PPC) advertising and providing informative websites for online insurance shoppers, these low-quality lead providers take shortcuts — at your expense.

3. How are leads validated?

High-quality leads are validated against national databases of phone and address information to ensure that the contact information is legitimate. Validation weeds out leads containing phony data, which, by the way, is very common with the “incentivized” leads discussed above.

So make sure to ask lead providers for specifics on how they validate their lead data. The most common validation programs do at least the following:

• Verify that the street address matches the zip code
• Check the full address to make sure it really exists
• Make sure the phone number is active
• Compare the name on the address records against the contact’s name
• Compare the name on phone records against the contact’s name
• Verify the email address is valid and active

Leading data validation companies, such as DOTS (Service Objects Inc.), Accusure (Accudata) and TARGUSinfo, also run dozens of additional validation checks to ensure that a lead is valid. Unless a lead provider actually uses one of these services, however, they’re just guessing on how valid each of their leads really is.

4. Do leads come with a time stamp and how fast are they delivered?

Check back next month for the conclusion of this 2-part article.

Jeremiah Desmarais is vice president of marketing at ProspectZone, a company whose web-based tools and high-quality health insurance leads help agents consistently increase productivity by 2500%. He is the recipient of 9 awards for his marketing and design initiatives online. He is also editor of the ProspectZone Newsletter, which delivers helpful sales articles, tips and marketing strategies to 15,000+ insurance agents monthly. Author of several white papers, Jeremiah is a contributor to the Agent’s Sales Journal, Health Insurance Underwriter and Broker World, as well as a guest speaker at various carrier events and workshops. He is a member of the Society of Industry Leaders.

Share the knowledge:
Would you like your agents to learn about the latest insurance lead generation tactics and insider news in your own publication? So would we! Please contact jdesmarais@prospectzone.com to inquire about reproducing our content.