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“TESTED” Lead Conversion Lessons From A Successful 37-Year Producer And Trainer

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.

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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.

Quick Wins

In her interview, Judy Balter pointed to the need to work smarter and more efficiently (as well as harder). That’s where technology such as the LeadMiner email autoresponder can help increase your sales volume and ROIs.

The traditional approach used by the vast majority of agents is to give up on a lead if it doesn’t pan out right away. Judy recommends giving it at least 6 attempts. Most agents stop at one or two, because they just don’t have the time or energy.

LeadMiner allows you to keep “touching” your internet leads indefinitely with almost no effort:

• Just select a schedule.
  You simply need to select how often you want to send reminder emails, and the autoresponder does it for you. It even provides sample messages you can use.

• Updated rates.
  If you have a quote engine, LeadMiner will automatically run an updated quote for each lead and imbed that customized pricing in each email.

• Money-saving tool.
  LeadMiner requires no postage or paper. And by letting you effortlessly stay in contact with each lead, you’ll never have to risk abandoning a lead to another agent with more time or patience.

Also keep in mind that unlike traditional insurance buyers, online shoppers take a little longer to make their decision. They want to be educated. LeadMiner allows you to educate and stay with them until they’re ready.