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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.

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Quick Tip

Overcoming the “Send Me Some Info” Blow-Off

Active agents get this response at least two or three times a week. It’s just one of the typical objections all sales people get from new leads. And the ability to overcome objections like these is what every agent needs to master if they want become top producers.

Here are some tips to help you better handle the “send me some info” objection. It starts with keeping your cool and being prepared.

Understand their real motivation
If this prospect came in from a cold call, you’d have to wonder whether they’re really interested. But if they’re a genuine Internet-generated lead, then you can probably assume that they do (or at least did) have an interest in purchasing health insurance coverage.

If that’s the case, you need to quickly confirm that they still need health insurance and then figure out why they’re blowing you off. Your challenge is to do so without getting the figurative door slammed in your face!

One way to confirm their current need it to ask them the type of health insurance they want: “…okay, I just need to confirm whether you’re more interested in a lower deductible or lower premium…” Tell them that you need this information so you can send them the right plans. Their answer should also reveal whether they threw up this objection because they’re busy or just indecisive.

Indecisive or Busy
If they’ve asked for information because they’re indecisive, then smile because you’ve got a genuine prospect waiting for you to close them.

Your task is to guide them toward that decision. Top producer Joe Stevens of TX Insurance recommends coming back with something like this:

“Out of the 2 (or 3) policies I quoted — if you had to pick one — which would fit your needs the best? ... I AGREE – THAT WAS MY PICK AS WELL … I JUST NEED SOME BASIC INFORMATION, AND WE’LL BE DONE IN LESS THAN 5 MINUTES … IS YOUR NAME SPELLED…?”

If they really are busy, you don’t want to annoy (and possibly lose) them by not letting them get to their urgent business. But make sure you at least nail down a time when you can call them back.

Here’s another response that Joe Stevens recommends for prospects who claim they’re busy:

“I understand you’re busy. Me too. But I just need to know which plans I can send out to you. I’m looking at about 100 plans in your area. HOW IS YOUR HEALTH?”

If you can engage them in a conversation, steer them back into your sales script right away.

Have a script
This brings up an often overlooked part of insurance sales: you have to prepare and practice basic scripts. In addition to having prepared scripts for typical objections, you need to have a basic script for guiding your prospect through their initial queries into a fully completed application.

You can make on-the-fly adjustments to your scripts, but having the basic outline memorized makes you better prepared to convert more leads — and overcome common objections.