Lead Tip #3: What's A "Smart" Lead?
I know agents are sick and tired of blowing their budgets on oversold, uninterested leads. But you still need a cost-effective, convenient way to reach internet prospects.
So ProspectZone has created Smart Leads — a solution for lead buyers who are frustrated with companies that OVER-PROMISE and UNDER-DELIVER.
I'd like to lay it all out in black and white. Here's what ProspectZone considers a "Smart Lead". See if you agree.
Anatomy Of A Smart Lead
- Real Interest. Some companies "incentivize" their leads by offering free coupons, prizes, and other special giveaways. These people aren't interested in an insurance policy, so they're worthless to you.
Smart Leads are never incentivized with offers. A Smart Lead is generated using a blend of aggressive search engine marketing, email campaigns, and carefully selected affiliate partnerships to target consumers who are actively searching for insurance. Every lead who requests a quote knows they're going to be contacted by agents.
- Real-Time. Lead buyers lose out when they can't get in front of leads while interest is still hot.
Smart Leads are generated online in real-time. They're sent the instant they enter the lead distribution system. And each one is timestamped to prove it.
- Custom-Filtering. You know what kinds of prospects yield the highest return for your agency. If a company doesn't offer filters, you have to eat the cost of leads that aren't worth your time to work.
Smart Leads are custom filtered to let you target your ideal lead. Besides geographic filters, you can focus on family size, age, and whether or not a lead is currently insured.
- Never Oversold. Some lead companies would rather squeeze every last dime out of their leads than deliver quality. So they sell leads to every taker. These oversold leads are driven crazy by their phone ringing off the hook, and they're impossible to close.
A Smart Lead will never be oversold. As a general rule, insurance leads shouldn't be sold more than 5 times — unless you're looking to run a "churn and burn" strategy with bargain-priced leads.
You get the best shot at making the commission with "semi-exclusive" leads. Insurance leads sold less than an average of 2.0 times or less are considered "semi-exclusive."
- Snapshot Reporting. Most lead buyers can only guess how well each lead campaign is doing. Without reporting tools, it's difficult to figure out if your lead budget is well spent, or if you're just throwing it away.
Smart Leads come with free lead management software. Your lead management system lets you import all your purchased leads, plus the ones you generate from your website and online campaigns. Use built-in reporting tools to easily analyze the performance of all your campaigns.
- Quote Engine Compatible. When your health insurance leads are quote engine compatible, sending a detailed proposal only takes seconds.
Smart Leads make quoting easy. By enabling the quoting function on your free lead management system, you can generate multi-carrier, email-ready Individual Medical proposals while you're still on the phone with your lead.
- Generous Return Policy. Some companies pass off bad leads to buyers, then refuse to accept them for credit.
A Smart Lead is always backed by a generous return policy. Good companies want to hear about it if you receive a bad lead. With your feedback, they can identify and eliminate weak sources, and improve their overall lead quality.
- Real People. Many lead companies on the Web are one-man shows being run out of a basement. After they've got your credit card number, they're not interested in talking to you again.
Smart Leads have real people backing them — people with a real commitment to providing quality leads and first-rate service.
Boil all that down and you end up with a higher contact ratio, filtered prospects with real interest, innovative software to help improve ROI, and a company you can turn to for long-term success.
That's what we call a Smart Lead. Isn't it time you stopped wasting your budget on junk leads, and started selling more policies with leads like these?
Jeremiah Desmarais is the Vice President of Marketing and oversees the educational and marketing efforts at ProspectZone. ProspectZone is a leading provider of internet leads to the mortgage and insurance industries, and the creators of Smart Leads™. He and his team are the recipients of 3 awards in 2006 from the Web Marketing Association, Marketing Sherpa and the Interactive Marketing Association for their marketing and design initiatives online. He is author of several white papers and has been a contributor to national trade publications as well as a guest speaker at various national events and workshops. He is a member of the Society of Industry Leaders. Reach him at jdesmarais@prospectzone.com or 1-877-561-9663.
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