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Agents have long harbored a love-hate relationship with internet leads, and the reality is, they can be expensive, frustrating and downright daunting to work with – but they don’t have to be. They are an investment, but to really capitalize on their potential you have to invest in the technology to get you there.
“[Leads] come from disparate sources; some are good, some are bad, some are totally horrible and some are fantastic. But many of them are sold multiple times over,” says Laird Rixford, CEO of Insurance Technologies Corporation (ITC). “The way that you can really make sure that as an agency owner you are buying leads, and really maximizing what they can do, comes down to three different items. The first is making sure you are purchasing the leads you are good at.”
But don’t just stop there, Rixford notes. Agencies should not just purchase the “cream of the crop” leads. He suggests also purchasing the leads that might need a little bit of nurturing because those can sometimes pay off even more.
Using technology to create a lead campaign that automatically markets to the insurer is the second piece in Rixford’s approach.
“A lot of people will teach you to send leads an email and give them a call on the first day,” he says. “That’s fine but remember five to 10 contacts are also inundating them, so they stop answering their phone and begin ignoring calls. You can create a nurture campaign that doesn’t just start and stop on the first day. You can create one that starts on the first day that slowly works that client over the term of the next month or next six months. Just slowly working that lead and showing that you are a trusted choice can make you stand out from all the other agents chasing the same lead.”
Finally, Rixford advises agencies to remember the competition and the technology they use. Big insurance carriers have the capability to provide rates instantaneously along with the manpower to make calls at all hours of the day. To compete in that environment, independent agencies need the technology that allows them to act and operate like the big operations.
“Modern comparative raters and agency management systems integrate with websites and marketing systems, so whenever you do a rate in the comparative rater, it will begin marketing that rate to prospective clients,” says Rixford. “If it takes you 10-15 minutes to do a quote then it is taking you way too long. You have to remember that two or three other agents will also call the lead, and they might be quicker with the rate.”
