When you’re looking to find out information on leads the first step is to look at the lead type. Each lead type should be evaluated differently with a different set of questions you need to ask. Let’s look at each lead type separately.

You’ve heard me say “we’ve all fallen victim to instant everything.” With all the ups and downs across the country of COVID-19 has only exacerbated this situation as more people are home spending more time online.

The lack of sales in our personal life insurance business has made most of desperate to make a sale. We want to complete a sale using the shortest possible path in the shortest amount of time so we can move on to the next sale. In life insurance that path starts with making appointments, moving on to giving presentations, field underwriting, writing up applications, and closing.

On the surface this seems fine after all our time is money, right?

The times are a changing. If you don’t change with it your ability to connect with prospects in a meaningful way will suffer. Know your market; be up-to-date on current events that are impacting your potential clients.

If you are working mortgage protection; how was the area you are working affected from the housing debacle of 2008? A basic fear is losing what they have spent time building up again. Should they suffer an unplanned event (either passing away prematurely or a catastrophic illness) how will their surviving families keep their home?

The first thing we think about when we hear the term “ethics” is our interaction with our clients. After all ethics is part of the CE credits we need every two years to keep our license in force, so we can continue providing our services and make a living.

So why then does ethics go out the window when some IMO’s conduct the business of their agencies?

Don’t get me wrong there are IMO’s that do act ethically in their day-to-day business. Unfortunately, it isn’t the IMO’s that promote recruiting as the first order of business.

As we embark on a new, but familiar, $7 lead generating system for mortgage protection the worry for all of us is quality. It certainly was mine. Most of us have experienced the “aged lead” programs from some of the largest IMO’s out there.

They have been sold several times over-and-over to agents within the organization and passed off as a great lead. Compensating agents with 55% to 70% commissions, or less for some products, with the expectation that you’ll make a living and want to recruit to this program.

Finding yourself in a sales slump is depressing as well as discouraging. You’re doing everything you know to do; calling leads, following up, and seeing prospects. Nothing seems to come out of it draining your financial cushion.

The first thing to realize is that this is perfectly normal. Sales slumps are part of the dynamic of being a salesperson especially when selling life insurance; the opposite is also true of peak periods. Slumps are bound to happen right after a good steady run. Here are a few ways to push through.