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The Magic bullet to Success

We’re all back to the grind looking to overcome the last year and put those 12 months in the review mirror where it belongs. I have fielded a greater number of calls from agents looking for life insurance leads regardless of their IMO dissatisfied with what they may or may not offer.

Most everyone gravitates to the least expensive leads asking if they’re exclusive and fresh. I use this when I meet with clients:

“We have three components to our service. Our service can be cheap, it can be fast, and it can be good but, you can have only two out the of three. If you want it to be cheap and fast you can’t expect it to be good. If you want it to be cheap and good, you can’t expect it to be fast and if you want it to be fast and good, you can’t expect it to be cheap.”

A similar analogy can be applied to leads. Fast and cheap does not always equal good. Fast and good does not equal cheap. I would equate most digital leads in the fast and cheap category. There not always good, its why you need a lot of them to succeed. The power is in the numbers.

If you want leads to be good quality and fast, they are not cheap. Direct mail is neither fast nor cheap, but the quality can’t be beat. Regardless of where you fall in this analogy, you need capital to fund your lead campaigns.

So, what’s the Magic Bullet to Success: Consistency/reoccurring and Capital. If we are looking at what we do as a business, then there is some risk. That risk is capital which at the beginning generally comes from a charge card or savings account.

If you decide to risk some capital and by a one-time lead order of, let’s say 10 Mortgage Protection Life leads you aren’t likely to succeed. You need to be consistent/reoccurring and risk four week’s worth of 10 leads a week. If you work Final Expense, expect that number to double to at least 20 leads a week. If you work phone sales, then double that number again.

Why do I say this, because not every lead campaign will be the same. Some will be great where you’ll close 5 out 7 leads one week and the next 1 out 7. But, with consistency come balance; the unpleasant weeks will be overcome by the good and at the end of the month you’ll have done $8000 to $10,000 in sales.

The adage of “with risk comes gain” is very true. If you’re not willing to risk some capital, then your career is over before it got started. A career as a life insurance agent can be very rewarding. What you hear about unlimited income potential and setting your hours is all true. It’s great to attend your kids’ functions. However, it takes commitment and it’s not cheap nor fast.

It’s been said: Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

© Copyright  Legacy Secure on MI Inc

We all know that 2020 was a difficult year for our business. If you sold life insurance over the phone then you were less impacted. Those of us who sell face-to-face struggled. In listening to agents some are wanting to wait until Covid is completely behind us.

For those of you who are fulltime life insurance producers depending on that income to provide for your family, then that decision will be devastating. It will be the middle of summer at best before life returns to something resembling normal. It will take a couple of years for the economy to come back to pre-pandemic levels.

Connecting with your prospects and customers at the right moment and the through right channel is key to any business. And social media is proving to fulfill this role for businesses across all industries. The insurance industry is certainly no exception.

According to LIMRA, the world’s largest association of life insurance and financial services companies, discovered that 93% of life insurance companies had social media programs in place. As independent agents we need to start participating and embracing this medium of marketing.

As the country re-opens in most every state we are confronted with getting back in the life insurance game either with face-to-face appointments or virtually. Those agents that were successful at selling virtually want to continue doing so. Some IMO’s are not contracting or supporting agents who want to sell virtually…more about that in a minute.

To have a successful career in life insurance sales you need people to talk too. A lot of agents stopped their marketing last year and are struggling to get started now that were close to “normal.”

When you stop marketing (prospecting), you’ve slashed your wrists and it’s only a matter of time before your practice is barely alive or dead altogether. Many an insurance or advisory practice needs its life blood to stay alive and thrive. That lifeblood is marketing and prospecting.

Many agents find themselves frozen with fear on where to turn to start marketing again. Directmail is still the most qualified lead, also the most expensive. 1000-piece mailings are seeing ever lowing returns driving the per-lead cost towards $90 to $100 each. That’s not sustainable unless you’re sitting on a pile of money to invest in marketing.

Some agents have resorted to joining captive companies to get the free leads but soon realize the 40% to 70% commission is not worth the effort needed or they are not supporting virtual sales.

The reason most IMO’s are specifically NOT allowing virtual phone sales is twofold:

1. It takes more insurance leads to sell over the phone vs. face-to-face. They either don’t have the leads or feel agents waste a lot of leads trying to sell over the phone.
2. Low persistency especially in Final Expense market. Average persistency in FE is around 60% for agents selling virtually. Most every carrier will terminate an agent contract with persistency that low. To an IMO those agents disappear, and the chargeback debt rolls up to them. The IMO is also in danger of either losing a carrier contract or losing their comp level as their own persistency begins to falter.

The agents that do very well selling FE over the phone know how to close keeping their persistency over 70% which is acceptable to most carriers but can feel like your chasing business to reinstate policies or write new business to off-set the drop-offs.

When working Final Expense face-to-face, in my opinion, you have a better opportunity to maintain a better persistency. People in this market look more favorably to agents when they can look them in the eye. They are also not as tech savvy for a Zoom meeting nor do most have the equipment.

Selling Mortgage Protection or traditional life virtually is a whole different environment. If you have a good script and know how to close your persistency can be well over 80%. You’ll need less leads to be successful…generally around 20 leads a week. Closing three to four apps a week and your production is anywhere from $7500 to $11,500 a month.

This cliental is a little more tech savvy and will have a computer to conduct a Zoom meeting. If you use a virtual meeting room where you as the agent have the ability to pass on the presenter to the client, they can sign the eApp with you without having to send an email for signatures.

When it comes to signatures ALWAYS wait for them to sign if you send them an email signature option. People can open the email while you are on the phone…it gives you the opportunity to answer any questions as well as verify it was completed.

The bottom line…seek out the IMO that best fits your life insurance business model providing the commission you deserve and sales platform you want. They are out there and we’re waiting to support your success and help bring your business back to life.

© Copyright  Legacy Secure on MI Inc