In the insurance industry, leads have an important role to play in terms of generating sales. The basics are the same, regardless if you are a life insurance or a health insurance agent. For health insurance, however, there is a distinction between individual policies and group policies. As an agent, you should be knowledgeable about both types of policies in order to better serve your prospective and existing clients.
Individual Health Insurance Leads
Marketing insurance to individuals may seem easier, but you have to remember that quantity does not always guarantee quality. You may have a lot of leads, but if most of them are prospects who are only after cheap or free policies, then you will have spent too much of your time on leads that offer little or no commission. The best way to get quality health insurance leads is to subscribe to an online leads generation service or to market your products to small companies who do not offer insurance to their employees. The advantage of subscribing to an online leads generation service is that you have control over the kind of leads that you get. Basically, you can set filters so that you can get your ideal insurance leads. Approaching small companies, on the other hand, requires phone-marketing skills to get past the gatekeeper. Once you are allowed to talk to the employees about insurance, there is a very good chance of getting many leads.
Group Health Insurance Leads
Finding groups to sell insurance to can be difficult, but not impossible. Group insurance leads are worthy of pursuit because of the high commissions you stand to make. Some techniques to bag group insurance leads include cold calling, subscription to an online leads generation service and networking to get referrals. Do not be discouraged if your prospects already have an existing policy. With your expertise in insurance products (yours and the competitions’) as well as the ability to present creative solutions, you have a chance to get your prospects to switch. New businesses are also sources of group insurance leads, but the commission you get from these may be smaller, especially if you have strong competition.
Cross-Selling
Group disability, as well as commercial P&C, is your best bet for group sales. You can also do cross selling for individuals. The opportunity for this may be limited, but if it arises, we recommend that you sell LTC and life insurance products.
How to Get Leads: Our Recommendation
If you plan to generate leads on your own, cold calling gives the best results for individual and group insurance leads. Companies that do not offer insurance to their employees are good places to start. Ask permission to meet with their employees on the company premises and give a presentation on individual insurance. You can also ask to meet with the people who handle employee benefits and make a pitch for group insurance. Even if the company already has a provider, the company may still be open to other insurance options and allow you to make a presentation. As always, be prepared to convince your prospects of the advantages of your product and provide a strong case to support your sales pitch using case studies, anecdotes and testimonials
If you plan to buy your insurance leads, you will have more options if you go with online leads generation service providers. However, most leads will be for individual insurance rather than group insurance, but this doesn’t mean that you won’t get any group insurance leads. Most providers are not exclusive, meaning; you are not the only insurance provider with the leads you are getting. There are exclusive lead providers out there, but getting a reliable provider may be difficult. If you manage to get a good provider, however, this can be a gold mine of insurance leads to which only you have access. You might also want to try buying leads from telemarketing, as well as direct mail sources.