At one point, way back when, insurance telemarketing for leads was as effective as insurance direct mail. However, that was over ten years Are you still trying to make a living by thinking what worked then worked then must still work now.
So many misleading articles promote how easy it is for an agent to get on the phone, handle those objections, and make a profitable appointment. Did these article writers find these reports buried at the bottom of a vault a decade ago. WAKE UP! Are you selling insurance to make a decent living or to keep riding a dying horse? 20% of people have unlisted telephone numbers, another 55% are on the do not call list. If this is not bad enough, almost all of them have cell phones.
Did you ever think they feel your phone call is much more intruding than a piece of direct mail they can pitch out at their convenience? Are they taking a nap? Just out of the hospital? Having a quick romantic interlude? Devouring a delicious hot meal? On the other hand, are they just waiting to give hell to the next person that interrupts them? You must think they are just sitting around for a phone call that can make their day. Think again, because if you do not, you will pay dearly.
You may not consider everything you just read to be crucial information about insurance agent phone calls. But don’t be surprised if you find yourself recalling and using this very information in the next few days.
You must have something better to do with your time. An insurance professional does not work at a wage ranging from minimum wage to $12.00 an hour. That is exactly what you are doing when you are making soliciting phone calls. Have you registered with the Federal Trade Commission before making even one single call? If not you are already a violator. Have you checked with both the State and National Do Not Call Lists about whom you are calling? Did you make sure you are not calling a cell phone number? Can you afford to pay the FTC a huge fine they are more than willing to collect on?
If you are the typical insurance agent, you earn about $40,000 a year. What would just one $11,000 fine do to your career? Chances are it would end it permanently. Quit acting like insurance telemarketing is the only way, or the most effective way, or even the cheapest way to obtain new clients. You are wrong on all three points.
Career life insurance agencies are the key suspect for implanting telemarketing for leads in your head. Why? It is so simple you can answer it yourself. How much does it cost the career life insurance agency to have you make hundreds and hundreds of phone calls? Now answer this. Do you know of a career life insurance agency that provides you with true leads? True leads are responses from people interested in looking at an insurance product you are comfortable at selling. With true leads, you should have a minimum 65% closing rate.
Career life insurance agencies are too cheap to provide a bounty of leads to keep you selling instead of insurance telemarketing for leads. Did you know that instead of an $11,000 fine, that amount of money invested in a quality lead acquisition program would have done miracles? Appointments from true leads would have given you substantial new sales and clients. Moreover, it should have jumped your yearly income up at least 25%.
Go ahead and let your career die with your dying horse. Just remember, there are quite a few experienced insurance agents riding high by changing their habits to meet the constantly changing insurance market.
Now might be a good time to write down the main points covered above. The act of jotting down a note will help you remember what’s important to you about making insurance phone calls.
Hopefully the sections above have contributed to your understanding of insurance telemarketing. Share your new understanding about insurance telemarketing with others.
Archive for the ‘Insurance’ Category
Hanging Up on Insurance Agent Phone Calls July 18th, 2011
Benefits of Online Auto Insurance Quotes June 30th, 2011
Nowadays, getting auto insurance quotes online is the highly recommended way for your car insurance coverage, as doing things online is always easy, quick, and simple. Gone are the days when people would search the yellow pages and telephone directories for hours to find the details of a suitable car insurance company. Today, with the advent of the Internet, you can get an automobile insurance quote within seconds.
Advantages Of Online Quotes Auto Insurance
You get 24 x 7 online service for getting the best quotes insurance. They are available on the Internet, even if you search for them at odd hours. Due to fiery competition among online car insurance companies, many of them offer you free quotes at any time of the day.
You can save the time and money that would otherwise be spent on searching good automobile insurance companies and visiting them to get quotes. If you have an internet connection, then it is possible to get several competitive quotes within the confines of your home or office.
People find it easy to decide the best coverage offered by a company by surfing several company websites for choosing the one that better suits their needs. They also get access to thousands of customer opinions.
When you call an insurance agent for getting a quote, you may end up saying something wrong that affects your insurance quote. This never happens online, as you can take your own time to fill out the form.
It is possible to compare auto insurance on the Internet. Quote comparison is considered the best way of getting the right and the best insurance policy. When you properly use the quote comparison, you can take full advantage of the chosen coverage and pay lower price for the insurance. In short, comparison is for getting the best coverage at an affordable price.
Step-By-Step Guide To Get Online Insurance Quotes Auto
If you are familiar with the quotes of auto insurance and how to get them online, then it is easy for you to get the best quote within a few hours of browsing. Here is some basic information about getting a car insurance quote online.
1. Using a search engine, find a company located in your area, offering you the type of insurance coverage you are looking for.
2. Visit each site and check out the coverage offered. You need to fill out some basic information, such as name, contact number, e-mail, and home address. The questionnaire also asks you for the model name and manufactured year of the car you own and the number of people you want to be insured.
3. Make sure to select all the security and safety information of the car from the drop down menu in the form. Also provide the requested information about your employment and housing status.
4. Some companies may ask you about the details of criminal offenses, traffic violations, or convictions filed against you, if any. This is probably the last step of the simple process.
5. Once you click submit, you will get an estimated car insurance quote.
Getting an auto insurance quote has become a very simple process, with the availability of free quotes offered by online car insurance companies. Getting quotes on the internet has several advantages over the traditional way of getting quotes. Make use of the quote comparison facility to choose the best insurance coverage.
Avoid the Pitfalls of Rent to Own Houses June 28th, 2011
Rent to own houses have grown in popularity today. There’s a reason for this: Mortgage lenders have tightened their lending standards, and the average credit score of consumers’ has fallen. Rent to own houses, though, give credit-strapped buyers the opportunity to eventually purchase a home. They also give homeowners, who can’t nab high-enough prices by selling their homes in today’s down economy, the chance to earn at least some rental income from the houses that they can’t unload.
But rent to own houses do come with their own risks, and it’s up to the renters themselves to do the advance research that will help them avoid these risks.
Minnesota Public Radio recently ran a report on the booming rent to own market. The report said that while this market provides opportunities to both homeowners and hopeful homeowners, it also comes with potential pitfalls. The biggest problem, according to the story, is that rent to own arrangements are largely unregulated by government agencies.
Rent to Own Homes: An Unregulated Industry
State lawmakers in Minnesota are now working on legislation that would provide regulations for owners and renters entering into a rent to own agreement. But even if this legislation eventually passes, participants in rent to own agreements in most of the rest of the country will still have to navigate the process without the benefit of regulations.
Renters, then, who don’t want to fall into disputes with their new landlords, need to clarify the exact terms of any rent to own agreement in which they enter.
At their most basic, rent to own arrangements are relatively simple. Renters sign a lease, much like an apartment lease, to rent a house for a set period of time, usually a year. After a certain period, it could be as long as three to five years or as soon as the end of the first year-long lease, renters have the option to purchase the home that they had been renting.
Along the way, landlords reserve a portion of each month’s rent for a possible down payment should the renters decide to purchase the home.
The Benefits of Rent to Own Houses
The benefits of this arrangement are obvious: Homeowners earn rental income, and also secure a potential buyer for their residences. Renters learn what it’s like to live in a home and gain the time they need to improve their credit scores.
The potential pitfalls, though, are serious. The Minnesota Public Radio story, for instance, highlighted the case of a couple who were in a rent to own arrangement. When their house fell into foreclosure, the couple lost all the extra money they had set aside for a possible down payment. The couple also had disputes with their landlord over who was responsible for making major repairs with the house, the landlord or the renters.
The key to making a rent to own arrangement work is for both homeowners and renters to spell out exactly what is expected of everyone. Homeowners should explain exactly how much money they’ll be setting aside for a possible down payment from every rent check. They should also clarify what happens to this money if renters decide not to purchase the house or if the house falls into foreclosure. Both parties should also agree about who is responsible for repairs, lawn mowing, and other upkeep.
The Rent to Own Alternative
Rent to own houses can serve as a much-needed alternative for both homeowners and renters in today’s challenging real estate market. But unless both sides of the rent to own agreement are forthright with what is expected, the rent to own arrangement can lead to a long, and unpleasant, dispute. By doing their research before signing any papers, renters can take a huge step to avoiding such a negative situation.
House Insurance For Your Rental Home June 20th, 2011
Most landlords try to screen their potential boarders but even if you do this, you can’t make a full assessment of their personality with just a simple interview. Sure, you can do a background check on them to make sure they don’t have any criminal records but you can’t really gauge how capable they will be in taking care of your home.
This is why it is an excellent move for any landlord to take out a house insurance policy for the homes they are renting out. Even if the tenant turns out to be a careless slob who leaves stains everywhere or constantly leaves the doors unlocked, practically inviting robbers inside, your home will be protected against any damages they may make.
Typically, a rental house insurance policy will not cover the furniture and other items inside the house since those belong to the tenant. If anything gets stolen, it will be their loss and you will not be liable to them since your house insurance only covers the actual structure and fixtures in the house.
An issue you need to clarify before taking out a rental house insurance policy is whether the home will be left vacant for long periods of time. Usually, house insurance coverage will not include damages or losses that occurred more than 30 days after the house has been vacant.
This issue could be a big deal for landlords because some tenants might leave for a long summer vacation without informing you, leaving the home unoccupied and uncovered by house insurance. Another situation is when you are between tenants. There could be slow seasons when it will take a long time to find new tenants after the previous occupants have left. To avoid these situations, you can find house insurance policies that allow up to 90 days for your home to be vacant.
Many rental house insurance companies will be interested to know about the people who are renting your home. If the occupants are a homely middle-aged couple who regularly attends Thursday night bingo, you will probably be able to get excellent coverage on your house insurance policy. However, if your tenants are members of a college rock band who are more likely to go on a destructive rampage, you will surely have a difficult time finding a company to give you a decent Homeowner Insurance Guide coverage.
Of course these are extreme examples but you get the idea. More damage means more claims and more claims means more cash out for the insurance company. In fact it means more cash out for you as well because will have to shoulder the excess from your claims.
To summarize this all, you just need to find the right house insurance policy for your rental home and you can make your rental business grow in no time.
Are the Days of Insurance Agency Telemarketing Over? June 15th, 2011
Are the days of insurance agency telemarketing over? My answer to this question is, “it depends on the industry and prospect profile”. Telemarketing (or cold calling) albeit a form of interruption marketing can be very effective when properly approached and applied to a specific niche and b2b target profile. There are far better ways to market many B2B products and services, but there still exists a time and place where highly targeted, niche cold calling can prove effective for B2B businesses. I’d like to qualify this statement, that the days of telemarketing will ultimately come to a close as more cost effective means become available, as eMarketing, Social Media Marketing, ePublishing and other web centric means prove to be more effective and less expensive. But today, cold calling or outsourced telemarketing can still yield results for certain insurance agency niches and prospect profiles.
For example, truck insurance agencies focusing on smaller trucking firm profiles with 2 to 50 trucks can average 6 appointments per week in about 10 hours of telemarketing per week (approximately 1 appointment per 1.5 hours of calling). Whereas truck agencies focusing on 100 plus trucking firms are likely to see better results leveraging eMarketing and web seminars over telemarketing, or at a minimum, they should integrate telemarketing into a web seminar marketing strategy. Many experts would agree that a fully integrated, comprehensive and web centric approach to insurance agency marketing yields the greatest return on investment. However, vertically oriented agencies, or agencies with a unique value proposition can still achieve compelling results from a well planned, professionally executed B2B telemarketing strategy.
Cold calling can also be done on a tailored basis by salespeople (insurance agency producers) calling high in their targeted prospect accounts, which when combined with a personalized email can yield effective results. The challenge, of course, rests upon the ability of the producer to find the time to do this consistently with the myriad of other responsibilities which impact their time. Many marketing veterans describe the difference between agency producer cold calling and telemarketing from a production perspective. Telemarketers are typically expected to yield about 25 calls per hour, documenting changes in position, direct phone number and of course delivering pitches along the way. This means that in 60 hours of calling per month, the phone is dialed about 1500 times, or 18,000 times per year when fully extrapolated. Insurance agency producer time is much better spent on other activities; they do not have the time or patience to consistently deliver this volume. Obviously, telemarketing is not just about volume, a well defined, and consistently refined script is essential, and can result in a qualified appointment for every 1.5 hours of “telemarketing”, which can be worthwhile for an agency producer, or for that matter, any vertically oriented small business.
Thus, in my opinion, though the days of telemarketing are dwindling for many insurance agencies and other businesses, there are still instances where a targeted telemarketing campaign provides a health return on marketing investments. If it is done professionally and properly, high quality B2B telemarketing can yield cost effective results.
