Given the similarity of high-quality insurance products now available through multiple channels, an agent's success depends largely upon two disciplines: marketing (reaching qualified prospects and enticing them to respond) and selling (closing the business). Being outstanding at one of these disciplines can lead to success; however, the most successful agents possess a high level of competence in both areas. Agents are typically gifted sellers and not short on resources to help them further improve their selling skills. Following are three basic practices that could dramatically improve your prospecting efforts.
#1: Share your expertise and stand out from the crowd
Most agents would agree that being active in their local community is good for business. It's always good to meet new people and grow your personal network. But also consider focusing some of your efforts on building name recognition. A good start to improving name recognition is by contributing a short article to a local paper, community magazine, or neighborhood newsletter. Such publications are always looking for relevant content of interest to their readers. Doctors are frequently called upon to provide health-related content. Likewise, insurance agents can also be valuable contributors.
Be sure to make the article very informative, such as "Health Care Reform -- How Could It Affect Your Health?" and avoid making the article appear too self-promotional. The objective should be to help your readers by communicating your expertise on a topic that is relevant to them. The article will be attributed to you and will usually include your email address or business phone number.
Also be sure to have a professional digital photo available to offer the publication.
It's a good idea to write the article first and then present it to the publication with a note explaining that your neighbors and customers frequently ask you about this subject. If the publication is not interested, then make sure they know how to contact you for future insurance-related content and take the article to another publication. If your writing skills are a little rough, there are usually local contract writers that can assist in crafting a compelling article for a nominal fee.
Finally, offer to be a regular contributor to the publication, maybe one article per quarter. Nothing builds credibility faster than prospects repeatedly seeing your name and photo.
#2: Maintain a database of all prospects and leads
Often overlooked sources of new leads are old leads that did not convert into new customers. It can be very productive to maintain a database and reach out to these past leads as they tend to be more responsive to future offers than other prospects are.
Targeted lead lists are available from various providers and are usually purchased for one-time use.
However, once a prospect responds to an offer or contacts you in any way, that lead becomes yours and you can then market to that lead as often as desired. And, although you can only use the prospect list once, you are usually allowed to keep the entire list on record for some period.
Maintaining this list is very important when attempting to accurately track the source of new leads.
Preferably, your database would also include all prospects to whom you have marketed directly through mail, email, telemarketing, or other means. Understand where your most productive leads originate, as well as what messages and contact methods are the most productive. Also track the number of times a prospect was contacted before they responded and the number of times a responder (i.e., lead) was contacted before they purchased. This may sound like quite a bit of work, but with the right database in place, it can be very easy and efficient.
The most common response to this suggestion is, "I don't need to track response; I already know what works and what doesn't." It's true, most agents do have a good idea of what works and what doesn't. But great marketers will tell you that if you create a database and track activity, you will learn something new, and that something new will help drive increased new business.
#3: Understand your marketing cost per new customer
Let's say you bought a list, sent out 2,000 pieces of mail, and received 15 responses. A 0.75 percent response rate may not sound too good but, once the bigger picture is taken into account, the results may be more impressive. Here are a few key questions to help evaluate the total impact of a direct marketing campaign:
o How much did the entire promotion cost, including the list, printing, postage, and personnel time?
o How many new customers did I get?
o What is the dollar value of each new customer?
o What is the total marketing cost per new customer?
o Was this promotion a good return on my marketing investment and how does it compare with my other marketing options?
Some of these questions are easier to answer than others. The cost of the mailing is relatively simple to compute, and most agents are able to place a dollar value on a new customer relationship. The difficult part is often accurately capturing all the responders and attributing their response back to the specific marketing campaign. It is important to ask every lead where they heard of you or what prompted them to inquire about your products and services. This information must then be recorded, preferably in a database.
Keep in mind that all responses will not come in immediately after a campaign. Some people will set the information aside with the intention of following up when they have time. But with today's busy schedules, that follow-up may actually come weeks or even months later. Without asking the right questions and without a good database-oriented tracking system, these late responders will never be attributed to the right marketing campaign.
These three suggestions do not represent everything needed be a great marketer, but they are among the most important. Maintaining a flow of new leads requires practices such as these to be a regular, ongoing activity within your business.
For many agents, great salesmanship is a natural gift. Prospecting, on the other hand, always requires a well-planned process and disciplined execution. Both are important, but combining great salesmanship with a well-executed prospecting plan will ensure you're operating at the very top of your game, well ahead of most competitors.
Mike Wallis is the assistant vice president of marketing for ChoicePoint Precision Marketing. He can be reached at mike.wallis@choicepoint.com.
