As an insurance agent, signing up for a lead generation system is practically a rite of passage. Doing so typically indicates you’re ready to grow your business, and that you’re going to be proactive about it rather than wait around hoping for customers to walk through your doors.
However, not all lead generation methods are equally effective. The same thing holds true for insurance calls - where a 3rd party vendor delivers live insurance prospects to you over the phone.
When it comes to insurance calls, there are your two best bets:
But which option will give you the most bang for your buck? Which will have the customers rolling in on day one? Which one carries nearly a guaranteed positive return on investment because of its astronomical success rate?
Both are considered gold-standard lead strategies, but one tends to outperform the other. Let’s start the discussion by taking a closer look at each.
If you’re pressed for time, here’s the TL;DR:
Consumer-initiated inbound calls are unmatched when it comes to close rates and deliver (by far!) the best return on your investment.
With that said, there may be room for both in your agency’s business model. We’ll explain why below, but first let’s get some basic definitions out of the way.
Let’s assume there’s a potential customer (we’ll call him Bob) living in your region who is interested in purchasing insurance.
Bob searches online for the type of policy he needs and comes across a lead vendor’ marketplace landing page with a contact form. He fills out the form with all his information, including his contact info and his desired insurance policy. Bob continues searching and fills out some additional forms in various online marketplaces.
Bob knows he’s about to get baraged with calls, texts, and emails from insurance agents every day for the next several weeks but he assumes this is a necessary evil; at least he’ll get some agents on the phone so he can comparison shop.
Once he submits his information, employees of the lead vendors Bob has filled out forms with get to work over the next few days or weeks matching his needs with insurance agents like you who have signed up to receive warm transfer leads. If Bob seems to be a good match for your services, a call center agent will dial him up and transfer the call to your phone line.
Once you answer the transfer call, you’ll take over the sales process.
It may or may not be a convenient time for Bob to talk (perhaps he’s in the middle of dinner, or he left his laptop at work and doesn’t feel like dealing with insurance shopping at the moment). But you’ve got him on the phone right now, and it’s up to you to pitch your services and close the deal.
What if Bob doesn’t want to fill out a form online and open himself up to the onslaught of calls and texts from dozens of interested agents in his area?
What if he just wants to talk to an agent, find a policy, sign on the dotted line, and get back to his life without all the hassle? Luckily, he has a better option.
When Bob searches for insurance in his area, the top results will likely be from companies such as EverQuote that help customers connect with insurance agents who want to help them. Bob can simply call EverQuote’s phone number when he’s ready to shop for insurance and he’ll get connected with one of our call center team members who collect some basic information before they promptly transfer Bob to an agent.
Your phone will ring, and it will be Bob on the other line, ready to talk about his policy needs. You already know he’s motivated (after all, he called you), so your sales job becomes much easier. All you have to do is help Bob find the perfect policy for his needs and instruct him where to sign.
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PRO TIP: Since Bob is already on the line during a warm transfer (i.e., the call is “live”), you’ll sometimes hear warm transfer leads referred to as live transfer leads (or live transfer calls). However, you might also hear consumer-initiated inbound calls referred to as live transfer leads (or live transfer call), because the customer calls in and is then transferred “live” to an agent. But because some people call warm transfer leads live leads as well, we prefer to stick to the consumer-initiated inbound calls (or CIC) terminology to prevent confusion. Just be aware that the terms may vary based on the companies you work with. |
Your instinct as an agent probably tells you that you’d rather speak to a customer who has called you directly rather than to someone who has filled out information online at some point in the near or distant past.
Your instinct is correct.
Speaking with highly motivated people who want to buy insurance now is clearly a better business strategy than trying to overcome the obstacles of time and competition involved in chasing those who expressed some level of intent recently.
The data bears out this theory: Whereas warm transfer insurance leads tend to convert to sales about 10% of the time, CICs have typical close rates of 20% to 30%. Some agents achieve even better results.
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With all that said, you don’t necessarily need to use a single strategy.
If you’re familiar with warm transfer internet leads and you’ve had fairly good success with them in the past, there’s no reason to upend your entire business model.
When you work with EverQuote, we can customize your CIC campaign so you only receive calls during the hours you specify. That means you can ease into a consumer-initiated inbound calls campaign while still leaving plenty of time for the work that has been your bread and butter so far.
As time passes, you might find you prefer the relative ease and higher ROI of consumer-initiated calls. At that point, you can start phasing up your CIC campaign and backing off of your warm transfer system.
Sometimes, using both methods works quite well for some agents. However, we still recommend prioritizing a CIC campaign because the close rates are phenomenal.
We believe you’ll get the best results by mastering your CIC sales technique and opening your schedule to receive as many calls as possible. However, some agents like to switch it up with warm transfers or even cold-calling leads (if that’s your style) in between CIC conversations.
The point is, we’re happy to work with you to find a balance that best fits your agency’s needs.
And you’re never locked in to a particular schedule; at any time, you can change your customizations with regard to:
Just let us know and we’ll be happy to tweak your settings whenever you’re in the mood for a change of pace.