Taking Advantage of Free Insurance Leads Offers

Many list brokers offer first time clients a sample list of free insurance leads.  This offer is a great way to try out a new firm without assuming any risk for your company. If you are considering taking advantage of one such introductory offer, there are a few things you should know before you sign up.

Always read the fine print before requesting your free list.  Each company’s offer comes with a different set of restrictions. Request as many free lists as you can.  These freebies are designed to give a prospective client a sense of the quality of the leads each firm provides. Talk to your sales representative about your experience with this sampling.  If you did not see the returns that you were expecting, talk to the contact at the company who provided the names. Lists of free insurance leads are the perfect way to test the quality of the lists that an unfamiliar broker provides.

Getting a Free Insurance Lead

A free insurance lead can help an agent or broker get on his or her way to starting a successful business.  It is definitely possible to get free leads either through the representatives own means or by looking to a third party service that generates leads on behalf of brokers and agents.  However, many times the third party service’s free offer is for a trial period, so the broker needs to be aware of the terms of service.

An agent may find a free insurance lead from a variety of sources.  A service may offer either a fixed amount of leads during its trial period or it may offer a certain dollar amount of leads.  A broker may also want to consider the other services offered besides the leads when it considers what company it wants to choose. 

The broker should also consider how the company generates its leads.  Leads should be from people who have taken proactive measures and are looking for specific insurance products.  This way there is less chance of the agent getting a bad reputation or otherwise marring his or her image.

Scrubbing Free Mailing Lists Before Sending an Initial Mailer

Using free mailing lists is a great way to supplement your existing database of contacts.  However, the quality of these leads can be spotty, resulting in higher incidences of returned mail.  In order to ensure that each piece of mail your marketing department sends reaches its intended recipient, spend a few hours combing through a new list before adding it to your contact sheet.

First, import your list into a program that will enable you to reorganize based on category.  By alphabetizing each column, you can quickly identify addresses that have not been completely filled out. Look for duplicate names or addresses.  A new list should not only be checked against itself, but against the names that appear in your database already. Use your discretion in removing unlikely names or addresses.  When collecting this information, many list brokers offer incentives to those who submit their names or addresses for inclusion in promotional mailings. The money you will save by reducing your returned mail rate can help offset the cost of expanding your database in the future.

Using Direct Mailing Lists

Direct marketing mailing lists are compiled from a number of sources including official documents and consumer driven means like surveys.  They may also be shared among companies such as catalogue companies that share consumers with similar interests.  Businesses or other organizations can get access to this pool of consumers from companies that compile these lists according to various criteria.

However, such lists are used, it is best to attain them from sources such as surveys or other measures that mean consumers have been active in seeking whatever products or services a company has to offer.  This will assure a better return on investment for the mailing campaign.

The Benefits of Exclusive Health Insurance Leads

Exclusive health insurance leads can help a broker eliminate the need for cold calling or other methods of generating leads that may not bring as big a return on investment.  As with any leads in any industry, exclusive leads in the health industry cost more than shared leads.

Exclusive health insurance leads gives the agent or broker an edge in a highly competitive industry. Fresh leads help the broker close the deal with a client or consumer who is motivated and ready to buy the right policy. 

An exclusive lead can be as simple as redirecting a prospect that has filled out an online survey to a broker’s site as soon as the lead has finished the survey.  Live transfers also assure that the prospect is ready and willing to speak to someone about an offer and is more likely to commit to a policy.

How to Find Sales Leads

A tried and true method of generating leads is to make phone calls.  Local businesses especially may find it useful to find prospects in the phone book, particularly the yellow pages.  Decision makers usually make their information accessible and may not mind speaking to a knowledgeable representative who can effectively seek out their needs.

A representative should also be willing to ask for word of mouth advertising.  Clients or customers who are already happy with a product or service are a valuable source of promotion as they can spread the word to others who may also be interested in a company’s products and services. 

The Internet is also a great source for generating leads, particularly for companies looking to expand their operations beyond the local.  A business or organization can purchase or rent a mailing list from a third party service.  In many cases, these services will also help the business create and distribute a promotional campaign.

How to Generate Free Leads

An agent or broker can get his or her business on track with free leads. Networking with local sources is one way to get leads for free.  However, the Internet has also opened up opportunities for businesses or organizations to expand their client bases beyond the local should they so choose. 

For the business or agent just starting out generating leads locally is a great way to begin.  Local sources can include the phone book. Another source is the chamber of commerce.  Here representatives can make face to face connections with business owners, distribute business cards and collect them from others.

The Internet has other ways in which businesses can generate leads free. There are many services that allow a user to fill out a form to join a network so that he or she can get leads.  This type of service usually works as a referral service, so getting more leads will take more work and the user must be willing to make contributions to the network.

Getting a Free MLM Lead

Anyone already involved in an MLM network or program may qualify for free leads. However, services that may offer free leads may not allow the user to customize the leads it receives.  Instead, the leads may be selected randomly so a representative will need to know how to speak with a prospect in such a way as to draw out his or her needs and know how to fulfill them.

Another way to generate leads for free in the MLM industry is with home business advertising.  People with home businesses can place their ads in a directory. The benefit of using this type of directory is that it allows proactive prospects to choose the company. 

By far, one of the most popular forms of free lead generation is the referral program.  There are services that offer free leads when a representative makes a referral to their services and allows the representative to use them as personal prospects.

Getting a Free Mortgage Lead

An agent or broker may generate his or her own free mortgage lead through a variety of sources with a little creativity. Since the leads may need to be local, it is best to start with local sources.  It may be useful for a broker to develop a relationship with a real estate agent or two in order to get tips on mortgage properties and recommendations for his or her services.  This type of relationship may require the broker to split any profits, but in the end this symbiotic relationship will be more beneficial than it is costly.

If an agent or broker decides to go with a third party service, it may be able to sample the wares with a free lead.  This sample can allow the client to determine if the service’s leads are generated properly and if they are exclusive and/or fresh.

The Benefits of Fresh Leads

Getting a fresh lead means there is a better chance that the lead is exclusive, meaning there is little to no competition at least for a limited time on the lead. However, the lead may not be exclusive just because it is fresh.  This depends upon the policy of the service that sells the leads.

Live transfers is a way to receive a fresh lead.  In this case, the prospect has already spoken to a representative and has consented to speak with an authority concerning the specific service or product at hand.  The authority simply needs to know how to talk to the prospective client to determine his or her needs and make an offer the prospect cannot refuse.

A fresh lead in any industry will cost more than a shared lead or a cold lead.  However, the buyer needs to consider the potential for the return on investment when he or she considers what type of leads he or she needs.  This particular lead may turn out to have a better chance of closing therefore maximizing revenue.