Lead Nurturing Proves Valuable

September 21, 2009

Top Insurance Agencies Sell 26% of Policies Due to Follow-Up Using X-Dates Shows New Data

An analysis of over 180 insurance agencies using Leads360’s lead management and lead nurturing software provides decisive evidence that following up on leads using X-dates accounts for 26% of all insurance policies sold.

Top performing insurance agencies in the industry today are closing an average of 15% of new sales leads they buy or generate through various marketing channels. But what do these top agencies do with the other 85% of sales leads they are unable to close? They do not give up and let these leads fall into the ether, as lower performing agencies do.

A new analysis recently conducted by Leads360 concluded that on average high performing insurance agencies gained 26% of new business by nurturing prospects near their policy renewal dates. Successful agencies leveraged these second, third, or fourth chances to successfully sell more policies without additional investment.

Insurance is a commodity every person will purchase throughout their lifetime. With insurance policies renewing every 6-12 months, there’s a always opportunity to win-back business you may have initially lost. There are many reasons why a consumer would change their insurance policy including changes in rates or coverage, poor customer service experiences, changes in personal financial situations, or advertizing from carriers. However, if you are not carefully tracking when these x-dates approach, you are simply turning your back on qualified opportunities by not contacting these consumers while they are in the process of looking for a new insurance policy. That is why having a lead nurturing process in place is key to systematically follow-up with x-dates.

Many consumers frequently change insurance carriers and an even higher percentage of consumers at least compare carriers on the internet. Added together, these a vast majority of consumers are actively shopping for insurance around their policy renewal or x-date. It is critical for any agency to use the right tools to ensure that these consumers receive timely and relevant insurance marketing from you and your agents. With the average agency closing around 10% of new insurance sales leads, this leaves even a larger pool of leads being lost – and never to be found again.

The problem most agencies face when losing a deal to competition is they do not have a sales lead management system to notate the x-date, automatically market to prospects around this date, and prompt agents to follow up. Without knowing this critical piece of information and without the right lead management solution, it makes it virtually impossible to market and communicate to such a significant number of leads.

The most successful companies leverage a simple process to win-back these list deals:

1. Track the X-date for every lead
2. Send scheduled emails leading into the X-date to remain front-of-mind
3. Follow-up each email with a call to maximize the success of your email communications

Having a lead management system and following such a process will help the average agency sell at least 33% more insurance policies, without buying additional sales leads.

About Leads360

Leads360 is the market and technology leader in Web-based sales lead management solutions. The company enables buyers and sellers of consumer Internet leads to achieve unparalleled return on investment. Clients can realize maximum lead value through purpose-built technology, success-driven training, a highly responsive support team and superior intelligence surrounding lead performance. Leads360 currently manages more than 20,000,000 leads and serves over 4000 clients in the most competitive business-to-consumer industries. For more information, visit www.leads360.com

Was this article valuable?

Here are more articles you may enjoy.