How do I pick a good lead vendor?

Thanks for your response Ethan! Just to let you know I have been using the mojo dialer for a few months and its great. I wish there was just one program for everything but that's wishful thinking! My problem now is finding a good lead vendor. I started out with insuranceleads.com and it was okay and then for about a month everything started unraveling (i.e., my contact ration went from about 40% to 20%, a lot of incentive leads, people who never requested information, etc.) I have also used netquote and a couple of others and I have found that with shared leads price doesn't mean better quality. This is a journey I guess.

Esteban

Answer: I built up my leads database with Netquotes. You can get hosed pretty bad with them too. I would suggest before trying any lead vendor to go to their site and put your information in there with your phone number and see how many agents contact you. If you mess around with zip codes that a lead vendor might use you might find that you are only sharing with one other agent instead of 10. Also pay attention to how quickly agents call you so that you can determine if you are competing against a call center or a good ole' agent. I prefer competing against agents because they don't have a predictive dialer half the time. I would also work with MOJO to have your leads directly imported into their system. They can show you how to do this.


Ethan

When is a good time to call leads?

Hello Ethan,


I love your blog, keep up the good work. I have two questions for you. I am a new agent and I just started buying leads. So as not to wait around all day for leads when is usually a good time that leads start coming in or is it sporadic throughout the day? Also, do you do a lot of webinars when selling insurance online? It seems that some of the "experts" suggest you cannot sell successfully without selling via webinars. What are your thoughts. Thanks.

--
Cordially,
Esteban

Dear Esteban,

I don't think there is a perfect time to turn leads on and off. I think a lot of it depends on your situation and how many leads you are getting. If I were getting a few leads I would have them go to a smart phone or something and call them as soon as they come in if you are not in front of a computer all day long. I you have more than 10 leads a day coming in I would use an autodialer like MOJO or a call center like LEADPOD to make calls for you. These two services can help you make a much better return on your investment.

Lastly.........Don't let your business run you. You are the business owner and you need to run the business. If you aren't happy because you aren't doing what you love you will never be able to sell very much. I like to allocate so many hours a week prospecting, doing customer service, outside prospecting, and so forth. You have to figure out a formula that makes you happy. I would keep a time budget and keep track how your week is going to be divided up. Also there is nothing wrong with doing a business venturem like selling health insurance, part time until it out earns your other job. My rule of thumb has always been to not bite off more than I can chew!

Stellar Aged Leads

Hi Ethan,

I found your blog and recorded webinar when I was researching stellar prospects. I am a bit leery of stellar prospects because I cannot find anything about them, good or bad on Google, the insurance forums or even the BBB. Also the emails I get from them are from a name at a totally different insurance company. I am worried about their legitimacy. But then again they are connected with MOJO which makes me feel a bit better. Since you don’t buy leads how are you connected with them? Is this where you got the original 5000 leads?

Answer: Dear Abby,

I don't know very much about Stellar Prospects. I met the owner at a Norvax convention last year and we joined up to do a training webinar. The owner was very nice to me and there was a lot of people on the call. He doesn't appear to be a person that I wouldn't trust. Since the webinar that I did with him there has been no communication. I really don't do those types of webinars anymore for Stellar or anyone. They end up eating away at my time and I never get compensated more than selling insurance policies.



I want to buy aged leads. I use another source but these prices are good for life. If I buy leads, how do I get them into my account (I use Aliss). Then how would I get them to MOJO and use them with a dialer and my own crm? Do I have to load them manually to Aliss and then again into MOJO? Then do I use the auto dialer, and when I get an answer, hurry up and search in Aliss for the client? I need to have the leads in Aliss since that is my quoter.

Answer: I wouldn't switch your clients from Aliss to Mojo simply because MOJO is an autodialer and not a quoting software. With Aliss there should be a function that allows you to export contacts into a .csv file and you can easily import them into MOJO. I like to "toggle" between MOJO and my quoting software by holding down "alt" and "tab" at the same time. I wish there was one program that would do "everything" for you but it is still in development with me for a while. I will let you know when it comes out.



Lastly, how early is too early to make calls. I am in the est time zone. I work numerous states but mornings are good now that the kids are back in school. I have always started no earlier than 10 a.m. because I don’t want to annoy people. How early is too early? And how early are people in the mood to buy? Thank you for your time and answers. Sincerely, Abby


Answer: I think 8am in a prospects' time zone is the perfect time to call. In addition to that, I would call at noon and 6pm. More than 3 times a day can get pretty annoying but you have to be aggressive with these people otherwise they will go somewhere else. Do yourself a favor and don't leave a message. You will get a better response from people calling you back if you don't leave a message.

Where do I get more General Agent help?

Ethan,

Love your webinars. I listened to a couple of them. They've been very helpful. Your info was sent to me by Sue from Indiana who has been communicating w/you as of late. Both she & I got in to this business through the Pajama Man (PJM). We both have become somewhat discouraged. I am in the same situation as she's in. I'm running dry in funds and have been hesitant to jump in buy leads & take calls. I feel I need to put resumes out & get a night job until I get up & rolling in this business, but then I feel I won't have the time to do this business diligently. Catch 22, huh?

I'm really emailing to ask if you think I should leave my general agent who's of little value to me to go with AIO. They seem to help you get off the ground running. I've been speaking with a Gary Blanche from AIO who has been trying to recruit me. I'd have to transfer my carrier appointments to AIO. I feel that listening to live calls & their coaching (if they are being truthful) will help me get adjusted.

Are you still with AIO?

Thanks,
William

Dear William,

I am sorry to find out that you are having a hard time in the industry. I know what it is like to be recruited and not helped. It has happened to me several times. I guess you could say I am loyal to my family and not as much to organizations. I do use American Insurance Organization for my insurance products. I don't use them for all insurance carriers because they can't appoint me with all carriers.

I don't know Gary Blanche very well but I do know that he has received numerous awards for recruiting. I was in the Bahamas 2 weeks ago where he received an award for the best "recruiter" of 2009. That being said..........I cannot assure you that he is going to take better care of you than your last recruiter simply because I don't know much about you or your work ethic. The organization of AIO is a good solid one but I am sure that there are a lot of people complaining of not getting enough help from their sponsors. I have had agents that I have spent a lot of time working and training in the past that have said that I don't help them enough and I was spending 10-15 hours a week coaching them.

When I recommend a product, service, or person I have always used them. I never make a recommendation without trying it out for myself. That is why I can't tell you whether Gary Blanche is going to turn your business around for you. I hope this helps!

Do you do one on one sales calls?

Do you still have personal one on one calls for sale, because I would like to pick your brain on approaches for aged internet leads?.


Corey

Dear Corey,

I don't do one on one sales calls with insurance agents anymore. I have been training agents for years and unfortunately I have never been able to figure out a way to make more money doing that than by just selling insurance. Because of that, lots of insurance General Agents have come to me for enhancing their sales skills and strategies for their agents knowing that I won't "steal" anyone from them. I am sorry I don't do this anymore. I do have plans to put some sales calls on YouTube though. I am just not sure when that will happen. This whole blog is really just a service that I offer to agents so that insurance producers can become effecient in selling insurance without having to make some of the same mistakes I made when I first started the industry.

Do you have Youtube videos on how to enter information into Quickbooks?

Ethan, Did you do the YouTubes on using Quickbooks? Are you saying that you can build a CRM by integrating it with Outlook? Where can I get more info on all of this?
Jim A. (Texas)

Dear Jim,


If you use Outlook, it automatically syncronizes the information from Quickbooks to Outlook or from Outlook to Quickbooks. I am using my own CRM now that I built because I tried to get Outlook on my new computer and had problems get anyone from Microsoft to help me configure Outlook the way that I wanted with the new edition. After spending literally 2 weeks on this project I gave up and have revamped my own database that I built and it can export and import directly into Quickbooks right now. I do have the information on how to enter information into Quickbooks available but not on Youtube yet. I have been having technical difficulties adding this information to the blog. Hopefully it will be up within the next two weeks.

The CRM system that I have will eventually be available to the public for sale but I am still about 6-12 months from that. I use Quickbooks for all of my customer payment information and financials. I am using my own CRM for a toll free number, auto responders, CRM, and telephone broadcasting. I will let everyone know when I have my own CRM that will be available for the public.

Who do you use to help you make business decisions?

I gave up trying to make up decisons about my business by myself years ago. It is just too hard to become proficient in one line of work and then be super good at another. We do have to trust and rely on different specialists to help us in any business venture.

During the past 12 months I have been using the financial firm of Russon and Company for all of my financial decisions. Randy Russon, the owner of Russon-Company, has spent quite a bit of time interviewing me about my health insurance business. He has interviewed me about the strategies of my business model as well as asking what has worked well and what hasn't worked very well.

Randys' poignant questions and positive attitude have helped me feel comfortable in working with him.

Last year because of the help of Randy Russon, he helped me cut over $50,000 of expenses and helped me implement new strategies that increased my business revenue.

Even though my wife is a CPA and helps me quite a bit with accounting needs, she doesn't have the background of analyzing financials that Randy Russon has. Becuase of that we have outsourced most of the financial analyzing to Randy Russon.

This past year I had an insurance agent, at a conference that I spoke at, ask me how much money should I spend in leads? I had no clue what to tell him because when I asked him about his revenue, expenses, and profit margins he had no clue what I was talking about. I referred him to Randy Russon in hopes that Randy would help him put all of the information into Quickbooks and help make recommendations for him. At the minimum I recommend that each business owner meet with someone like Russon-Company once a quarter to get help paying your quarterly taxes. It also helps you to get another persons' perspective on your business.

I have referred quite a number of people to Russon Company and will continue recommend his name for small business owners. His website is www.Russon-Company.com and his phone number is 801-226-9075.