Agent Marketing
Why Insurance Prospecting is More than Spending Money?
By Jason Cunningham
Apr 8, 2009 - 4:07:45 PM

While some insurance agents believe they require a huge marketing budget for success, in most cases, these agents are mistaken. Without specific goals or failure to follow up on generated leads, most insurance agents will not match or exceed their return on investment.

Follow Up on Your Leads

Many insurance agents have wonderful marketing strategies. In fact, here is a list of marketing strategies that various agents use: direct mailings, internet insurance leads, cold calling small business owners, insurance seminars, etc. Any of these marketing strategies may work for you. However, if you do not have a plan to follow up with prospective insurance leads, you might realize a financial loss, regardless of your marketing efforts and costs.

On the other hand, some insurance agents have no idea how to market. These agents may spend more than a $1,000 per month on advertising, but they cannot explain their target markets. Some of these agents change their marketing strategy every time someone else in the office gets a big insurance commission. Trust me; this sort of agent does exist in America. I met a few of them while working in the insurance business.

In order to achieve success in insurance sales, you need to start with a marketing plan. If you do not have a marketing plan, then you must start one, today. The marketing plan ought to spell out your daily activities such as cold calling, canvassing, and seminars. Also, you will need to examine several target markets. These target markets must be specific, and you must generate a specific income from your prospecting efforts. Otherwise, you will not remain in the insurance business for long.

Unfortunately, writing the marketing plan is just the beginning. You must follow your marketing plan. Therefore, do not start spending money on other marketing activities without first consulting your marketing plan. What if this new marketing investment does not fit into your marketing plan? Also, do your lead sources have a proven track record of success for those prospecting your target markets? If you cannot answer these questions, then you probably need to save your money until you do more research.

Once you start creating insurance leads, you must strive to set appointments today with these individuals within a week or two. You cannot wait more than 48 hours to call an insurance prospect. If you wait, the insurance prospect may call other insurance agents. Additionally, people have a tendency to cancel appointments with insurance agents that are scheduled more than two weeks in advance, so schedule your appointments closer to today’s date as opposed to two weeks from now. As an extra tip, you need to call the insurance prospect to confirm the appointment within 48 hours of your scheduled time. People have a tendency to forget insurance appointments. When you finally meet the prospective client, your goals must include the following: solve the prospect’s problem, make the insurance sale and ask for referrals. If you can complete all three goals, then you deserve to be congratulated. Your insurance sales manager will be happy if you achieve three or four insurance sales each week.

Analysis

Insurance prospecting is hard work. Spending money is usually not enough effort to make insurance sales. You must follow a marketing plan, set appointments, and make sales after meeting insurance prospects; otherwise, your success as an insurance agent may be in jeopardy.