Agent Marketing
The Pros and Cons of Buying Internet Insurance Leads
By Jason Cunningham
Jan 21, 2008 - 8:18:09 AM

Every insurance agent should not buy insurance leads. For some agents, it would be a waste of money, depending on their ability to communicate with insurance prospects over the phone. On the other hand, some individuals have made $5,000 or more from an insurance lead, especially for life insurance or group health insurance leads.

In general, the average online lead generation program will offer you two options for buying insurance leads. Either you can pay for insurance leads on an individual basis, or there is a monthly charge for having your profile listed on the lead generation’s website. In most cases, if you pay a monthly charge, you will receive e-mails when an individual insurance prospect requests for you to contact him or her.

You should expect to pay $5.00 to $70.00 for an individual insurance lead. Some online generation programs are more affordable than others. Also, if the company has a policy of selling non-exclusive leads versus exclusive leads, then you will probably pay more for an exclusive insurance lead. Keep in mind, it is not uncommon for many lead generation programs to charge $25.00 to $70.00 for an exclusive lead.

On the other hand, what if you make an insurance sale from an insurance lead? You can subtract your profits from the expenses that were incurred from buying insurance leads. After a few months, if you are not turning a profit from the online lead generation program, you might consider spending your marketing dollars in another manner.

Even if the individual has requested information about life insurance or long term care insurance, there is no guarantee you will make a sale. Therefore, you have to be persistent to get strangers to come into your office for a fact finding appointment, for the purpose of insurance. The insurance prospect may ask you to call him or her back, in order to set an appointment time. Well, do not get discouraged if the prospect does not commit to an appointment on the first phone attempt. There could be a legitimate reason for the person’s apprehension. Maybe the person is currently caring for a loved one, has company coming from out of town, or needs to finish an important project at work. However, after three phone attempts, over the course of two to three weeks, you can probably give up on the insurance prospect.

There is another risk of buying internet insurance leads. You cannot monitor how many sites that an insurance prospect visits. This is a reason that some insurance agents prefer to purchase non-exclusive insurance leads. Why pay the exclusive price if you cannot be sure that the individual did not sign up at another website for the same information? When I was an office insurance agent, I occasionally came across the same lead on a few different websites.

Every insurance lead probably will not be a failure. It is not uncommon for some insurance agents to covert 10 to 15% of internet insurance leads into sales. If you have a better closing rate, then good for you! While you should expect the sale to be a normal commission amount, you can sometimes make a sale of $5,000 to $10,000 on a single insurance lead. In conclusion, buying internet insurance sales is not for every agent; however, for some, it is a great way to supplement their need for weekly appointments and can add to their yearly income.

Agent Insurance Leads