What to Expect When Buying Leads

65,103,807 seniors across the US are currently enrolled in Medicare.

This is a huge pool of people who might need supplemental insurance. They are at the point in life to consider end-of-life insurance or long-term care insurance.

If you’re in insurance sales, you know this is the audience you need to get in front of. With such a large group, it might seem simple enough. Except often, it isn’t, and you need the leads to get you in front of people with insurance needs.

You might be considering buying leads to grow your business and client pipeline. Sounds simple, right? But many people get scammed by bad lead generation companies, or they spend too much time and money trying to build qualified lists on their own.

If you want to find quality leads successfully, here’s what you need to know. Read on to learn more about lead nurturing and how to score quality leads to grow your business.

What Does Buying Leads Mean?

When an insurance representative chooses to buy leads, they get a list of well-vetted potential customers. Typically, these are people who meet a set of criteria established by you as the buyer of the leads.

Based on their demographics, they will likely need or want the product you’re hoping to sell. These leads create the beginning of your sales pipeline.

You don’t have to waste time on potential customers who might never need or want your product. Instead, you already know the leads you’re buying meet certain criteria and could have an interest or need for your insurance product.

Benefits of Lead Generation

Lead generation gets you, as the salesperson, to the client much more quickly.

You don’t waste time on clients who might never have an interest in your product.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the specific benefits you should consider.

Efficient Start to Clients

Buying leads is more efficient when it comes to making a sale and getting clients into your sales pipeline.

Looking for leads on your own can be time-consuming and cumbersome. You may not have the database even to get started. When you get caught up in finding the leads themselves, you lose sight of the ultimate goal of making a sale.

Instead, when you start with the lead already in place, you can get right to the presentations and make the sale.

Cost-Effective

Buying leads is quite cost-effective for your business. You skip the steps of looking for the leads yourself, which are the steps where you aren’t making any money.

Sure, you are spending money. But ultimately, it should yield better results than if you were taking the time to look for the leads yourself.

Chasing down one completely cold lead is not an effective use of your resources.

Good Performance Measure

A quality lead generation source will provide you with a number of tools to measure how those leads turn out. Many programs come with dashboards that allow you to track your calls and success rate.

You can see how a lead is moving through a sales pipeline and, ultimately, whether or not the lead is good. Of course, a good lead eventually leads to a sale for you.

Having a way to measure the performance of the leads helps you in terms of your progress with customers. It also helps you to see the value in the leads you purchase.

Quality Conversion Rates

When you decide to buy leads, the goal is that you can more quickly get to a sale. Buying leads doesn’t guarantee you a sale.

It does, however, increase your chances of making the sale. Because the lead is already vetted as a customer who’s likely interested or needs your product, you increase your opportunity to make a sale.

It’s important to talk to the company that sells you leads about the conversion rate on their sales. If you want a good return on your investment, you want to know that a majority of the leads sold have the potential to convert into a sale.

Easy to Integrate With Other Marketing Strategies

It’s pretty hard to be in the insurance business without having insurance marketing in place. If you’re just starting in the industry, you’ll quickly recognize the need to market yourself so people know to come to you for their insurance needs.

When you decide to purchase leads, it should be set up in a way that makes it easy for you to integrate these leads into other marketing strategies you already have in place.

Quality Leads from the Database

Your lead generation source should have a large database that helps them get you the leads that convert.

Their database should be large enough that they can filter based on criteria like:

• Location
• Specific need
• Client demographics

If the lead company doesn’t start from a large database, you may not get the quality leads you need and should expect.

Types of Insurance Leads

When buying leads, you want a lead company with the database of potential customers you need. You can purchase many different types of leads, everything from Medicare to final expense insurance.

In the insurance field, there are many types of insurance you could narrow your leads down to. Let’s take a closer look at some of these types of leads.

Medicare

The federal government provides Medicare. Yet, most Medicare users also purchase supplemental insurance to cover expenses beyond Medicare coverage.

Final Expense

Many adults now recognize the high cost of funeral expenses and the burden it can place on their mourning families. For this reason, many adults, especially seniors, are opting to purchase final expense insurance.

This insurance helps to cover the costs associated with a funeral and burial.

Supplementals

Supplemental insurance coverage is also essential to many individuals and business owners. A supplemental plan can cover long-term illness or disability.

Annuities

Most adults dream of the day they can retire. They start saving money for the day when they can quit working and enjoy their free time.

Annuities can be an important financial tool to use in retirement planning.

Long-Term Care

Long-term care has become an important part of living to a senior age. The reality is that many seniors need additional care outside their homes in their advanced age, and it’s quite costly.

Long-term care insurance helps address the additional expenses associated with this care.

When Is It Smart to Buy Leads?

Since buying leads is an investment in your business, you might wonder when is the right time to buy a lead.

Anytime your sales pipeline is slow, seeking new, quality leads makes sense. If you’re new to the industry or starting on your own, it makes sense to start right away with a good source of leads.

You may have set some goals to grow your business, and purchasing leads is one way to make that happen.

Purchasing Leads: What to Consider

Anytime you invest in your business, you want it to provide a return on investment. The same is true when you purchase leads.

So, how do you decide who to buy leads from? Let’s take a closer look at what you should consider when getting ready to buy leads.

Cost and Budgeting for Your Business

Take the time to consider your budget and the cost of investing in buying leads. While the leads can turn into sales, you must be realistic about the timeline for them turning into income when you invest in the leads.

Experience in Lead Generation

There are many companies out there that can build a database and try to sell it. You want to work with the one who has knowledge and experience in your specific industry.

Then as you make decisions about your needs and what outcome goals you have, they can filter your database search to get you the leads that’ll be most effective for you and your business.

Quality of Leads Vs. Quantity

You might think you want as many leads as you can get your hands on. However, you must have the time and experience in lead nurturing to convert those leads into a sale.

You want to work with a lead generation company that provides you with quality leads that will convert. The quality of leads is more important than the quantity of leads.

Exclusivity of Leads

One thing that should be a deal breaker for you when buying leads is exclusivity. If you buy leads, you don’t want those same leads to be sold to one of your competitors simultaneously.

You need to ask if the leads you’re buying are exclusive to you. If the company isn’t providing exclusivity in leads, then they probably aren’t worth the investment.

Scrubbed and Verified

Another important consideration when buying leads is that the leads have been scrubbed and verified. You should hear your lead generation source use those words.

This means the leads have been carefully verified from the database and any bad leads or duplicates have been removed.

When your lead generation source uses the terms scrubbed and verified, it means you get a list of leads that can convert to a sale without wasting your important time on dead ends because dead ends and duplicates are removed.

Available Filtering

You want to ask about options for filtering when you’re buying leads. Depending on your business and your exact needs, the lead generation company should be able to apply filters that get you the specific leads you need.

So, if you sell insurance but want to know who needs Medicare supplemental insurance or final expense insurance, the filter can get the leads to those clients by using their filters in the database.

LeadStream

Some agents prefer to work directly with the lead generation programs with an option called LeadStream.

LeadStream allows an independent agent the opportunity to get leads based on the campaign they want or need by simply inputting some information into the portal.

So, if you sell insurance but want to know who needs Medicare supplemental insurance or final expense insurance, the filter can get the leads to those clients by using their filters in the database.

Creating a Cold Call Strategy

Buying leads means you have a potential client who will convert into a sale. But, you don’t yet have a relationship with this lead. If you want to convert the lead successfully, you need to have a proven and confident strategy for approaching the lead. 

Develop a cold call strategy for yourself and practice it. Figure out how you best connect with potential customers and utilize the strategy. Also, make sure you have a plan for how to make these potential leads become a part of all of your future marketing.

Agent Training Opportunities

Another consideration when deciding who to purchase leads from is the support provided to you.

If you’re new to the insurance industry, you may need some classes and opportunities to grow your skills.

Look for a lead generation company that also offers opportunities for you to gain additional insurance sales training.

Then you’ll have the best set of tools possible to take the leads provided and turn them into a sale down the road.

Buying Leads to Grow Your Pipeline

The insurance industry is competitive and challenging, especially if you’re just starting. Potential clients who don’t already have insurance might be reticent. Buying leads means you get potential clients who need your services and are the type who you can make the sales conversion with.

To learn more about our lead generation program and how it can help you and your insurance business, click here.