Leads obtained from online sources are becoming more and more popular in the insurance agency. As more customers go online to find out about their insurance options, instead of calling around to a number of different local agents, the need to pick up leads online gets stronger. However, not all agents know how to make use of these leads, and many people don’t work on them to their full potential. If you want to use car insurance leads developed online, you’ll have to know what to do with them afterwards.
Online car insurance leads aren’t like leads from anywhere else. You have to use a different sales strategy to pursue them. Most Internet leads are better qualified than other types. That’s because the prospect who originated the lead has already shown themselves to be more proactive than many other customers. Unlike a person who’s received a telemarketing call or responded to a direct mailing, this customer has initiated contact (this is not counting purchased leads, which may not have done so). Many Internet leads opened a search engine to start their car insurance search, and one way or another, they came to you. Here are a few tips on how to approach leads obtained online to get the most out of them.
First, don’t try to pick out the best leads. After all, all of these people wanted to find out more about car insurance from you. Get in contact with all your online car insurance leads – you need to get in touch with several per day for the best results. Remember, you can’t know which leads are the best until you talk to them. Don’t delete a lead until you find out more about it. While all leads will never work out, you’ll be surprised at the number of people who are interested when you contact them.
Contact is important. You have to be proactive in reaching your prospect. Remember to respect requests for time frames, because no one wants to interrupted while they’re sleeping or at dinner. However, beyond that, don’t let that lead sit and wait. Get in touch with him or her right away. Make a phone call, send a personalized email introducing yourself, or even send a letter on your company letterhead. Just make sure it’s personal and that you include some information you know about the prospect, so as not to seem like a generic sales call. Keep trying until you get in touch with your lead, even at unusual times, unless you expect them to be inconvenient and bothersome for the potential customer.
You’ll need to be willing to listen to what your lead has to say. While it’s smart to ask questions, you need to spend a lot of your time listening to them, and don’t rely just on what’s been put in the lead. Find out a potential customer’s problems and see how to solve them. They may be real, or they may be based on misconceptions the customer has about car insurance and its costs. Be willing to be creative and flexible in order to offer solutions to any client, and you’ll be surprised at how well it turns out. Remember that education comes first, and selling is secondary. You need to communicate the advantages of working with you without making the contact all about you. At all times, respect the customer’s wishes.
However, unless you’re asked not to make contact again, persistence is worth it. Be polite at all times, and don’t assume that just because you made contact you’ll get the sale, but don’t give up, either. First contacts rarely lead to sales for anyone’s car insurance leads. Be assertive and show your potential customers why they should become your client and stick with you. Remember to add these leads to your newsletter mailing lists and follow up with them again later – even if they didn’t become clients. After all, people change their mind on a regular basis. By treating your online leads with care, you’ll have a much better chance of converting them to clients.