Following up insurance leads is not rocket science, but there is a certain approach that works best when checking back with potential customers.
What do you do with prospects when you were only able to leave a message on an answering machine? You have not spoken to them personally, so what kind of approach would work to stay connected with them? Better yet is the question: Did you leave a message? You may or may not be surprised to learn that many insurance agents in the process of calling leads do not leave a message when they encounter an answering service.
Sometimes there may be a good reason for not leaving a message, say for instance the agent has a bad cold or was interrupted by another call or staff member. However, if you do not leave a message, it is the same thing as not having made the call in the first place. No gain. Waste of time. No follow up. No sale. No connection. Not a particularly good use of dialing time either.
Here’s a good rule of thumb for those pesky answering machines: always, always leave a message no matter how much you may not like talking to a machine. The person obviously wants to hear from you or they would not have a machine on the line to capture calls in the first place. Hang ups are the most annoying thing in the world next to telemarketers. No, you are not a telemarketer if you are calling leads. Leads are individuals who asked for someone to call them about insurance.
Listen to the message. Leave your name and contact numbers. Mention you have the information they wanted and you would like to find out if there is anything else you may help them with while discussing their insurance needs. Do not leave your website url because you want to speak to them, not send them to a website. Sending them to a website means you do not know what they want or need. You can only uncover that information by speaking to them directly.
Now that you have left a message, what’s next for follow up?
If you have their email information, send them an email letting them know you are trying to call them. Let them know you would be happy to help them with their insurance needs and would be pleased to meet with them at their convenience. Yes, it’s true. There are times this approach backfires. That is something that comes with the job.
Just do the best you can with the leads you purchased from an reputable online lead generation company, one that provides quality leads with a high rate of conversion. A significant portion of those types of leads are going to convert either when you first make contact, or later down the road, provided you make certain to stay in touch.
What’s the big secret to sales success?
The big secret to sales success is maintain a relationship with your leads and follow up, follow up and follow up. It’s no mystery that diligence wins the day and the sale.
