Insider Tips for Buying Leads for Insurance Agents

By Haines|Published On: August 22, 2018|

Leads are the life blood of our businesses, and a huge indicator of how far we can go. But while any organization can grow and cultivate leads over time, dry spells and slow periods do happen.

Sometimes the best way to get back in the game is to buy some fresh leads. But how can you be sure you’re getting good information? How can you be certain the leads you’re paying for will be just as profitable as the leads you’ve used in the past?

We’re going to give you three great insider tips on getting the most bang for your buck.

Choose Lead Generators, Not Lead Aggregators

When you’re buying leads, you want to make sure the company you’re working with is a good one. Good companies are lead generators. They specialize in generating and curating new leads in-house. They also generate their leads from multiple sources, both traditional and online.

Unfortunately, not all lead companies do this. Some companies would rather be aggregators – stockpiling dated leads and leads of unknown origin, so they can sell them over and over again.

If you’re not sure which type of company you’re dealing with, ask your sales rep to show you where their leads come from. Generators will be happy to give you that information. Aggregators will just give you the run around, while pressuring you to buy.

Make Sure You’re Buying the Right Kind of Leads

Even when you find a reputable company, some leads are going to perform better than others. Sometimes companies offer shared leads rather than exclusive leads.

This means you might end up calling someone who already has three offers on the table. Sometimes you’ll get a lead who submitted their name and email address to win a free car – and overlooked the fine print that told them what else their info would be used for.

Depending on your focus, leads with minimal or divided interest might not be worth your agents’ time. So how can you be certain of what you’re buying?

Before you buy a block of leads, learn as much about each of them as you can. Ask how long the leads have been looking for insurance. Ask if they were incentivized to fill out a lead form, and how. And learn the history of each lead with the company. How many other agents have contacted this person? Who else has looked into this customer’s information?

Spread Out Your Investment

If you’ve ever searched for “buying insurance leads” on Google, you’ve seen page after page of ads telling you that buying traffic is better than buying leads. Or that buying social media coverage is better than buying leads. Or that literally anything else is less risky than buying leads.

There’s no such thing as a ‘perfect lead’. There will always be risk when it comes to leads – bought or cultivated. The only thing you can control is which source you use and how much you spend.

This is why so many experts recommend diversifying your lead sources. When you buy smaller lead packages from multiple companies, you can vary the type of leads you get, which leads to better overall results.

Set a price point that’s about a third of your overall leads budget. Then tell each company’s sales reps that you won’t purchase any package above that price point. If the package works out – great! But if it doesn’t, you’ll have the capital to try again.

Finding qualified leads and gets harder every year. So we created this free guide, just for you.