You cannot expect much else from an online insurance lead and you should not. For example, don’t expect that the prospect has been waiting by the phone to buy life insurance and is delighted as soon as they realize there’s an insurance agent on the phone. Life insurance leads, annuity leads, health insurance leads are all merely an indication of interest by the prospect, not a sure sign of a buyer. The prospect’s interest may range from “don’t bother me now” to motivated.  And it’s your job, as the expert in the market to determine the buyer’s need or desire, infuse them with interest and convert that interest to an appointment. Don’t expect that the insurance leads you buy to be ready-made sales—the outcome of an appointment depends on your skills and communication talents.

However, these comments are not meant to diminish the value of Internet life insurance leads or a life insurance lead service.  Compare what you get buying Internet life insurance leads to cold calling from the phone book.  The phone book lead is a total stranger who may have no interest whatsoever. Alternatively, insurance leads are a reflection of a prospect who went SEARCHING for life insurance information of their own volition. Insurance agents who use lead services are so far ahead of other agents who start from scratch and who won’t invest in their business to buy life leads. In fact, a new life agent can avoid washing out of the business as many do when they start their career by having a budget for insurance life leads, long term care leads or health insurance leads. No matter what type of leads the new agent buys, these leads help put any agent in appointments.  And the following is true: the more activity you have, the more results you get.

Success in insurance, life, long term care insurance, health or annuities always boils down to only two elements: quantity and quality. A service which provides exclusive life insurance leads and quality life insurance leads will solve your quantity problem.  It’s your motivation to get great sales training and practice your communication skills that will make gold out of life insurance leads.

Bookmark It

In other words, the average annuity agent only wants us to match him with prospects that have expressed interest in annuities.  Other prospects have expressed interest in financial planning, mutual funds, life insuarnce, etc. but the average annuity agent is not interested in these general prospects.

However, the RICH annuity agents DO have an interest in these prospects.  Here’s the logic of the rich annuity agent:

1. When people express interest in a product or service, it does not mean that they will buy that particular product or service.
 
2. It does however mean that the prospect is motivated to seek a solution–i.e. if they fill out a form on the Internet seeking information on retirement planning, at least this is a motivated, “take action” person.

The rich annuity agent wants to speak to any motivated viable prospect and has sufficient confidence that if an annuity will help the prospect achieve his goals, the agent will have a sale.

How many clients have you lost because you have failed to cultivate a general interest from a prospect desiring to take financial action?

Bookmark It

The following are some tips for outsourcing your annuity marketing direct mail campaign.

• Determine your approach.

You can find companies that handle the campaign from beginning to end.  This includes the creation of the pieces, strategy and the mailing.  However, some of these companies can be expensive and may be out of your budget.  If you feel the expense is worth it, ask your fellow agents for referrals to companies they’ve worked with.  Check the company’s other references, not just by what they say but by calling each contact and talking to them yourself.

• You can outsource each step of the direct mail campaign.

If a full-scale media production house is out of your budget, you can outsource the separate steps in the process to save money.  Typically, you need to find a professional who can do great graphics, and one who can write good copy.  Some professionals will offer to do both, but it’s often better to find one person for each element of the piece.  Be sure to outsource the copy first so that you can forward the finished text to your graphic designer.

But where do you find these professionals?  You can check you local yellow pages for advertising agencies, or you can look online using services like www.guru.com or www.elance.com.  These websites feature freelance professionals who will bid on your job, often charging less than the professionals you can find offline.  And with the power of the Internet, you may be in Texas and work with someone in California!

• Once your direct mail piece is completed, you can either mail it yourself or outsource this step as well.

If you already have a list of annuity leads, you can save yourself money by mailing the direct mail piece yourself.  First, you’ll need to have it printed, and there are a number of different discount printers online who can do this for a few hundred dollars or less.  Once you’ve received your printed pieces, you can sit down and spend an afternoon labeling, stamping and mailing out your direct mail campaign.

If you don’t yet have an annuity lead list, you can contract with a company that will not only mail the piece for you, but will send it to a list of qualified leads.  You can get a list and the piece mailed for one price!  This is a great way to get leads and send out your direct mail piece quickly and efficiently.

In addition, there are two things you should remember when outsourcing any component of your annuity marketing direct mail campaign.

1. Make sure you have everything in writing.  Most freelancers sign contracts that state they are independent contractors. These contracts protect you and them, by laying out every detail of the project timeline and deliverables so that there’s no misunderstanding during the process.  You can find one online, but if you can’t, ask your attorney to draft one for you.

2. Give the company/freelancers clear instructions.  Nothing is as frustrating as requesting a job and not having it done right.  Be responsive to their questions and communicate as clearly as possible.  If you aren’t as clear as possible with your instructions, it’s likely that the job won’t be done right!

Bookmark It

You meet a prospect, but he does not make an appointment. Or you do meet with him, but he decides
not to take action. So you put his contact information into your tickler for a call in 90 days. When you
call him in 90 days, you find out he has just invested $100,000 into an annuity that would have grossed
you $8,000. But he had forgotten about you. In fact, he says, “Geez, Joe, I would have made this
investment with you, but the guy at the bank caught me when I was rolling over a CD.”

To maximize the yield from your seminars, direct mail or any other marketing program, it’s critical
to drip on people you have met but who did not make an appointment or become a client. Eventually
they will. You have to be in front of them:
1. At the right time, and
2. With the right message

And if you fail to maintain contact, the above scenario will happen to you again and again. Money,
transactions, policies and commissions will continue to slip through your fingers.

“The very best money I have ever spent in my business is the insurance newsletter I obtain from your firm … it never fails to generate $15-20k of commissions each mailing.” B. Broich, WA

This is where most financial professionals fall down. They waste significant prospecting effort
meeting people, yet never bring these people to full boil. They waste time and energy heating the water,
yet fail to keep the flame burning. Their hot prospects cool off and disappear. Read on and see how the
right insurance newsletter converts these prospects to clients.

Drip Monthly

The right monthly insurance newsletter will help you turn prospects into clients. Why monthly? Because people have a lot of distractions in life and they see lots of offers and advertisements. After 30 days, they barely remember who you are. But by having your silent salesman (your insurance newsletter) show up in their mailbox every 30 days, you stay fresh on their mind.
If you’ve been sending a quarterly newsletter, save your money! After 3 months, they don’t remember who you are and when they receive your newsletter they think to themselves, “Who’s this guy?” and they toss it out.

If you do not keep in touch with clients and prospects, someone else will. Another financial professional will invite your clients to seminars and keep pounding them with their insurance newsletter, and your clients’ assets and prospects will drift elsewhere. The only efficient way to stay in front of your prospects and clients is with a monthly insurance newsletter.

“Just a note to let you know that in the short time that I have been using your newsletter I have picked up an additional $300,000 in assets under management.” T. Treacy, NY

Target Your Audience to Generate Sales

Sending just any newsletter WILL NOT do the job. You’ve seen what most professionals send—some boring junk about a change in the tax law, the latest economic report, statistics from the Fed, political commentary… BOOORING!!!!

The prospect cares about only one thing: “What’s in it for me?” They couldn’t care less about some economic prognostication or the change in the fed funds rate. They want to know, “How am I gonna make more
money?” Or in the case of seniors, they ask, “How can I best preserve my principal and obtain more income?”

Your insurance newsletter, targeted at the affluent 50+ audience, addresses their concerns and solutions regarding investing for income, investing for growth, mutual funds, annuities, long-term care, estate
planning, and tax minimization.

So you send an insurance newsletter that tells them point blank how they can make money or save it. Every article answers the question, “What’s in it for me?” As a result, the newsletter generates business for you because people call you to learn more; it’s not just some low-key public relations tool. It generates commissions and fees! In the next post, I’ll explain why they call you from this insurance newsletter.

See a sample of the Insurance Newsletter

Bookmark It

One way to show that you’re an expert in the financial field is by earning specific professional designations.  Think about it – when you’re looking for a new health care provider, would you trust anyone without the “MD” designation?  If you’re an annuity agent and you don’t have a professional designation, you may find yourself losing clients to agents with better credentials.  Just having your insurance license may not be enough to make a living selling annuities.

Some of the better known professional designations include:

• CFP (Certified Financial Planner)
• ChFC (Chartered Financial Consultant)
• MSFS (Master’s of Science in Financial Services).

Each of these designations has different requirements you must meet before you can begin using it.  The CFP designation is one of the most widely recognized in the industry, although you’ll need to take several courses and pass a board exam before you can use the credential.  The ChFC, on the other hand, requires some coursework, but no exam, while the MSFS credential comes from completing a two-year graduate level program.  All of these will make you a far more competent financial advisor and significantly impact your annuity sales.

In addition, there are many professional designations for annuity agents who focus specifically on selling to seniors.  Some states don’t allow annuity agents to use these designations – depending on the wording – so it’s important to check with your state board before you pursue them.  These designations include:

• CSS (Certified Senior Specialist)
• CSRS (Certified Elder Planning Specialist)
• CLTC (Certified in Long Term Care) – this professional specializes in planning for care in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

For more information on the specific requirements of each credential and the schools that offer the necessary training courses, visit www.brokerworldmag.com.  Depending on your schedule, you may be able to find courses can be taken either online or by correspondence.

At first, these courses may seem expensive – especially to someone just starting out in the annuity business.  But by earning a professional designation, you give yourself several advantages:

• You learn more about selling annuities and marketing annuities. The classes go beyond what you can learn on the job or in a basic college course.  For example, if you earn the CLTC designation, you’ll learn much more about long term care and nursing homes than you would just sitting behind your desk.

• If you want to market to a specific group like seniors, a credentialing program can help you learn more about how to tailor plans to them and their unique needs.

• Professional designations build trust with clients.  When a certain set of letters appears after your name, clients know you’ve taken the time to learn more about how to help them with their financial needs, and will reward you with increased business.

• Often when someone sees a designation after your name, they’ll ask you, “What does it mean?” This gives you a perfect opportunity to market your services to clients you never would have met otherwise.

If you sell annuities, compare earning professional designations to the steps an educator takes to advance in their career.  Most school principals begin as teachers with bachelor’s degrees.  Later on, they earn master’s degrees – usually in administration – to learn more about working as school principals.  As you progress in your career, you may find that you need the additional education and qualifications provided by a professional designation course to advance in the field of selling annuities.

Bookmark It

But how do you begin the process of understanding your annuity prospect?  You can’t really ask, flat out, “Tell me about your secret motivations.”  At best, your comfortable will feel uncomfortable and move on to another agent, while at worst, your meaning could be misconstrued, leaving you in an uncomfortable situation!  Fortunately, there are a few conclusions you can draw from the basic information your client provides as part of the initial consultation.  For example:

• How old is your annuity prospect?

The age of your client should be one of the key factors in determining how you market annuities to him or her.  Elderly clients have different concerns than young couples or families. For instance, they may not respond as strongly to the idea of their investment growing over time compared to the benefit of a guaranteed regular payout.  So if you stress the right benefit to the right age group, your annuity selling is more successful.

• Is he or she married, and if so, are there children in the family?

Parents typically have a vested interest in providing for their children’s future, whether through savings for college education or a sizable nest egg that will be their legacy once they’ve passed.  You can use this desire for stability and security to your advantage in the annuity sales process, with projections of future annuity value.  Such projections would have little impact on someone single and age 80.

In addition to this basic information, you need to pick up on the subtle clues that your annuity prospect is dropping throughout your meetings.  One great place to start is with the question, “Tell me about your financial history.”  Of course, all agents use this question to get a feel for the size of their clients’ wallets, but we’re going to extend it further to uncover some of the more hidden motivations.  Instead of just breezing through their responses, ask them to reflect on the financial decisions they’ve made. 

If, for example, your prospect lost $50,000 on a failed small business start-up, ask how they felt afterwards.  If your client exhibits fear at the thought of losing so much money, try to market annuities that feature guaranteed returns over time.  On the other hand, if your prospect expresses frustration over what that money could have been doing over time, he or she may be more susceptible to pitches that revolve around long-term gains or tax-deferred benefits.

Pay special attention to any specific statements – either yours or the prospects – that cause your client to become uncomfortable or emotional.  These statements are the key to discovering the hot-button issues that you can use to tailor your sales presentation and increase your annuity sales success.  Don’t think you can get away with repeating the same tired message over and over again – by learning to understand your annuity prospect and implementing a customized sales message, you’ll dramatically increase your annuity sales and make customers for life.

Bookmark It

1. You can target your advertising. Annuity agents get their leads from various sources – for example, you can target all new home buyers in your area with a direct mail piece that emphasizes annuities with guaranteed payments as a way to ensure they’ll always be able to make their mortgage payments, even if they’re unable to work. You can also target a certain income, age or area, depending on the type of annuity leads you desire.

2. Annuity direct mail campaigns are easy to measure.  Finding out how many people saw an ad in the newspaper or on television is nearly impossible to measure, but studies show that most people will look at a direct mail piece, even if they later throw it away.  Even this single look-through is enough to fix the image is in their minds.  In addition, you can measure response of the piece by including a coupon or an offer for a free gift if they make an appointment with you.  In general, the response rate for direct mail is about one percent – not bad for most forms of advertising and a staple of annuity marketing.

3. You can be creative with direct mail.  You can incorporate colorful, eye-catching graphics into your piece, or send it in an envelope to stand out from the many direct mail postcards floating around out there.  You can put together an educational newsletter that offers prospects quality information in addition to your annuity sales message.  Best of all, you can incorporate different messages into each piece, and send them sequentially as part of a targeted drip marketing campaign.

4. While annuity direct mail may seem expensive up front, it’s relatively high return on investment means that the cost is actually low compared to other forms of advertising, like TV or radio ads.

When planning direct mail for your annuity marketing campaign, you should consider several factors:

• It’s always best to use a professional copywriter and/or graphic designer to create your direct mail pieces.  You want to put your best foot forward, so include their fees in your direct mail budget.

• Make sure your message is clear on your direct mail piece.  Many people don’t understand what annuities are, and because you’re licensed to sell insurance, they may think of an annuity as life insurance.  Be very specific about your product’s benefits.  A jazzy piece will do you no good if you’re getting calls from people who want something other than what you offer.

• Save money by using bulk mail. All you need to do to take advantage of these discounted rates is get a free permit from the post office that allows you to use bulk rates.

• Consider using a dip annuity marketing campaign, where you send targeted direct mail pieces during certain intervals.  For example, you might send out different pieces at an interval of one month each.  Each piece should look different and should focus on a different aspect of your sales message.  Because most consumers have to see a message seven to ten times before they actually make a decision, this will keep your name in front of potential customers until they’re ready to buy.

Bookmark It

Today, corporations and sales executives spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads that are designed to be humorous and memorable.  However, while these messages may provide a brief burst in market recognition, they don’t always measure up in terms of sales conversions.  Do you remember the sock puppet dog that was the mascot of dot-com bust Pets.com?  Even though people around the world could correctly identify which company the puppet represented, it didn’t result in more dollars coming in to the company.

What people really crave is information – not catchy jingles or memorable mascots.  If you give them good information in your sales message, you’ll have them knocking down your door with more business than you can handle.  But what qualifies as good information?  In general, it should be both concise and specific, demonstrating your annuity’s benefits without being bogged down by obvious sales messages.  The specific type of information you should provide depends on which marketing method you’re using.

• Direct Mail

With annuity direct mail, you have a limited amount of time to capture a prospect’s attention, so your information needs to be short, sweet and to the point.  Come up with three to four single sentences that describe your annuity’s strongest benefits.  For example, consider something like “Earn a guaranteed return of 4.5% on your investment, while the stock market tanks.”  If you want success with annuity marketing and annuity sales, you must immediately answer the prospect’s question “what’s in it for me.” 

• Seminars

When you’re hosting an annuity seminar, keep in mind that people have shown up for the information you’ll provide – not to hear an hour-long sales presentation.  Speak openly and honestly about the benefits of annuities, not annuities.  In other words, your presentation must be about safety, tax savings, savings on social security tax, lifetime income.  Sell the benefits, not the product. Be that guy that tells it like it is, and be refreshing with your honesty and candor.  Even if you turn off some prospects because annuities aren’t the best fit for them, you’ll impress other attendees with your honesty and likely convert more of them into customers than you would rattling off standard sales copy.

The truth is that people can smell an advertising pitch from a mile away, and are more likely than ever to simply ignore it.  Don’t believe me?  Studies have shown that Internet users don’t even notice banner ads anymore because they’vebecome so attuned to subconsciously detecting and disregarding advertisements.  In this advertising-happy climate, the one thing people long for more than anything is good, solid information.  If you’re the one that fills this need, you’ll find yourself overrun with new customers and clients, ready to give you their money.

Bookmark It

The good news is that advertising isn’t the only way to generate leads – you just have to be willing to think outside the box to generate a full compliment of annuity leads.  The following are just a few innovative ways to generate annuity leads to get you started:

• Networking

Networking is the new buzz-word in marketing, but many people don’t understand how easy it is. Networking is more than just joining the local chamber of commerce and attending their after-hours business events.  Every organization, club and group you are a member of gives you an opportunity to meet new people and share what you do for a living.  You never know who is in the market for an annuity – some of your best clients could come from people you meet in your weekly pick-up basket ball game!  Joining civic groups, sitting on the boards of nonprofits or even just talking to people while you workout at your gym or shop for your groceries are great ways to network.  When asked what you do, don;t say “I sell annuities.”  State it in terms of their benefit, “I help people generate a retirement income they cannot outlive.”

• Offer to speak at networking events

Don’t just join your local chamber of commerce or civic group – offer to speak at their networking events.  The organizers of these events are always looking for people who are willing to get up and talk, and they can be a great way to get your name out to a targeted group of people.  Try to tailor your presentation to the group you’re speaking to.  If you’re speaking to a group of business people, talk about how guaranteed payments from an annuity can help protect them if they experience a slow down or go out of business.  Just be sure your content is informative, and not sales-oriented in nature – nothing will get you kicked out of these groups faster than if you get up and try to sell them something!

• Trade shows

You don’t have to buy an expensive booth to make trade shows work for you, although having a booth is well worth it (e.g. at an RV show or other event that attracts older investors).  Go to a trade show and walk around.  Present your information to those who have booths and to those who are just walking around the facility.  Even small cities have a few trade shows each year, filled with hundreds of prospects you can target.  If you do get a booth, make sure you use it properly.  Have a neat, well-designed display and don’t ever leave your booth unattended – you may miss a hot prospect!

• Ask your satisfied clients for referrals

Word of mouth is a great way to generate annuity leads.  After all, who better to advertise your business than a satisfied customer?  Consider offering incentives like a $50 gift certificate for each referral that buys an annuity or donation to their favorite charity.

When looking for annuity leads, don’t be afraid to try new things.  If you’re in sales or marketing, you always have to be on the outlook for new prospects to keep growing your business.  Think outside of the box and keep your business cards on hand at all times – you never know when you’ll come across someone who’s the right prospect.

Bookmark It

Annuity commissions vary greatly, but as a broker or agent, you may want to find the highest commissions possible.  After all, you have a family to feed, a retirement to plan and bills to pay!  Earning high commissions depends on two factors – finding annuities to market that offer high commissions to agents and brokers, and gathering annuity leads with large assets that can be rolled into annuities.  If it seems as if these high-paying annuity leads aren’t coming your way, read on.  The high commission annuities are out there – you just have to find them.

• Make sure you have a large number of leads.

How can you earn high commissions if you have no one to sell to?  Advertising will bring you leads, but you can’t rely on advertising alone to bring you new clients.  You have to find some leads on your own.  You can buy leads from a company or partner with another business person, such as a mortgage broker, to share leads.  You can also generate leads from personal connections.  Anyone you know – former classmates, friends, civic clubs – may be interested in purchasing an annuity, or may know of someone else that could be a potential client.
 
• Within this large batch of leads, you’ll be able to identify potential leads that will bring in higher commissions.

Determining which leads are best requires you to “qualify the lead.”  This includes a fair bit of research.  Find out all you can about the lead, in terms of assets, mortgage information, the names of agents they use.  Do they have life insurance policies, IRA’s, 401K plans or mutual funds that can be converted into an annuity?  The larger the size of the prospect’s assets, the higher your commission will be.

• Sell annuities that have long shelf lives.

The longer the annuity surrender period, the higher your commission.  This makes sense – the longer the money is in the annuity, the more the insurance company will earn, consequently, the higher the commission they can offer you to sell a particular annuity.

• Market index annuities

These annuities usually bring higher commissions – at least eight percent in most cases.  Because of the moving parts of an index annuity, an insurance company can easily “bury” more profit in the contract as it is virtually impossible for the agent or the annuity buyer to determine what the buyer might earn, so the insurance companies may offer a higher commission to agents who can move them.  However, if a commission seems too high to you, make sure to read the terms carefully to be sure there’s nothing fishy about the annuity, as explained in the first paragraph.

When looking for high commission annuities to sell, remember your ethics.  One of the biggest criticisms of annuities is that sales people force their clients to purchase annuities they don’t need in order to draw a bigger commission.  The high commission leads are out there, and you don’t have to be unethical to find them.  Keep in mind that because of a small number of unethical annuity agents, regulation and scrutiny is increasing.  Make sure you abide by these regulations as you seek out these high commission annuities.

In the long run, it may pay to sell annuities that pay less generous commission, pay a higher yield to the client and gain you more referrals and more clients.

Bookmark It