Growing your insurance agency and maximizing your compensation on new business commissions + future renewals + bonuses by utilizing various lead sources is important.

But, where do you begin?

We recommend that you start with what you already have.

• Win-backs (writing business for past customers who come back) is one of our favorite lists to attack. Most customers didn’t leave because of a negative claim or service experience, they left to save money on their premiums. We love win-backs because when they leave they typically take everything, but when we win them back they bring everything. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side for long… As your competitors increase rates and things change you have a great chance of winning them back into your agency. These are powerful FREE leads that must be a part of your marketing and leads program.

• Re-quotes are our next favorite FREE lead source. Sure, you may have paid money for the lead initially but now that you have all of their data and can nurture them over months and years you will have a substantially higher return on investment as you stay on the prospect over time. We have a phrase that we use constantly at CWC – persistence pays! Have a solid follow-up plan and process to nurture your quoted prospects and watch as you and your team win more and more of them over time.

• Cross-sells are an ideal lead source that should always be in focus. Getting your staff to generate sales from inbound service interactions and from outbound policy reviews is crucial. Your staff must understand something… This is a sales organization. Something that we teach your team in CWC is “service is sales, sales is service.” How can we truly “serve” our customers if we haven’t “sold” them. Our job is pretty simple to explain – We must put ourselves in position to help our customers when they need us. How can we do that if we do not have everything at our agency? From what they drive to where they live, liability, life insurance, their toys, and more… We love cross-sells because these customers already trust us and do business with our agency. We simply need to take the relationship further and make sure that we are their insurance agency (not just one of them). Let’s make sure your staff are working these consistently and especially with inbound customer interactions. That is a wonderful FREE lead source that can help you improve not just production but also retention and overall profitability.

• Referrals from Customers and Centers of Influence (mortgage loan officers and processors, realtors, apartment complex managers, etc) are the highest closing rate leads but so many agencies are consistent at generating them. We teach a wonderful talk-path on how to generate more referrals and introductions from our current clients along with specific talk paths and processes to developing COI referral partners. It’s something that takes time but will yield phenomenal results over time. You will close 3-5x at a higher rate vs other lead sources, they will be bundled at a much higher rate, retention will also be higher, and you will grow far faster and more profitably when you and your team take referrals to the next level.

• Network with your circle of friends and family, professional groups, neighborhood, and other insurance professionals. Everyone you interact with is a potential customer and they know other potential customers. Don’t hesitate to share about your agency including valuable insurance information that could help them protect themselves. Connect with other insurance professionals to exchange business including agents in other states so you can assist clients that are moving.

• Social Media is FREE and you can reach thousands of prospects with one post. 180 million Americans have a Facebook and users spend an average of 19.6 hours a month on the platform. The key to social media success is making sure your posts are seen and you can achieve this with the right content as well as posting and interacting with others consistently. You can get more views by asking your friends to share, comment, or like your posts.

• Search Engines are a fantastic FREE lead source. On average there are 1.4 million insurance searches a month. Make sure you keep your business listing and pictures updated, get as many reviews as possible, and reply to each review you receive. These are all ways you can organically promote your business without paying a third party.

What about paid lead sources?

• Internet Leads and Live Transfers can supplement the other lead sources and provide fresh opportunities for your staff to build their pipeline and have more immediate sales. It is becoming more and more challenging in this very competitive lead environment and also in how customers communicate with our agency. The costs are increasing and the closing rates are decreasing. We must make sure that our staff are properly trained in how to work these paid lead sources so you can have a positive return on investment. That is why CWC has numerous courses and dozens of chapters consisting of hours of training on how to work every lead source, especially these two. Be sure to think long-term when it comes to paid lead sources and know that you will close more and more over time if they are properly followed up on. Remember – persistence pays! Investing in growing your business from paid lead sources supplemented by the free lead sources referenced above should be a part of your business plan.

• Direct Mail is another paid lead source that is tried and true. Yes, the cost per call is much higher than live transfers and internet leads BUT the client is taking time out of their day to call you and your agency to talk about their insurance. This is a very interested shopper and exclusive to you and your agency. We love direct mail and have used some great vendors for several years. It is vital that you and your team are properly trained how to work these powerful (and pricey) leads and using the CWC talk paths to pivot the conversation quickly is going to have a dramatic impact on your results.

We could go on… but this blog is getting long!

In summary, we recommend that you are diversified in your leads and marketing and that your staff  are properly trained to work each of these lead sources.

Using the right talk paths and overcoming objections that come with each lead source will help your  staff write far more new business and help you crush your production and growth goals.

Craig Wiggins Coaching has over 1,250 training videos along with live training and role play sessions  every week to help you and your team do just that!

We would love to help you and your staff transform your agency.

Let’s grow!