Do you use online leads services?

[AgencyEquity]

If so, who have you used and which vendors have provided the best leads? Do you get quality business out of the leads that you buy? What is your close ratio, how many leads to you need to close a deal at average?

[charlie@beacon]

Watch out -most online lead services sell the lead information to as many agents that will buy them - so you could be the 11th agent to contact that prospect - turning your agency into a quote mill-

Is it for commercial lines?

We might be able to help - we provide exclussive face to face appointments based on criteria that you provide

Let me know

Thanks

Charlie Tan
Beacon Marketing, Inc.
1101 W. Struck Ave | Orange, CA 92867
Tel: 714.628.1760 x208 | 866.580.4264 | Fax: 714.333.4660
Email: Charlie@beaconmarketing.net
www.beaconmarketing.net

[d's insurance store]

We've batted this around in prior postings...in personal lines, for most of the country, leads are widely thought to be a total waste of money. Overselling is just one of the issues...lead names that are bogus, lead names that deny they ever filled out a form, lead names that don't/won't answer their phones or emails, lead names that explode because the agency is the eleventh phone call in as many minutes, constant price shoppers who are back on the internet before the first payment comes due, lead companies that are quick to sign you up, take your money and very slow and reluctant to honor their return or replacement policies, etc, etc, etc. I've asked many and have yet to find even one personal lines agency owner who has had a break even experience buying and working personal insurance leads...most that have given me feedback say it's proven to be a massive waste of time and money and effort. Heck, even the 'honest' lead providers recommend that if no contact or sale is made, then the prospect should be put into the auto responder for weekly/monthly/six month follow ups, useing the guideline that it takes multiple contacts to 'finally' make the sale.

There has been far less complaining about commercial lead and appointment setting services, but then again, with higher commercial premiums, it takes a much lower hit ratio to recoup the cost of the lead/appointment.

Maybe those agencies that are successfully using leads of either personal or commercial are so busy, they don't have time to give feedback on these forums.

[RKunz2]

Well put d's. This is a common topic in the forum.

If I may - I've personally used 4 of the top lead generation companies in the business. Perhaps I'm a pessimist, but I found them to be fairly useless and expensive.

There is a better way - I would suggest contacting the folks at www.AgenciesOnline.biz and at least talking with them about website revamp, social media, and lead generation techniques using SalesGenie. Their number is 1-888-985-3331. Ask for George Nordhaus, Val Jordan, or Richard Wolff. They're long-time insurance people that hooked up with technology talent and founded a company driven towards the success of independent insurance agents/agencies.

Best of luck with your endeavors and be sure to check back in here and let us know how it goes!

[agentofTN]

I myself have used the top 4 services and had no luck at with them. i just found out the the same 4 lead companys are owned by the same mother company. so when i thought i was trying a new lead service it was the same junk as before only under another name. i just signed up with a new service two months ago. i got to say so far they have been good to me. I only pay for the policies that i am able write business on. This company calls the leads up before they send it out to me and verify that the person is still in need of insurance and set up a time for me to call. i spent $400.00 with this company and have problem spending more money with them again when my order is up

[Robert742]

My website has affiliate marketing ads for hometownquotes. Does anyone have any experience with them?

A few years back, when I was doing personal lines P&C sales at an agency, I spent a lot of time working Internet leads for prospects unwilling to reply to me. We used netquotes & quotewizard. I was curious why I was getting no interest from supposedly interested prospects, so I tried quotewizard myself for my auto insurance. Within minutes of my online request, I had quotes in my e-mail inbox from Geico & Esurance. If I was not already with Progressive, I'm sure they would have had a quote to me in minutes, too. Its hard for agents to compete with the technology and pricing of the direct writers.

I know agents making Internet leads work, when they have a competitive price for a particular market segment, by selecting filters for their leads.

As a consumer, I know there is an organization called yourinsurancerequests.com using old leads to harass people with telemarketing calls, and they refuse to comply with requests to be placed on their do not call list. It only stopped for me when I told them I sold my car. Then, a few days later, I was bombarded with agents & insurance companies contacting me for quote, per my request, according to netquotes.

[agentofTN]

i myself have used netquote and quotewizard and found out that they are part of the same company along with two other major lead services. so the leads are all the same from the four services. i just hopr this service that im useing keeps up what they are doing. so far all prospects are aware of why i am calling and my leads have been only sold to me. i have had no problem with any replacements i only pay for the policy that i write

[Auds]

It's really too bad that the lead gen business has gotten so lazy in terms of keeping quality. There are definitely lead companies that generate their own leads and have high closing ratios... AND great return policies. Check out InsuranceFiles.com.

[Eagleeye]

As serveral othes have indicated this subject has gone the gambit several times. I have been in the industry for close to 30 years. Like most of the other posts I agree that you have to be careful what company you hook up with to do your lead generation. Almost all companies out there will not only sell the leads to you and all the agents in your area that want them, but, some will charge you additional money if you actually sign up the client. I have found a couple of ways that is much easier and very cost effective. One of the ways is a company called Client Focus Connections. They not only will provide you with qualified leads but they WILL NOT SELL them to any other agent. The second one is a Video Email System that I have found very effective. Since most people will view 80% of a video email and will only read about 5% of their emails. This is another way to let them get to know you and see you at the same time. Message me if you would like details on either one of these programs.

[rodgwag]

I tried quotewizard myself for my auto insurance. Within minutes of my online request, I had quotes in my e-mail inbox from Geico & Esurance. If I was not already with Progressive, I'm sure they would have had a quote to me in minutes, too. Its hard for agents to compete with the technology and pricing of the direct writers.

Untrue, Quote Wizard does not quote Esurance and Geico directly; they only provide you with links to them after wasting your time filling out their Quote Wizard quote form (used for spam just like the other websites mentioned). Pertaining to the rest of your quote, I can think of at least 5 insurance companies off the top of my head that beat Esurance head to head all the time (I use to sell Esurance as an agent at Answer Financial) and we all know how pricy Geico is, so I won't even go there. Their advantage is advertising dollars not pricing.

You have a nice landing page but you don't know jack about the insurance business.

[InsuranceRescue]

As others have stated, the 'typical' service sells the same leads to multiple agents.
We have a unique new online tool to help you cross-sell your own book, creating more multi-line customers.
Contact me if you'd like additional information.
Thanks,
Jon

InsuranceRescue Services, LLC
608.620.5868 (w)
Jon@InsuranceRescue.com
www.InsuranceRescue.com

[Robert742]

I tried quotewizard myself for my auto insurance. Within minutes of my online request, I had quotes in my e-mail inbox from Geico & Esurance. If I was not already with Progressive, I'm sure they would have had a quote to me in minutes, too. Its hard for agents to compete with the technology and pricing of the direct writers.

Untrue, Quote Wizard does not quote Esurance and Geico directly; they only provide you with links to them after wasting your time filling out their Quote Wizard quote form (used for spam just like the other websites mentioned). Pertaining to the rest of your quote, I can think of at least 5 insurance companies off the top of my head that beat Esurance head to head all the time (I use to sell Esurance as an agent at Answer Financial) and we all know how pricy Geico is, so I won't even go there. Their advantage is advertising dollars not pricing.

You have a nice landing page but you don't know jack about the insurance business.

No, it was true when I tried it several years ago. The last time I shopped my auto insurance, Esurance had the second lowest rate for me, with iMingle being the lowest. If you knew jack about the insurance business, you'd know no insurance company has the lowest rates for all drivers in every US zip code. Geico isn't always pricey. I doubt there are 5 companies consistently beating Esurance in all the states in which it operates, for all drivers. You speak with authority, but experience should teach you this industry changes all the time. You have a lot to learn, and you should refrain from haughty comments. What they used to do at Answer Financial may not be what they are doing now.

I have noticed over the years websites which used to provide multiple quotes online, now often link to individual insurance company websites. A company I use called CLICKInsure used to quote online as an independent agency, now it links to company websites for people to get quotes.

[OldIndyAgent]

Robert742,

You are spot on. I price companies across the USA and Esurance is regularly one of the highest, while GEICO is regularly one of the lowest. That changes up depending on market and appetite in different states.

The market is constantly changing, and assuming, is very poor for business.

[rodgwag]

The facts:

1. Presently there are only 8 insurance companies offering direct insurance quotes online to the public (4 of which refer you to one of their local agents); I sell 20 in California alone.
2. All of the comparative insurance websites are just marketing firms that deceive potential prospects into thinking that they are going to get an insurance quote but can't really offer them one. Instead they sell the prospect's information to 15 or 20 unsuspecting insurance agents that call and email the prospect long after the need for coverage has past (if there ever was one). Bankrate.com owns most of these sites; watch their revenue as it continues to fall.

Bottom line: The public is quickly discovering that the internet is a very poor source for competitive insurance quotes.

[OldIndyAgent]

Rodgwag,

You should check that...I can name 12 offering direct rates, and those are just the big boys online, in the USA. If you can't find more than 8, I suggest you use this new-fangled thing called G-o-o-g-l-e search. I work with several more that are under $100M written premium that also offer online quotes, that are pushed to agents, but they are regional. Truth is there is lots of companies online, finding them and weeding out the lead aggregators is the issue. In Europe, a HUGE volume is done online and I think that is where the USA is headed.

Comparatively, SelectQuote seems to do a decent job. It delivers pre-underwritten quotes in just minutes. There seems to be quite a few of these type of comparative raters out there for consumers.