It's no secret that even in 2007, the Internet remains a newfound frontier for the insurance industry's traditional ways. Perhaps the best example of this is an agent's follow-up communication with a new Internet lead. There are many agents that find success in mailing a printed quote in weekly batches to these leads. Others choose to email and telephone prospects — only to be superseded all too often by carriers and agents that already wrote the policy. In 2007 as you use AgentInsider™ to grow your book of business and achieve your sales goals, put your best foot forward and tune-up this critical first contact between you and your new leads.

How Long Does it Take You to Follow-up?
Disregarding the unique sales strategies and techniques you employ to successfully close Internet leads, do you know how long it takes you to respond to your new leads? Would you like to know how responsive your competitors are? The answers will shock you.

• The average AgentInsider™ agent takes approximately 20 hours to follow-up on a new lead.
• 40% of all leads are accessed within the first three hours.
  • 20% within the first hour.
  • 13% within the second hour.
  • 7% within the third hour.
• 7.2% of AgentInsider™ leads are never accessed by the agents that purchase them.

Expectations of Online Consumers
Timing is one of the most important factors to closing online leads — perhaps more so than pricing. A response time greater than 90 minutes is generally below the expectation of the Internet consumer, and absolutely not in the interests of your close-rate. Online leads represent a consumer that has been comparison shopping and has most likely found multiple purchasing options, both online and offline. Instant gratification is the need that separates these consumers from those that are generated by a Yellow Pages directory listing, newspaper advertisements, a direct mail piece, or even a referral. Accordingly, if the agent fails to follow-up in a timely manner, the consumer will most likely move on.

Your Follow-Up Process
AgentInsider™ delivers quotes that resemble the qualities of a walk-in customer. As your logo, name and contact information are displayed to motivated consumers, you are simultaneously sent a lead notification email in real time. It is as though the customer is standing right there in your office; so the question becomes: Are you going to jump at the chance to serve the consumer or leave them waiting? Of course it takes time to generate an accurate quote for the new lead, but that's not to say you shouldn't acknowledge the consumer's virtual presence. Imagine the benefits of simply corresponding to inform the consumer that you've received their quote request. Doing so may make the difference in an impulsive consumer committing to another quote, regardless of the perceived savings.

Over the past three months we have been sharing the techniques of successful AgentInsider™ agents. One agent professed the following words of wisdom: “ You have to call them right away.” This agent always has at least one person dedicated to contacting AgentInsider™ leads as soon as they arrive. In this follow-up, he explained that you must call and introduce yourself, gain their trust, gather any additional information, and let them know that you'll be sending them a quote.

Here is an example of a follow-up email that is sent as soon as the agent receives a new AgentInsider™ lead. The email affords the agent time to put together a competitive quote without losing the consumer to another agent or carrier. View Follow-up Email

In 2007, as you expand into new ZIP Codes and increase your lead volume, make sure that you optimize your follow-up communications to exhaust the value of the leads that you purchase. As you increase your close-rates, you'll notice that you won't be hearing the words, “I already bought a policy” or “I'm working with another agent”.