Annuity Leads

There is extreme product myopia in the annuity sales industry.

Annuity brokers rely on insurance companies to provide an education on marketing and sales. However, the focus of the insurance companies is on the products they manufacture while the focus of the successful annuity broker must be on the client. Therefore, there is an incompatible focus between the insurance company and the annuity broker.

Of course, it would make sense if the annuity sales industry was also focused on the client because then the overall sales of annuities and other insurance products would increase. An example of this manufacturer-to-consumer focus is how Intel, which does not sell directly to the consumer, continues to heavily advertise on consumer television promoting computers that have Intel inside. Intel understands that by promoting the benefit (safety of a high quality microchip) to the end consumer, they do more business. But because the annuity industry continues to have a focus on its products and its distribution channel, the annuity agents and annuity brokers, these sellers inherit a product focused mentality. This costs all involved a lot of annuity sales.

Let’s take the example of an annuity agent who decides to use seminars to generate annuity leads. He will likely make an obvious beginners mistake and title his seminar something like “All About Annuities.” The selection of this title is plain stupid. The annuity agent is looking at the title of the seminar from his point of view, his product-centered orientation, and not the potential attendees point of view. The potential attendee will see a title “All About Annuities” and immediately conclude this is a sales pitch about annuities. Since no one wants to go attend the sales pitch, seminar attendance will be terrible. The annuity agent will then conclude that seminars don’t work, will market less and the downward spiral of annuity sales for both the annuity agent and insurance company ensues. The consumer has no interest in annuities. The consumer has an interest in conceptual benefits such as:

• Safety of principal
• Growth of principal
• Tax reduction
• Financial security for heirs

The annuity can certainly be a tool to all of these objectives of the consumer. However, if the agent puts the cart before the horse, the product before the objective, he will not get the consumers business. He will be a struggling annuity agent, always seeking to sell this product rather than provide solutions.

For an agent to get out of this product-centered mentality would require that he stop going to the insurance company training sessions. Rather, he would be much better served by holding a focus group among his target market and simply ask them, “what’s important to you about your money?” The answers to that question, the concerns that are expressed,  would then provide him the headlines, topics and content for his successful seminars and all other successful annuity marketing he might do. Because once the insurance agent understands what his clients want, he can start speaking about that. Once he has a room full of annuity leads, he then has accomplished the first step to more annuity sales.

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Direct mail marketing is effective for generating annuity leads. But it only works if you do it RIGHT and there are many more ways to do it incorrectly and waste a lot of cash. Adhere to the following and you can generate a very sustainable flow of annuity leads at a reasonable cost.

First of all, your mail marketing should happen continuously, e.g. send some mailers each week. That way, you will have a continuous stream of annuity leads and you can follow up in a timely manner.

Next, make sure you get the right list. The “sweet spot” of fixed annuity buyers are people age 55 to 65, mostly female in middle-income neighborhoods (see Gallup Research study of annuity owners). You can easily rent a list of these prospects (the SRDS catalog at our local library is a directory of every list you can rent) .

Third, select the right format for the annuity lead direct mail piece. For annuity leads, we have tested both post cards and letters in envelopes.  In this case, the postcards did equally well and are less expensive that items in envelopes, so use the postcards.

Fourth, get the message right.  The message will be wrong if you sit back and think about what appeals to your prospects.  There is no way you really understand that.  The only way to find out is to ask a handful of prospects.  The question is not “what do you like about annuities?”  (Notice how product centered that question is and grows from your point of view)? The correct question to generate annuity leads is “what’s important to you about your money?”

As people start to answer, write down what they say.  Then dig deeper:

What else is important?
What would you rank second?
You said safety was important.  What do you need to give up to get it?

Only by asking these questions and really digging will you understand what matters to your annuity prospects.  Now, based on what they say, create at least 15 headlines for your mailers.  These might be:

“How to Get the Safety You want Without Sacrificing Return”
“How to Earn more Interest While you Pay IRS Less”
“How to Have a 2nd Social Security Check”

After you compose the titles, select your best and then use six of the others as bullet points:

“How to Get the Safety You want Without Sacrificing Return”

• Bullet point 1
• Bullet point 2
• Bullet point 3
• etc.

Here’s an alternate format

Fifth, make a non-intimidating offer such as a free booklet, free report, free quote, etc.  Every direct mail piece should have some form of tangible, unambiguous benefit for the customer that addresses their question, ”What’s in it for the me?”

There are many things you can do to make direct mail annuity lead generation plan work. By using these tips, though, you will be off to a good start and a continuous flow of annuity leads.

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If you’re in annuity sales, you already know that you need to have annuity leads that will generate sales to stay in business.  Some of these leads will come from traditional advertising, but if you rely on advertising alone to generate annuity leads for your business, you’ll miss some opportunities as different people pay attention to different sources of information.  You want a multi-pronged approach to generate annuity leads.

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.

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Annuity Direct mail

Direct mail works no matter what someone else told you or your own experience.  Just because it did not work for you, does not mean it does not work.  If you read 25 books on the science of direct mail like we have, you can make it work also.  It’s a science and if you don’t know the science, you are wasting your money.  Most direct mail pieces are lousy and fail.

We used direct mail and consistently got responses between 1% And 2% (sometimes higher).   The economics of using direct mail to generate annuity leads are as follows:

Send 1000 postcards x 50 cents (printing and postage)  =$500
Get 1% response = 10 responses
Of the 10, get 2 immediate appointments
Make 1 sale for $100,000 x 6% = $6,000
Return on investment 12 times (1200%)

We never made a sale less than $100,000 but your area may have less affluent people.  You may also earn a higher commission than 6%.

Your clients would be very lucky to earn 1200% on the investments you recommend to them.

Internet Annuity Leads from Ads

Instead of mailing a postcard, you can place ads on the Internet.  The ads can range from very inexpensive to very expensive.  For example, you can place ads on many local senior web sites for less than $50 per month.  Try finding some local senior web sites in your area.  In Google, type in the name of your town (let’s use Columbus Ohio for this example) and a group of people that tend to buy annuities:

Columbus Ohio retirees
Columbus Ohio seniors
Columbus Ohio retired
Columbus Ohio grandmothers
Columbus Ohio grandparents

You get the idea.

While Internet ads to generate annuity leads on these sites tend to be inexpensive, these web sites don’t get a lot of traffic. If you want traffic, you need to advertise where a LOT of people see your ads.  For example, you could advertise on Investopedia.  However, it will likely cost you $7 or more per CLICK.  If only 10% of the people click on your ad complete your form, that’s $70 per annuity lead. So the problem with sites that get a lot of traffic is that the cost per annuity lead is very high.  The other problem is that many sites may not be able to cater to a small geographic area.  You may want annuity leads only within 25 miles of zip code 44046 but some of these web sites may only sell you leads by the state.

Internet ads do work but you will need to test many different sites to find those that work for you at a realistic cost per annuity lead.

Print ads

We used print ads for several years with good results.  The daily newspaper is too expensive but many neighborhood newspapers and senior papers have costs that will produce annuity leads for  reasonable price. Here’s an example

Cost of ad = $250
Responses = 10
Yo get 2 immediate appointments and make 1 sale for $6,000

Not bad .  That’s a 23 times return on your investment (2300%).

Note that not every publication will work.  We have tested some publications where the ad cost $400 and we did not get one call.  Another publication costs only $200 and we got 20 calls.  So you need to test many publications to find those that will work.  Of course, you better have a killer ad which means you either get a successful and talented copywriter to compose your ad OR you read 20 books on copy writing and compose your own ads.

Annuity Seminars

Seminars work and it does not matter what others have told you or your own experience.  Like direct mail or advertisements, there is a science for success.  If you have not uncovered that science, then its likely you wont have success with seminars.

We have had over 200 seminars and typical results were as follows:

3000 invitations mailed = $2200
room rental and refreshments  $450
Buying units attending 20
Appointments secured 10
New clients
Total revenue 5 x $100,000 x 6% = $30,000

Note—we never sold JUST annuities and if you do, cut the above results in half.  We offered everything so no matter the propect’s interest, we could supply it.  But even if you sold JUST annuities and generated $15,000 in commission for a $2700 investment, that’s a 500%+ return on your investment.  Not too shabby.

Referrals

You likely wont generate too many annuity leads from professional referrals. I don’t know many attorneys or CPAs who will refer clients to you so that you can sell them a product.  If you are an advisor and annuities or just one of your tools, then yes, professional referrals can fill your appointment calendar.

We will address email leads in a future post.

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Sounds good.  But have you ever heard the saying “there’s no such thing as a free lunch?”  If the saying holds true, then either the free annuity leads aren’t worth much or there is a cost you don’t know about.  Let’s look at both possibilities.

If someone is willing to give you free leads, ask about the nature of the leads.  If the leads are free, does it make sense that the provider probably did not pay much for them?  For 5 cents per name, you can get from many mailing list companies lists of people that are age 55 or over.  Do the names on this list qualify as an “annuity lead?”  If you ask me, it’s just a name on a list and 1000 of those names cost $50.  They don’t have much value and in fact, they have “negative value” because you will waste 98% of your time calling this list to find a few people who might be interested.

Now, if you take the list and then send a mailer to these people offering a free safety analysis of their annuity or a copy of a booklet, “The Truth About Annuities,” you will have some people respond.  The people that respond are valid annuity leads because they have expressed interest.  Among the 1000 names on the list, the 20 or so people that respond have value. It costs money to get a decent annuity lead.  In this case, you have the $50 for the list, and the cost of 1000 mailers (about $700 including postage, printing and mailing service).  Then you have maybe $60 for the booklets you send out including postage, for a total investment of $810.  Divide by the 20 leads you got and your cost per lead is $40.50 ($810/20).  As you see, there is no way to generate a real annuity lead for free.

Perhaps the leads you are being offered are more than just a list.  Perhaps your investigation uncovers that these leads are people who responded to a mailer as the scenario above and you are being offered $40 leads for free.  The party offering you the leads has something to gain.  Either an insurance company will earn profit from the products you sell for them (and also pay you a commission) or an intermediary (e.g. field marketing organization) will earn a commission override.  There’s certainly nothing wrong with that as these organizations are willing to front your marketing costs in return for some business form you (or else the leads will stop coming your way).  Again, these annuity leads are not free.

So think for yourself and do some investigating about the nature of “free annuity leads” and understand the true cost.

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There is no trick to making a lot of money in annuity sales.  Like all sales, it boils down to quality and quantity of annuity leads.  Quantity means that the more people you talk to, the more sales you make. Quality means that the better the quality of prospect and the better the quality of your sales presentation, the higher your closing ratio.
 
In order to have a lot of annuity prospects, you have two choices.  You can work hard to get them with inefficient tactics like cold calling, networking, relying on referrals, etc. or you can motivate annuity prospects to contact you.
What is Annuity Lead Generation?

Any way you get annuity prospects to contact you is viable: direct mail, flyers in their mail box or on their car windshield, flyers left at senior centers, etc.  There are dozens of viable ways to put a message in front of an annuity prospect and have the prospect respond and as a result, have a constant large flow of annuity leads.  Imagine coming to your office each morning to find ten hot annuity leads in your email–annuity prospects that have contacted you and wait for your reply.
 
While annuity lead generation is nothing new, it is usually conducted poorly. Fortunately, in 2008, it is now easier and less expensive as you can have annuity leads generated by using the Internet.
How Does Lead Generation Work?

There are agencies that specialize in providing qualified annuity leads to annuity agents. An agency develops a website or affiliates with several websites on which they promote and advertise the benefits or dangers of annuities (it will make sense in a minute why advertising “dangers” works).  A consumer finds these informational web sites and the annuity prospect completes an online request form. This form is submitted to the agency. These annuity leads are then sent via email to you, the annuity professional, with full contact information.

Let’s address two issues: the quantity and quality of annuity leads generated.
 

The most powerful message for an Internet ad is not to offer an annuity quote.  Consumers know that this is just an invitation to be sold and they are averse to filling out quote forms.  You get a far higher response if you offer educational information.  Now let’s take this one step further.  Offer educational information, information that if the annuity prospect does not have, it will cost them a lot!  You get more more annuity leads when you offer to alleviate pain or solve a problem than if you offer an opportunity.

For example, Wwhich headline do you think generates more annuity leads:

1. “Cut Your Taxes with a Tax Deferred Annuity”  OR
2. “Avoid the Two Assets that get Double Taxed–and Most Investors Don’t Even Know It.”
(Headline number 2 refers to annuities and IRAs that are potentially subject to income AND estate tax at death).

The second ad which presents a problem and offers to educate the consumer how to solve it will get 300% as many annuity leads as the first headline.

Now that we have insight into high volume of annuity leads, what about the quality of annuity leads?

Using the Internet solves this problem.  Annuity buyers are mature investors, not youngsters.  Look at the statistics of mature investors on the Internet:

Mature Internet users are the perfect affluent and educated group of annuity prospects.

By having the right ad which appeals to solving a problem and using the right medium, the Internet, you can have a fantastic annuity lead generation system that produces high quantity and high quality of annuity leads.

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I get a dozen emails a week offering me “free leads.” Most of these advertisements are bait to get agents to sign on with a particular insurance wholesaler as they attempt to add value by providing agents tools that will help make sales. But let’s take a closer look at what the industry calls a “annuity lead” as this word is used inconsistently. The agent needs to know what’s being offered.

Cold lead—this is worthless—it’s a name form a mailing list broker. The person may meet certain criteria—e.g., age, income or household value. Above that, it’s just a name, like a name from a phone book. When I was a young financial advisor, the mutual fund wholesalers brought me 1000 “leads” like this. When they left the office, I threw these in the trash. Right—I’m going to waste my time cold calling strangers.

Warm annuity lead—the person has requested information by completing a card, an Internet form or expressed interest with no coaxing. Your best prospects will always be the ones that take action on their own, with no one convincing, no coaxing, no call from a telemarketer. This annuity lead has value as the prospect has made a request and expressed interest.

Telemarketed lead. This is supposedly a warm lead with interest in meeting—they tell you that the prospect is waiting for your call. I doubt it. Poor people have time and inclination to talk to telemarketers and sales people on the phone. Rich people, the people you want to talk to, put their name on the “do not call list,” hang up on telemarketers and run away from sales people. Telemarketed prospects did not take action on their own. Someone called and pitched them and convinced them to take the next step. By the time you contact this prospect, the “convincing” has worn off and you basically have a cold annuity lead. These are weak leads as opposed quality prospects who see an advertisement, a piece of direct mail or other offer and act on their own. ,

Set appointment—this can be a very valuable annuity lead but ask how the appointment was made. Did the prospect first call from an ad or direct mail offer and then a telemarketer set an appointment? That’s good because this prospect took the initiative. Or, did the lead company call this person cold and talk them into an appointment? This is like the “tin man” lead—the firm that calls people at random stating that a representative will be in their neighborhood installing aluminum siding on a neighbor’s home and could stop by and show them how they too can increase their home’s value. This type of annuity lead is weak and usually is not at home 30% of the time when you arrive for the appointment.

When you consider an annuity lead of any type, ask the critical questions:

How is this person qualified for my product or service—what criteria do they meet?
Were they cold called and convinced to be a “lead?”
Or did they act on their own, essentially raising their own hand to say “I’m interested!”

It’s this third type of lead that you desire. At minimum, 10% of these people will become clients. This allows you to quantify the value of your annuity lead as follows:

If you earn $2500 from a new client and are content with paying 10% to get that client ($250), then you would be willing to pay $25 per lead for 10 annuity leads that resulted in at least one new client.

To maximize the value of your annuity leads, make sure you have the sales skills. Sales skills do not come through experience—they come through training. So before you spend significant time and resources to buy annuity leads and make presentations, gain the ability to close prospects. Get professional sales training from schools like Dale Carnegie, Sandler Institute or Huthwaite. If you don’t, you’ll waste your career earning a mediocre living and working harder than necessary.

More here on annuity leads.

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Annuity selling is not an easy job, but with a sound annuity marketing plan in place you can earn much more than you ever thought possible. Like all other jobs, selling annuities requires not just hard work, but being innovative, talent and an effort at out of the box thinking. Having a sound annuity marketing plan in place is the first thing that you need to do if you want to distinguish yourself from the run of the mill annuity salesperson.

One very important thing to remember here is that no marketing plan should feature only a single marketing strategy. There are a number of annuity selling agents who either resort to cold calling or direct mailing to follow up with their leads. But having a single strategy greatly increases your risks of failure whereas a multi pronged strategy not only manages to reach out to your prospects at different levels, but also increases your chances of getting higher sales. So what are the marketing methods that are most effective for selling annuity? Some of the best methods for approaching your annuity leads that will yield good results are:

1. Advertising: I know you will be shocked that I said advertising! After all, that is what you do all the time and you already know what the results are. However, we are not talking about advertising what your company is providing, or the run of the mill annuity ad. Like in all things, you will have to distinguish your ads from others advertising similar products. For this, you will not only need to rework and redesign your ads, you will also have to post them at the right time. The main focus of your ad should not be just what the company is offering, but rather the benefits that buyers of that particular annuity will get. On the other hand, most people shift their investments or plan them around the beginning or end of the financial year, so advertising around this time would be more fruitful as compared to advertising during the holidays when people focus more on vacations and shopping.

2. Seminars: Seminars are one of the best ways of cashing upon and creating high quality annuity leads. Offering a free seminar in localities where your target customer resides can get you an extremely high rate of sales compared to other marketing methods.  This is because only people who have a serious interest in financial planning will attend a seminar that is focused on personal financial management, retirement planning and buying financial instruments. Covering a number of topics at your seminars, instead of just focusing on equities, will help you get a larger audience. You can tie up with other agents dealing with other products to host a full fledged informational seminar for seniors. Just make sure that you provide valuable information instead of delivering your sales presentations during your seminar. This would establish you as an expert and you will notice people coming to you to buy annuities instead of the other way round.

3. Direct Mailing: Direct mailing can be an extremely powerful marketing tool provided you know how to make your mail stand out and grab your prospects’ attention. To know more about how to do this, check out our post on creating powerful direct mailing messages.

Lead Program for annuities in your local area – prospects seeking assistance now!

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Annuity selling has come a long way from the times when all it involved was cold calling, appointments and mailers. New concepts in annuity lead generation and follow up are turning around the fortunes of hundreds of annuity selling personnel around the world and you can also utilize the same concepts for generating annuity leads that have an extremely high rate of conversion.

Using lead generators is one of the best ideas ever to hit the annuity sales industry. And we are talking about actual lead generators that get valuable and interested leads and not the ones that force people to provide personal information and contact details at fairs and exhibitions without their being interested. The best way of getting high end leads is to first target an audience that has the inclination and the will to buy annuity. And you can locate and identify these groups by providing lead generators like informational booklets and seminars.

Annuity seminars are one of the best places for not just getting high quality annuity leads, but also for closing sales. The trick to getting great annuity leads at seminars is to market yourself as a financial advisor or consultant instead of being an annuity salesperson. By doing this you will address people’s concerns—which are not buying financial products or annuities—but rather saving on taxes, investing wisely, getting good returns and securing their future financially. When you act as a consultant and provide them with solutions (which may include buying annuities), then you help them make an informed and wise decision (all by themselves) instead of forcing your sales pitch or products on them!

You can get a large audience at your annuity seminar if you offer them valuable, fresh and required information without putting them through your annuity sales pitch. If you have already given them a hint of your breadth of knowledge through educational mailers, booklets or articles, then your chances of getting an interested audience increases even further because you will have already established yourself as an expert and people will flock to get free advice from an expert.

Please do keep in mind that a lot of such “experts” lose all their credibility in these annuity seminars because the salesman in them starts showing through. If you feel that you also will not be able to hold the salesman in you back, then please do not waste your time and effort in conducting the annuity seminar.

A good trick to identify people who are the best annuity sales leads is to ask your audience about the kind of investments that they have already made. People with CDs are prime prospects for selling annuities to and by providing them detailed and unbiased comparison between annuities and CDs, you might end up having a number of converts who will invest their CD money to buy annuities.

Letting your annuity leads know that annuities provide much better rates of return due to tax deferred compounding of interest and allow for withdrawals without penalties might gain you a few customers then and there. To cash in more on CD owners, make sure that you organize your annuity seminars near the end of the financial year, since this is when CDs come up for renewal.
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Selling annuities can be quite profitable, provided you know whom to sell to and how to sell. Most people view the annuity selling business as a gamble because getting annuity leads that work is actually one. When you buy annuity leads for money, you can get amazing leads that lead to a high percentage of sales. On the other hand, you might end up buying annuity sales leads that have a conversion rate of one per cent or less. By managing to get quality annuity leads, you can end up earning excellent commissions. So how do you go about generating annuity leads that convert into customers? Our step by step guide here will help you get good annuity sales leads easily.

Know Your Target Market: If you are already into the annuity selling business, then you might have a good idea about the demographics of people who are buying annuities. Seniors form a major portion of the people who invest in annuities, but simply buying a list of names and addresses of people over 60 does not qualify as a lead list. Define your prospects in terms of age, monthly household income, geographical location, occupational profile, and ownership of financial products etcetera if you want to generate quality sales leads.

Choose Your Medium Wisely: Once you have identified your prospects, the next step is to find a place or a medium through which you can reach out to them. Do you think all your prospects surf the internet for products and advice? Or are they living in small communities where everybody swears by the local rag? Do all of them live in certain particular areas where you might hold educational seminars for collecting leads? Advertise through the medium that you think your prospects are most likely to use. You can also try a combination of mediums based on your marketing strategy and budget

Create A Powerful Message: The common man is bombarded with hundreds of advertising and marketing messages everyday. If you want your adverts to catch your target audience’s attention, you will have to think of something that is different and customized. Offering something of value to your customers or a lead generator can come in handy for collecting quality leads. When you use a lead generator, you offer your prospects something like a free financial counseling session or a free booklet on managing funds (e.g. How To Buy The Best Possible Annuity, How To Manage Your Funds Post Retirement etcetera) based on the demographics of your target audience.

This would establish you as an expert and people would come to you to buy annuities instead of you running after them to sell. But you will have to make sure that your lead generator offers valuable information instead of being an ad for your product. On the other hand, you can also directly advertise your annuity product as long as the message you choose is powerful and compelling.
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This post contributed by ProspectMatch

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