Annuity Leads

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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As an annuity agent, the most crucial thing in your business is getting relevant annuity leads. A large number of people resort to buying annuity sales leads, but in many cases, even these leads might turn out to be useless. While there are a number of companies that do sell annuity leads, many of them just sell you a list of phone numbers and addresses of people who might not fall into your target consumer bracket at all. At the same time, there are others that collect targeted annuity leads that have higher chances of turning into conversions, but these leads can be quite costly.

As a newbie who is just starting out or even an old timer who is just plain fed up of paying for annuity leads that cost too much and deliver too little, you might be forced to think how good it would be if you could somehow get free annuity leads. In fact, with a little time and effort, you actually can. Some ways by which you can create your own database of annuity leads are:

Set Up An Information Website: By setting up an information website regarding annuity products, you can easily and quickly get a list of high end, high conversions leads. You can set up a website for free and include information on everything to do with annuities, ranging from selling structured settlement annuities to the annuity formula and annuity rates, and inform readers about how they can get the best annuity rates etcetera. Instead of making free registration compulsory, ask people to register and provide contact information if they need any further “free” guidance or counseling regarding annuities. You can be sure that anyone who shows this amount of interest in getting annuity related guidance is a lead that is very very promising. If you get leads outside your geographic area, you can also trade them with other agents in those areas.

Advertise In Local Newspapers: While this will not really cost you nothing, posting little flyers in local newspapers will cost you “next to nothing”, especially when compared to the huge amount that even a single high conversion lead will cost you. Instead of advertising an annuity program or selling annuities through your ad, try to sell a “free consultation with a financial expert” and when you do get an appointment, please try to behave like a financial consultant and not a salesman. Build trust in the people you meet, give them genuine information, and they will actually ask you to sell them your annuity programs. However, most people selling annuities fail at this stage because the pressure to sell gets to them. If it would not, they would all make much better and much wiser sellers.

Provide A Free Booklet: Once again, creating and printing a booklet that you can give away for free will cost you something, but even this cost would be phenomenally lesser than what you would otherwise pay for an interested “lead”. You can even buy a number of such annuity booklets online for a small price. Send them to people who voluntarily express an inclination to receive guidance about annuity products. You can gather these annuity sales leads by making people sign up to get a free information booklet on a website or in exhibitions, camps and seminars.

Get annuity leads in your local area – prospects seeking assistance now!

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