Recommended Approach for ABCLeads Annuity Leads

ABCLeads has been servicing financial advisors and insurance agents since 1999 and throughout that time we have gained valuable feedback from our customers on the best approaches. We have put together the below information in order to provide you with an understanding of how our program works and recommended steps to take in order to engage the prospects to get the highest closing ratios.

6 Steps to Success

1. The Prospect’s First Expectation

This is the most important element as it's the very first step in the sales cycle as it relates to our leads. The prospects that we generate are looking to be educated on annuities and are expecting information about investing in an annuity or in financial planning. The first action to take is to send the prospect information on the products and services that you offer. That is the basis of the initial relationship you have with them; they are expecting to be provided information about annuities either in paper or electronic form.

They may use terms such as “report” or “packet” which should be met with your standard promotional products, as well as any educational articles or other materials you have. Many of our customers will hear this initial feedback and then contact us asking, “when are you sending the information to the lead?”. The information that will result in the highest closing ratios with these leads is your company information and product information, not something that we manufacture. 

We do not send information to the prospects as that can be detrimental to your relationship with them. The best approach is for you to send them your information and educational materials as you are most familiar with them and they highlight what you are trying to sell.

2. The Best Time to Call The Prospect

Our customers have reported that the most effective first call is after their company product information has been sent and the prospect has had time to review and digest it.  In this fashion, the prospect has information on the products you offer and has your name and company information attached to it. 

“Hello, Mr. Jones - I am Kevin Smith from Alliance Financial Planners and I’m just following up on the information I sent to you on our annuity products and want to answer any questions you have and go over our current rates.”.

The prospects want to be educated about annuities and they want your product information. If they have not been provided that, their initial expectation has not been met and you're going to get off to a rocky start.

3. Should You Leave a Voicemail

The question of whether or not to leave a voicemail is often raised. Our customers report that leaving a voicemail is effective providing you have sent your product information, which includes your name and company information, and they have had time to review it.

If the prospect’s initial expectations have been met, then the next step is to pursue speaking with them and engaging in the standard sales cycle. Multiple calls, over time which include leaving voicemails, is an effective course of action.

4. Closing Ratios & A Realistic Test of the Leads

Our agents experience a range of closing ratios which is dependent on their experience, how competitive their products are and their ability to engage the prospects. In addition, the degree of wealth in the geographic areas you work can play a vital role.  We have super star closers that have been buying our leads for many years, steady producers that turn a good profit and even agents that are below average closers who just need that extra sale to make their quarterly sales quota. 

It is unrealistic to truly get a sense of the value of the leads if you only work a small handful. It is unrealistic to expect that if the leads have a closing ratio of 1 out of 15, that the one you close will be one of the first three you get. That can certainly happen, and has happened, but the reality is sales leads are a numbers game and enough of them have to be worked in order for the averages to play out. 

We have agents that will start the service with the pre-conceived notion of purchasing 5 leads then pausing to see the results. This is a waste of time and usually just causes frustration for you and us. We want you to be successful with our leads and are confident you will be but this is a sales product that has to be viewed in an overall context of ROI.

5. The Information That Comes With The Leads

We make every effort for each lead to contain as much information as we can glean from the prospect.  Every lead will have at the minimum first name, last name, address, city, state, zip and phone number. The three elements that we do not guarantee for every lead are email address, age and investment amount. 

We understand that those three pieces of information are important and helpful in working the lead. The reality is however that not every prospect is comfortable with giving that information out at the very onset of the process. 

Some people protect their email address with far greater scrutiny than their phone number. Some people are uncomfortable indicating how much money they have to a stranger.  Some people don’t understand why their age is relevant to purchasing something. 

For those of us in the annuity business, we understand the importance of this additional information.  However, the lack of it is not necessarily an indication of a bad lead or an indicator that there is not an opportunity for a sale.  All we ask is that a lead lacking this information be given the same effort at being closed as one that does have that information. 

6. Occasionally You Will Get a Bad Lead, Lets Work Together

The nature of sales leads is that every now and then you are going to get a bad lead and the reality is you might even get someone on the phone that's just having a really bad day.  We understand this and it's an unfortunate part of the business that we all just have to work together on. Do not let this get you down! We are not looking to charge you for a bad lead. We value you as a customer very much and hope to be judged over your whole experience and not on a single lead.

If it does happen, simply submit the lead for credit, we will take care of it and get up for the next lead.