Insurance agents have been struggling for quite some time to figure out a solution to their most nagging problem - not enough time. Not enough time in a day to travel and meet prospects while trying to follow-up on fresh leads to setup appointments and keep the pipeline filled up. This often results in dropping the ball on both fronts - distracted meetings with prospects and frenzied checking of voicemail & follow-up calls before scrambling on to meet with the next prospect.
So, what is the solution?
Outsourcing the tactical, low-value but critical task of appointment-setting.
Focusing on what you do best selling your products and services to prospects while meeting face-to-face; enabling yourself to be in the best state of mind while meeting prospects, with assured confidence that your appointments pipeline will be robust as it is handled by an experienced, service-oriented appointment-setting company.
Most prospect appointments are a result of a two-step process:
- Lead Generation
- Lead Follow-up with Appointment Setting
Lead Generation
In the insurance industry, getting a defined set of internet-generated leads is becoming the norm. In the present age of information overload for consumers, it is almost impossible and makes no economic sense to generate insurance leads the old way - mailers and outbound cold calling. Hence majority of the industry has signed up with one of the many internet-based lead generation companies to provide them with "live leads." Live Leads are ones that are sent to you the moment a consumer, on the internet, responds to a targeted ad with a request for a quote or more information.
Lead Follow-Up with Appointment Setting
Signing up with an internet-based lead generation company and getting a steady stream of leads, although not cheap, is the easiest in the two-step process.
Properly targeted internet leads are mostly of good quality but come with two logistical issues:
- Internet leads can be generated round-the-clock - making the follow-up process nightmarish
- Internet leads tend to be hard to reach on the phone readily and hence need to be followed up with rigor and experience-based methods and processes
Outsourcing lead follow-up and appointment setting to an experienced vendor will help not only in overcoming the logistical issues mentioned above but also enable you to focus on your core function of generating revenue. Doing this task yourself in an ad-hoc way or outsourcing to a poor quality vendor impacts you in two ways - poor pipeline of prospects and a waste of valuable and costly leads.
So, how does this work? What should I look for in an appointment-setting company?
Following are the critical capabilities that enable an appointment-setting company to provide you superior results:
- Industry experience and target-market understanding
- Rigorous process and flexible technology to provide customized solution that meets your unique needs
- Cost-effective solution with superior client service
Industry experience and target-market understanding
It is important for the vendor to understand the insurance industry and its associated dynamics. The vendor's associates should have experience working with insurance products and an understanding of the target market, be it consumers or businesses.
Rigorous process and flexible technology to provide customized solution that meets your unique needs
In order to achieve effective results, the vendor needs to have a process that is not only rigorously implemented but also be adaptable based on feedback obtained in the marketplace. A rigorous system that is rigid is a sure recipe for disaster! The process should ensure that every single lead is pursued diligently and methodically.
The vendor's technology should be flexible in providing you with details of the appointments setup, feedback from the leads and market intelligence using communication channels of your choice.
Cost-effective solution with superior client service
The vendor should have a culture of frugality and cost-consciousness but not at the cost of providing superior value and responsive client service. The vendor should work as a true and honest partner in providing suggestions and recommendations to continuously improve the effectiveness of the program.
