Insurance Guides And Tips

Many annuity agents pursue annuity leads that should not be pursued and they do so the wrong way. By understanding the different types of annuity leads, you can make better choices.

Low end annuity leads

We found a company that has people complete cards (from a county fair or other public venue) and answer these questions:

• Do you have an IRA?
• Would you like to know how to put more money into a retirement account
• Do you have an interest in making money in stocks?
• Would you like to earn higher interest?
• Would you like to receive information on annuities?

The people are age 45 to 64 and have minimum net worth of $300,000 (which means almost any homeowner will qualify) and household income of $100,000. The insurance lead company guarantees that adviser 100% will be reachable by phone. Obviously, it's IMPOSSIBLE for them to guarantee that because you know that there are people you can never reach by phone. You call all times of day and you only get their voice mail. So be careful about lead guarantees-think for yourself if the lead guarantee can actually be provided.

Also consider that this is not much of a lead. The prospect did not go looking for information about annuities and the card had other questions to which the obvious answer is yes. So after the prospect answers 4 questions "yes," they are very inclined to answer the 5th questions about their interest in annuities affirmatively. And this is gold to you as an "annuity lead."

Now the annuity lead company knows there are many people you cannot reach by phone even through they have guaranteed you can. So their backup guarantee is this-if you order 1,000 annuity leads, they will guarantee you earn at least $10,000 in commission as long as you "pursue" the leads. If that guarantee is not fulfilled, they will replace the annuity leads. Think about this-if you call 1,000 people from the phone book, you'll also earn at least $10,000 in commission! Even though the cost for their annuity leads is low ($1.18 each), you are basically buying names no better than those in the phone book!!! The annuity prospect does not know who you are, they have not expressed any significant interest and probably filled out the card because they were included in a drawing to win a new car. On top of that, the annuity lead card may be eight weeks old.

Don't be fooled by anyone's offer of inexpensive or free annuity leads as they are worthless. These are actually not annuity leads, they are just names and phone numbers and you can get the same value by simply calling into the better neighborhoods in your area and these will be free from the phone book. Or, call any list broker and for 10 cents a name or less, buy lists of people that are age 60+ and have net worth of $500,000 or more.

All low-end annuity lead systems like this are built on one fundamental idea-if you call enough people, you make money. So these high volume annuity lead systems waste your time-hours and hours-while you call unqualified, uninterested people who don't know who you are. Result-you waste your most precious resource-your time.

High End Annuity Leads

At the opposite end is the annuity lead company that charges $110 per lead. Yikes!! These annuity leads are generated through forms on the Internet. People encounter a web page that offers a quote for a particular product e.g. annuities, term insurance, long-term care. People may be as far as 75 miles from you so the chance they will come to you is zero, which means you may need to drive three hours (there and back) for nothing.

The annuity lead company guarantees that the lead has $5,000 to invest. I don't know about you, but after my third month in the business, I raised my minimum to $25,000 because it's just not a good use of time to deal with less. If you don't, you'll end up in three years with 800 small clients that waste your time and you'll be struggling 11 hours a day to make a living. Their additional guarantee is that the annuity leads are at least 40 years of age (but if you sell annuities, you want clients that are typically 55 and over as these people have more to invest)..

The good thing about these leads: they are Internet leads. In this firm's case, leads are guaranteed to be not more than 48 hours old. However, they note that up to 15% of the leads may be bad and they will replace them. Internet annuity leads are always better than any lead generated by a form, or anything handled by mail or physically handled will be weeks old before you receive it.

If the lead does not meet these criteria, the firm will give you a replacement lead:

• Real person
• Real phone number
• Person is age 40+
• Person has at least $5,000 to invest

Senior Leads

The annuity leads from Senior Leads™ are also Internet annuity leads and you get them via email within 24 hours and often within five minutes of the person completing the annuity lead form. You specify the distance for the annuity leads as small as one zip code or one mile radius. You will not waste time driving to far away annuity leads, and the prospects live close enough to come to you so a meeting becomes far more likely.

Here's the special part-before you contact the annuity lead, the system will send via email a booklet on annuities personalized with your name, photo, credentials, contact information and biography. Because these annuity prospects receive the annuity booklet before you call, they are already impressed by your knowledge. You look like a professional, not a salesperson. And this is where all other lead systems fall down. You come off as a sales person, and not a professional, and you don't get annuity appointments. This is why the use of the credibility-building booklet is so important.

You won't get a ton of leads to waste your time. You may only get three to five a week, depending on your radius.