Whether you’re taking a vacation or you’re trying to tighten a budget, you may find yourself wondering if you should pause your live transfers and data leads. The short answer is that it’s never a good idea to completely pause leads because consistency is important for the health of your agency’s pipeline. Here is some more information on how a pause affects schedules, morale and your bottom line. Also, there are a couple of things you can do to prevent a complete pause.
Opening and Closing Call Schedules
If your agency does not have call schedules, you may want to create one, especially before you start buying leads. Opening and closing call schedules help manage calls to an agency according to the time of day. You can set up live transfer hours during specific hours and rotate team schedules on making outbound calls with data leads and then taking the calls during set hours.
Maintain consistency with the days of the week and the hours you receive live transfers. Make sure the designated person keeps to that schedule or else it’s a waste of money.
Insurance agents who consistently take calls five days a week see a higher return on investment (ROI). That means being prepared when the call comes in and making a sale.
A Pause in Leads Means Missed Opportunities
More opportunities equals more sales. Insurance sales success is very much rooted in talk-time. Valuable talk-time is most important. Talking with people who already spent a good deal of time answering questions is much more valuable than a cold call.
While it’s not true that each call will result in a sale, a lead provider with a great call center will have vetted these prospects, so look into how the vendor is operating a call center and whether or not that center is based in the U.S.
Live leads are as hot as it will ever get, so when you pause these easier-to-close leads, you’ll have to make many more calls before you make a sale. There is a reason why live calls are more expensive, with every lead generation company, because they have already been worked over.
Pauses Mean Dips in Traffic and Demoralization
If you’re not buying calls, it’ll also be demoralizing for the agents not hearing the phones ring and only making outbound calls all day. And without data leads, your list of quality prospects will slim down. Your sales staff’s commissions will also be affected, leading to turnover, which is expensive.
While there is a very real expense in buying leads, especially live transfers, the key is to treat each sale as a long-term investment. Treating your prospects and clients as kings and queens after the sale is what makes a live transfer sale a real success.
A Fresh Perspective on Insurance Leads You Don’t Close
If you’re calling a lead four or five times and then throwing the lead away and forgetting it altogether, you are wasting money. Each time that person’s situation comes to the front of your mind, contact them. If you can find a way to save them money, all the better.
First things first, though. At the gate, always find out from the lead when they are due to renew their policy or policies. Their renewal window is when you get a second chance at selling policies. You never know what that person has experienced in the past six months. They may be open to changing insurers.
If you pause leads, you’ll also be short on people to follow up with during their renewal period.
Pausing Insurance Leads FAQs
What can I do instead of pausing leads if I’m short this month?
Have your highest producing agent take the calls. They may perform better than you–and that’s a good thing for your agency! Or look for a decreased cap on a bid or try a different insurance product so the pause doesn’t completely halt the pipeline. Reach out to your Account Manager for help navigate any changes you’re considering making.
When should I pause leads?
It’s fine to pause leads for a day or two or a week, if you’re on vacation or are ill, but only if you are the only person taking all the live calls. You also have the option of keeping your leads active, and allowing someone else to take the calls.
How do I keep track of leads
A good CRM with automation will also free up time for a short-staffed agency so you can take more calls and reach out to more leads instead of doing repetitive tasks.
