What are the right marketing strategies for your agency?? Jason and Craig break it down in a really fun and lively episode of the Insurance podcast today!
The duo discusses various marketing strategies focusing on real-time internet leads as the most effective approach. They compare live transfers and direct mail, highlighting the drawbacks such as inconsistency, high costs, and loss of control over data.
The insurance gurus stress the necessity of embracing internet leads and adapting according to changing landscapes of the time.
📢 Tune in for a fun episode and learn which marketing strategies are the best for your agency!
The Insurance Dudes Weekly 5-Min Read
Tips, Tricks, and Wizardry for Everything Your Agency Touches
Subscribe for a treasure trove of knowledge, and never miss out on a golden nugget again! Our newsletter is the map to the hidden gems of insurance mastery.
Unlock the Alchemy of Turning Internet Leads into Gold with "Internet Lead Secrets"
Dive into the strategies that transformed us into Midas of the insurance world, writing over 10mm in annualized auto premium amidst global chaos. Grab your copy before it vanishes!
On-Demand Masterclass: The Treasure Map to Lead Mastery
Step into our world where leads are never cold, and revenue streams flow like rivers of gold. Register now and discover the X marks the spot of agency growth.
Don’t let your agency be a ship lost at sea. Book your growth call now and let Jonathan, the captain who steered Jason's team to $250k a month, navigate you to the treasure island of your business goals. Get your growth plan, tailored just for you. It's time to wake the giant within.
Dive into an episode where entertainment and enlightenment collide, and walk away with a toolbox that even Feynman would envy. The Insurance Dudes are on a mission: making the complicated uncomplicated, and having a blast along the way. Are you in? #LEGO
What are the right marketing strategies for your agency?? Jason and Craig break it down in a really fun and lively episode of the Insurance podcast today!
The duo discusses various marketing strategies focusing on real-time internet leads as the most effective approach. They compare live transfers and direct mail, highlighting the drawbacks such as inconsistency, high costs, and loss of control over data.
The insurance gurus stress the necessity of embracing internet leads and adapting according to changing landscapes of the time.
📢 Tune in for a fun episode and learn which marketing strategies are the best for your agency!
The Insurance Dudes Weekly 5-Min Read
Tips, Tricks, and Wizardry for Everything Your Agency Touches
Subscribe for a treasure trove of knowledge, and never miss out on a golden nugget again! Our newsletter is the map to the hidden gems of insurance mastery.
Unlock the Alchemy of Turning Internet Leads into Gold with "Internet Lead Secrets"
Dive into the strategies that transformed us into Midas of the insurance world, writing over 10mm in annualized auto premium amidst global chaos. Grab your copy before it vanishes!
On-Demand Masterclass: The Treasure Map to Lead Mastery
Step into our world where leads are never cold, and revenue streams flow like rivers of gold. Register now and discover the X marks the spot of agency growth.
Don’t let your agency be a ship lost at sea. Book your growth call now and let Jonathan, the captain who steered Jason's team to $250k a month, navigate you to the treasure island of your business goals. Get your growth plan, tailored just for you. It's time to wake the giant within.
Dive into an episode where entertainment and enlightenment collide, and walk away with a toolbox that even Feynman would envy. The Insurance Dudes are on a mission: making the complicated uncomplicated, and having a blast along the way. Are you in? #LEGO
Brass tactics, those funky tactics, brass tactics.
Speaker 2:
Those funky tactics Insurance dudes are on a mission to escape being handcuffed by our agencies.
Speaker 1:
How? By uncovering the secrets to creating a predictable, consistent and profitable agency sales machine. I am Craig Prutzinger, I am Jason Feltman. We, we are agents, we are insurance dude. I don't know if I I have it in me to do that every episode and I don't know if the listeners have have the ears right or that for every do you think that the beastie boys would give us permission to use just a sample?
Speaker 2:
I I mean, don't they? Is that what rappers do? Do you have to get?
Speaker 1:
permission. I think the rappers do that. Yeah, yeah, they've been doing it for a while. When I said they I meant the rappers.
Speaker 2:
Oh yeah, just to be very, very clear, very difficult, just to be very, very clear.
Speaker 1:
Very difficult to use pronouns these days in yeah what is they referring to?
Speaker 2:
now shit?
Speaker 1:
do we have to re-record this one?
Speaker 2:
I nope, and if we offended you, then you probably I don't even know how you I am definitely offended because I can't even say words that are like every third word of a sentence.
Speaker 1:
Okay, all right. So on this episode of the insurance dudes, my dudes and dudettes out there, if we've offended you, then this probably isn't the podcast for you. Of course, as you know, it's the show where we separate the wheat from the chaff.
Speaker 2:
Yes, when it comes to insurance marketing strategies, I'm Jason Feldman and I am Mr Craig Pretzinger, and I have not heard you talk about separating the wheat from the chaff in such a long time. It's such a pleasant return I almost said chaffed, you know a pleasant return. I almost said shaft. I you know so many things that you can't say it these last. So let's so, let's just replay, let's skip all that replay what happened last time. So we took a hard look at some of the most commonly recommended tactics that some of the people that that think they have it in our best interest are trying to give, and, uh, we looked at them and exposed why they don't cut it so in today's competitive landscape. Uh, we saw that we need to move on. That was like what. And so, mr jason, what do you think?
Speaker 2:
we greg and I have the game today, so I don't know how well, this is gonna go, but uh, yeah.
Speaker 1:
Well, we're not just here to tear things down, are we, mr greg? No, no, we promised our listeners that we do a deep dive into strategies that actually work. Remember we said the whole ending where we talked about, you know, sitting out in the cold with a warm cup of Joe oh, in the pine the crisp pine air, something like that. Yeah, yeah, I was thinking like Arrowhead. Something local to you. Yeah, so we talked about the agents that get that all important benchmark of 10 quoted households a day.
Speaker 2:
Yes, that's right, mr Jason 10. 10. When I heard that, I just thought what? So? That's the number that separates the good from the great in this business. It could be slightly lower, slightly higher, depending on where you are, or slightly higher depending on where you are. Everything we do, though, every strategy that we've been using, has been focused on hitting that number. Everything rotates around. Our quote per day, our quoted households per day, per producer.
Speaker 1:
Let me give you the why on that. Why isn't it more and why isn't it less? Well, we've realized realized this that most quotes are going to be let's we optimize for 30 minutes, right? So at 10, that would be five hours of talk time. If they maximize the 30 minutes of talk time for the quotes, hit me with some maths, nobody, dude. Once you start going over that into 12, 14, whatever, they're going to start skimping on the quotes, it gets closer to terrible.
Speaker 2:
Yes, extremely yes.
Speaker 1:
Closer to terrible. So this metric of 10 might even be too much, to be totally honest. It might be eight, but you can go over under two and there's an argument for that because of margin for error and all the other stuff. So that's why we do the 10, and I just wanted to give the why behind that, because sometimes the why makes more sense. I don't do anything without a good why, well, but then I think the sorry, go ahead. I was gonna say you tell me something to do without a good why, I ain't gonna do it no matter if it's the best thing ever.
Speaker 2:
Right, I need to know. Yeah, this is true, I can vouch for what you just said. Yeah, my son's the same way. The other thing is on the quoted is that we're just going to move on. So let's start with the live transfers. Number one this is where you're going to be buying the leads that are already on the phone and they're ready to talk to one of your agents. So the appeal here is obvious. Right, it eliminates a lot of the front end stuff, a lot of the prospecting and chasing.
Speaker 1:
Yes, like those cold calls we were talking about last week. Right, but there are some serious drawbacks to this approach. But there are some serious drawbacks to this approach. Great, now I feel like we're talking about Amy again.
Speaker 2:
Oh no.
Speaker 1:
The first is consistency, or rather the lack there of. Why is that with live transfers, you're at the mercy of the lead provider, and some of those might get flooded with calls and other days you might not. So like right, what do you do? What do you do when it goes down?
Speaker 2:
And it makes it, it makes it totally hard to plan and allocate. You can't, you don't know what to do with your resources, right? So your agents are either twiddling their thumbs or worse, or or they're super overwhelmed, and neither is good for morale. Now you got issues right.
Speaker 1:
Yep. And the second issue, talking about issues, is the cost. Live transfers are expensive. These can be like 50 to 100 bucks. That's 20 times more than you pay for the typical internet lead.
Speaker 2:
Right, and if you assume so, let's just for we're going to play devil's advocate and say that they're great and we're going to assume a high close rate of 20%. I don't, we don't, we don't hit huh. Okay, yeah, let's do that. So, um, so, 20% as as an assumption. Okay, I'm just not at the a game today. Um, 20% assumption is pretty high, so I think it's safe to use that If your cost per sale is still going to be 250 or more. So that's like best case scenarios and that's a tough number to build a profitable agency around if that's going to be your best.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I agree, but perhaps the biggest issue with live transfers is the loss of control over your data. We've talked about this before but we gotta keep talking about it. When you're buying internet leads, you're building a valuable database of prospects that you have their information that you can nurture over time. People don't wanna buy right away, like in our agency. I think we get five to 10, I wouldn't even say 10. Really, it's like five to 8% is a one-time, first-time close People these days. They need a little bit more time.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, and that's the whole nature of it, right, as you know that if you put in inputs now, it still takes a little bit of time to work its way through, so that's real important. And then with live transfers, you only get that one shot, right, you get that one shot at the sale and then you don't get to keep the data. It's gone. So I'll tell you, in this business, data is the asset and we'll close people. We've had reports back of people being closed in the 200s. So somebody recently just said that they got somebody to something which is insane, like they were really, they were really stretching it out. But we know that, right, it's the same way in in almost anything. If you look at your sales funnel, if you look at the people that come to us and and and do all of these things and talk to us, they don't just the first day, right, yep, yep, and do all of these things and talk to us.
Speaker 1:
They don't just the first day, right, yep, yep. And life transfers often seems like the solution. I know I have thought it was the solution in the past, but they're actually very expensive, unreliable and it's very difficult to get to that amazing target that we're talking about, the 10 quoted household target a day.
Speaker 2:
Right yeah, very difficult. So now let's look at direct mail, the big papery elephant in the room. This is the traditional approach. Right, it's like I'm talking just buying a bunch of stuff, sitting out for mail house, targeting a list of prospects, and hope they call in for a quote.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, direct mail can work, but it's slow and it's a costly path to 10 quoted households. In our experience a good mailer might generate a 0.75% call-in rate. So for every 10,000 pieces that you send out, you might get 75 calls and it's ridiculous to track.
Speaker 2:
I mean it's so much easier with internet leads, don't you think? Yeah, it's just extra stuff, I ed. This is. The thing is, if you present it to your team, your team's always going to want the mailers right, because the team wants the easy way out. But the team doesn't care about how much you're spending and I care more about them getting the results. So I'm going to spend on the thing that's going to get the better results, which is actually going to benefit them more, because they're going to make more money and everybody wins. Yeah, yep.
Speaker 1:
And the costs add up quickly, right? A miller might cost a dollar per piece or something like that. So you're looking at a crazy investment just to get those 70 calls, okay. So if your agents are able to quote 100% of those calls, which is very optimistic and unrealistic but let's just say, and you close at the industry average of around 16%, you end up with 12 sold policies.
Speaker 2:
Oh, wow Bingo. So that puts your cost per sale at over 800 bucks, and that's assuming everything goes perfectly and with really good numbers. So in reality you're likely going to be seeing an acquisition cost of over a grand, especially in the beginning, and or even higher in the beginning, per household.
Speaker 1:
Well, that just doesn't sound very sustainable for most agencies no. Mr Craig no, so you might be able to make the math work if you have a very high lifetime customer value, but it's still a risky and expensive way to grow. I don't like it, yeah, and expensive way to grow.
Speaker 2:
I don't like it. Yeah, if there's an option out that has a proven track record to perform better and do it less expensively, then that's where I go. So that brings us to our third option, and I get to deliver the winner here, mr Jason. Real-time internet leads.
Speaker 1:
That's right. Winner winner chicken dinner. With internet leads you'll be getting a constant flow of fresh, targeted prospects that deliver straight to your agents. Hey, craig, when you buy something, do you go on the internet and Google it and type it in? As a matter of fact, I do, and google it and type it in? As a matter of fact, I do so, would you? I mean, is that the first place you go, or do you go to sears or jc?
Speaker 2:
penny first. As a matter of fact, the first place I go is the internet, that's right.
Speaker 1:
Get with it, like if you still have that old school mentality that internet leads suck and that, uh, you know, there's just. You know. You know this is a fad, a trend, dude, the internet's here to stay. I don't know if you've read the news lately. Look at the stock market all right, where are the billion-dollar companies?
Speaker 2:
Internet- it's all internet.
Speaker 1:
It gives you the most leverage, get into this.
Speaker 2:
All right, yeah, anybody with resistance on that. I mean, I'm a little older and it took me longer to really convert to it, but it's just a no brainer. Anybody that isn't is going to get left behind, and we don't say it like to upset anybody, it's just bad.
Speaker 1:
We really don't want people to be left behind, and if it does upset you, you got to get with it. Good, yeah, take that anger and go dominate out there and these are. These people have actively expressed interest in the types of policies you sell and they're out there seeking information on it oh, but so many people.
Speaker 2:
They sell to more than one agent, mr jason yeah, yeah, they do.
Speaker 1:
But here's the thing that same person's gonna go walk in. I, so my agency's uh, well, I guess it's not here anymore, even though now it's just my office. I don't even know if I'm supposed to say that, but who cares? Um, but in this, uh, in this, there's also the other big carriers in this complex. What are the other big carriers? The farmers and the state farms. Uh, so two farms, uh, in two States, I guess Right, three carriers, you only mentioned two.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I can't mention the other one for legal purposes, cause I'll be sued, apparently, and nor have we.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, nor have we I can't mention the other one for legal purposes, because I'll be sued, apparently. And nor have we. Yeah, nor have we. I've stayed in the rules. Now the people that walk around to all the agencies to get all these quotes, like whoever gets a quote from us is going to get a quote from them and stuff. Yes, people do seek out different areas. Who cares if the lead's getting sold to multiple people?
Speaker 2:
That same person is reaching out in multiple areas too, so it's like you can't run from it and so, based on the data which we talked about a little bit before, we know, if only eight it's like eight to 15%, it kind of fluctuates there but of first contact calls, like you quoted it for the first time, and it closes, it's only 8% to 15%. It's small, right, a very small amount of those people. So think about it In the same way. When somebody is walking around shopping or doing the same thing, they are going to look. So it's not a function of who's the best at closing, it's a function of who's the most persistent.
Speaker 1:
Craig, give me a start with number one. What are the three advantages here? I'll tell you what the first one is right there.
Speaker 2:
So you're typically going to buy. A high quality internet leads for around four to five bucks. That's a fraction of what you pay for a live transfer or a direct mail lead.
Speaker 1:
That's right. Second is speed. That's what you were alluding to earlier. Yeah, speed with real-time leads. Your agents can be following up with these leads and prospects in minutes of them submitting their information Right, and that is crucial because the faster you respond, the higher your chances of setting that quote and that appointment.
Speaker 2:
That is right, and thanks for getting me back on track, mr Jason, because I did go off on a tangent. This is a third Scalability, super important right. With internet leads, you can dial up, no pun intended, your volume. You can dial it up, you can dial it down, based on your capacity and your goals. So, while we don't ever encourage quick changes, it does give you that option. And if you want to hit 10 quoted households, you can buy enough leads to make that happen. No matter what, that's a fact.
Speaker 1:
Hashtag facts Supply and demand. There's way more supply than demand here and there always will be. Remember, that's one of the first things that a lead provider told me. I came very close to an account manager and he said if you can make internet leads work, don't ever worry about supply. And that's when we were running out of supply of live transfers, because those things do run out of supply. Anyways, let's talk about the most important thing here.
Speaker 1:
With internet leads, you own the data. Every lead you buy is a new entry into your database, right, right, a new prospect to nurture and follow up with over time. So you better have a rocking CRM and if you do, ooh, that is some equity.
Speaker 2:
Yep, and if you get the right kind which you read about in the internet lead secrets we talk about all about those and Mr Jason talked about that a second but if you get the right kind, it's going to work, because you then can build a sustainable, profitable agency. The math works. Like it's all about the math, like anybody that thinks that, oh, this sucks or this, it doesn't matter, it's the math. I mean, we have 100 million dials. It is the math, so it does work and we know that you can do it. So you got to fill that pipeline right, you got to get the right leads, you got to get a bid there and you got to be calling the right people 100%, and when you couple real-time internet leads with a well-designed sales process and CRM and skilled team of agents, hitting 10 quoted households becomes not just possible but inevitable.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I remember back in the old, like back before, we had everything all in place and did this, and I even believe that internet leads worked, like my sales agents, probably, I don't know two or three households a day of quoting, and when I ask, I mean that seems to be pretty much kind of par for the course. So it's scary, like the difference. Right, it's just so remarkably different that I remember just going that's not ever going to happen. But no, it does happen. The people that are succeeding are doing it and it's totally doable. You just got to follow the formula 100%.
Speaker 1:
Now, of course, this is just a starting point. Generating the lead, or generating the leads, is one thing, but you also need to have the right process in place to convert those to clients.
Speaker 2:
That's right, and we'll be diving into the future episodes, the scripts, the strategies, the key metrics that you're going to need to know and that you're going to need to be tracking to optimize your sales process and get the most out of every lead.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so this is it. This is your accountability to become an elite agent out there, right, listen, every week we're going to get you there, but for now, the message is clear If you're serious about hitting 10 quoted households and building a thriving agency, real Time Internet Leads is, in my opinion our opinion the only way to go.
Speaker 2:
Yep. So start testing, start, start tracking, start building, do that pipeline and stay tuned for more brass tactics and what can they go check out?
Speaker 1:
they can go check out internet lead secrets at the idudescom. Just just go over there, let's go, but until next time. This is Jason Feltman and Craig signing off. Remember, in this business, action is everything. Action takers are money makers, they say. So don't just listen, implement, iterate and die.