06 Aug Best Conversion Practices For Agents Using High-Intent Online Leads

ZipQuote’s Expert Advice team does more than troubleshoot problems. We’re a hands-on, proactive unit striving to help agents make sales and consistently attract new customers. “On a daily basis, we look at how to partner with our agents and do some of the heavy lifting for them  – like generate inbound traffic to their agency and grow their book of business,” says Ashleigh Yamasaki, Manager of Agent Enrollment at ZipQuote.

Going out on a limb to contact a list of prospects can be intimidating and time-consuming. We fully understand that. So, to help you convert more policies, more often, we spoke with Ashleigh to give you some of the best insider tips and best conversion practices for working high-intent online leads.

Be Professional, But Confident And Relaxed

If you’re working ZipQuote leads, know that you’re giving yourself the best opportunity to convert – our insurance leads are high-intent. Being a generator, we are targeting consumers actively going online to look for quotes, and then delivering them to agents who will best be able to provide for them. “What I always tell agents is that they should feel good about working with a generator as opposed to an aggregator, because we see both sides of the coin. We are accountable for advertising appropriately and generating relevant leads. We aren’t incentivizing – we want to connect the right agents with the right consumers.”

Be Punctual

Often, the first to call is the first to close. While industry averages do show that 80% of leads won’t convert during the first call, being on top of the process puts you in the best position possible. The day you receive a lead, send an email to the consumer introducing yourself, verifying their intent, and scheduling a call. That should be standard practice.

Verify the information, build rapport with the consumer, and see what policies in your carrier’s book can best provide for that consumer.

Be Persistent

Follow up with them within 30 minutes after your first call (if you don’t connect first time around), and then again within 4-5 hours. It’s important not to give up. Do not to be turned off by having to leave a voicemail or not getting a response to your email. It’s nothing personal. Everyone gets busy.

When you do connect, keep the consumer on the phone for as long as you can. We only send leads to 3 agents at most, and never from the same carrier. So, the longer you can keep them on the phone, the smaller the opportunity becomes for another agent to break through.

Get To Know Your Customers

Get to know consumers and try to understand their needs. You’re looking for more than numbers and basic facts – any policy is a big deal to the people it covers. It should be a personal sale, so listen to their concerns and try to address them as efficiently and truthfully as possible.

Don’t be scared to add personality, even humor, to the conversation. You don’t need to be a comedian, but using light-hearted banter can be a way to work through the seriousness of an insurance call and connect over something outside the policy you’re trying to sell.

Find out why they’re looking for a new policy and try to get as much background information as possible. Ultimately, you want to sell a policy that will help them. “If people are friendly and ‘smiling through the phone’, it becomes a more pleasant conversation. Consumers are more likely to trust someone who’s invested in their well-being, rather than a dry agent. Just being friendly will automatically lay the ground for a warmer agent-consumer relationship.”

Sales is a people’s’ game. One of the main takeaways about this post on working high-intent leads is being genuine throughout the process. You’re selling an important product, and part of the process should be investing personally in the process.

Next week, we’ll dive deeper into the process of using tools, such as a lead management system system, to improve your overall performance.
To get in touch with ZipQuote’s Expert Advice team, follow the link to our contact page.