Auto Insurance Leads - NextWaveMarketingStrategies.com

If you are sales prospecting, a good place to start is with aged insurance leads. Right now, AgedLeadStore.com is selling five to six month old and ten to twelve month old auto insurance leads for just pennies per lead. Leads in this range allow agents to target people who are renewing current insurance plans as well as those who never found what they needed in the first place. Best of all, if you make even a handful of sales, you’ll have completely recouped your investment.

Why Buy Aged Insurance Leads?

No company plans to pay big dollars for new, exclusive leads and then let those leads fall through the cracks, but this is often exactly what happens. New leads frequently don’t get the follow-up needed to turn them into customers. Some new leads don’t even get an initial contact, and many don’t ever feel as though their questions and insurance needs were adequately addressed. These leads are ripe for nurturing and, with appropriate follow-up, may become valuable customers.

How Do I Contact Aged Leads

When you’re sales prospecting with aged leads, you can contact them the same way you would reach out to any lead – by phone, by direct mail, or by email. Many agencies believe it makes the most sense to launch an email marketing campaign to show the leads how your services can benefit them. End the email with a strong call to action, such as asking them to click a link to receive a free quote or a call from a sales agent along with an e-book with valuable insurance information. Of course, if you send this call for action, be sure to have staff set aside to deal with increased requests for information and phone calls.

What Data Do I Get on My Aged Leads?

When you buy from AgedLeadStore.com, all of your leads will come with a full postal address, an email address, and a phone number. Furthermore, there are 190 possible fields for additional information about the lead. Any given vendor usually supplies anywhere from 20 to 50 of these fields. This provides extra data which your agents can use to decide how best to approach individual leads.

Buying aged insurance leads, especially leads that may be coming up for renewal on their auto insurance policies, makes good business sense. If you’re not sure about it, try purchasing a small sample of 249 leads. You will get names, complete contact information, and additional data on each lead for a total cost of less than $100 for the whole batch. Sales prospecting has never been so easy.

First, relax. No one is expecting you to make 10,000 calls on your own. You will have access to auto dialers and auto responder programs that can do a large portion of the work for you. Which step should you take first? There are at least three promising ways to contact and maximize the aged sales leads.

Try Cold Calling

Use an auto dialer to reach out to your aged Internet leads. If the lead answers the phone, the call will automatically be routed to the appropriate member of the sales team. If the lead doesn’t answer, the lead is usually passed on to an auto responder program.

There is one cautionary step you should take when cold calling aged leads. If the leads are 90 days old or older, and if they appear on the national do not call list, your company could get into a lot of trouble for attempting a phone contact. Make sure that leads that have aged longer than three months are carefully “scrubbed” against the DNC list or find another way to contact them.

Send E-Mail to Leads

Computer technology has made it easy to send out thousands of messages at a time. You can use e-mail to remind the leads that they had once requested insurance information and you would like to help them. Design your email so that the lead can “opt in” to receiving further contact from your company by clicking on a big  red or orange button. As part of good customer service, it’s equally important that your lead has an easy button to click that will stop any further calls. If you use this method, it can take less than a day to separate the prospects that are still interested from the ones who don’t want further contact.

Try a Snail Mail Campaign

Snail mail has developed a pretty bad reputation over the years, but it’s not a bad marketing tool. This is especially true since people don’t get as much sales mail as they used to, and a well-designed card or a letter with a compelling pitch just might when you a second look. End your letter or post card with the same type of call to action that you would use in an email. For instance, you might have the prospect call if they still want to discuss insurance needs or ask them to visit your website and sign up for a free newsletter.

Don’t be overwhelmed if your company buys a large volume of aged leads. There are follow-up methods that can maximize the responses without over-taxing the sales staff.

Website Call to Action - NextWaveMarketingStrategies.com

When potential customers visit your website, you don’t want them to just have a look around and then go on their way. You want them to do something, like buy your product, sign up for your newsletter, or agree to be contacted on their mobile device with special offers and savings. If your call to action is weak, though, the would-be customer might surf on to the next site without any idea of the opportunity he or she just missed.

The answer is simple: Create a stronger call to action.

Web Design

Web design has a lot to do with whether a prospect acts on your CTAs or not. There are several ways for creating a web that is CTA friendly. First, make sure your agency’s phone number and other contact information appears in a prominent position on each page of the website. The prospect should never have to surf around trying to find out just how to make that phone call or send an email that you’ve requested in a CTA. The information should literally be staring him or her in the face.

Second, provide a large, colorful click box that the prospect can use to send you an email or complete an online form requesting a contact. The best colors are orange and red, because they catch the eye.

A third tip to keep in mind is to make the web design consistent. For instance, don’t use a big red button in one place and a small font hyperlink text in another. The person viewing the website should get used to looking for one familiar symbol to initiate contact with you.

Finally, reduce the number of choices. Think about how frustrated most of us get with the automated answering systems that ask you to push “1″ for this, “2″ for that, and so on. Prospects don’t want to have to choose between half a dozen different buttons for different requests. They want a CTA that is easy to follow, and if they don’t get that from you, they may very well get it from one of your competitors.

Web Content

Your design can be perfect, but if your sales content is weak, you still won’t get the follow-through on your CTAs. First, prospects have to find your page before they can contact you. Use strong SEO, or search engine optimization, techniques such as using keywords strategically.

SEO may get a prospect to your site, but it won’t make him or her click the big red button. Your sales pitch has to give him or her a reason to take action. Don’t focus on what you can provide. Focus on what the prospect stands to gain. For instance, instead of saying, “Our helpful book contains tips about SEO,” you might say, “You can improve your keyword skills in minutes with the free e-book you’ll receive when you…”

Remember, potential customers come to your site because they want help. Show them that you are the ones who can provide that help, and they’ll be eager to respond to your call to actions.

Improve Your Office Space - Next Wave Marketing Strategies

Are you a “piler,” one of those people with ceiling-high piles of paper on his or her desk? Do you routinely reassure yourself that, in spite of the mess, you know exactly where everything is? Are you embarrassed when your boss, co-workers, or customers see your workspace? If so, this article is for you, because no matter how well you think you understand the chaos around you, the fact is that office clutter can slow your sales significantly.

Misplaced Papers

In a cluttered office, papers tend to get misplaced. They are usually not lost for good; in fact, they are usually not even lost for very long. When you’ve got a customer on the phone waiting for you to look up the information he or she needs, though, even five minutes of searching can seem like an eternity. Do yourself and your customers a favor and file any customer-related information within an hour of the time it lands on your desk.

Slow Response Times

When your boss, colleagues, clients, or prospects ask for information, they don’t want it when you happen to come across it. They want it now. If you can’t produce it, you are wasting their time as well as your own. Once again, a good filing system can help you avoid these difficulties.

Forgotten Follow-Ups

Has this ever happened to you? Just before lunch, you receive a message to call Prospect X. You put it on your desk and plan to get to it after you return from your break, but by the time you get back, the matter has slipped your mind and the memo has been covered with interoffice mail and other materials your co-workers have placed on your desk. It may be weeks before you come across that memo again, and by then it may be too late to make a sale.

There are two ways to prevent this type of problem from occurring. First, set up an inbox and ask everyone delivering new papers to you to place them in the box. Second, review your box at least once a day. Each time you touch a piece of paper, take one of four actions: Do it, dump it, delegate it, or defer it. By the end of each day, your inbox should be empty.

Lack of Preparation

It’s hard to prepare for a meeting or presentation if the data you need is strewn all around your office and desk. Taking the time to stop and find papers slows your productivity and cuts into your sales time. Showing up unprepared can damage your career.

Bad Impressions

If you bring prospects or clients into your workspace they’re likely to think that you have a problem getting organized. A bad first impression may not necessarily cost you the sale, but it does make your work harder and take up more of your time.

If your office is a jumble of cluttered papers, set aside an hour or two each day to go through each of them and either throw it away, delegate it to the person whose job it is to follow up on such issues, or assign it to a specific place in your office. As new papers come in, organize them the same way. In no time at all, you’ll have a clear desk and will no longer have to waste time shuffling through piles for information you need immediately.

Increase 2012 Sales - NextWaveMarketingStrategies.com

The year 2011, with its uncertain economy, mortgage crises, and credit crunches left many salespeople feeling burned out. “Why should I even try?” they asked. “Nobody’s buying insurance these days.”

But that was 2011, and this is 2012. Start the New Year with a positive attitude as well as several ideas for turning prospects into valued customers.

Overhaul Your Sales Process

A lot of leads never become customers because they somehow slipped through the cracks and received little or no follow-up. Some never even received an initial contact from a member of the sales team. Starting today, find a way to keep track of all of your leads and the contacts you’ve had with them. Some people prefer to do this with pen and paper, others prefer CRM software. Whatever your approach, remember that it usually takes people at least seven contacts before they make a buying decision. Make sure your sales process provides that level of lead nurturing.

Set Action-Oriented Goals

Outcome-oriented goals such as, “I want to increase my sales by ten percent this year,” can be difficult to achieve because, although you can perfect your sales approach, you can’t force a client to buy from you. Instead of focusing on an outcome over which you have only limited control, set action-oriented productivity goals that are under your control. Examples include, “I will make 20 cold calls every day over the next month,” or “I will send emails to new prospects within an hour of receiving the referral.”

Renew Your Motivation

When conversions are slow, it’s easy to lose some of your motivation and enthusiasm. Renew your commitment by thinking about the ways in which the products and services you offer benefit your clients. It may also help to read testimonials of satisfied customers. Getting back in touch with the positive aspects of your job can help your productivity soar.

Know Your Products and Services Inside and Out

Learning about the wide range of products and services available to your customers can help you make a sale. For instance, when a customer complains that a product is out of his or her price range, you can think through the options and offer them a scaled-down package at a more affordable price. Rather than argue with the customers about their reasons for saying no, you can come up with a plan that makes them comfortable saying yes.

Ask for the Sale

This is a step many salespeople leave out because they are uncomfortable or don’t want to appear pushy; however, it’s important for you to take the lead, since your prospect has no idea what the next step in the process should be. There’s nothing wrong with saying something like, “Now that you’ve reviewed our proposal, I’d really like to get you enrolled in this plan as soon as possible. Would you like to start today?”

Like 2011, the year 2012 is bound to have its challenges and setbacks, but if you focus on making your sales process as strong as it can be, you can weather the storms and finish the year feeling proud of what you have accomplished.

Mobile Friendly Website? - Next Wave Marketing Strategies

According to Google statistics, about one out of every two users currently views your insurance sales website on a smart phone. The use of search engines from mobile phones has quadrupled since 2010.

Additionally, mobile users are not necessarily a patient group. Seventy-eight percent will leave your site, never to return, if they cannot get the page to load correctly after one or two tries. On the positive side of things, 90% of smart phone users who find what they are looking for on your website will initiate contact with your business within 24 hours. The bottom line is that it pays – and handsomely – to make your website mobile friendly.

Size Matters

People who view your site via a smart phone have a very small screen to contend with. If your site is crammed full of text, readers may become discouraged and move on to a site that uses informative, concise sentences and plenty of white space around paragraphs.

Speed Matters

Pages that load slowly due to complex programming or overuse of images can frustrate your would-be client and send him or her off to a competitor’s site.

Ease of Navigation

A site that is basically a link farm can be exasperating for the smart phone user who must use his or her thumbs to click on the one link out of dozens that interests him or her. To make your sales page as friendly to smart phones as possible, settle for a few clearly defined links with lots of space between them.

Use Call to Actions

While in some ways, mobile owners are at a disadvantage while browsing the web, there are some things that are easier to do from a mobile phone than from a desk top or a laptop. One of these activities is responding to call to actions, especially if all the user has to do is send a text message to opt in to whatever reward you are offering.

WordPress to the Rescue

WordPress offers a mobile plug-in, WP Touch, which allows smart phone users to select between seeing a page specifically designed for mobile users or the regular theme. This makes it easy to give customers and search engines what they want without engaging in costly and frustrating reprogramming of the site.

Mobile technology is set to become the preferred method for viewing Internet sites. Get ahead of the game by making your site easy for smart phone users to read and navigate.

That is why it makes sense to use a multi touch sales process. A multi touch sales process involves making contact with a prospect multiple times as well as using multiple methods of communication such as an e-mail campaign, follow up calls, direct mail, text messages, and voicemails. The multi touch process can be effective whether your sales staff is cold calling or warm calling.

Multi Touch Sales Process - Next Wave Marketing Strategies

Stage 1: Intro Call and E-Mail

If you are cold calling, your first contact with a prospect is likely to be a brief phone conversation. If the prospect sounds interested, send him or her a follow up e-mail highlighting the benefits of your insurance plans and providing your contact information so that the prospect can easily reach you with questions. This intro call and e-mail marks the beginning of your sales process.

Stage 2: Follow Up and Nurturing

Over the next several weeks, follow up with the prospect on a scheduled basis. An e-mail campaign is an efficient method of follow up, allowing you to easily send additional information about your programs. When you use e-mail, you can also gauge your prospect’s interest by checking to see whether he or she is opening the emails and clicking on the links provided.

In addition to sending a series of e-mails, you should also make follow up calls, leaving voicemails if necessary. Your goal, of course, is to attempt to engage the prospect directly so you can assess whether or not he or she remains interested in purchasing insurance from your organization.

In many cases, stage 2 ends with a sale.

Stage 3: Final Call and Voicemail

There are times when a prospect is simply not ready to make a purchase or, for whatever reason, does not want to make a purchase from your company. At some point, he or she may ask to be removed from your contact list. Alternatively, you may realize that you are making no progress and decide to move on to other, more promising leads.

Making a courteous final call and voicemail leaves the door open is the prospect becomes ready to buy from you in the future. In your final voicemail, thank the prospect for his or her time and remind the prospect that you and your organization are available to answer questions or to help in any other way.

It’s a hard fact that you won’t convert every lead no matter what sales process you use, but Business Acceleration Strategies found that using the multi touch method can increase a company’s sales by more than 200%. The more chances you give customers to buy from you, the more likely it is they will take you up on one of those chances.

Top Mobile Apps for Sales Teams - NextWaveMarketingStrategies.com

When you send your sales agents out into the field, you want to be sure that they have all the equipment they need to do their jobs. While this kind of technology used to mean hauling a laptop everywhere, much of it is now accessible via smart phone. These five apps can help your agents when they are away from the office.

Touch Base with GoToMeeting

GoToMeeting allows your staff to conduct an entire meeting online or to join a live meeting in progress. State of the art technology allows them to watch presentations and view reports as if they were there…without the added expense of bringing them in from the field. GoToMeeting does not currently work with BlackBerry.

CamCard Lite.

During an evening of networking, business cards are annoyingly easy to misplace. Even if you hang onto them, by the time you get into the office the next morning, you’ve often forgotten why you thought that person was an important contact. CamCard Lite allows you to read cards immediately and save the contact information. It also allows you to group your different contacts in ways that will make it easy for you to follow up with them. The service costs $6.99, but there is a free trial available. It works with all smart phones including Android and BlackBerry.

DocScan

Do you need to get that signed contract to the office right away? Don’t drive miles out of your way. Instead, scan the document and email it to the person who needs it. If you use Googledocs or Dropbox, you can also upload them to these programs. DocScan is available to i-Phone and iPad users only.

Apple’s Keynote

This handy application allows you to bring sales presentations with you on your phone. You can view and edit presentations in both Keynote 09 and MS PowerPoint. When you’re ready to start your speech, simply plug your phone into a projector and HDTV and watch the images appear. As the name suggests, Apple’s Keynote works only with the i-Phone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Customer Relationship Managements Apps

There are many different applications that can help you manage your relationships with customers. Most of them allow you to keep track of client contacts and follow up on leads while in the field. You can also communicate with sales staff in the office who can help you meet the needs of your customer right away.

Whether you have an Android, an i-Phone, or a BlackBerry, there are several applications that you can use to help you keep track of meetings, important documents, potentially valuable contacts, and client information. Use the technology available today to stay a step ahead of your competitors.

Sales Motivation - Next Wave Marketing Strategies.com

3. Consider performance based contracts

Improving Insurance Websites - NextWaveMarketingStrategies.com

1. Make Sure Your Site Includes Local Optimization

In the heading and text of your website, make sure to note your location. “Smithville Insurance Dealer” instead of “Hometown Insurance Dealer.” If your insurance office is in the suburb of a big city, be sure to note your proximity to that city. “Only 20 miles north of Chicago” or “Just outside of Chicago, IL.” This kind of local optimization will draw customers that prefer to handle their insurance needs locally.

2. Use Appropriate Keywords

Get your marketing team together and brainstorm the different words or sets of words a client looking for the insurance you sell might enter into a search engine. These are words you’ll want to use two or three times in your text so that search engines will pick up on them and display your website when a customer enters those keywords. Google has an especially helpful tool that helps generate keywords and provides you with statistics on how many people actually search for the words you are targeting.

3. Add Google Features

Speaking of Google, your insurance website should take advantage of at least two of Google’s many features available to merchants. First, sign up for Google +. This is a new bookmarking tool that allows people who find your website helpful to recommend the site to others. Google + is a relatively new tool, and getting in on the ground floor will make your website appear very progressive.

Make sure, too, that you are listed on Google maps. Google maps allow you to list your business category, name, physical address and phone number. They can also provide a link to your site so that when a customer searches for an insurance business in his or her area, all the information he or she needs to contact your company will show up in the results.

4. Content is Still King

Take a moment to read through your website. Is it well-written? Is the advice you offer timely and helpful? No matter how many bells and whistles you may use to attract people to your insurance website, it is the quality of the content that will make them stay and read. If you want them to come back, remember to set up a schedule to add new content regularly.

5. End Each Page with Call to Actions

Now you know how to bring customers to your website and keep them there with your superior content. But what do you want potential customers to do when they finish reading each page of your website? Do you want them to fill out a form for a free insurance quote or sign up for your newsletter? If so, place clear call to actions at the end of each page. The call to action should be easy to understand and easy to perform. It’s especially ideal if there’s something in it for the potential client, like a free quote or an e-book on the “10 Most Common Insurance Mistakes.”

When you’re gearing up for the New Year, don’t forget to put some special care into your business website. Using simple tools can help improve business – and profits – over the coming year.