It is common knowledge that telephone boiler rooms exist with newly licensed agents selling term insurance over the phone. And these sales reps who are “chained” to their desks are typically given quotas of 2-3 sales a day. Most annual premiums for these policies usually average around $300 for a 10-Year level term insurance contract.

In both cases, these production levels could not be achieved without a consistent flow of quality leads.

Many marketing gurus today are preaching that success in selling comes easier with systems. That is especially true in selling insurance. Most insurance producers today consist of small 1 or 2 man practices who attempt to wear far too many hats. The producers primary responsibility is to generate revenue income for the practice. However, many times the producer is burdened with too many responsibilities as the marketing guy, the sales rep, secretary, underwriter, customer service, etc. It’s too much for 1 person to juggle.

I’ve read that most insurance producers spend 85% of their time doing administrative tasks, and only 10%-15% actually talking to prospects and selling insurance. This is not very productive.

How can systems solve this dilemma? First, let’s define exactly what a system is. The text book definition is explained as follows,

system: any formulated, regular, or special method or plan of procedure.

Said another way, a system is a set of identifiable tasks that are typically repeated for each sale regardless of the customer. Once identified, these tasks can then be organized and documented as a procedure. Thus, the beginnings of a system.

The nice thing about setting up systems is that once organized and documented, they can then be delegated to someone else, thus alleviating the load on the insurance producer.

In my own practice, if I can create sytems to handle the burdensome administrative tasks, I’m convinced that I can increase my sales production and commission income. By freeing up more of my time from doing repetitive administrative tasks, I can focus on how to get more prospects who want to discuss their insurance needs.

The most common reason coming from producers like myself for not hiring an administrative assistant is that it takes too much time training a new inexperienced person for the job. Documented systems solve that problem. Once created, a system becomes a blueprint for an assistant to follow step-by-step.

I will certainly be identifying and documenting my first system this week. If you are a producer, let me know your thoughts.

Sales are a direct result of having a sufficient amount of  leads that are either purchased from a lead generation company, or developed myself. I prefer to generate my own leads because I have more control over my chosen target market. However, it’s certainly much easier to make a phone call and place an order for whatever amount of leads I need.

From past experience, I can usually count on selling insurance to 50% of leads that I generate myself. Yet, the cost of generating these leads is about $50 per lead. That’s not cheap. My gross comission income, however, is about 5 to 6 times my investment.

My favorite sales leads are those that are generated from my existing clients. These leads can be interest from existing clients wanting additional products like life insurance, annuities, or IRA’s. Another favorite lead from existing clients are referred leads who have expressed an interest in discussing their insurance or investment savings.

Whether I purchase leads or generate them myself, good leads are a result of good marketing methods. Also, I’ve been evaluating my lead options, and selecting the appropriate ones for my business by reading the Life Insurance Sales Leads Guide.

Here’s a description of my formula for selling insurance… commission income comes from sales which come from talking to prospects needing to solve a need. My opportunity to talk to propects is a direct result of how many leads I can get which comes from successful marketing methods. Successful marketing comes from establishing mometum.

As 2008 comes to a close, this is an appropriate time to review the results of my marketing strategies, production numbers, and income for the year.

Every year this time, I evaluate which marketing strategies were productive, and which were duds. This weeding out process will determine which ones I will continue to work with improvements, and which I will drop completely.

Here is a list of marketing strategies that I implemented during 2008.

1. Purchase shared internet life insurance leads
2. Generate my own final expense insurance leads
3. Solicit referrals from existing clients
4. Upgrade & sell new products to existing clients

Update Insurance Marketing Strategies for 2009

Purchasing shared internet life insurance leads was somewhat of a disappointment. Even though I earned approximately double what I invested, I expected to earn 4 to 5 times my investment. Unfortunately, there were more agents purchasing the identical leads that I received than I expected. In 2009, I will replace shared leads with exclusive life insurance leads to reduce my competition.

I plan to continue to generating my own final expense insurance leads and perhaps increase my investment and time with these leads. As expected, my earnings from working these leads is about 3 times my investment. By tweaking this marketing approach, I believe I can even increase my return on investment.

Referral leads from my existing clients to their friends, co-workers and relatives is the most cost effective lead that I can get. Usually, clients will recommend leads for me to contact in assisting them with insurance, annuities, or mutual funds. In 2009, I will actively solicit referral leads from my A-List clients.

Another cost effective sales lead is to approach existing clients about upgrading their current insurance or savings program. I will continue to systematically schedule appointments for client reviews to identify potential upgrades and new product sales opportunities.

I also plan to add a new marketing strategy which has a proven success record with other businesses. More and more businesses are implementing direct response advertising as a strategy of adding prospects into a sales funnel. The sales funnel approach usually includes an up-front giveaway item that is relevant and interesting to prospective clients looking to review their current insurance and/or savings program. The funnel then leads the prospects along a path of offering additional products and services at the backend.

I’m excited about designing a profitable sales funnel that can be implemented inexpensively by leveraging the benefits of the internet.

That’s my 2008 review, and simple plan for increasing my earnings in 2009 using my updated insurance marketing strategies.

Currently, I’m an independent producer marketing and selling life insurance, disability insurance, group health benefits, annuities and retirement savings plans primarily in southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and northern Delaware.

I hope you find my selling journey both interesting and informative.

I welcome your input and your questions. Please feel free to comment on any of my blog posts, or you may contact me directly at terrytravick [at] gmail [dot] [com]. Thank you again for visiting and feel free to stop by anytime.