A new study from IBM makes it clear that Internet insurance leads are a great way to grow your insurance business. Their new study titled “Powerful Interaction Points: Saying Goodbye To The Channel” indicates that consumers are spending much more time evaluating their options when it comes to insurance. While many consumers used to passively receive information and then sign the dotted line, today’s consumer wants to be an informed, well-educated consumer.

The study also underlines the importance of leveraging social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter to interact and engage with prospects and consumers.

The Internet is continually changing the way people shop – particularly for insurance. The team at Insurance & Technology magazine offer three suggestions for interacting with customers and growing stronger relationships:

1) Offer a variety of interaction points.
2) Track your customers and invest in analytics tools.
3) Improve the way you interact with customers and prospects.

As technology shifts and the insurance purchasing landscape continues to evolve, insurance professionals who stay abreast of these trends and focus on engaging insurance customers will continue to watch business soar.

There are a number of free ways to use the Internet to showcase your insurance expertise. One tool we recommend is LinkedIn – which allows you to connect with more than 43 million professionals in more than 200 countries. Unlike Facebook (which is another great resource for entrepreneurs), LinkedIn is a business-focused environment. Properly leveraging your LinkedIn profile will help you connect with other professionals and prospects. Follow these tips to get the most out of your LinkedIn profile:

1) Complete your profile. Remember that this may be your first impression to some people, so you want to make sure your profile is complete and flawless. Focus on these important profile items -

Headline – This is the information that will appear directly under your name. As a default, your current job information will be listed here. (i.e. Insurance Agent for Farmer’s Insurance) Take this opportunity to be creative and show off your personal brand. (i.e. Nashville insurance professional protecting your assets)

Summary – This should be a brief paragraph about why you enjoy being an insurance professional. What makes you different from other insurance agents? What can customers expect from you? List any distinctions, titles, honors or awards you’ve received.

Custom URL – You can personally brand your LinkedIn profile with a unique URL. To do this, go to your profile and click “edit”. Find “public profile” and click “edit” once more. At the top of the page, find where it says “public profile URL” and click “edit” again. Type how you want your URL to appear and click “set address” (i.e. http://linkedin.com/in/yourfullname) If your name or phrase has been taken, modify it by adding a period, underscore or middle initial.

Websites – List your agency website, blog, Facebook fan page, Twitter information, etc. so your new contacts are aware of the different ways to connect with you.

Recommendations – Use the recommendations area for client testimonials. There’s nothing better for business than letting your customers speak for you!

Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow!

One of my favorite marketing experts is Rohit Bhargava, author of Personality Not Included and top blogger at the Influential Marketing Blog.

Even with his extensive background and marketing knowledge-base, Bhargava’s information and insight is easy to digest and applicable regardless of skill level. One of his recent blog posts offered “7 Essential Social Media Instincts Everyone Should Learn“.

Are you using social media to connect with prospects and grow your insurance business? If you are, listen up! If you are not, still take note. The instincts he shares transcend social media and offer solid business insight, regardless of whether you focus your marketing efforts offline or online. Let’s apply Rohit’s 7 principles to your role as an insurance agent:

1) Be conversational. Do your prospects or customers look at you like you’re crazy when you’re telling them about actual cash value, assets or liability? Are you using insurance-speak? Clearly, there are technical terms that come with the territory, but do your best to explain any terms or phrases the average person is not going to understand or recognize. If you don’t, you may completely shut them down and lose the sale. The same goes for marketing your insurance business online. If you’re constantly selling, promoting and talking about Y-O-U, you WILL lose the sale. Try to engage your online audience. Use your true, authentic, everyday voice and write as you would speak.

2) Listen and respond consistently. Do you know what people are saying about you and/or your industry? Do you respond or are you silent? By listening well and responding calmly and confidently, you will position yourself as an expert. The more regularly (and wisely) you respond, the more you will increase your credibility with your customers and prospects.

3) Proactively comment and share. This instinct can be applied both online and offline. From a brick and mortar perspective, it applies to sharing your knowledge with other people. Whether you’re speaking at a chamber function, writing an informational newsletter for your customers or writing a letter to the editor, find ways to share your knowledge with the community.  From an online perspective, Rohit recommends making an effort to share insightful information via your insurance agency’s Twitter feed, Facebook fan page or blog. Visit other blogs and share your point of view or leave a comment to reinforce what the blogger was sharing.

4) Use questions instead of statements. Building business is all about building relationships and building relationships is all about encouraging others to share and connect with you and vice versa. Rohit recommends “turning statements into questions and seeing who might have an interesting point of view to share.” People love telling stories, so create opportunities to let that happen.

5) Participate with those who share your passion. The Internet makes it easier than ever to connect with other insurance professionals. Do you regularly communicate with and share tips with other insurance agents in your community? As the old saying goes, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, right? Besides, this isn’t about winning or losing, this is about building a sustainable, competitive business and being savvy about who and what else is out there.

6) Support online relationships with offline interactions. When you’re trying to connect with more people and build relationships, online communication can only go so far. Always support your online efforts with offline appearances.

7) Invest in karma. As Bhargava points out, “what goes around, comes around.” In general, if you’re making an effort to help people, make sound decisions and simply do your best, you will come out on top.

What are your marketing instincts? What insight can you share?

We’re excited about the new design for our insurance agent site. As the next few weeks progress, we’ll be adding more features and more resources to arm you with the tools and knowledge you need to close more sales and grow your insurance business. We hope you’ll take a look around and let us know what you think! Here is a quick tour of our new site:

The HometownQuotes Insurance Agent Blog – Make sure you bookmark the new location of our blog, where we’ll be sharing company and industry news, business and marketing tips from our team of experienced insurance professionals and stories, insight and advice from readers and other insurance professionals.

Frequently Asked Questions – How do insurance leads work? How do I integrate Internet insurance leads with my current marketing plan for my insurance business? We get those questions often. Check out our FAQ section for an overview.

Sample Leads – If you’ve ever wanted to know what an Internet insurance lead looks like, visit our sample leads page to see an example of our auto, home, life and health insurance leads.

HometownQuotes is social! You can connect with us on:

Facebook
Twitter
Flickr

More social media channels are coming soon!

According to a recent Forrester study, consumers EXPECT poor customer service. Of the 4,200 consumers surveyed, 70% of them expect a poor customer service experience when seeking help with health insurance policies, specifically.

Making a phone call regarding an insurance policy may not always be fun or exciting for the consumer or the insurance professional, but the overall customer service experience should be superb.

Follow these tips to ensure your next customer service interaction exceeds your prospect or customer’s expectations:

1) Customer is king. Serve your customers needs. Without customers, you don’t have an insurance business. To truly understand your customers needs, you must…

2) Listen well. What is your customer/prospect saying? What is her/her back story? Don’t just listen to what is being said, but also take note of how it’s being said. Always give your customers your undivided attention. Put down that cell phone, close the computer and focus on the customer.

3) Under-promise and over-deliver. Just do it. At all costs, avoid over-promising and under-delivering.

4) Always ask for feedback. Be genuinely concerned about your customer service experience and always provide an outlet for feedback. Follow up with customers regularly to ensure they’re happy and thrilled with their service.

5) Start on the inside. It all starts with your employees. How do you treat them? When employees are happy, they will treat customers well.

We believe in giving exceptional customer service. When you call us, we have real, live people here to take your call. (Monday-Friday, 8-5 CST, that is.) Give us a call today to learn more about how we can help you grow your insurance business.

In this month’s InsuranceNewsNet Magazine, there’s a great article about business/professional growth.

In his article “The Five-Year Phenomenon“, insurance agent Brad Elman explains the importance of noticing patterns in your life and in your business. Twenty-three years into his career, he noticed a clear pattern in his professional growth. Approximately every five years he would experience a restlessness and seek new challenges. Feeling stagnant, he would enter a new niche or start a new project.

I think this is only natural. So many business people, whether you’re the creative type or more of a numbers person (or an equal blend of both!) have to continually raise the success barometer.

Elman offers three tips for recognizing and working with this five-year phenomenon:

1) Surround yourself with a peer group of friends you trust. You will rely on their support and advice when you start getting an itch for change.

2) Look for life trends. If you take a few moments to sit down and think about trends and patterns you’ve noticed in your life over the past few years, it makes it much easier to plan your future. Life tends to be cyclical, so pay attention to the signs!

3) Write a business plan for your new ideas. “If you can’t write a business plan, it’s probably not the right time to do it,” said Elman.

Another way to boost insurance agency growth is Internet insurance leads. Never tried them? Not a problem. Give us a call today to see how they will fit into your business plan. Already a customer? Great. Let us know what else we can do to help you grow your insurance business.

As the old saying goes, the early bird catches the worm. The same can be said if you’re an insurance professional using Internet insurance leads to grow your insurance business.

Always call the prospect immediately – even if you don’t have the quote ready.

When prospects complete our online forms, their lead information is sent to you in real-time. So, why wait?

Here are five reasons why you should always pick up the phone and call immediately upon receiving the lead information.

1) Increased likelihood of immediately reaching the prospect. There’s a good chance that when you receive the lead information, s/he is still sitting at the computer. The sooner you can reach him or her, the better!

2) Helps prospects validate online process. We don’t want people to think we’re just another faceless online company. We want people to know we’re here to connect them with the best insurance possible. YOU are the person who will confirm that. As soon as you call the prospect, your phone call will validate to him/her that we’re following through with our promise. Your immediate call assures the prospect that their information was securely passed to the right people. By waiting to call, you’re only prolonging the process…and potentially losing a customer.

3) Less likely to wander. Like most consumers, I want instant gratification when I’m searching for a product. The more time it takes a service provider to get in touch with me, the more likely I will go to another Web site or store to search for help elsewhere. I know I’m not alone. Don’t give the lead the opportunity to stray. Once s/he has expressed need by completing our form, it’s in your best interest to get in touch and capture his or her attention ASAP.

4) You will be memorable. Being the first to call not only increases your chances of closing the sale, it also means that you will be more memorable. The insurance lead will probably have many questions to ask you and by being the first to answer those inquiries, s/he will be more likely to remember your responses and view you as the insurance expert you are.

5) Just be a friend. Don’t rush through the quote preparation and then call, only to find out you’re the second or third insurance agent in line. One of the most important things a successful salesperson will tell you about conducting business over the phone is to treat the prospect as you want to be treated. Most people don’t want to feel like they’ve been sold on something. They want to feel like there’s a genuine person at the other end of the line who is looking out for the prospect’s best interests. When the lead arrives in your inbox or your online account, just pick up the phone and make the connection. Besides, you may learn something s/he didn’t submit on the lead app that could affect the quote.

Internet leads are opportunities, they are not guaranteed sales. They can take a lot of time and work. All agents have their own individual processes for being successful, but insurance agents who are succeeding with Internet insurance leads are picking up the phone and calling the leads immediately.

Have a question about insurance leads? Need some tips for working insurance leads? Leave a comment and our experts will respond!