According to an Insurance Journal report, top insurance agencies close about 15% of new sales leads. That’s 50% better than average agencies, which finalize closer to 10% of their prospects.
Closing rates on sales leads depend primarily on the quality of sales leads and the ability of insurance professionals to sell their products.
How Sales Leads are Generated on the Web
These days, many insurance sales leads originate from online quote websites. Web visitors submit their quote requests and contact information. Instantly, online lead generators forward electronic copies of those Internet sales leads to their paying clients.
Clients for Internet leads are mostly agents and brokers eagerly waiting to sell insurance products to online quote requestors.
Lead generation companies sell two types of Internet sales leads. Exclusive leads are sent to only one client, while shared leads are distributed to several insurance sales competitors.
Top Internet Lead Generators
Given the 15% close rate for top insurance agencies, volume of leads is one driver for agency revenue. In theory, 100 web leads give an average of 15 final sales compared to 75 from 500 Internet leads.
Below are 10 top lead generation companies. Shown is the estimated number of monthly visitors for each Internet lead generator. Estimates are based on source data from Alexa, a leading web traffic tracking service.
- netQuote … 1.1 million monthly visitors (down 17.0% from prior period)
- QuoteWizard … 757,438 monthly visitors (up 19%)
- InsureMe … 158,695 monthly visitors (down 86%)
- InsuranceLeads … 60,919 monthly visitors (down 19%)
- All Web Leads … 57,366 monthly visitors (no change)
- iLeads … 20,012 monthly visitors (up 50%)
- PreciseLeads … 10,162 monthly visitors (up 20%)
- ABC Leads … 9,714 monthly visitors (up 50%)
- iQuoteX … 6,974 monthly visitors (up 70%)
- Leads Clearance … 5,706 monthly visitors (up 1%).
The top three websites feature an online insurance quote calculator at the top of their home pages. Number one and two lead generators netQuote and InsureMe offer quotes for nine different types of coverage, including health insurance and motorcycle insurance. QuoteWizard is limited to auto insurance.
The remaining seven lead generation websites directly target Internet lead users. Rather than depending solely on online quote requests, companies like All Web Leads also source their sales leads from customers as they use major search engines.
Evaluating Quality of Internet Sales Leads
High volumes of sales leads don’t necessarily convert into final sales. Insurance agents and brokers must be able to filter leads so that they match products they have to offer. Most lead generation companies allow their clients to specify filter criteria such as age, product line and zip code. Generally, more filtering factors let agents and brokers profile the most appropriate prospects for their product offerings.
Top lead generators also offer credit for unusable sales leads, like those with invalid telephone numbers.
To objectively measure the quality of Internet leads from a provider, clients must track and score metrics including the:
- Number of final sales per lead
- Profitability of sales averaged by the total number of leads.
Lead management software (LMS) has reporting capabilities for these performance metrics. Well-designed LMS reports help users identify characteristics of high-quality Internet leads. Sales lead filters can then be refined to more closely match key characteristics of prospects more likely to convert into final sales.
If the close rate of final sales to the number of leads continues to fall well below 10%, clients should first investigate whether underperformance is due to poor quality sales leads or ineffective sales procedures.
But where Internet leads consistently underperform, insurance sales professionals would be wise to consider replacing their lead generation provider with one that can furnish more lucrative leads.
Sources: This article presents independent calculations and insights based on source data from: Alexa.com (accessed February 10, 2011); Lead Nurturing Proves Valuable (Insurance Journal, September 21, 2009); and Insuring Success: How to Use Internet Leads to Reach Insurance Buyers (Leads360 White Paper, January 2009).
Daniel Workman - A senior business and finance writer who also does French translations, notably international trade and insurance materials.
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