October 1, 2008

3 Vital Communication Tools To Increase Lead Conversion

Posted by Rey Villar

The web won’t be replacing the telephone any time soon as the primary communication tool agents and brokers use to close deals. But to get more of your leads to that closing point, the Internet has brought three vital tools that are now standard parts of any top producer’s toolbox.

Using these tools together, solo agents today are handling and closing as many deals as a whole office full of traditional sales people. Agents, brokers and carriers are also discovering how these 3 tools can help increase lead conversion ratios with less effort and better ROIs.

Internet Fax
Some day soon, fax machines will be as rare as telegraphs and typewriters. Combined with printers and scanners, emails are showing that fax machines are a waste of desk space, telephone lines and money.

Some people still do rely on faxes to immediately transmit documents to clients and prospects.

But there’s no reason why you should be one of them.

With an Internet fax service, you can start receiving faxes through your email and have digital backups in case you ever lose an important document. You can also use your Internet fax — in conjunction with your scanner — to send documents to a prospect’s fax machine.

And the cost? Internet fax accounts average about $7 per month, which includes a dedicated local phone number. That’s a lot less than you probably spend on your fax line, paper and machine. One Internet fax service, Packetel, even lets you receive an unlimited number of incoming faxes for just $4 a month.

Interactive Website
With almost 90% of individual health insurance policies being purchased on or with the help of the Internet, your website is your business card, marketing brochures, billboard ads, commercials and online office — all rolled into one.

But it’s no longer enough to just have a web page with your basic information. The web as we know it has been growing for over a decade now, and it has evolved.

The online marketplace is even more competitive than your local marketplace, because shoppers are no longer hindered by geography. With thousands of agents already online and
hundreds more joining them each day, you need a website that stands out.
Online shoppers today are demanding interactivity!

The most effective websites are those that engage visitors and give them what they need to successfully shop for health insurance. But they should also empower shoppers to participate in the website:

1. Information
Online shoppers have questions. They want websites that give answers. You don’t have to stock a whole library on your website, but you should provide enough informative content to
answer your prospect’s basic questions — and entice them to give you a call.

2. Feedback
A key element of web 2.0 is the creation of online communities. Consider adding a blog or forum on your website. It’s a lot easier than you think, and it tells prospects (and the world) that you’re open to their opinions, questions and concerns.

3. Quote Engine
In addition to improving your productivity, quote engines can help you generate leads and close more of them — sometimes with absolutely no direct contact between you and the prospect. Full-function health insurance websites have embedded multi-carrier quote engines that let visitors compare plans and go straight into a submitted application.

These three ingredients can turn your website into a onestop resource for online health insurance shoppers. Instead of going to various websites to dig up information and compare pricing, potential clients can now come to your 24-hour self-service website. They can find answers, shop and submit complete apps directly to your underwriter.

Of course, hiring a full-time web designer to create and maintain a fully functional website can be expensive. Fortunately, there are affordable alternatives for agents and brokers with smaller budgets.

Several website providers already serve the health insurance industry, with pre-designed professional-looking web templates that can be up and running in a matter of hours. Some health insurance website providers even include embedded multi-carrier quote engines to turn your website into a truly interactive resource.

Email Autoresponder
As more consumers go online for health insurance, email is also becoming the preferred method for keeping in touch with prospects and leads.

With a full-power email autoresponder, you can also use emails to nurture your leads for more closings. More importantly, a health insurance email autoresponder lets you nurture thousands of unclosed leads with little effort — by doing all the work for you.

All you have to do is set the schedule of when you want new prospects to receive your marketing messages. Then turn it loose on your new leads.

A basic email autoresponder can prepare leads for your initial call by sending a welcome message as soon as they enter your system. The autoresponder can then send followup messages 2 days, 1 week and 3 months later — or according to the schedule you arrange.

There are several types of generic email autoresponders available today, but the leading health insurance email autoresponders provide features not found on standard autoresponders:

• Pre-written messaging
Customizable marketing messages are provided to make it easy to get started. But you should still take the time to personalize the basic messaging with your own slogan or mission statement.

• Integration and personalization
The leading health insurance email autoresponders integrate with your lead management system to personalize each message with the prospect’s name. More importantly, it tracks the prospect’s response to your automate email—such as when they opened it and clicked on the links to your website.

• Quote engine link
Taking personalization to a whole new level, the top health insurance autoresponders will also work with your multi-carrier quote engine to embed links to personalized quotes for each prospect. This quote engine link is ideal for prospects who are finally ready to buy, because it puts them back on track to a quicker closing.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of an email autoresponder is that it solves the biggest challenge in many agents’ sales strategy: what to do with leads that take longer to close.

The traditional method has been to focus on the freshest, hottest leads. This makes sense. You should put most of your energy and time on those leads that stand the best chance of closing right away.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of leads most agents and brokers get aren’t ready to close right away. They need to be nurtured and guided to a buying decision. That nurturing takes time — time that busy agents just don’t have.

With a health insurance email autoresponder, agents and brokers now have a powerful assistant to help with the lead nurturing. Instead of making follow-up calls to all of your unclosed leads, you can focus on just the prospects who are ready to move forward with their
health insurance shopping.

How do you know which leads are getting hot? Your email autoresponder tells you by keeping track of which prospects clicked on the links in your marketing emails to get more information on your website or compare updated quotes.

Don’t be too aggressive in reeling them in though. To use a fishing analogy, you already have them on the hook.Don’t risk losing them by reeling in too hard all at once.

If you see that a prospect has clicked on a lead to a specific type of plan or carrier, I recommend sending them a personalized follow-up email with more information. Use your email to invite them to call you for more information— and mention that you plan to call them shortly to share some news about your plans.

Don’t Fall Behind
The health insurance industry is in a rare transition period right now. Most agents still don’t fully understand the doors that these powerful tools will open for them. This means that agents who are taking the lead in adopting these 3 tools are seizing valuable market share in this wide-open field.

But this transition period won’t last too long. Make sure you don’t miss this opportunity to capture your share of the fastgrowing health insurance marketplace.