Working Direct Mail Final Expense Leads on A Tight Budget
Your best bet is to work direct mail final expense leads
Let’s begin this article with 2 important statements. First off, your best chances to be successful in our industry is to get on direct mail final expense leads, as soon as possible. Second, direct mail leads are very expensive. I’m going to make one more statement. You may not like this but if you take it as “fact” and can figure out how to wrap your head around it, you might just end up making over $100,000 a year. Here’s the third statement. To give yourself the best chances of being successful in our industry, you’ll want $3,000 to $5,000 as an initial investment for your direct mail leads. There ya go, I said it. Feel the burn! Sorry if that doesn’t sit well with you. Consider this! Most business startup’s cost over $30,000 as an initial investment. You’re upset because I told you it costs under $5,000.
It gets worse. Most agents give up almost immediately. They realize it’s not what they thought or hoped that it would be. Some of them may have been recruited under false pretenses. Other agents just assumed it would be easy. In my experience, most failed agents do so because of a combination of the following. The lack of work ethic, commitment, and determination! Add this to not having access to a strong direct mail leads program and you have a 99% outcome of failure. Yes, this article will turn around. On a positive note, there is good news. Anyone with the right amount of commitment, that is willing to back that commitment with a few thousand dollars for leads, can be successful selling final expense.
About direct mail final expense leads
Aged Leads verses New/Fresh Leads
How to work other leads and then move to direct mail
Getting your own direct mail final expense leads
Fixed cost leads verses doing mail drops
The basics on working direct mail leads
How many leads does it take to make the big bucks?
Is it important for your direct mail final expense leads to be fresh?
When we first entered the final expense sales market, the one thing that I knew would be important was fresh, high quality leads. See, I worked in the mortgage protection industry for years! While being a Hartford agent, the only type of lead we worked was direct mail leads. Before getting into final expense, I had never used a telemarketing lead or an internet lead. This is how I found out how important a good direct mail final expense leads program is, for selling life insurance products. Direct mail leads sure do make it easy to get in front of a lot of prospects and are definitely the best choice for consistency in regular, weekly production.
Sadly, a lot of marketers spout out that you don’t need fresh leads to be successful. You’ll notice that they start with this nonsense, after they’ve already recruited you. Understand, most final expense insurance agencies don’t start their agents with new direct mail final expense leads. They actually make their agent work aged and reworked leads. Some agents with these organizations will never see a fresh direct mail lead as they won’t stick around long enough to earn any. Here’s the kicker. They often are paying top dollar for direct mail final expense leads that were previously worked by other agents. This is very common in our industry.
Are aged direct mail final expense leads worth buying?
Once the agent has proven themselves by making a few sales with old leads, they start giving them a mixture of old and new leads. This is the norm for most insurance agencies in our industry. You will likely end up working leads that several agents before you, have already tried to sell. Some of these leads will have been sold and already canceled the insurance. That is also the norm for our industry. Just to be clear, direct mail isn’t the only lead for final expense sales, but it’s definitely the best! All the top producers work direct mail on a weekly or regular basis as we know these leads are the most viable for long term sales. Yes, I use direct mail as my main lead.
With some companies, they will sell you fresh leads right from the start. This is not necessary, but I do like the idea of having a choice in the matter. There is nothing worse than working with a final expense IMO that sells me a mixture of old and new leads, without me knowing what is what. I mean, that just stinks. Here’s a suggestion. Before you get involved and sign up with a new IMO, ask to speak with a couple of their agents. That way you can get the real skinny, in most cases, of what’s really going on. This is a great way to find out if they are re-selling their direct mail final expense leads or not. This will also give you a better idea as to whether this is a company you want to be part of, or not.
How do I get direct mail final expense leads on my own?
There are plenty of lead vendors that specialize in direct mail final expense leads. Some will sell leads by the mail drop. Other vendors sell them at a fixed cost, per lead price. There are a few things to consider. I suggest you do research on any direct mail final expense leads vendor that you are thinking about using. Just Google them. You’ll find all sorts of good info. Next, you’ll want to figure out if you’re better off doing your own mail drops or paying per lead. If you’re area has poor returns, you should find a lead vendor that will give you a fixed cost lead deal. This can save you a lot of aggravation as you will get a guaranteed set price per lead. If you think you’re in a good area for returns, you have more options.
Find a good lead vendor and drop a couple thousand pieces. You have nothing to lose but money. The lead vendors will all have different costs. You should be able to do mail drops for around $400 to $450 per thousand. Fixed cost leads will cost around $30 each. Your current manager or up-line should be able to have options for you. Unfortunately, a lot of IMO’s do not. The ones that do, usually have agents on commission levels that are under 100%. These are usually the MLM types. The ones that do, usually suggest you do your own mail drops through a vendor that is not very reputable. There are a lot of insurance marketing organizations that are truly clueless. They offer great contracts and that’s it. No training and no lead programs!
What else is there?
Every day we get emails and phone calls from new companies advertising their telemarketing leads. I always offer them an opportunity to give us a few samples to work. Sadly, most of them turn out to be garbage. Why in the world would you advertise and sell a product that is terrible? I don’t get it. Most final expense lead vendors are just overpriced and not very efficient for final expense sales. Thankfully, we have built up relationships with many direct mail and telemarketing lead vendors. We also generate our own TM, DM and Facebook leads so we can guarantee and control the quality for the agents. Having the ability to control the quality of multiple leads, allows us to stay ahead of the industry. This puts you in the driver’s seat.
As far as I am concerned, we should all have access to only the best leads. As a final expense field agent, the last thing that I want is to end up working inferior leads. Especially when there are better options available like fixed cost direct mail final expense leads. Telemarketing and Facebook leads can also be great for our industry. The trick is to be able to find good quality at a reasonable price. Facebook leads can be better than direct mail final expense leads but are not as plentiful. We have finally come up with an affordable, high quality Facebook lead that is available to our contracted agents. We’re also working on a training platform to teach agents how to generate their own Facebook leads.
What leads do our top agents use?
As mentioned before, our top producers are all on our fixed cost, direct mail final expense leads. They all have a standing order so that every week, they know they can depend on getting the same amount of leads. Most of them are also working telemarketing leads and Facebook leads. You see, there isn’t enough data to get a lot of these type of leads. That’s why we simply sprinkle them in with our weekly lead orders. Personally, I like working a variety of leads because you end up in front of different types of people. If you are working 30 direct mail leads a week with some telemarketing and Facebook leads, you are likely on target to make a six figure income.
One of the things that we teach agents, is how to increase your weekly leads to increase your sales. By increasing your sales, you increase your income. One of the ways we do this is by recommending appointment setters. Yes, we work with several appointment setters that are all trained up, and ready to dial. By working with an appointment setter, you can double or even triple your activity level. Think about this. You’ll be spending less time on the phone and less time prospecting. This means more time making presentations. We want you to have a lucrative career. Follow our leads, work hard, and you will do very well. We have agents on 40-50 direct mail leads, each week. I know this might sound like a lot but this is how the grownups write $30,000+ of annualized premium, each month.
What if I just can’t afford final expense direct mail leads?
That’s not a problem if you have a game plan. A lot of agents that we work with start off with very little funds for leads. We start them on telemarketing leads for a few weeks. This type of lead is going to be about half the price of direct mail leads. We actually have a program for our agents where they can purchase high quality TM leads for only $9 each. These are the same babies that companies are selling to their agents for $18-$28 each. We actually lose money on our TM’s so that our agents can easily afford them. Not many final expense IMO’s will take a loss on lead costs and give out street level contracts.
With our program, you can start working the TM’s and should be able to make more than enough money to get on to our direct mail final expense leads program. You’ll notice that once you’re on direct mail leads, selling insurance is a lot easier than when you worked other type of leads. This is why it’s super important to have a game plan that involves getting onto direct mail leads. I personally work with each agent, to make sure they have a clear goal for getting onto DM’s. We talk about it on our training calls. You’ll hear “direct mail leads” mentioned all over our training. It’s impossible for you to be contracted with us and not be constantly reminded about the importance of final expense direct mail leads.
Here’s a tip!
Most of the agents that start working telemarketer leads, don’t want to pull the trigger on fixed cost direct mail final expense leads. After all, the security deposit is more than what most people make in a month. If you don’t invest in yourself, you’ll just end up with the same old results. I find it interesting how the agents that won’t get on direct mail, end up overworking TM leads in their area, and then start complaining about the quality. Remember what I mentioned earlier. There is only so much data available for telemarketing leads compared to final expense direct mail leads. Multiple call centers are often calling the same people over and over. The more they call, the more likely the quality of the leads will drop. Either way, a low quality lead is still better than no lead.
If you really want to stick with TM’s, don’t expect to work near your home. You see, what I like to do, is work TM’s when I travel or when we want to try a new area. If you don’t mind driving several hours away and working out of town, you can make a decent living off of a good telemarketing lead program. TM’s have their place and can be super effective when used properly. Just because they are not efficient to consistently work in your local market, doesn’t mean you can’t make them work if you travel. There are agents like myself, that will drive several hours away, stay a couple nights in a hotel, and tear up those surrounding counties. Just do yourself a favor. Make sure you not only have a game plan to get on direct mail final expense leads, but follow through with your plan.
What can we do for you?
At United Final Expense Services, we have a variety of leads. Our crew has access to direct mail, internet, Facebook leads, television, and a variety of tele marketed leads. In my honest opinion, we have the most effective variety of final expense leads in the industry. All you have to do is be contracted with us to access them. Most agents that are already in our industry are constantly on the search for better quality leads. If you are having issues with getting high quality leads, look no further. Contact Douglas Massi for information on our final expense lead programs.
We work with both new and seasoned agents and understand the importance of having access to the right leads, carriers, and commission levels. We teach you how to be a true, independent life insurance agent. This is where we rule the industry and corner the market. With commission levels between 100 and 120% along with multiple lead programs, your chances of making a six figure income are going to be better working with us, than the next IMO. And don’t forget about our training! We have one of the strongest sales training programs in the industry and work with some of the highest producing agents in the country.
