The Awful Truth about Annuity and Insurance Leads


You see the websites, you see the ads: exclusive, never before sold, prospects eager to buy, insurance and annuity Leads. Some leads cost a few dollars - others are over one-hundred a pop.

I was curious, just how good are these insurance and annuity leads? I decided to find out.

I'm not going to name specific insurance and annuity lead websites, but I will give you a summary of how it all shook out.

Insurance and Annuity Lead Website A:

Cost: Cheap

Results: Terrible. 10% of the leads my staff called got number no longer in service recordings. The rest: the people had no idea what we were talking about. They were not interested in annuities, insurance or investments, nor did they remember filling out a request for information form on the internet.

Sales: 0

Insurance and Annuity Lead Website B:

Cost: Average

Results: Terrible. Prospects didn't recall filling out request for information on anything related to annuities, insurance or financial planning. Most just hung-up.

Sales: 0

Insurance and Annuity Leads Website C:

Cost: Expensive

Results: About twenty percent remembered filling out a request for info. However, they had been called numerous times by different agents. Most were getting sick and tired of the calls. A few had begun working with other agents. Most hung-up angrily.

Sales: 0

I spent two-thousand dollars on this experiment. I did not find one-receptive buyer. I had thrown away my money, not to mention time spent by my phoning staff to contact these "hot prospects".

What the heck was going on? How could these websites sell such garbage?

I poked around, wrote a few e-mails to 'industry experts', not surprisingly, nobody got back to me. Luckily, I did end up making contact with a marketing person who had previously worked for a big lead selling outfit. She gave me the juicy details of how the majority of these lead companies operate, whether it is insurance leads, long-term care leads, annuity leads, or MLM/Work-from-Home leads. They all employ the same methods.

Method #1: You send cute E-card to your mother wishing her a happy birthday. You fill out name, e-mail and click send. Your name and e-mail are captured. If the site is a lead harvester masquerading as an e-card site, you will now be e-mailed by people looking to sell you annuities, business opportunity offers, etc.

Method #2: Leads site buys huge database, often just regional phone book listings. They sell these 'leads', which are nothing more than names and numbers picked from the phonebook. Some of these people may even be on the Do Not Call list, which could land you in hot water.

Method #3: Harvesting leads from search engines. Often these leads are quality, but are expensive to capture, so the leads companies will sell the leads over and over. By the time you buy the lead, it could have been sold twenty times. Sometimes you're the first to buy and you will find some quality prospects, more often you're not.

Method #4: Internet robots crawl web sites hunting for e-mail addresses associated with insurance and annuity content. Somebody might be inquiring about annuities on a newsgroup or forum, next thing they know they're getting offers from annuity companies. The Annuity Lead companies don't let you in on how they've harvested the leads. It's called spam and you could get in serious trouble for contacting these people unsolicited.

My contact did say there are decent leads sites. She said to check their policy to see if they guarantee the leads. Keep in mind, just because they have a guarantee doesn't mean you'll get your money back if the leads fail to produce results. But often sites with some kind of guarantee are sites that harvest only quality leads and only sell them once.

If you're still of the mind to try internet leads my advice is to try just a few. Don't buy into a huge program that requires a minimum monthly or a large upfront purchase. Experiment a little with a cross-section of sites. Who knows, you may find one that's legit that'll help you make some money.

Bill Broich is the founder of The Broich Approach, an annuity selling and marketing system based in Olympia, Washington. You can find more information about him and his system at: http://www.broichapproach.com







Related News



Variable-Annuity Business Is Adding to Life Insurers' Woes - Wall Street Journal

Variable-Annuity Business Is Adding to Life Insurers' Woes
Wall Street Journal -2 hours ago
By LAVONNE KUYKENDALL Variable annuities, whose sales fueled profits at life-insurance companies in recent years, are starting to drag profits as the stock ...
Despite the Turmoil, Insurance Companies Appear SafeTIME
Market Place Insurance Industry Joins Banking Giants on the Hot SeatNew York Times
Consider Staking a Claim in AllstateBarron's
Forbes - CNNMoney.com
all 51 news articles


Voters want solutions as health insurance costs rise sharply - Kansas City Star

ABC News

Voters want solutions as health insurance costs rise sharply
Kansas City Star, MO -Oct 11, 2008
By SUZANNE KING Dave Coffman of Lee’s Summit has been working two part-time jobs since he retired so he can afford long-term care insurance, ...
Video: McCain, Obama Differ Dramatically on Health CareAssociatedPress
Health care: Curing what ails usSt. Charles Sun
McCain health care gives us hopeUW Badger Herald
eFluxMedia - Washington Post
all 1,136 news articles

Australia Senate to support health insurance changes - Reuters

Reuters

Australia Senate to support health insurance changes
Reuters -3 hours ago
The private health insurance industry has warned the government plans would lead to 400000 people dropping their private health cover. ...
Seoul shares trim gains; carmakers, insurers downReuters
UPDATE 1-Hanwha sees $580 mln from insurance stake saleReuters
UPDATE 1-EU lawmakers pass diluted insurance reformReuters
Reuters - Reuters
all 1,605 news articles

EDITORIAL: Stock markets on ropes - Asahi Shimbun

China Daily

EDITORIAL: Stock markets on ropes
Asahi Shimbun, Japan -5 hours ago
Adding to this unpleasant economic news, Yamato Life Insurance Co., a midsize firm that invested heavily in REIT and other high-risk US financial ...
Japan's Yamato Life Insurance files for bankruptcyHindu
Japanese insurance co Yamoto collapses; files for bankruptcyHindu Business Line
Japan in desperate effort to halt its own downward economic spiralTelegraph.co.uk
Financial Times - The Daily Yomiuri
all 433 news articles

Popular autism treatment often goes uncovered - Seattle Post Intelligencer

Popular autism treatment often goes uncovered
Seattle Post Intelligencer -9 hours ago
None of it is covered by the family's health insurance plan. Insurance industry representatives such as Susan Pisano, spokeswoman for the national industry ...

Fidelity, Vanguard join money-fund insurance plan - Seattle Times

ABC News

Fidelity, Vanguard join money-fund insurance plan
Seattle Times, United States -23 hours ago
Fidelity Investments have joined the US Treasury's emergency insurance program for money-market mutual funds, pushing the participation rate to more than 95 ...
Funds Turn To Treasury GuarantyWashington Post
Worried about the economy?The State
Money Market Mutual Funds Apply for Treasury's Insurance ProgramOn Wall Street
Wall Street Journal - Dallas Morning News
all 284 news articles

Legislation levels the insurance field for physical or mental ... - The Free Lance-Star

dBTechno

Legislation levels the insurance field for physical or mental ...
The Free Lance-Star, VA -Oct 11, 2008
FOR THOSE WHO suffer from a mental illness, and those who love them, the question has long been this: Why does the guy next door with diabetes get ...
Sen. Pete Domenici on Mental HealthTIME
Law Equalizes Coverage For Mental, Physical CareWashington Post
Mental Health CoverageNew York Times
Kansas City Star - The Herald-Times (subscription)
all 186 news articles

Unemployment insurance fund headed for insolvency - Alameda Times-Star

Unemployment insurance fund headed for insolvency
Alameda Times-Star, CA -6 hours ago
The Assembly Insurance Committee and the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on State Administration held a joint hearing today to examine why we're in this fix ...

Learning the hard way about FDIC insurance - San Francisco Chronicle

Learning the hard way about FDIC insurance
San Francisco Chronicle,  USA -Oct 11, 2008
That experience motivated Quittel to mount a campaign urging the FDIC to require banks to warn depositors if their account balance is over the insurance...
Elder Law: Pay attention to FDIC insurance rulesThe News-Press
FDIC approves $250000 insurance limitInternational Herald Tribune
FDIC and Clayton St. set PTC seminar on protecting your moneyThe Citizen.com
Tampa Tribune - Seattle Times
all 617 news articles

Ahead on health insurance - The Star-Ledger - NJ.com

Ahead on health insurance
The Star-Ledger - NJ.com, NJ -3 hours ago
Both presidential candidates have promised health insurance action on the national level. Given the way Washington works, it is not likely that any ...
Report: Ind. workers losing job-provided coverageChicago Tribune
Fewer Americans get health cover through employersBusiness Insurance
Health-care system needs new thinking, rules and initiativesAkron Beacon Journal
all 19 news articles