Relationships and Our Insurance Agents

Whether they're romantic, loving, personal, friendly, or professional, relationships of every kind are everywhere. Men and women have relationships. Parents and children have relationships. Employers and employees have relationships. Teachers and students have relationships. Neighbors even have relationships with one another. Is it any surprise that we should have relationships with our insurance agents, as well?

The decision to purchase an insurance policy is an important one. Even more important is the amount of insurance and the kind of coverage you purchase. This is true for all forms of insurance, from health and life insurance to auto and homeowner's insurance. Whether you're purchasing several different insurance policies, or have decided to purchase only one kind of insurance, the process can be a bit confusing if you are not sure about what kind of coverage to purchase. This is why we need relationships with our insurance agents.

Insurance agents are trained professionals. Some insurance agents specialize in selling a certain kind of insurance, while others specialize in selling several different kinds of insurance. The insurance agent with whom you speak will know all of the ins and outs of the particular type of insurance policy you wish to purchase. He or she will be able to walk you through the process based on your financial situation and your needs. Our insurance agents can only know this information if we develop relationships with them.

Whether you find your insurance agent online or in your local phone book, don't just pick up the phone and buy a policy. Make sure you develop a relationship with him or her before you start signing any dotted lines. Talk with your insurance agent about the coverage you want and how much you can afford. Regardless of the kind of insurance policy you wish to purchase, your insurance agent will be able to help you determine the best coverage for you at a price you can manage.

Obtaining Easy Annuity Leads

Leads are the insurance agent's life blood. When there is no one to talk to about our products fear and panic invades our world.

There are tons of ways to find annuity leads as long as you rethink your marketing plan.

Target Marketing.

I am sure you have heard it many times and it sort of slides over your prospecting efforts so here is a way to find our target market. First identify who you are trying to talk to as a prospect. If you haven't thought about it or if you haven't defined it you can use mine as an example.

My target market are senior adults age 70 and above. They will typically have about $600,000 in assets which includes their home. Normal situations will have about $200,000 in invested assets including their IRA. By using this very wide target market you access a very large amount of potential prospects.

Now we will do something totally outside the box to make my point. Go to your local hearing aid company (the best ones will advertise in the newspaper) and ask them for their list of senior prospects. Offer them $100 per 1,000 names.

The hearing aid company will be happy to sell you this list because you are not a competitor and they can generate another source of funds.

Send a pre-approach letter to the people on the list offering expanded services and always mention the hearing aid company. The letter would mention the benefits of the hearing aid company and how it was expanding its services to a wider product line. This letter should also mention a specific idea like recent changes in the IRA category. Offer a free book and have your name and the hearing aid company's name on it.

I know what you are thinking....Am I nuts? No, I am not crazy, I am using an untapped market to illustrate the benefits of my products by piggy backing on the hearing aid marketing efforts. It really works and it is a fresh and inexpensive way of finding prospects.

Want another one? Try this idea, it works also.

Funeral homes and final expenses are great target markets. Go your local funeral home (I like them bigger ones) and make a partnership with them with their prepaid funeral expense customers. Offer them a nice percentage of each sale (I like 20%.) They love this because it is a totally new source of revenue for them.

Any decent sized funeral home can provide you with 2-3 years of prospects plus they will love the additional revenue which comes at not marketing expense to them. They can't wait to become your partner and will love the service to their customers.

Send a very nice pre-approach letter to their customer base offering a new and expanded service from the funeral home. Have the letter mention probate and new information about recent changes in the law. Use a nice booklet about "Avoiding Probate" and go see these folks. It is a win-win situation.

Provide them with an expected cash flow projection so they can see what benefit can be earned for them.

My point is this, there are more ways to find annuity leads than you have time to try them all. Some of our other "professional annuity salespeople" may laugh and scoff at these methods but you will get the last laugh on the way to the bank.

Use a little creativity and think outside the box. These ideas are extremely cost efficient and provide well spent marketing money.