Final Expense Leads - Which Are the Best?

I speak with insurance agents in the Final Expense market all the time and a common question is "Where can I get quality final expense leads"? Well, first you have to decide what kind of lead you are looking for, because there are several different ways of developing leads. The first type and most widely used lead is called Direct Mail responder leads. The second most widely used is telemarketed leads. Third is internet leads and lastly referrals.

Direct Mail Responder Leads

Direct Mail Responder leads have been widely used in the final expense market for a very long time and the people who buy final expense market receive these mail cards on a regular basis. Every agent and his brother mail these cards to this market and saturate it every day. With the average direct mail response rate being about 1 1/2 percent it makes it difficult to get a good return on your money. Let's do the math. Let's say you spend $350 per 1,000 pieces of direct mail sent out, that means at a 1 1/2 percent response rate, you will get approximately 15 responder leads back. That means you are spending at a minimum of $23 per lead.

Telemarketed Leads

Telemarketed leads have also been around for a long time. However because of the do not call list and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act or "TCPA", it is more difficult and more expensive than ever to get these types of leads. By the way, beware of leads developed using automated dialers with a prerecorded message. Read the TCPA (47 USC Sec 227), nowhere does it talk about the caller pressing 1 to opting making it legal. Then you have companies out there using call centers located in India. A total waist of money. These leads can cost anywhere from $15 each to $35 each, none the less very expensive.

Internet Leads

First of all, I have been working the final expense market for a long time and I can count on one hand the amount of individuals I have come across in this market that have internet access let alone own a computer. Even if these leads were prevalent, they get sold to a handful of agents at the same time. Not only do you have to call to see if the prospect is interested in buying your product, you have to race to the prospect to beat the other agents there. Although these leads can be the cheapest upfront, they end up being the most expensive.

Referrals

Referrals are always the best type of lead that you can ever get. There is nothing better than Mrs. Jones referring you to her sister or best friend. Referrals produce the most sales and the best thing is that they are FREE! Here is the problem though, how do you get Mrs. Jones to give you a referral. Most people do not give referrals because there is nothing in it for them. Mrs. Jones will give you many excuses for not giving you a referral. The trick is showing Mrs. Jones how it will benefit her to give you referrals. I am not talking about rebating! You should never do anything to jeopardize your credibility or your insurance license. I use one specific way of getting Mrs. Jones to open her address book.

I offer a FREE REPORT that explains everything if you are interested.

Conclusion

I doesn't matter which leads are the best. The only thing that matters is that if you are paying for leads, you are paying too much!

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Contacting Insurance Leads   How A Bank Took Over The Relationship From My Financial Advisor   

Protect Your Business From Liability Claims Using Public Liability Insurance

Businesses that are directly associated with public are prone to liabilities as there are chances of accidents, even after making a conscientious effort to avoid them. If your customer or any other person sues you for death, injury or property damage at your premises and if you do not have public liability insurance, you may face significant costs that can cripple your business.

These liabilities pose a severe financial threat to the businesses. Apart from the claimed amount, the high legal costs incurred in defending the cases filed by the third-parties are also to be paid by the company. Hence, having public liability insurance is very important to get out of these unexpected heavy expenses.

Read on further to know about the frequency of personal injuries at business places and how the public liability insurance helps in protecting your business from these claims.

Statistics of injury claims: According to the reports released by the Injuries Board of Ireland, there were 8,645 personal injury claims lodged in the year 2009. Among them, one in six (17%) were related to public liability, with an average award amounted to 23,143 Euros for each claim. Nearly 51% of these accidents took place in privately owned establishments, 25% in retail/shopping outlets and 19% in pubs/night clubs or restaurants. With this high rate of accidents, businesses are required to take a public liability insurance to stay guarded of future legal claims.

Listed below are the benefits of having public liability insurance.

Reimbursement of claimed amount along with legal fees: Public liability insurance compensates you with the amount of reimbursement claimed by the third-party and also the money paid as legal charges for fending such claims. This is especially significant since you are required to pay large amounts of money as legal fees.

Covers expenses related to property damage: In addition to death and injury, the damage or loss caused to the property of the third-party is also covered. Hence, a public liability policy provides the third-party with the repairing costs of the damaged property or the cost needed to buy a new property.

Offers recovery expenses: Another good thing about the policy is that it offers recovery expenses. Along with the claimed amount and legal fees, the policy also provides medical aid to the injured person. This insurance covers costs related to hospitalization, treatment cost, medical bills, rehabilitation, and other damages. Some policies also offer domestic help and other aids to help the victim recover quickly.

Provides assistance in legal dealings: The main advantage of liability policy is that the business owners do not have to constantly worry about the legal fights. The insurance company deals with all the legal complexities associated with the claim. For instance, if you lose the case, the insurance company pays the compensation and the legal fees, and if you win the case, it collects the legal fees from the injured party. This way the insurance company eliminates your legal hassles.

Protects the employees: Public liability insurance cover helps and protects the employees in case they are responsible for any accident that injures or damages a third-party or his property due to negligence at work. As they represent the company, the policy indirectly protects them from legal costs. This shows the company's concern towards its employees.

In order to survive in this litigious society, every business needs public liability insurance to protect itself from the risks, costs and compensations associated with accidents.

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Contacting Insurance Leads   How A Bank Took Over The Relationship From My Financial Advisor   

SR22 Insurance 101

What Is SR22 Insurance?

SR22 Insurance isn't actually a type of insurance, it's simply auto insurance with an SR22 Filing Attached.

What Is an SR22 Filing?

SR22 Filing is an endorsement on an auto insurance or a non owners auto insurance policy. It's a form that is filed with the DMV by your insurance company that let's them know that you are carrying the state required liability insurance.

Why is an SR-22 required?

A filing is required by the Department of Motor Vehicles in order for a particular individual to be allowed driving privileges. The DMV will require an SR22 for individuals that pose a high risk to motorists. In most cases, this filing is required for an individual that has been convicted of driving under the influence or if someone gets into an accident while not insured. It's mainly a way for the DMV to insure that a high risk drivers carries auto insurance to protect the general public.

How long is an SR22 required for?

An SR22 endorsement on your policy is usually required for a term of 3 years, after which the Filing will no longer be required and the endorsement can be removed from your policy.

How Much is an SR22 Policy?

Since SR22 insurance is just a filing attached to your auto insurance, the cost of an SR22 policy is the same as the cost of an auto insurance policy plus about a $20, one time, filing fee. Other than the fee to file an SR22, no other additional costs are associated with having an SR22. However, the reason you need a filing, such as a DUI, will affect your rates.

What happens if my SR22 filing is cancelled?

While you're in the 3 year period where an SR-22 is required, if your policy that has the SR22 filing is cancelled for any reason, the DMV will again revoke your driving privileges. In this event, you must obtain an SR22 policy again and also reinstate your license with the DMV including paying the DMV reinstatement fee which is usually around $55. If you have a lapse in your policy due to a late payment, your SR22 may be cancelled and your driving privileges may be suspended once again.

What companies offer SR22 filings on their policies?

The best way to find SR22 Insurance is to simply type in " SR22 Insurance ", or "SR22 Insurance Quotes" in a search engine that will provide you results of insurance companies offering SR22 Insurance. It's recommended to shop around 3 companies to ensure you're getting a competitive rate.

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Contacting Insurance Leads   How A Bank Took Over The Relationship From My Financial Advisor   

Still Using Spreadsheets for Managing Risks? - Switch to Risk Management Software

Managing risk is essential in every organization to accomplish its key objectives effectively. Risk management not only requires a reliable process to capture risks, but also needs a mechanism to document and administer the organization's response.

An appropriate risk management tool always helps the risk managers to identify, assess, and prioritize the risks which can be prevented. Here, we will discuss about spreadsheets - commonly used risk management tools and their true costs. We will also know about the best tool to replace spreadsheets for effective risk management.

Spreadsheets are commonly used management tools because they are • Convenient to use: Many people believe that spreadsheets are convenient to collect, code, sort and analyze data. Yes, they are better than paper based management systems, but they are risky.

• Flexible to enter data: With some basic encoding, spreadsheets offer flexible arrangements of rows and columns to enter data. They allow the user to configure and enter information in a way that suits his unique needs. But risk management involves analysis of various factors and a spreadsheet may not be helpful.

• Low cost or free option: Spreadsheets are either available as freeware or at low-cost. That is why organizations use them extensively. But they fail to understand the fact that the true cost of a tool should be defined by the operational costs that affect the business on long-run; not by the initial cost of the tool.

Are they really beneficial? Many business owners and risk managers today are using spreadsheets as risk management tools unaware of the risks involved (however some are aware). Here are the risks involved:

• Inability to process huge amounts of data: Although spreadsheets are a good solution for small volumes of data, the processing and calculation will become complicated with the continual growth.

• Time consuming: Risk management requires collecting great deal of information, which often results in huge number of spreadsheets interlinked to each other. A little change to the data structure becomes a great task. This makes risk managers spend countless hours validating data, double checking formulas, and updating values, which is as a time-consuming process.

• Complex to find mistakes: It is quite difficult to find mistakes in a spreadsheet with lot of data. It is often time consuming process to find where exactly the mistakes have occurred.

• Limits the depth of risk analysis: With each change made to a spreadsheet, links between the information are lost making it difficult to analyze relationships over time. Without these links, it becomes tough to link risks and their controls. Also they offer limited access to past and current data making it difficult to compare data overtime.

• Intensive labor: The process of risk management involves continuous updating of data and it increases day by day. Updating data and using spreadsheets effectively requires lot of time and effort. So intensive labor with good knowledge of using the shortcuts and formulas is compulsory.

• Lacks security: A user can accidentally or intentionally delete vast amounts of critical information. Spreadsheets are highly vulnerable to virus attacks, hard disk crashes, and other unexpected disasters.

Underlying costs of using spreadsheets In general, people think that spreadsheets are free, but they never calculate the underlying costs that can impact the business. Following are the true costs of using them.

• Labor costs: As discussed earlier, it takes lot of effort to create, maintain, organize, and report using spreadsheets. However, the fact that these things require labor, which in turn results in huge costs to the company, is often ignored.

• Opportunity costs: Spreadsheets consume lot of your time and effort, which you can productively use for adding value to the organization. Many business owners, in fact, lose many opportunities hanging around with spreadsheets.

• Risk and non-compliance costs: Spreadsheets lack in company wide visibility, accountability, security and control which results in increased costs in terms of failed audits, unforeseen events, increased insurance costs and so on.

• Scalability costs: A small company can manage and use one spreadsheet to track all records. But as the business grows, the effort of maintaining and consolidating these records increases exponentially. At one point this process fails and negatively impacts the business.

• Human error costs: Spreadsheets are vulnerable to manipulation, which can dramatically impact the company. Moreover, with the increasing chances of human errors, it is difficult to consider that the data is valid and reliable. These human errors can cost a lot to the company.

Effective tool to replace spreadsheet - Risk Management Software After seeing all the risks and costs involved with spreadsheets, one would certainly ask for a better tool to manage risks and here is the solution - the Risk Management Software. It can effectively replace spreadsheets in the risk management process. Following are the benefits of using risk management software.

• Effective control over GRC processes: Risk management software helps in the effective control over the GRC (governance, risk management, and compliance) processes with proper documentation and work flow. They also help managers in risk assessment and analysis, visualization and reporting.

• Data security: User can limit the availability of data by creating passwords. He can also give full access to all the data to a particular group of people within the organization. This feature eliminates the risk of manipulation of data.

• Real time recording: Recording and updating information regarding risks is easy using this software. You need not spend hours to update the data.

• Reliable audits: This software offers full protection to all the data in the system with fully automated backups. This allows auditors to extract robust and reliable audit trails without unnecessary effort and thus it helps them in identification of risks, and creation of risk management strategies.

• Automated risk reporting: It provides the user with clear information on their objectives and risks associated. It also informs about the required actions and scheduled dates to implement them to prevent risks.

• Clear and consistent reports: A unique feature of this software is that it provides clear and consistent reports making it easy for managers to view the risks in real-time.

How to choose effective risk management software With growing demand of the risk management software, many companies offering this software evolved in the market. Therefore it is important to choose the effective one to reap the maximum benefits. Following are some tips to choose a good one.

• Reputed vendor: A well established and experienced vendor definitely offers standard products as he fully understands risk management standards.

• Maximum features: Before buying the product, make sure that it has all features to help you in managing the risks properly.

• Customer service and tech support: As this product is new for the organization, it is important to choose a company that offers 24/7 tech support and timely customer service. Moreover, as risk environment demands a constant change of compliance, make sure that the vendor is offering regular product updates and maintenance releases.

An upgrade in the existing technology never says that the existing product is of no use, instead offers the user with more useful features. Upgrading to latest tools like risk management software enhances the organization's capabilities in managing risk.

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Contacting Insurance Leads   How A Bank Took Over The Relationship From My Financial Advisor   

If Cold Calling Makes You Feel Dirty Do This Instead

If Cold calling makes you feel dirty you should listen to your gut. In this article I'm going to explain why cold calling isn't working for you. Then I'm going to share what does work and explain why.

First, cold calling doesn't work the way you are doing it now because you are an uninvited pest. The people you call didn't ask you to call them. They're busy. They don't want to talk on the phone to people they don't know. Plus, most people only use a landline telephone to screen the calls they don't want. Anyone they actually know and want to talk to calls them on their cell phone.

Second, what you say isn't relevant to the person you call. When you answer the phone you expect the person on the other end to be someone you already know. If the person on the other end isn't someone you already know you expect that person to have something very important to say. What you consider important is something you are already looking for or have a particular interest in.

Few people wake up and jump out of bed screaming, "I have to get me some insurance today!"

Next time some clueless soul tells you "cold calling is a numbers game"; recognize that statement for what it is. That statement is a stupid platitude spouted off by people who don't have a real prospecting strategy.

Finally, you present your prospect with the wrong offer. Prospects expect your offer to interest them, bring them value, and be non-threatening. The idea of sitting down with a pushy insurance agent (they believe all insurance agents are pushy and obnoxious) is definitely threatening. An offer like that is definitely something they DO NOT want to do.

Bottom line cold calling doesn't work because you call the wrong people, say the wrongs things, and make the wrong offer. When you make a cold call it's like searching to find someone at a University of Nebraska home football game to buy insurance. At the game you could introduce yourself to as many of the +60,000 fans present. You could ask if they'd like an insurance quote. But, you wouldn't enjoy much success.

That brings me to the biggest reason cold calling isn't a good prospecting strategy. Even though cold calling isn't a good prospecting strategy you can make it work. You can learn a much better way to make those calls. But, you'll never make a lot of money doing it.

Here's why. Cold calling is a one-to-one marketing technique. It eats up your time, erodes your ego, and yields few results for your efforts.

An effective prospecting strategy is one-to-many. You do one thing and get your offer in front of many people. Of those many people the ones who are likely to actually buy contact you. When those likely buyers contact you, you give them an offer they want to accept. Because those prospects feel you've given them an easy way to take you up on your offer they are very likely to accept.

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Contacting Insurance Leads   How A Bank Took Over The Relationship From My Financial Advisor   

The Overall Benefits Of Using Insurance Brokers

The process of maintaining coverage on anything within life is often considered to be a mandatory for many items and in many respects. This is a process that is usually considered quite critical from the stance of keeping everything as successfully maintained and carefully considered as possible throughout the entire ownership process of various products and services that are continually in use. People considering this issue should know the overall benefits of using insurance brokers to ensure they receive the guidance they are seeking.

Most providers that offer coverage of this kind to interested consumers have a host of employees available for consumers. These are typically employees that fulfill a specific role and are maintained in order to make sure that all complications that could arise are successfully kept up with. Brokers are typically the professionals that are sought after in order to tailor all insurance based need for the consumer that utilized their expertise throughout the coverage process.

Many people simply utilize an online or telephone based format in order to make a policy based purchase or decision. This is usually seen as more convenient and effective from the stance of time and efficiency whenever this process is under consideration. Consumers that know the advantages of utilizing the services of a broker are usually able to make sure their coverage experience is a success.

One of the main benefits of utilizing this type of professional is the personalized approach to service that is offered. The ability to simply receive a personal approach to coverage and having any issues resolved is always seen as a major benefit. These professionals are usually very well versed in all aspects of coverage and should be taken advantage of.

This is also a professional that provides assistance with any type of claim that must be filled out. The claims process is always known to be complicated and may require some type of guidance and knowledge base from trained professionals. This helps make sure that all aspects of coverage are fully understood at all times.

Any questions or concerns about coverage are able to be answered and addressed by this type of professional. The entire industry of insurance is known to be quite complicated which may lead to various questions and concerns throughout the entire coverage process. This type of professional is usually able to make sure these questions and concerns are effectively dealt with.

Consumers also often find that these professionals are very local and conveniently located. Professionals are usually situated throughout local offices and are able to be accessed whenever they may be needed. This provides the foundational ability of making sure that they are readily utilized whenever they may be needed.

A final benefit of using insurance brokers is that they are usually free of charge to consumers. Most people feel as if the use of this type of professional is associated with some type of service fee that is built into their monthly premium base rate and plan which is not correct. These professionals are made available by the company at no additional cost to consumers.

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Contacting Insurance Leads   How A Bank Took Over The Relationship From My Financial Advisor   

Marketing Hype Or Marketing Hope?

My focus for the last several years has been insurance sales. Before insurance, it was product sales. Either way I discovered a simple thing - before a sale can take place a whole bunch of marketing has to happen.

Most sales people don't like marketing and it shows up in their sales results. The two are linked but significantly different. Let's distinguish them before we go any further.

Marketing is building a path so that:

People who want to buy find you Get to know you Come to trust you Are ready to buy from you

Sales is the actual process of:

Making the presentation Closing the sale Taking the order Delivering the goods

Obviously the secret to great sales results begin with effective marketing. But what do you market? Most sales people confuse what they market with what they sell.

If you have a steady stream of people eager to buy what you're selling lining up at your door to buy from you then you understand effective marketing. If you're not selling them - you need. I've met very few sales professions who are in this position. Most sales professionals have marketing problems not sales problems.

No matter what you sell. No matter what you deliver. What you must market if you're to be effective at all is HOPE!

Marketing hope is the key...

Your potential buyer is looking for hope. What they need is hope. What they buy is hope. What you market must be hope!

They hope that if something happens they'll have the money to carry them through the experience. They hope that if they die their children will be cared for. They hope that when they retire they will have enough assets to live as they choose. They hope they can win a battle with a critical illness and not lose their house in the process.

Evaluate your efforts...

Look at how you're selling. Are you pushing a product without providing some hope that your potential buyer will realize because of the purchase?

Look at what you're selling. Have you identified how your product fulfills the promise of hope for your potential buyer? Does it promise hope?

Look at who you're selling. Do you know or can you identify with their need for a hope fulfilled by your product?

Look at you when you're selling. Do you make promises that your deliverable can't keep? Have you considered that a broken promise destroys hope? Are you doing all that you can to make sure you don't destroy hope in your potential client by putting down the competition?

Ask yourself questions...

You know that questioning is important in a sales presentation. As you perfect your questioning skills you improve your closing ratio. When was the last time you asked the same level of serious, probing questions to yourself?

Schedule a review at least once a quarter to see if you need to tweak something or if a complete overhaul is in order.

Evaluating what you're offering from your potential buyer's perspective is essential to marketing hope success.

What do they require for a bright future? What hopes and dreams do they have that can be fulfilled by what you're offering? Are you a person of hope or a person of "doom and gloom"? If your competition is offering the same thing as you, are you offering hope be criticizing them? Have I made a list of at least 10 ways that my product and my business can offer my clients hope? Have I seriously considered the place that hope has in the human condition? Am I serious about marketing hope or is this just a gimmick to get sales?

Take time often to evaluate your business. Look serious at what you're doing. Realize that if you don't have a line of people at your door wanting to buy from you then you have a marketing issue not a sales issue. You need marketing training not sales training. Marketing hope is what gets the line at the door.

Marketing hope... it's the only hope you have of increasing your sales!

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Contacting Insurance Leads   How A Bank Took Over The Relationship From My Financial Advisor   

Health and Life Insurance Leads Marketing - Top 3 Ways to Acquire Prospects

Running a health and life insurance business is like fighting a war in the battlefield. You have to compete with other team members within your organization for recruiting prospects. In addition, you need to wrestle with other businesses that offer better coverage to your clients.

To attract new customers to look at your health and life insurance policies, you have to find a way to communicate with them. To do that, you will need to obtain their contacts, we call this 'leads'. With the contact details, you can then have an opportunity to reach, convince and close sales to new customers. Therefore it is essential that you engage in series of health and life insurance leads marketing strategies to succeed in this battlefield.

Top 3 Health and Life Insurance Leads Marketing Strategies to get prospects!

1) Advertise - to gain leads, you want to let people know you are providing information on topics that they are interested in. This can be done through several ways: publishing advertisements in the local newspaper, printing fliers and posting classified ads online. All these items will call the interest of people, and since you leave a mode of communication open, they will get in touch with you.

2) Offer information - not everyone is willing to give out their contact information to total strangers. In order to get their e-mail address or phone number, you can offer an incentive. Some examples of these incentives are newsletters, white papers and information that promises the recipient some sort of gratification. If they are interested in your newsletter, then they would willingly provide their e-mail address, which you can now use as a lead contact.

3) Establish yourself as an expert - unless there is a reason to believe you, people will not listen to your advice. This is why you should join forums and other online sites that allows you to share your knowledge with the rest of the world. When people see you as an expert in your field, they will be willing to get in touch with you to partake of the wisdom you have to offer.

Once you are recognized as a person who knows a lot about health and life insurance, prospect will want to be associated with you. They are more than happy to leave their contact details to benefit from the information that you will be sending them. You can use this opportunity to build a relationship with prospects and present them the features of your insurance policy. Once you start closing sales, it means your health and life insurance leads marketing campaign is working, you want to repeat the whole process again and again.

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Contacting Insurance Leads   How A Bank Took Over The Relationship From My Financial Advisor   

Insurance SEO Best Practices: Attain What Is Attainable

With respect to insurance agency SEO, as with all things, attention to detail, complexities, and nuances can cloud our perspective - we can't see the forest for the trees. A common manner in which this SEO vexation manifests is through keyword rank tunnel-vision. In a previous blog, we explored the nature of the keyword - what makes a keyword a good or bad pick. Now we must reexamine our keywords to determine performance, efficacy, and attainability.

Performance manifests itself in the simplest, most easily tracked manner. Has the ranking of your site for a given keyword gone up or down on a given search engine in the last month (monthly assessments are best)? If your rank has improved, then your site is likely performing well. If you were on page 3 and you are now on page 2, that is a very good start. If you were on page 3 and you are now higher on page 3, that is a modest gain that must be improved upon. Inevitably, your site's rank for some keywords will stay flat or go down. Simple enough.

Efficacy is easy to understand, but more difficult to track. A closed-loop integrated marketing and sales approach, usually bolstered by a CMS (client management system or content management system), is required to make such determinations. The question is not how your rankings have changed, but how many prospects have resulted from the rank changes, and how strong is your conversion ratio for this prospect pool. Once we understand these finer aspects of inbound marketing, we gain a greater appreciation for the value of our SEO rank gains.

Attainability is the elusive aspect of SEO that can cause us to miss the forest for the trees. While efficacy is similarly important, it is more often appreciated and understood. Attainability is the ability of your SEO team to make effective gains on your site's ranking for a given keyword on a given search engine. Though Web CEO, Google AdWords, HubSpot, or other services may inform you that the competition for a given keyword is a specific numerical value (or numerical approximation), the actual competitiveness can vary dramatically. Beyond this, the far-reaching effects of Google's panda algorithm can play differently with various keywords. In the end, nothing beats experience and observation in determining the attainability of your keywords.

If you are targeting a pool of ten keywords that all have a similar keyword effectiveness index, and 3 go way up, 4 go up a little, 2 stay flat, and 1 goes down, you should intelligently examine the possible explanations for this, and try again. Once you have been targeting these keywords for 3 to 4 months, however, you should be able to determine which keywords are ripe for the picking, and which are extremely challenging to impact. It is better to focus your efforts elsewhere for more profitable time investment. In this regard search engine optimization is much like sales - a Yes is good, a No is bad, but it's the Maybe's that will kill you. Identify the winners, ditch the losers, and pursue a more optimum batch. See the forest for the trees.

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Contacting Insurance Leads   How A Bank Took Over The Relationship From My Financial Advisor   

How to Increase Your Sales Success Through Increased Knowledge

As an insurance agent, it is important to stay on top of all of the latest news in the industry. This will help you increase your sales success because you will have more confidence in the information that you are presenting to your clients. But how do you make sure you are as knowledgeable as you can be about the products that you are presenting? Here are four things you can do to increase your knowledge about your products and your selling techniques to maximize your success.

Read as many books as possible about the subject you want to learn about. Are you trying to be a better salesperson? Do you want to learn more about a certain type of insurance product? Regardless of what you are trying to educate yourself about, you should read as many books and magazine articles on the topic as you can find. As you read, keep a notebook handy so you can take notes which will help you retain the information. Then put the information that you find to good use when meeting with your clients. Attend seminars and conferences. One of the main benefits of attending a seminar or a conference about the subject that you want to learn about is that there are typically experts in the subject speaking at these events. These events can help you learn real world ways of applying the information that you are learning about. And since these events are conducted by experts in the industry, they can help you weed out the ideas that don't work in real world situations so you can focus on the techniques that do work with actual clients. You can also meet with others in the same industry and discuss ideas which can be a great way to network with others. Subscribe to industry newsletters. If you search for newsletters that are relevant to selling or those that provide the latest news about insurance products, you can stay up to date on the things that you should know as an insurance agent. Clients will be asking you questions and you should know the answers without needing to get back to them. Try to focus only on the newsletters that are written by experts in the field so you are getting the most accurate and effective information. Look for audio materials for your down time. Have you ever thought about purchasing books on tape that are relevant to bettering your sales techniques? Instead of letting valuable minutes in the car go to waste by listening to music, you can listen to audio books about being motivated, increasing your sales success and more.

Whether you are trying to increase your knowledge about effective sales strategies, learn about ways to motivate yourself or become an expert on the products that you sell, you can use these suggestions to accomplish those goals and increase your potential for sales success.

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Contacting Insurance Leads   How A Bank Took Over The Relationship From My Financial Advisor   

Self Insured Plans In Medium Sized Businesses

A self insured plan (or "self funded" plan) is an arrangement whereby an employer assumes the risk and provides group health benefits directly to employees with its own funds.

This is different from a fully insured plan where the employer pays premiums to an insurance company which assumes the risk and provides the benefits to participants. In a self-funded plan, the employer assumes the direct risk for payment of the claims for benefits. The eligibility and schedule of benefits are set forth in a plan document which includes provisions similar to those found in a typical group health insurance policy.

Total self-insurance is pretty rare. In order to mitigate the risk and provide an extra measure of financial protection against catastrophic claims, most self-funded employers purchase stop loss coverage. These policies typically provide for risk retention both on an individual catastrophic claim basis (specific stop loss) and on an aggregate claims basis (aggregate stop loss).

While Aggregate and Specific Stop Loss protection do limit maximum employer liability, there is some risk that is not transferred to the insurance carrier. The employer must be willing to trade the complete security (and associated cost) of a fully insured plan for the possibility that actual cost will exceed what the fully insured plan would have cost.

Before the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA") legislation was passed in 1974, employers faced many state laws that required them to be licensed insurers in order to self-fund their own employee benefit plans. Passage of ERISA removed those barriers and larger employers quickly began self-funding their health plans.

Self Insurance In Medium Sized Businesses

Although some myths persist to the contrary, employers with as few as 100 employees now self-fund their health plans. Lower middle market employers (between 100 and 500 employees) find that they have sufficient scale to reduce operating costs significantly, while gaining greater control of benefit plan design.

Advantages of self-insurance include the following:

Elimination of premium taxes. In most states, there is no premium tax for the self-funded claim fund; thus, an immediate savings equal to the amount of the premium tax (approximately 2% to 3% of the total cost of the plan) is realized. Lower cost of operation. Employers frequently find that administrative costs for a self-funded program through a professional TPA are lower than those being charged by their previous insurance carrier. Carrier risk charge is eliminated. The risk charge of an insurance carrier is eliminated which usually results in 2% to 4% in savings. Cash flow benefit. The employer's cash flow is improved when money formerly held by the insurance carrier in the form of various reserves, such as for unreported claims and pending claims, is freed for use by the employer. Return on investment for reserves. Interest on reserves established by the employer remains under the employer's control. Control of plan design. The self-funded employer has greater flexibility in the plan design. Mandatory benefits avoided. State regulations mandating costly benefits are avoided because self-funded programs are subject to ERISA which preempts state law. Thus employers can have the identical benefits in every state where their employees reside. Administration tailored to the employer's needs. The employer usually has a choice of third-party administrators, each of whom is interested in providing the employer with flexible services that are purchased a la carte to meet the employer's needs.

Even with all these advantages, a number of large and mid-sized employers still remain fully insured. Oftentimes, they may stay fully insured because they believe that self-insurance:

Entails taking on too much risk. Plan set-up will take a significant amount of internal time and resources due to its complexity. Is not feasible, due to poor or self-serving advice from their broker.

While there are some legitimate reasons to stay fully insured, many small & mid-sized employers that shy away from self-insurance are doing so without fully investigating their options. With self insurance, you will need to obtain advice from expert actuarial consultants for setting up the plan, analyzing the risk and employing sound risk management techniques.

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Exclusive Life Leads: Tips for Successful Phone, Internet Sales

For insurance agents seeking out exclusive life leads, it is important to understand that it is becoming more common for prospects to purchase life insurance on the phone or through the Internet, rather than coming to an agent's office. It's a different world than it was 5 or 10 years ago. People want fast, convenient, instant gratification, and the phone and Internet are able to meet these needs effectively. The key to success as an agent is to know how to maximize these exclusive life leads through phone or Internet communication.

While meeting prospects in person may be the easiest way to sell insurance, because you can interact and build rapport, the truth is that more and more customers want to use the phone or Internet, so agents must learn to adapt to this method of selling. The good news is that it is still possible to build rapport and create confidence in your products through the phone or Internet. The key is to speak kindly and professionally and continue being customer-focused in all of your communications.

Convert Exclusive Life Leads to Profitable Sales

When it comes to phone and online insurance sales, you are in control when you can perfect your communication and customer service skills. Consider these additional tips for making the most of exclusive life leads sales opportunities:

· Promptly follow up on all leads and inquiries. When you respond quickly, the customer feels valued and it sets-up your relationship for success.

· Be concise in your discussion of the products. Whether it is e-mail or phone or online chat, customers are short on time, and will not want to read or listen to endless details about the life insurance products. They just want to know if it is affordable and if it will meet their needs, so develop a standard "pitch" that is brief and interesting to keep customers' attention.

· Be personable and real in your communications. Use a friendly tone of voice or writing. Don't be overly formal or stuffy. Customers begin to trust you when they can relate to you as a human being.

· Always strive to take your customer's perspective. Everything you say or write should be customer-focused, answering the customer's question, "What's in it for me?"

· Know the ins-and-outs of what you are selling. You want to be armed with all of information about your life insurance products, so you will be prepared for any questions from these exclusive life leads. When you can show you are prepared and competent, customers will want to purchase from you.

There's no reason to fear or dread online or phone communications with prospects. When you are well-prepared, friendly and focused on the customer's needs, you can achieve great success with converting those exclusive life leads into profitable sales to grow your business.

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How To Increase Insurance Sales: Your Value Proposition

Empathy is the Single Most Important Factor in Sales Success

Because research has shown that people do NOT want an agent whose sole objective is to get the app and collect the check. People want an insurance agent who helps them - not an agent who sells them.

They want a friendly, honest agent they can trust, who has both the resources and the knowledge to:

help them understand their needs correctly answer their questions make suggestions or recommendations help them understand their choices guide them in making smart decisions

They want someone who will stay in touch, and periodically review and update their coverage.

So if you want to know how to increase insurance sales, begin with your sales process.

Stop Selling and Start Helping

If your attitude, style, method or process reflects a "sales" orientation, the surest way to increase insurance sales is to change from "selling" policies, to "helping" clients make smart buying decisions.

Of course, you might already be doing this. But are you telling people this is what you do?

Your Business Value Proposition

Here's a very easy and effective way to increase insurance sales, while building your business with additional sales to existing clients, and generating qualified referrals to new clients too.

Begin by creating your own "value proposition" statement - something like this:

I am a friendly, honest insurance professional.

I maintain the resources, the information, and the knowledge to:

help my clients understand their needs correctly answer their questions make suggestions or recommendations help them understand their choices guide them in making smart decisions

I review each client's coverage every year, and make suggestions for cost reductions or improvements.

And I do all that I can to save my clients money on their insurance. Would you like to be my client?

How To Increase Insurance Sales With Your Value Proposition

Next, have your "value proposition" printed out on a 3 x 5 full color postcard, along with your photo.

On the back of the post card, print the following:

Please visit my website to learn what I do for my clients, and what I can do for you too.

www.mywebsite.com

Now keep these cards with you, and put them into the hands of everyone you know and everyone you meet. Hand these cards out to everyone you do business with too.

Simply tell everyone that you are always looking for people you can help with their insurance, and hand them the card. Most people will immediately read the card, and then flip it over to see the "invitation" to visit your website.

But be sure to make note of everyone you hand a card to, so that you can follow up with a reminder phone call - even if you only leave a voice mail message.

No Gimmicks or Techniques

Not only do people appreciate the refreshingly honest and direct approach, but those who respond are predisposed to working with you - which shortens the sales process considerably.

And the more cards you hand out, the more productive activity you will develop - which naturally results in more sales opportunities that develop into long term client relationships.

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Facts and Statistics About Americans and Health Insurance

1) According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are nearly 50 million uninsured people living in the United States.

2) 54.2 percent of uninsured people in the U.S. in 2009 were males.

3) The largest group of uninsured people surveyed was the 45-64 year old age group, accounting for 25.3 percent of the sample size.

4) Of Americans who make $8.10 to $10.63 per hour, only 22 percent of them are covered by health insurance through their employers. For those making $10.63 to $15.70 per hour, this figure jumps to 52 percent.

5) The average PPO (Preferred Provider Organization) plans require a standard $10 to $20 co-payment for visits to the doctor, but you must see a doctor within your PPO's network.

6) HMOs (Health Maintenance Organizations) are considered the least flexible of health insurance policies but provide the most emphasis on preventative visits to the doctor. If you wish to see a specialist, you'll be required to obtain the approval of your primary care physician. You will have to pay extra if you see a specialist outside of your network.

7) People who have HMOs typically pay a $15 to $20 co-pay for every doctor's visit as long as it's within their network.

8) If your doctor, who is part of your HMO plan, suddenly drops out of your network of providers, you will either have to find a new physician that is part of the plan or pay a higher cost for using the same physician.

9) In 2005, more than 50 percent of people surveyed who didn't have health insurance say the reason they didn't have it was because of cost. 24 percent of people surveyed said they didn't have health insurance because they had lost their jobs.

10) In 2006, Medicaid accounted for 12.9 percent of health care coverage in the U.S.

11) Approximately half of bankruptcy filings in the U.S. are due to medical expenses

12) More than 40 million people state that they needed to see a doctor for a particular health ailment or illness but didn't receive medical care because of the expense.

13) Nearly 60 percent of Americans have health insurance of some kind provided through an employer.

14) Medicare, a federally-funded health insurance program designed specifically for people 65 and older, accounted for 13.6 percent of health care coverage in 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

15) In 2005, the United States' medical care expenditures totaled $2 trillion.

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Useful Tips for Selling Insurance

There are a great number of types of insurance plans out there available to people. This is wonderful for buyers, however can easily have unfavorable results on the sales person themselves. Salesmen should discover something that sets them apart from their competition. Usage these strategies to get started.

1. Use just what you have actually discovered in some other occupations, as they can quickly be applied to an insurance sale

2. The insurance field is often advancing, so keep up to date with present occasions like changes in government law and consumer purchasing trends.

3. The even more acknowledgment you get the better. People like to recognize that who they're investing with is trustworthy and respectable. The even more certification you receive from companies like the American Insurance Company or the Better Company Bureau, the much better.

4. There are plenty of ways to market yourself, from handing out complimentary product to radio ads, take advantage of any sort of and all outlets to get your name out there

5. Constantly be setting goals for yourself. These goals ought to begin little, such as calling 20 possible clients a day. Objectives should then steadily get bigger in scale, such as increasing overall sales.

6. Don't presume that your client is an insurance expert. Use effortless to recognize terminology; it will make your client feel more comfortable and hence more likely to buy your item.

7. Place aside any sort of issues that might trigger your attitude to be unfavorable. Insurance sales will certainly rise and fall given the times, but you need to keep beneficial or the prospective purchaser will lose self-confidence in you and choose out of a policy.

8. Delineate the customers who are in fact interested in your product from those who are not. Lots of people will try and extract all the info you give them throughout a sales pitch without having any real interest.

9. With many types of insurance out there, potential policy owners might recede your efforts at very first. However using the art of persuasion can fix that.

10. Know the item you are hoping to sell like the back of your hand. It is very easy for consumers to see through a salesperson when the salesmen can't answer their questions.

Some people are natural-born sellers, who can take to an insurance job with ease. Nevertheless, whether you are this kind of person, learning the art of selling can easily be an uphill struggle. But this task is by no means impossible.

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Contacting Insurance Leads   How A Bank Took Over The Relationship From My Financial Advisor