So how do agents get in front of people? How do we sell this stuff?
Great question! And at FexContracting you are working with the masters. The heart and soul of Final Expense Sales come from direct mail leads. To be really successful right out of the gate you target the RIGHT people with direct mail. BY the right people, we mean ages 55-79, annual incomes under $50,000 and in the counties and/or zip codes that YOU choose.
If you’ve been trying to sell to people who are too young, too rich or no physical address or phone number to contact them you will have trouble getting sales.
Good fresh, exclusive direct mail leads cost $30 in most states. Our leads are sold on a guaranteed cost per lead basis which takes the risk away from doing mailings on a cost per mailing basis. This allows you to budget and build your business the right way.
In addition to direct mail, some of our agents use Telemarketed Leads. The only advantages to telemarketed leads are speed (usually arrive in three days rather than 3-weeks) and they are cheap. But they are cheap for a reason. Telemarketed leads can help you make some sales but they are NEVER as good overall as direct mail. With direct mail leads, someone got up out of their chair, found a pen, filled out their info on a card and mailed it back. (proactive lead). With telemarketed leads they simply answered their phone and were too polite or too confused to hang up (reactive lead).
The most common complaints from agents about telemarketed leads are:
1. They are VERY spread out and you waste a lot of time driving between them. This is because of the Do Not Call Lists. Only a small percentage of households can be called. The ones that are not on the Do Not Call Lists are called frequently and get fed up with telemarketers. It takes a LOT of population to generate 25 leads for an agent and that makes it likely that you will have leads that are not close to each other.
2. There is a higher number of incompetent seniors that are “leads.” Seniors who have early dementia often agree to everything including an appointment from a telemarketer. But when you show up you can easily tell this person can’t make decisions. If you do sell them a child will often cancel it the next day. Not everyone who responds to telemarketers is incompetent but there is definitely a higher incidence of them than with a more proactive lead source like direct mail. Even if you get credit for the bad lead, you wasted time that you could have been in front of a better prospect.
FaceBook Leads are very popular with many agents. They are lower cost than direct mail and come in within a few days after you place an order.
We recommend WEEKLY direct mail and only use Facebook leads and telemarketed leads for filler.
Keep in mind that quality leads are the ONLY way to succeed in this business. Many agents fail out looking for cheaper lead sources. Just do what the successful agents do. If you spend EXACTLY $750 per week you will have 25 brand new direct mail leads that are targeted to the most likely FE purchasers. Every one of these leads is guaranteed to have a physical address or a phone number on them. Most have both. There is not a better deal in existence for the FE agent who is on 115-125% contracts.
With 25 direct mail leads you (as a new agent with our resources and mentorship) should be able to set appointments with 14 of them and do drop by door knocks on the rest. You should make at least 5- sales with a total AP of at least $3,000. At 115% commission your first year income from those sales will be $3,450 and 75% of it is advanced so you get over $2,500 right away and more held till later which can usually handle any chargebacks or cancelations. This is not even factoring in a few Guaranteed Issue plans you will sell in addition which just add to your income and are paid as-earned. So after your first month or two, your business is cash flowing your leads. You should never have to put your own personal money out for leads except in the very beginning when you invest in starting your own business.
Where else can you:
1. Learn how to set appointments on your leads directly from the best appointment setter there is. (Travis’s appointment per lead ratio is so high, most people claim it’s impossible until they hear him set appointments.) We can’t all be the best but it definitely helps if you learn directly from the best.
2. Buy your fresh direct mail leads with a set price of $30 and target the best ages (55-79) and under $50,000 incomes. (You are free to tighten ages and incomes even further for an extra charge but most of our biggest producers just go with the popular $30 lead. You should too.)
3. Have a scheduled weekly training call with your mentor and many other very successful agents every single week. Be free to ask questions and hear from Travis as well as the agents who are already successful following his turn key plan that has kept him at the top of senior market agents for over 15 years. Have instant access to our “Lifeline” underwriting assistance on all your appointments. And have the business as well as the personal cell phone numbers to Scott, Travis and Mark to stay connected.
4. Fex’s underwriting “cheat sheets” are legendary. We’ve been designing and refining these for over 15 years and have so much detail that even the new agent with no experience can feel confident selecting the right company to match his applicant’s heath history. You will have your competitor’s scratching their heads and wondering how you did it to them again because they won’t know the insider information that allows you to better serve your families.
4. Receive the highest commission levels on the most competitive insurance companies (price and underwriting.) Most companies pay 115%-125% first year for brand new agents. This is higher than most agencies offer because we cut out the useless middlemen.
5. Free and open releases if you ever feel the grass is greener anywhere else. You will never be held captive by us (as long as your new IMO accepts all debt responsibility with your contract transfer.)
