Develop a Taste for Aged Leads

Leads are the lifeblood of insurance sales. Like a pet (or a houseplant), your database of leads needs to be continually nurtured. Leads can come from a number of sources: Friends. Family. Networking events. Referrals. Aged lead databases.

Wait – what?

Aged” is only an advantage when it applies to savory food and potent potables, right? Cheese, wine, steak, whiskey… yum. Getting hungry yet?

Grab a snack and your beverage of choice (go on, we’ll wait) and learn how these affordable, untapped leads can transform your sales game. Vanillasoft’s Director of Product Marketing (and in-house expert on the insurance sales industry) Bergen Wilde invited Bill Rice, Founder and CEO of Kaleidico, a digital agency specializing in lead generation and an expert on aged leads, to share his knowledge in a webinar focused on:

• What an ‘aged lead’ really is

• Benefits and uses of aged leads

• Disadvantages and “red flags”

Bill Rice

Founder/Chief Revenue Officer

Bergen Wilde

Director, Product Marketing

If you’re a sales rep, or a manager (or anyone who’s ever tried to sell anything besides Girl Scout Cookies – because, let’s be real: those cookies sell themselves), you know that timing is everything. So why should we consider leads that aren’t fresh out of the oven? Let’s break it down.

If you’re in insurance sales, you’re probably familiar with real-time internet leads. A customer makes an inquiry using a tool like QuoteWizard, filling out a form that matches them with several insurance agents so they can comparison shop. That’s the value proposition that most real-time lead providers offer to consumers.

Then that company sells consumers’ information to insurance providers. It might be sold three, four, or five times. But often, supply and demand aren’t perfectly matched. Maybe the lead company can only sell the lead once or twice. Or they don’t sell it right away.

These leads can be sold later, but they don’t have the same value. So they become “aged.” Or, to use the parlance of cheese and wine, they’re sometimes called vintage. And they have quite a difference in price point, based on their perceived value.

The relative age of a lead varies between lead providers, but generally, a real-time lead has been generated within the last 24 to 48 hours. If you’ve worked with real-time leads on a sales team, you know that your manager wants you to answer them in, oh, about 10 seconds. That’s because your company is paying a premium for it.

If the lead is older than 24 to 48 hours, it’s officially “aged.” (And we thought fruit flies had it bad).

The aged lead market isn’t restricted to the insurance biz. The concepts apply throughout verticals – and they’re getting tighter because “live transfers” are gaining in popularity, Bill explains.

That’s when lead companies will transfer consumers on an active phone call right to a salesperson. “The margin [of time] is getting shorter and shorter,” he says, noting that live-transfer leads are even more expensive than their real-time cousins.

What are the benefits of aged leads? The best place to begin is to understand the drawbacks of real-time leads.

Real-time leads are expensive: usually between $15 and $25 apiece. Live transfers are even more so, ranging from $50 to $90.

The investment there is so large that there’s a lot of pressure. The competition you are up against is under that same pressure so everybody’s calling within 30 seconds.

Bill Rice

Founder/Chief Revenue Officer

As much as we’d like it to be, a lead isn’t a cookie. (This analogy will eventually make sense, we promise.) There’s a huge misconception about those real-time leads: Just because you buy them and call in a matter of moments, there’s no guarantee you’ll actually close the sale.

We’re not suggesting you shouldn’t call a potential client immediately if you find one, regardless of whether you’ve purchased it or not. Research shows that quick contact gives you the highest probability of pulling that consumer into your pipeline – which kicks off a process that just might end in a sale.

But the phone call is certain to do only one thing: add a lead to your funnel. Conversion is, as always, up to you.

Another downside to the real-time process: The consumer can become overwhelmed. Your bright, shiny, mere seconds-old lead is likely to be bombarded by more than a handful of salespeople. In that scenario, “the consumer will just back away from the process,” says Bill. That’s why fresher isn’t always better.

Sommeliers and cheesemongers everywhere know that age is a virtue. Here’s what you need to know about why (slightly) older leads can work to your advantage in the insurance business.

The numbers don’t lie. Take a look at the statistics on aged leads.

1. Strike a bargain: An aged lead is far more affordable than the others we’ve discussed, ringing up at between zero and $30, but averaging at about $1 per lead. So that’s exponentially less of an investment.

2. Evade the competition: Even the most aggressive and refined sales teams usually stop following up on leads if they haven’t reached the consumer after 10 days, on average. So you’re competing less.

3. Get real: Compare the sales quota you’ve set for yourself with your conversion rate. You’ll discover how many deals you need to reach a particular commission rate. Back up and look at your funnel: Do you have enough leads? Chances are, absolutely not. And if you can’t afford to buy enough real-time leads to hit your quotas, you can still fill your funnel with sufficient opportunities to do so.

4. Train smarter, not harder: Aged leads are among the best to use when training a new rep or even building an initial book of business. Because they’re affordable enough to get the volume that you need, they’re a low-risk way to give rookies a chance to get good at what they’re doing.

But Bill makes it clear that an aged lead is really no different than a real-time lead in the sense that it’s still an opportunity to convert – however ripe.

Within that lead file, there’s as likely to be a really big deal as there is in real-time.

One of the reasons aged leads are so popular in insurance is because consumers are pretty much always in the market for insurance. There’s always a way to appeal to them: a slightly lower premium, or cost savings if they bundle their home and auto insurance, for example. Maybe they’re missing some insurance that belongs in their overall financial profile.

Aged leads are particularly favored in insurance because unlike mortgage leads – a product that you need once every five or 10 years – insurance is an evergreen need. Literally, when you sell an auto insurance policy, you could call back a couple of weeks later, bundle their home and auto, and give them savings. That’s why the price is lower, too – more volume.

The premium you’re paying for a real-time lead isn’t for a better lead per se. It’s for a better chance to hook that lead into your sales funnel – to get them talking to you as an authority on their buying journey over anyone else.

There may be reason to believe that an aged lead might actually hold a higher likelihood of closing. Because some time has passed, the consumer may have worked through whatever kept them from buying in the first place.

Research from CSO Insights suggests that 70% of consumers who fill out a form or make a phone call have already made a decision to purchase. So that means that most of those leads, regardless of age, will eventually close.

10% of consumers make a deal with whoever calls them first – which means the remaining 90% have to close at some point. A good lead management system (like VanillaSoft, wink, wink) ensures that by the time you do have a deal-closing conversation, you’ve satisfied most of their objections along the way.

Naturally, there are some drawbacks to aged leads. But if you know what they are, you can strategize to mitigate every one.

An aged lead comes with some baggage. But probably not as much as your latest Tinder date. Your potential client could be overwhelmed by the real-time process. Or they might have been dropped by someone who didn’t follow up. Perhaps they weren’t qualified to buy what they wanted, or they just couldn’t get what they were looking for. Or that lead is aged due to simple indecision.

Regardless of the backstory, sales reps should anticipate that something got in the way before (to make them an aged lead) and should be prepared to address those hurdles.

Your aged lead data file isn’t dinosaur DNA frozen in amber: emails and phone numbers do change. If your lead file doesn’t contain a phone number, you might be wasting your time.

Bill says that sometimes customers are so overwhelmed by the real-time lead process that they actually change their email or phone number. Because of too many messages from sales reps. Damn!

You can’t rely solely on email either. While it should definitely be a component of your outreach, shouldn’t be the only component. The average person now, based on statistics, has about 2.5 email addresses.

That means they’ve got an email for these kinds of things, and then they’ve got one they pay attention to. We’re all guilty of that, right? Looking at you, yesway_roseay@yahoo.com.

Phone numbers are all-important because even though people do change them, it’s somewhat rare. Phone numbers have almost become an identity. That’s why, as you’ll see in the next section, text messages are so vital.

Another drawback is the phenomenon Bill calls the “intent window.” When the customer originally submitted their request, they were in the mindset of buying. Thirty, 60, or 90 days later, they might not be thinking as much about a rate quote as they were then. Even though insurance is an evergreen need, the intent window makes aged leads a bit more complex. You should plan for a long engagement period before expecting a response.

That’s why you need a system: you’re working with a lot more volume. The worst thing you could do is buy 1,000 aged leads with the expectation that all you’ll need to do is call them. It’s likely that half or more of that list isn’t paying attention to the need for a rate quote right now. A good lead management solution will begin to nurture them again.

How can we begin with aged leads, whether we’re seasoned agents or new to the game, and just beginning to build our books? And how can we make sure we’re using them in the best ways possible? Bill, from Aged Lead Store, focuses on exactly that. And like any good insurance professional, he begins with a disclaimer.

The short version? Every business, organization, and sales operation is set up differently, and uniquely. The approaches, techniques, and technologies he recommends are widely used. But ultimately, your organization is responsible for any legal or regulatory compliance issues, which can vary from state to state and between countries.

If you come to our website, instead of buy, buy, buy, you actually see a lot of sales training,” Bill says. “Real-time leads just require repeated contact – that’s your only technique. Aged leads definitely require certain tools to make them effective.

To reach prospects who are no longer in the “intent zone,” differentiate your techniques and strategies. You can’t use the same approach you take with cold calls and real-time leads and expect the same results.

You don’t necessarily need new software, though. In good lead management systems, there’s usually a way to keep aged lead lists separate from your other prospects. When you first get a data file on an aged lead, Bill recommends contacting the customer quickly – ”almost as quickly as you would in realtime, and make them a part of your pipeline.”

Many clients Bill encounters through the Aged Lead Store take the wrong approach – at least initially. Most leads, aged or otherwise, are delivered in the form of a CSV file, which converts into an Excel file

But those of us who have been in sales for a long time know the dimensionality of an Excel spreadsheet. Those lists look good, but when you’re trying to keep up, they break down quickly.

After one or two follow-ups, whether by phone or otherwise, there’s not an easy way to gauge your place in the process. So you have to have a lead management system: a tool specifically designed for sales, that manages tracking multiple follow-ups and methods of contact.

A good lead management system can automate a long term outreach or drip campaign, because at least 50% of the folks in that file aren’t thinking about insurance right now.

Bill Rice

Founder/Chief Revenue Officer

But you bought them because when you put them in your book of business, in your database, sometime over the next six months, there is a really high probability that they will actually purchase a new insurance policy. Its all about whether or not you were the one that was following up with them.

Bill recommends a three-touch system.

He suggests you reach out via phone at first and always leave a voicemail (most people won’t pick up). You can use the aged lead file itself to develop a quick script:

“A couple of months ago, you requested a rate quote online. We weren’t able to connect, but I’d love to reach out to you if you haven’t gotten your auto insurance yet, or if you have any questions.”

Immediately after that, your lead management solution’s automation will kick in, following up with an email or text message. You can tweak the order of those messages as you see fit. When you leave that first voicemail, consider telling your prospect:

“I’m going to send you an email with all my contact information”

That makes that email open and deliver better, says Bill. They’ve heard your message, or they’ve seen your number on their phone.

For many prospects, a text message is even more effective. “All it takes,” says Bill, “is a simple "‘Hey, I am just checking in on you, when is a good time to call?’”

That might be the best text message you can send. But won’t people balk at a seemingly random text from a sales rep? Bill says not to worry – most of the time, people are appreciative of a text message. It doesn’t interrupt their meeting or their dinner. They can take a look at it and choose what to do. Hopefully, they’ll reply – suggesting a time when they’ll be in the window of intent again.

Cadence is always an important part of any sales strategy, especially in insurance. Generally, the cadence for aged leads is longer – you need to make more attempts to reach your prospects.

When a fresh lead comes in, the pressure begins. The lead is literally aging in your hands. Your sales manager is looking at it with bulging cartoon dollar signs in his eyes, thinking, I just paid 20 bucks for that thing; you better turn it into a sale. You might call them dozens of times over a week or 10 days before giving up.

So, from a leadership perspective, are there psychological advantages for your team when they’re calling aged leads versus fresh ones? Absolutely, Bill says. You take several pressure points off the salesperson when you use aged leads.

Because of that intensity that’s applied to prospects from multiple companies and reps, the consumer is often agitated, frustrated, or confused. Even if you call a real-time lead within 30 seconds, chances are that multiple competitors have beat you to it. It’s intense on both sides – it can put a “vice grip on the salesperson,” he adds.

That’s Bill’s mantra. Let your lead management system handle the tasks that can be automated for you. It can do the work of nurturing while you focus on your pipeline. A tool like Vanillasoft can make your messaging and your cadence so efficient that the consumer will organically come back to you.

So, you’re sold on aged leads. How should you identify the right places to buy them? It comes down to finding a company with a good reputation – and ensuring that those data files have everything you need to succeed. You can find aged leads through specialized providers like Bill’s company, the Aged Lead Store, and some realtime providers that sell their aged data directly to insurance companies instead of reselling it to aged lead experts.

Lead generation is a big industry with a wide spectrum of players. Whether you’re in the market for real-time leads or aged ones, it’s crucial to assess the reputation of the lead provider.

Your first filter – as with most products and services that you buy – is the company’s website. Make sure you see clear contact information: You need the ability to talk to a live person about the product and what the company provides. Reputation is also conveyed by how long they’ve been in business, particularly in the realm of aged leads.

Look for customer reviews. And ask your colleagues for input. Most capture agents in big firms like Allstate and Farmers will have at least some experience with aged lead providers. Independent agents can be good sources too.

The most important questions to ask are:

1. Where do these leads come from?

2. How were they collected?

3. Whats in the files?

4. How aged are they?

5. What are you doing to keep your data as relevant and accurate as possible?

How lead companies generate their product is kind of a “proprietary secret sauce” says Bill, but they should be able to articulate in a general sense, how they come about and what makes them good.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch. One dollar to $1.25 per lead is about average. If you meet a provider selling purportedly exclusive, previously unsold leads for less than a dollar apiece, red flags should go up.

Be sure to get specific answers about what you should expect to see inside those aged lead files. Get a sample of what a typical data file looks like. Expect them to be quite robust. Most online leads – real-time, aged or otherwise – are generated by long-form submissions. Often, there are 20 or more fields.

Here’s the bare minimum you should see – they should be required fields on the form.

• The date the request was made for the rate quote

• First and last name

• Full address

• Phone number(s)

• Email address

• Information related to the product the customer requested a quote for (auto insurance quote should require the entry of a make and model for example)

You want to accelerate your business and grow your book. To do that, you need leads – lots of them. And aged leads are the most affordable way to fill your funnel. But remember: An aged lead, like any kind of lead, is not a silver bullet. It takes an established process to make them work.

However, sales reps don’t burn out from calls or meetings with prospects. The real cause of burnout is non-productive tasks like making calls that don’t get answered, delivering emails, or sending text messages. You can disrupt that negative feedback loop with a lead management system like Vanillasoft and a plan.

Now, pour yourself a glass of something of a certain vintage... and toast to your newfound strategies for success!