Lead follow-ups are essential to any business. By staying in touch with your leads throughout the process, you can ensure they feel more connected to your agency and will be more inclined to pursue further business dealings with you. On average, at least 80% of all sales require at least five follow-up interactions before a sale can be made, but 44% of salespeople give up after the first “no.” So you need to stay on top of your follow-ups and beat out the rest of your competition by developing a strong follow-up strategy.
Two of the best ways you can follow up with leads today are through calls and emails.
Tips on how to do an effective insurance lead follow up
There are several different ways you can run effective follow-up campaigns for your agency. Many of them are very easy to gather positive results through, but they can just as quickly turn negative if you handle them incorrectly. Properly managing your follow-up can exponentially increase the amount of helpful feedback and future business you can drum up for your company.
Calling your leads, staying in touch with them electronically via email, and using CRM tools are some of the best ways you can stay on top of your insurance lead follow-ups.
1. Call your leads
Making phone calls is vital to maintaining good follow-up with your clients, but it can be more difficult to handle well when most people today do not like answering phone calls. Nevertheless, in a world where face-to-face contact is becoming less and less plausible, phone calls are essential for building and keeping strong customer relationships. Fortunately, there are several methods you can employ to make sure your calls are as effective as you can make them.
First, you should follow up with your leads as quickly as possible. Doing so provides them with a stronger sense of connection to you and your agency, promoting future business exchanges. Be warned, though: the longer you wait to get in touch with them, the colder and more resistant your lead will become to your marketing strategies. And if, for whatever reason, you miss a call from your lead, redial them as soon as possible. This helps reaffirm to them that they are a valued part of your business and can encourage more dealings.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the ways you can use follow-up strategies to promote your business growth.
Be a persistent caller, not a pushy one.
When working with a lead and trying to convince them to do business with you, you need to make sure you stay on top of the process by regularly calling them to follow up and check on them. If you mismanage this process by being too pushy, you can drive potential clients away. But, on the other hand, not being persistent enough can also drive clients to your competitors. To make sure you’re doing everything you can, you need to know the difference between being pushy and persistent in your follow-ups.
Pushy callers
Pushy callers are those who clients will view as too aggressive and forceful in their business dealings. They can be demanding and grating when they repeatedly push the same agenda without considering how their tactics may come off. They essentially bulldoze potential clients until they cave or leave the business relationship entirely. And more often than not, they leave.
Persistent callers
Persistent callers have a clear focus on their task and the motivation to see it through. They have a lot of energy and drive to achieve what they set out to do. Still, they also maintain a level of courteousness that helps clients feel appreciated but not overwhelmed. In fact, 57% of people say they’re more likely to make a purchase when their salesperson isn’t putting too much pressure on them.
Call frequency
One of the biggest differences between pushy and persistent callers is the frequency of the calls they make. Pushy callers may dial up leads as often as once a day to try and fill their quotas. Sometimes, this number is even higher. On the other hand, persistent callers know that calling leads every day will not keep them on track with your business and will annoy them, blocking your number altogether.
So persistent callers call at least six times over the same time to keep their business fresh in clients’ minds without overwhelming them.
Leaving voicemails vs. not
Leaving voicemails is a topic of much debate today. It can be a really good idea to leave a friendly message for someone to respond to but never leave a voicemail if the information you’re conveying is at all personal in nature. Keep whatever messages you leave short and to the point, so everything is as clear as it can be.
Emails
If you have contacts who sign up for email communications and prefer those to calls, you may need to adjust your follow-up routine to accommodate them. This often happens when leads sign up with their contact information online, such as subscribing to your newsletters, blog updates, or whatever email list you have in place.
Fortunately, these kinds of services can be a great way to follow up with your leads in a non-invasive way. Email newsletters let you add value to your clients’ lives without pushing them into a sale. And those that do respond will be the ones who are genuinely interested in your offer. Plus, they benefit from being a continual reminder–not just a one-off email, which is great for you because 70% of salespeople stop at one email while you get 25% more response if you send multiple (Hubspot).
2. Use CRMs
Customer Relationship Management systems (CRMs) provide agencies like yours with excellent resources for running successful follow-up campaigns. They help you trace when you’ve last been in contact, schedule meetings, send emails, and regulate the best times to contact leads for the best possible results.
Start a better follow-up campaign today!
Following up with your clients is essential to the success of your business. Once you have a lead’s attention, you need to keep it by reminding them of your services and how they can benefit from them. Using phones and emails are two of the best ways to stay in touch with clients, and you can manage individual features of each whether you use AMS, CRM, or a combination of the systems.
For more information about our insurance management software and how it can make a difference for your business, contact Better Agency today.