Online Leads Systems Helping Agents With Sales

Agents can also be reminded to send "snail mail" items, Wecker notes. The agent selects the design, inputs the message and schedules a date for sending each piece of correspondence. Contact rules can be tailored for an individual, or for a class of prospects.

Wecker says LEAD.NET delivers it leads "exclusively to one agent" at a cost of $20 each on a flat-fee basis. There is also a one-time setup fee of $50 for each new account. Wecker adds that the company does not require advance payment for leads. "We only charge for valid leads that have been delivered."

Agents who want to use the LEAD.NET service need only have a computer and a browser, says Wecker. In addition, once a database of leads is developed, agents are able to download their own lists of leads to their local hard drives.

Meanwhile, InsuranceOnly has announced an agreement with iPipeline to provide agencies with access to InsuranceOnlys "exclusive" leads and lead management system via iPipelines back office systems.

According to Seattle-based InsuranceOnly, under the agreement, InsuranceOnly will provide leads, application requests and LeadBoss, a proprietary lead management system. iPipeline will provide back office tools that allow agencies to quote, sell and facilitate the fulfillment process.

"Using iPipelines My Agency online processing tools, agencies in the national InsuranceOnly network will be able to easily receive, record and respond to customer inquiries for new life insurance and long term care policies, as well as annuities," says InsuranceOnly.

"Were going to integrate our systems for leads and service," explains InsuranceOnly CEO Patrick Wedeking. No money is involved and no payments have been made up front, he adds.

According to Wedeking, leads from InsuranceOnly come from the Internet via "40 or 50 different promotions." These include opt-in e-mailing, in which customers agree to receive e-mail information on special offers from affiliated sites. "We have different deals with financial sites," he added. "It evolves and changes."

InsuranceOnly says its online Web resources include www.InsuranceOnly.com, www.TermOnly.com, www.AnnuityOnly.com.

Wedeking says InsuranceOnly has "a database that is proprietary that is designed to gather and distribute leads and application requests to our network." This is based on geography and insurance type, and the system screens for possible duplicate leads, he adds. "We have agents and call centers who subscribe to our service that call on the leads."

Subscribers–primarily independent brokers–pay $15 to $18 per lead, plus 10% to 20% in revenue-sharing arrangements, or the agents can write their business through InsuranceOnly, says Wedeking.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Life & Health/Financial Services Edition, March 11, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.

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