2015's 50 best ways to generate leads: 21-30

January 21, 2015 at 11:00 PM
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30. Form your own networking group

While there are many networking groups you can join out there, they often already have an advisor who offers the products and services you offer. Sometimes, you can join these by defining what you do differently. You can be the insurance member, while the existing advisor can be the investment advisor. 

Instead, you can form your own group. Bring on an accountant, a few different kinds of attorneys, a realtor, a chiropractor and other professionals. Your purpose will be to get to know one another and to try to assist one another with referrals.Sandy Schussel, LLC, sandyschussel.com

federal29. The federal way

Selling to the Federal government can be lucrative. Those approved businesses are known as certified government contractors.

The identities of these businesses is public information, available through the website for the System for Awards Management, or SAM (www.sam.gov). The homepage includes a search records feature. By clicking "Advanced Search" and location you can specify contractors in your own city. 

You can also scan for Socio-Economic Status. An insurance agent who formerly served in the US military might choose to focus on veteran owned businesses. Ideally you want small companies in fields like roadbuilding and engineering. 

Contact information is included in the profile. It's not difficult to determine where they live and "who knows who" to facilitate introductions.

Remember the rules. Always respect the legal and privacy notices. Only use websites for the purpose the site originally intended. Secure approval from your manager before embarking on prospect research involving the Internet.Bryce Sanders, President, Perceptive Business Solutions Inc. social network28. The social network

Who's friendlier, you or your spouse? Who has the most friends and more social? My wife is one of my best lead sources. Her social interests are not encumbered by the assumption that the friendship is meant for business purposes. She's just friendly. She is also good at listening for statements from friends that mention they might need my help. 

Her new friends often ask what her husband does for a living, so she tells them. They often say they can use some help with their finances. Since she has a contact number, she gets permission for me to contact them for an appointment or she sets a meal get together. I never bring up my practice at the get together, but when I ask about their work, they get around to asking about mine.–Kim Magdalein linkedin27. Use LinkedIn

Become a 1st degree connection with your clients on LinkedIn. Take a look at their first degree connections and do a little research on some of them to get a sense about whether they might be good prospects. Then, when you're talking with your client, ask whether he or she has any real relationship with any of the ones you've chosen and if he or she would be comfortable introducing you to them. Arrange the introductions.

Some advisors simply list all of the 1st degree connections and ask the client how well he knows each of them and which ones he would be comfortable introducing them to. This also works but might create a little more resistance.

Even clients who are opposed to giving referrals are delighted to make introductions in this way—exercising their "influence" muscle.Sandy Schussel, LLC, sandyschussel.com leverage26. Leverage an expert

Develop a relationship with an expert that can give you leading edge sales ideas on a timely basis that you can distribute to centers of influence and contact clients with.  

Whether the idea is based on opportunities in the hybrid LTC market, tax deferral/savings or business owner concepts, that expert should provide you with the support and knowledge to help you follow through and implement each idea to successful completion.—Dave Bernaus, CLU, ChFC, Managing Principal, Highland Capital Brokerage help25. Help others first

We have a few different philosophies at our firm. One is "try to make everything we do help someone else first." This idea, this concept is the core of who we are and why we do what we do. Even our marketing/lead generation must comply to this mantra.

One way we've accomplished this was by sponsoring a private high school boy's basketball halftime show. Both a boy and a girl take a shot from half court during the intermission. For every made shot we donate $1,000 to the school and give the shooter an iPad mini. We've been featured in all the local tv news affiliates which helped us build our brand and gain more clients.

We plan to add more schools and pay the mortgage for someone in need or in home care expenses while getting positive marketing exposure. We all spend a lot on leads and/or marketing, but it's been really neat seeing this money help our community.—Michael Jay Markey Jr., BBA, CLTC, Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Legacy Financial Network review24. Review all ILITs to be sure they have not outlived their usefulness.  

Many ILITS (Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts) were written when the federal estate tax started on estates that were only $600,000. Now that the federal estate tax starts at $5,430,000 per person (for married couples, $10,860,000), the tax is eliminated for most taxpayers.  

Although there are many other reasons to own life insurance, it makes sense to examine whether or not to maintain the policies that the trust owns. Also, with interest rates historically low, many policies are not performing as projected.  

If it's determined that some policies are no longer appropriate, options might be to reduce the face amount, surrender the policy for the cash value, sell it to a family member or explore the option of a Life Settlement.— Robin S. Weinberger, CLU, ChFC, CLTC, Director of National Accounts, Life Insurance Settlements, Inc. run23. Run quotes!

I have primarily grown my insurance business through online channels such as organic SEO. The main way I capture leads is to let potential clients self-run quotes on my web site. While I built my own custom quote engine, there is also third party quoting software on the market that can be utilized on your web site.

When a potential customer comes to my site I allow them to run a quote right away without entering any personal info, which makes them feel more comfortable with the process. Some agents capture the customers name, email, and phone right away, which will cause some percentage of prospects to bail out. For this reason, I have taken the approach to just let them use my quoter with no personal inputs to gain their trust and get them more vested with my sales funnel.

Once they are running quotes there are several ways to capture the lead. The customer filling out an application request is by far the best.  Once on your quote results pages the customer can call you for assistance, you can offer to email a copy of their quote, or pursue other touch points. I have also seen many agents make great use of live chat software using proactive chat features.— Brian Greenberg, Founder/CEO, True Blue Life Insurance, LLC shake22. Network-but do it strategically

Most advisors are too random about their networking and unhappy with their results. Networking should be limited to two types of groups and events:  (1) Where you can interact with prospective clients, and (2) Where you can interact with other professionals who work with your prospective clients. 

This means that you need to have a clear idea of what kind of clients you want and where you can find them—or the professionals who serve them.  

If your networking randomly, stop it. If you're fishing for trout, go to the streams and ponds where you'll find them. If you're hunting whales, you need to be out on the ocean. Everything else is a waste of time.Sandy Schussel, LLC, sandyschussel.com

biz lunch21. FREE lunch-n-learn retirement planning seminars. 

1. With our list of qualified employees (city, state, government) within five years of retirement, we send out an email of our postcard inviting them out to attend our lunch-n-learn seminar – and lunch is on us! We have someone put up flyers in various buildings where these employees work to promote the event. 3. For those employee emails that we don't have on file, we simply mail them out hardcopies of our beautiful/colorful postcards to attend our seminars. 4. One day prior to all of our lunch-n-learn sessions, we call all of them to get a final count. This not only builds camaraderie now, but gives them a taste of our professionalism and communication acumens.James R. Veal, Founder & Managing Member, JRV Wealth Management Group, LLC For more lead generation tips, visit www.LifeHealthPro.com/50best

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