Why Speed To Lead Matters in Insurance Sales

Do 60 seconds make a significant difference in insurance sales? It’s such a small pocket of time, after all. Still, many marketing experts claim that “speed to lead” plays a significant role in whether insurance agents win or lose prospective clients. Let’s explore this idea of time micro-management and how it unfolds in insurance sales. 

What Is Speed to Lead? 

When a potential customer completes an insurance lead request for quote, either through a web lead form, social media channel or phone call, “speed to lead” is the time it takes a representative to respond. Unsurprisingly, a faster response typically means a higher conversion rate. Conversely, sluggish response rates frequently lose out on sales leads. 

Reasons for Striking Fast

• Buying Intent: When people complete an insurance lead form they are signaling that they have intent to buy. Seize the moment!  
  
  
• Competition: Your competitors might know exactly what it takes to swipe a lead out from under you — get to them faster. After all, if you don’t respond fast, it only takes your prospects a few clicks to navigate a new website and submit a fresh form to some other agent. For this reason, swift response times can earn your agency hundreds of windows of opportunity. Rest assured, if you or your team fail to contact the lead first; someone else will. Lamentably, your competitor might close the deal without you even getting a shot.  

Distractions: Interests begin to wane each passing second that our wants or needs aren’t fulfilled. Keep in mind that we live in a society fueled by instant gratification, and something on your site or profile caught the prospect’s attention. Plus, research indicates that humans’ attention spans aren’t shortening; they’re becoming more selective. That said, people are usually still on their computers or devices when the agent receives the lead notification. Once they close the tab or leave their device, other tasks will undoubtedly sidetrack them. If a representative can reach the potential buyer before they become sidetracked, there’s more of a chance to close the deal. 

Motivation Fuels Momentum

We firmly believe that when individuals contact agents via a lead form, they’re ready to buy. Perhaps this task has been on their to-do list for a while, and they’re only now getting around to crossing it off. Or maybe, they’ve experienced a significant life change and are under a time crunch to make appropriate insurance changes. 

No matter the motivation, this particular emotion can help people pull the trigger on a decision. When you catch people searching for insurance solutions, you can typically give them what they want without many delays.

How Speedy Is Speedy? 

Many believe that quickly responding to leads isn’t a priority; however, this approach is how opportunity is lost. It’s safe to say that the mindset of merely “getting to it” later isn’t ideal. Some say that 15 minutes is a sufficient response time, while others bank on 15 seconds. 

Still, how fast do agents need to respond to leads? The short answer is the faster, the better. When it comes to speed to lead, under five minutes is excellent; under 60 seconds is ideal.  

5 Ways to Improve Your Speed to Lead

Remember, a one-size-fits-all approach rarely works, so it's essential to use strategies that accommodate your whole operation. In looking for methods to contact potential customers more swiftly, consider the following ideas. 

1. Delegate: If your hands are full attending to other tasks, causing you to miss critical windows of opportunity, it could be time to hire more help. Speed to lead is that essential, and it merits hiring a designated worker for the task. 
   
   
2. Automate: If growing your team isn’t an option at the time, consider marketing automation. For example, when potential customers notify you after hours or even in the middle of the night, automate an email response. Ideally, this response would offer an introduction to your business or services until you can reach them during regular business hours. When you can’t make contact, a well-thought-out automated email is the next best thing. 
   
   
3. Deploy Multi-Channel Notifications: In the Digital Age, there are so many more ways to receive notifications than only via email. However, many agents rely solely on email for lead alerts — and miss out on leads. A better strategy is to arrange multi-channel notifications, such as email, text, and Slack, every time a form is submitted.
   
   
4. Strive for a One-Call Close: Marketers understand that consumers continue to shop even after reaching out to an agency. And further still, consumers might also talk to more than one agency. As a result, the one-call close is a crucial resource to make your speed to lead strategy work for you. Good insurance agents strike while the iron is hot. Great insurance agents execute the one-call close. They understand to close deals as efficiently as possible, or you might never again get the chance. 
   
   
5. Prioritize: When your entire office understands how vital speed to lead honestly is, it becomes a priority. The whole work culture often changes by molding to this strategy. Be sure to communicate the importance of responding quickly to leads and your staff will soon prioritize it. Sometimes, this strategy becomes a healthy challenge to see who has the quickest speed to lead time. 

Speed to lead is no myth. Instead, it’s a critical marketing tool for insurance sales — but it can be a challenging skill to master. It all starts with having quality inbound leads.

Digital Market Media offers Exclusive Leads Generation as well as Inbound Call Generation to help start your sales process on the right foot. We place our click-to-call technology and phone numbers on relevant high-traffic mobile optimized sites, so we catch your new customers at the precise moment they’re most likely to buy.

Contact us to learn more.