It’s a difficult conversation. One that cuts right to the core, one that puts all your greatest fears under a magnifying glass and makes them real.
We’re talking about death.
Your own death, in particular. (Cue the dramatic music.)
It’s not because you’re particularly morbid or depressed that you’re looking into final expense insurance. It’s more that you’ve had a series of grown-up revelations:
That’s the mindset of many consumers looking at buying final expense insurance. Maybe they had a loved one die and got a shock when they saw the funeral home’s bill. Or, maybe they’re the kind of person who’s just super-responsible and prepared for every eventuality.
But one thing is for sure:
By the time a consumer finally picks up the phone to shop for a final expense insurance policy, they’re in no mood to talk to a robot about it.
In fact, even as far as artificial intelligence has come, not everyone’s a fan - even though it can be more convenient than waiting in a queue to talk with a human.
According to a report published recently:
“83% of consumers prefer to interact with human rather than virtual agents, according to a new survey conducted by research company Forrester Research Inc., commissioned by billing technology company Amdocs Corporation. 40% of the survey respondents conceded that interacting with chatbots is more convenient and faster. “
Checking on your bank balance? Robots are great. Making a movie for kids? Ditto. There’s even a punk music band comprised entirely of robots.
But when it comes to discussing delicate matters like buying funeral insurance, people want to speak with… people. Pretty helpful to know. Especially if you’re looking for final expense lead generation, right?
When we interviewed Mark Coudray to get his input for our pay per call book, Have Them at Hello: How the Best Call Centers Crush Sales Projections, we talked a bit about the power of artificial intelligence when applied to the sales process. The advances in AI are stunning. Mark predicts that, “By 2025, you're going to see a huge number of people gone and the AI voice synthesis and voice analytics is getting so good that you cannot tell a synthetic voice from a real voice.”
On the other hand, any fan of the Terminator films (and there are SIX if you can believe that!) knows, “[AI] can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.”
So, there is that.
Sci-Fi aside, business is nothing if not pragmatic. The goal is to find something that works beautifully and do more of it while doing less of what doesn’t work so well. That sounds simple, but there’s not a business development manager out there who hasn’t done the reverse from time to time.
So, what works best when it comes to selling final expense insurance? Letting people talk to people throughout the whole buying process.
You can read more about voice verified leads here, but the super-short explanation of the process is this:
Our publishers generate leads.
Interested consumers complete a form and agree to a follow-up phone call (hooray for TCPA compliance!).
Their data goes to our onshore call center.
One of our agents calls the consumer to have a quick conversation verifying their interest.
If the call meets your specifications, we transfer it to your call center.
Your sales team talks with someone who’s ready to make a buying decision.
See? Humans all the way.
That generation’s not all that likely to be buying final expense insurance. Yet.
Your best prospects for the next few years are in the demographic that greatly prefers to talk with humans - especially when it comes to complicated, expensive, or sensitive topics. While more automated tactics can be far more economical to deploy, what really matters is the end result. Voice verified leads are not just highly likely to convert - they’re also surprisingly affordable.
Interactive voice response (IVR) works great in many, many situations. But there’s just something about talking with living, breathing humans that even makes having conversations about death a lot easier.
If you’d like to have a conversation about getting some of our voice verified leads for final expense insurance, just reach out. One of our (very much alive) experts will be happy to help you determine whether running a test makes sense.