Monday, May 12, 2008

Annuity Lead Solving Means Happy Wife Happy Life

Have you ever been in the situation where you hate to go home after a hard day of selling insurance? I have.

I know what will be waiting for me, an unhappy wife. It is not that she is naturally that way; it is that she is worried about money, bills and the kids eating regularly.

If you sell anything on commissions then you fully understand. It can be feast or famine. I decided a long time ago to solve this issue. I wanted to come home to a happy wife and to leave the insurance business at the door.

I decided if I had more prospects to talk to than I could see then I would always have someone to sell to. I purposely over flooded my prospecting list with excessive prospects.

I used direct mail, referrals and seminars to provide them all for me. I always had more than enough prospects to see and often I would not get to all of them. Seems like a waste you say?

Not really. If you have an enormous amount of people who you could see then the fear of the Monday morning appointment scheduling was a thing of the past.

It was actually very easy to do and it has resulted in a lifetime of comfort when it comes to prospecting. Here is how I did it.

I borrowed enough money from the bank to fund a large direct mail program setup for 12 months in advance. I would mail 5,000 to 10,000 pieces a month with an average rate of response of 3.5%. The amount would vary based on time of the year such as the holidays. Here is the catch: If I had leads left over I could not get to because of the volume of the response, I would throw them all away. I could do so because I had flesh leads arriving in the mail almost daily. If someone did not want to see me or was hard to see I just chucked it.

It was almost like a breath of fresh air and an enormous amount of freedom. At the end of the year I added up my results and readjusted for the following year. At the end of the first year I calculated I had over 600 annuity leads that I could never get or about 50 a month.

What did I do, reduce my mailings? No I increased them by 50%.

The freedom of unlimited annuity leads for me was a breathy of fresh air. I also learned that if I had enough leads I could come home each night and I was happier which of course made my wife happier. The following year and each year afterward I have estimated that I have left 1,000 annuity leads uncalled and while it may seem a compete waste of time I look at it as the very best money I have ever spent. I have eliminated my need for someone to talk to about my insurance products and at the same time kept my home life happy.

A good lesson is this, ?Happy Wife, Happy Life.?

Bill Broich is a 30 year annuity salesman who helps agents generate annuity leads. Visit his website to learn more - Annuity.com.

 

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Sunday, March 16, 2008

Where Do You Find A Qualified Buyer of Structured Settlement Annuity?

Finding a qualified buyer of structured settlement annuity is much easier these days thanks to the Internet. With just the click of a mouse you have access to the top note buyers in the country, and you can sell your annuity in a matter of days. It's just a question of finding the right buyer.

Many people find at the beginning or over time that the monthly payments they receive as part of a structured settlement no longer work for them. They might need an immediate source of cash, might be looking to retire or just might not want to assume the risk anymore. Whatever the case may be, there are professionals who are willing to purchase these settlements and assume the risk for you.

It's important to remember that you do not have to sell your entire note. Rather, you can tell the buyer of structured annuity settlement that you only want to sell a portion of it. This is called a partial and it is a common way of structuring the deal. Here's an example of how this works:

Let's say you have a $100,000 settlement paying over 5 years. You need $40k now for a new investment. Well you can sell $40k worth of payments (however many months that works out to be) and retain the rest of the monthly income. Once those payments are made, you resume right where you left off and start receiving your monthlies again.

There are other ways to sell as well, and a knowledgeable buyer of structured settlement annuity will be able to explain all of them to you. After hearing all of the options you can decide which works best for your particular financial situation.

How much will you get for your structured settlement?

That depends on a number of factors, including but not limited to the remaining balance, months/years left, inflationary concerns, timeliness of payments and the financial stability/reliability of the payor. The buyer of structured annuity settlement will take all of these into consideration to come up with their valuation. Remember, it has to make financial sense for them as well as they are taking on the risk of holding this annuity, possibly for many years to come.

If you're considering selling your note, make sure you find a qualified buyer of structured settlement annuity with many years of experience in the industry. This way you are sure to get top dollar for your settlement.

Jamie has been working in the finance industry for many years and is a contributing editor to http://www.selling-your-note.com. Find a buyer of structured settlement annuity and learn more about cash flow instruments on our site.

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Sunday, November 25, 2007

The Terrible Truth about Insurance and Annuity Leads

You see the websites, you see the ads: exclusive, never before sold, prospects eager to buy, insurance and annuity leads. Some leads cost a few dollars - others are over one-hundred a pop.

I was curious, just how good are these insurance and annuity leads? I decided to find out.

Im not going to name specific insurance and annuity lead websites, but I will give you a summary of how it all shook out.

Insurance and Annuity Lead Website A:

Cost: Cheap

Results: Terrible. 10% of the leads my staff called got number no longer in service recordings. The rest: the people had no idea what we were talking about. They were not interested in annuities, insurance or investments, nor did they remember filling out a request for information form on the internet.

Sales: 0

Insurance and Annuity Lead Website B:

Cost: Average

Results: Terrible. Prospects didnt recall filling out request for information on anything related to annuities, insurance or financial planning. Most just hung-up.

Sales: 0

Insurance and Annuity Leads Website C:

Cost: Expensive

Results: About twenty percent remembered filling out a request for info. However, they had been called numerous times by different agents. Most were getting sick and tired of the calls. A few had begun working with other agents. Most hung-up angrily.

Sales: 0


I spent two-thousand dollars on this experiment. I did not find one-receptive buyer. I had thrown away my money, not to mention time spent by my phoning staff to contact these hot prospects.

What the heck was going on? How could these websites sell such garbage?

I poked around, wrote a few e-mails to industry experts, not surprisingly, nobody got back to me. Luckily, I did end up making contact with a marketing person who had previously worked for a big lead selling outfit. She gave me the juicy details of how the majority of these lead companies operate, whether it is insurance leads, long-term care leads, annuity leads, or MLM/Work-from-Home leads. They all employ the same methods.

Method 1: You send cute E-card to your mother wishing her a happy birthday. You fill out name, e-mail and click send. Your name and e-mail are captured. If the site is a lead harvester masquerading as an e-card site, you will now be e-mailed by people looking to sell you annuities, business opportunity offers, etc.

Method 2: Leads site buys huge database, often just regional phone book listings. They sell these leads, which are nothing more than names and numbers picked from the phonebook. Some of these people may even be on the Do Not Call list, which could land you in hot water.

Method 3: Harvesting leads from search engines. Often these leads are quality, but are expensive to capture, so the leads companies will sell the leads over and over. By the time you buy the lead, it could have been sold twenty times. Sometimes youre the first to buy and you will find some quality prospects, more often youre not.

Method 4: Internet robots crawl web sites hunting for e-mail addresses associated with insurance and annuity content. Somebody might be inquiring about annuities on a newsgroup or forum, next thing they know theyre getting offers from annuity companies. The Annuity Lead companies dont let you in on how theyve harvested the leads. Its called spam and you could get in serious trouble for contacting these people unsolicited.

My contact did say there are decent leads sites. She said to check their policy to see if they guarantee the leads. Keep in mind, just because they have a guarantee doesnt mean youll get your money back if the leads fail to produce results. But often sites with some kind of guarantee are sites that harvest only quality leads and only sell them once.

If youre still of the mind to try internet leads my advice is to try just a few. Dont buy into a huge program that requires a minimum monthly or a large upfront purchase. Experiment a little with a cross-section of sites. Who knows, you may find one thats legit thatll help you make some money.

Bill Broich is the founder of The Broich Approach, an annuity selling and marketing system based in Olympia, Washington. You can find more information about him and his system at: http://www.broichapproach.com

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