Success or Failure: How to Properly Generate Annuity Leads

Every annuity agent should know about the most common misconceptions surrounding annuity leads. If you can not tackle and dismantle these, generating leads becomes difficult. One of the most common misconceptions about annuities is that they are too expensive. Others believe annuities are too difficult and too confusing to understand. And some even believe that annuities are only sold to make agents richer through commissions.

Thinking that annuities are a bad thing gets in the way of the successful annuity leads generation. It makes the entire process of generating annuity leads more challenging. It is your job as an advisor to inform and encourage people to disregard their doubts and fears when generating annuity leads.

You can easily employ some useful advice and tactics that will help you generate more annuity leads in order to grow your annuity sales.

Remember to work on generating annuity leads every single day

It’s a common ground rule in sales that the more annuities you offer to people, the more you will be able to sell. Plan your daily activities and act upon them.

Ask yourself every day how many calls did you make, what was the outcome and what can you change in your next calls or meetings. There is no bad day or bad time to make an annuity offer, so don’t use the usual excuses.

Make the best use of direct mail

You can use direct mail to offer annuities to a specific audience, by age, income, area, or any other criteria that you find relevant. People are often burdened with diverse daily mail.

However, research shows that even if people discard the annuity letter, they still get to see some of its contents. After seven to ten times of having a peak at the annuity offer, people tend to opt for the service.

You need to make sure to keep sending your annuity offers continuously, following a previously scheduled timeline. You can do it once a month, but don’t send the same envelope with the same contents every time.

It’s important to send a differentiated annuity message every time. Try to have it designed with a colorful background. To design a nice colorful background, you can hire a graphic designer and a copywriter whose job is to make it eye-catchy and outstanding. Your direct mail needs to attract attention, to differ from all the other annuity mails, while keeping your message clear.

It’s a good idea to include your personal advisor letter in the annuity mail. In addition, include your personal rates and add an annuity application that can be immediately filled out. Also consider using different methodology to track your success rates. For example, you can add a coupon or a free gift to your annuity offer. This allows you to easily measure the response rate of your direct mail.

Making the most of your annuity meetings

Most annuity sales are made during face to face meetings with your leads. The purpose of your calls and direct email is to get people to your office. Once you have potential clients in your office, you can address their needs and find a solution for their issues. However, you have to be aware of the "baggage" clients may carry about annuities, and their usual doubts.

It’s a good idea to start with an introductory meeting where you talk about annuities and the different packages you offer. It’s important to educate your potential clients about the subject in depth. That way, people won’t get the feeling that you are pushing them to buy a specific product and that your intention is to only to make more annuity sales.

Ask lots of questions, make sure you get to know your prospects and their issues. Work with your client so that you find a solution for his or her annuity-related needs. Find out what their main concerns are and then give them a solution. At the same time, offer your clients alternative investment options in other companies.

All of your actions at the meeting have to be simple and clear to your prospect. Your main job is to give explanations and make the annuity solution seem logical and reasonable. An easy way to do this is by using graphics and illustrations to make your point.

Graphics and illustrations will keep your prospects’ attention and make it simpler for them to understand what annuity message you are trying to convey. Also, it goes without saying that you always need to believe in your product.

It’s also important to believe that it is in your prospect’s best interest to opt for your annuity offer. That’s why you need to speak keenly about the annuity offer, so that your client can sense that you are being empathic.

A good way to gain your prospect’s trust would be to tell them off the record how insurance companies operate and how agents make money. Also, don’t forget to tell the client how they can make their money with their annuity deal.

At the end of the meeting, make sure your prospect leaves with a written proposal by his or her side. The proposal should include the solution to your clients’ issues, so he or she can make a calculated decision.

Focus on the client instead of the product of your insurance company

A common mistake the insurance companies make is to focus on their products, instead of focusing on the clients and addressing their needs. You need to consider people’s questions and inquiries, so they understand how your annuities can help them.

For example, you cannot create a newsletter or a flyer that says “Everything you need to know about annuities”. If that’s your message, only a few people will actually read it, since the topic is too general.

You need to tailor your message to their specific needs, such as “Tax benefits to annuities”, “Annuities – pay your mortgage even if you’re not working”, etc. Make the annuity message understandable to every age group. Give people different annuity offers, so that they have choices.

The importance of providing great after sale services

After you make your first annuity deal, it is important to offer a good after sale service. You don’t get the job done just by signing that contract. You need to treat your clients as if they were an important asset to your company.

The basic rule of sales says - if clients enjoy the way they are treated, they will recommend your services to others. That way, you will be able to generate more leads from those referrals.

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Annuity Leads | Generate Annuity Leads | Financial Advisor Leads | Financial Planning Leads