Free Annuity Leads!

Sounds good.  But have you ever heard the saying "there's no such thing as a free lunch?"  If the saying holds true, then either the free annuity leads aren't worth much or there is a cost you don't know about.  Let's look at both possibilities.

If someone is willing to give you free leads, ask about the nature of the leads.  If the leads are free, does it make sense that the provider probably did not pay much for them?  For 5 cents per name, you can get from many mailing list companies lists of people that are age 55 or over.  Do the names on this list qualify as an "annuity lead?"  If you ask me, it's just a name on a list and 1000 of those names cost $50.  They don't have much value and in fact, they have "negative value" because you will waste 98% of your time calling this list to find a few people who might be interested.

Now, if you take the list and then send a mailer to these people offering a free safety analysis of their annuity or a copy of a booklet, "The Truth About Annuities," you will have some people respond.  The people that respond are valid annuity leads because they have expressed interest.  Among the 1000 names on the list, the 20 or so people that respond have value. It costs money to get a decent annuity lead.  In this case, you have the $50 for the list, and the cost of 1000 mailers (about $700 including postage, printing and mailing service).  Then you have maybe $60 for the booklets you send out including postage, for a total investment of $810.  Divide by the 20 leads you got and your cost per lead is $40.50 ($810/20).  As you see, there is no way to generate a real annuity lead for free.

Perhaps the leads you are being offered are more than just a list.  Perhaps your investigation uncovers that these leads are people who responded to a mailer as the scenario above and you are being offered $40 leads for free.  The party offering you the leads has something to gain.  Either an insurance company will earn profit from the products you sell for them (and also pay you a commission) or an intermediary (e.g. field marketing organization) will earn a commission override.  There's certainly nothing wrong with that as these organizations are willing to front your marketing costs in return for some business form you (or else the leads will stop coming your way).  Again, these annuity leads are not free.

So think for yourself and do some investigating about the nature of "free annuity leads" and understand the true cost.

Tags

Free Annuity Leads | Annuity Sales | Financial Advisor Leads | Financial Planning Leads