August 2004  

From The Desk Of Pat Wedeking

Hello Friends,

Let’s talk about leads.

For those of you that have been around a while, if I asked you if it was easier to get life insurance leads two years ago or today, what would you say? A lot different, huh?

Used to be that a few search engine registrations, some pay per clicks and some emailing would do the trick. Today, it’s a science, a big, large task and it costs a lot.

Here’s a commentary on this important topic:

Most business developments represent opportunity mixed with difficulty. This is no different. There is opportunity mixed with difficulty when it comes to the question of “What about leads?”

1.
More than ever, OFG makes sense.

We are founded on an association approach to doing business. Together Everyone Achieves More. We allow all consumers of life insurance leads to be a part of a larger operation. Together, we compete better with the larger marketers in our economy. Together, our production commands compensation. Together, we share Technology costs and together we create a winning environment.

Promotion costs are not unlike many things in that it gets cheaper in bulk. If an organization of any size could combine its marketing efforts with others who are marketing for the same thing, then prices and quality would only get better.


Part Time Effort, Full Time Success

   A few years ago I was introduced to the insurance business in probably the worst possible situation. A friend had gotten his insurance and securities license and wanted me to do the same thing, so he kept pestering me about meeting with some guys. At the time I was working full time as a high school teacher and doing well investing in real estate on the side, so I politely told him to forget it. 

Make a “Zillion Dollars” 

After about a year of my friend repeatedly asking however, I agreed to talk with the guys who were “making zillions of dollars.” The company turned-out to be a multi-level marketing organization and they were certainly good talkers. So being the sucker that I am, I signed-on to become a financial advisor and make my “zillions”. I went to about a hundred meetings (over an hour drive one way) while I worked on getting my insurance license. I soon noticed that they talked a lot about the unlimited possibilities, but never about specific sales they had made. Being from Georgia, I talk a little slow and I must also think a little slow, but I eventually figured-out that they were all recruiting and having meetings and no one was selling much of anything. In fact, I couldn’t even get them to show me how to run a life insurance quote. 

Click Here to Read the Full Version....


What if a Customer Won’t Talk On the Phone? 
The Offset World of E-Mail and Fax

By David Hon

It can still be heard in many insurance sales offices: “Just let me get in front of a customer, and I can sell them.”  And in many direct response sales operations, we hear: “If I can just get them on the phone, I can sell them.”  One wonders whether these are merely macho chest beating, or are perhaps a thinly veiled excuse for not selling more……Both on the same platter of palaver. 

But what if a customer refuses to talk on the phone? Obviously, too many times too many people have seen too many insurance salespersons take up too much of their time trying to sell them too much of a product they don’t feel they need too much at all. So what if the customer won’t talk on the phone? Then we’re almost back to the days of written letters, which had the effect of keeping people at a distance of days, and hence the pressure to a minimum. In this next new world, if a customer wants only e-mail communication, we will have to find out how to operate that way, in an “offset time” fashion, a little reminiscent of mail call, and the leisure to answer soon, but not immediately. 

When I sensed such a customer a couple of months ago, I determined to maintain this sale ONLY through e-mail and fax, as he originally wished. That is the essence of this article, the e-mail track of a complete sale to placement. Sometimes, if you will work their way, they are quite inclined to buy, and stay with you through the process.  

Click Here to Read the Full Version...


2nd Annual OFG
Direct Response Sales Summit

September 30th to October 3rd, 2004
Denver, Colorado
 
“What is this event anyway?”

A gathering of direct sellers of life insurance to share ideas, nurture relationships and get better at what we do. The Only Financial Group family and other leaders in the industry will gather for a power-packed couple of days.

Click Here for More Information

Click Here for Itinerary and Reservation Information

Quick Sign Up Here

 


  LeadBoss Q&A


What Is LeadBoss?
Click Here For More Info

Q: Can I email quotes via LeadBoss?

A: Yes, you can use the quoter within LeadBoss to view, save, print, AND email quotes to a lead/client. In order to email a quote via LeadBoss you will need to:

1)    Run a quote using the quoter WITHIN a specific lead

2)   Check off the box “Save for Email” (note: you can ALSO check off the box “Save to Quote History” if you would like to save this quote to the Quote History area of LeadBoss.) You can check multiple quotes.

3)   If you want to email the quotes right away, click the button “Email Quotes. If you want to email the quotes later, click “Save”.

4)    If you clicked Email Quotes, you will be taken to the emailing screen. On the emailing screen you can:

a.    Add a subject to the email

b.    You can add text to the body of the email

c.    You can add text to the signature OR body below the quotes

d.    You can remove quotes you do not want to appear in the email

e.    You can email the quote to the client/lead

5)    If you clicked “Save”, you will be able to email this quote later. NOTE: if you log out of LeadBoss, these quotes you have saved TO EMAIL will be removed. You can access those quotes you have saved by going to “Product Detail” and clicking the button “Email Quote” which will appear just above “Quote History” when quotes have been saved for emailing. 

Q: How do I print quotes?

A: Follow the steps above to get to the emailing quotes screen. Once on the emailing screen, you will see a “Print” button on the right side of the screen. The screen will be reformatted allowing you to click the print icon ON YOUR BROWSER to print the quote. Once the quote is printed, click “Back” on your browser and then “Back” at the bottom of the emailing quote screen OR “Back” on your browser again.

 


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"Getting to Know Each Other"
 
Each month we will profile different members of the OFG Team.  This month, please click on the links below to....
 
 
 
 
 

Sales Corner

Increase Sales with NO ADDITIONAL LEADS!!!

Car dealerships have always been one of the best illustrations for a pure numbers game. My father-in-law is a car man and I’ve always admired his awareness of the daily numbers. So we talked about a principal and an application in his business that illustrates it so well.

Click Here to Read the Full Version


Got LeadBoss?

I’ve been using LeadBoss since signing on with OFG last September and I have to say I don’t know what I’d do without it!

I tend to get disorganized so, anticipating thousands of leads to keep straight, I wanted something like LeadBoss from the getgo. When I’d worked with it a bit, I realized that it was even more useful than I thought it would be, and every day it seems to get better (i.e., more useful).


For me, the big thing was, and I think always will be, The Reminders. My mantra is “One Per Lead, One Per Lead, One Per Lead...”. By sticking to that, nobody (including me) gets lost, and every lead gets followed up, on time and appropriately, so the opportunity always exists for me to maximize my profits. Whether I pull off that maximization or not is another story – but no opportunity falls through a crack.


Recently OFG enhanced the quoter, big time. Among other things, they added all the premium modes for each quote, and that alone has already saved us tons of time, and will do so even more down the road.


I could go on, but I won’t. Suffice it to say that it’s an axiom in our business that time is money. I’ve found that I like money. Therefore, I like LeadBoss. If I weren’t using LeadBoss, I’d be missing a bet, and missing that bet would be costing me money. I’d hate that.


So if you’d be so kind, please pass me those leads you’re not getting to...


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at 12:00 PST

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