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Real-time Leads Versus Aged Leads

By Bill Rice
Real-time Leads Versus Aged Leads Feature Image
7 minute read
⚠️ Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this article is accurate, neither its authors nor Aged Lead Store accepts responsibility for any errors or omissions. The content of this article is for general information only, and is not intended to constitute or be relied upon as legal advice.

Face it, today is an Internet-only world. Consumers go to the internet first for everything. This includes shopping for insurance and insurance rates. Given these facts, it makes sense that internet leads must be an essential part of your insurance marketing plan.

But what’s the difference between real-time leads versus aged leads?

But, there are several problems with trying to grow your insurance business with internet leads.

  1. How do afford enough internet leads to meet your monthly sales goals?
  2. What about sales-readiness? Inquiring online and asking for a rate quote has become so easy and common, most of these leads are just tire-kickers.
  3. Plus, these real-time leads are by no means exclusive. You’re working against at least 3-4 other agents.

Those are some pretty big challenges to making real-time insurance leads yield a positive ROI.

Okay, so fresh internet leads have their drawbacks. Still, many agents just accept these pitfalls and keep working real-time internet leads. We assume that fresh must mean better. You can stay with the herd or you can learn the secrets of the unconventional and discover how to turn affordable aged internet leads into deals with a massively positive ROI.

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Aged leads offer a solution to the common challenges of real-time leads. Whether your business is auto, life, health, or Medicare supplement insurance, aged leads may be just what you’re looking for to get an edge on the competition and take your insurance business to the next level.

The Top Three Problems With Real-Time Leads

1. Real-time leads are expensive.

There’s no getting around it, the privilege of working with brand new web leads costs money. At $7 to $10 per lead, you’re still buying shared leads — sold to multiple agents who are in direct competition with you. Go up to $15 or $25 per lead and you might get an exclusive lead — but remember that those prospects could easily have requested quotes from several vendor websites, meaning your vendor’s exclusive lead might not be so exclusive after all. What’s more, just because a lead is expensive doesn’t mean you’ll be able to get past their voicemail or that they’ll be ready to buy when you do talk to them.

2. Real-time leads aren’t sales-ready.

Another unpopular fact about internet leads is that the vast majority are not remotely ready to buy insurance. Only about 2–5% of real-time web leads are ready to buy — the rest need qualification, consultation, and a good bit of lead nurturing. And even then, half of these leads will never buy. That’s right, a sizeable portion of those costly real-time exclusive leads are just not going to buy. Ever.

3. Competition from other agents is intense.

Know who hates dealing with insurance agent competition more than you do? Insurance leads! Yes, it’s annoying to get a new prospect on the phone and learn you’re the tenth agent they’ve talked to. But imagine how they feel. Putting in for an insurance quote and then getting hit with a flurry of calls all at once can be overwhelming, irritating, and even put off customers from buying anything from anyone.

What’s the Solution? Aged Leads

It’s clear what the problems are here. Leads cost too much for their rate of return. Leads aren’t ready to buy. And the intense competition isn’t helping anyone. So what’s to be done?

You need leads that have a lower cost and offer a better return on investment. You need to be able to nurture leads to sales-readiness without breaking the bank or pulling out your hair. And you need an opportunity to work these leads in a less competitive environment.

With a supply of high-quality aged leads and an automated system to work them efficiently, these problems are solved. Wondering how are aged internet leads any better than real-time leads? Here’s how aged leads address all three problems.

How Aged Leads Solve All Three of These Problems

Consider what you’re spending now on fresh real-time internet leads.

Is it $7, $15, $30 a lead? That upfront customer acquisition cost eats into your net revenue per customer because you’re only turning about one in 20 of these expensive real-time leads into a customer. The rest are eating into your ROI.

But for aged leads, you can expect a much better ROI. That’s because aged leads don’t cost $7 a lead. You can get started for around $1 per lead, and if you buy in bulk, your cost per lead can go down well below $1. Of course, aged leads are a bit older and you will have to work more of these discounted leads to reach a sale. How many? Typically only about 60 aged leads to reach a sale.

Now do the math: aged leads cost between seven to 30 times less than traditional internet leads, yet only require a lead volume three times higher. Over time this really works out in your favor. You’ll be able to earn the same net income with only a third or quarter as many closed sales. And it’s all thanks to that discounted lead cost.

Are older discounted leads really buying?

Every agent is taught that the best chance for closing a sale is a lead that is a few minutes old and that hasn’t talked to any other agent. Aged leads fly in the face of this advice. And your mentors aren’t wrong — those hot leads do serve up easy sales. The problem is the operations infrastructure needed to be the first to talk to every lead within a few minutes day in and day out.

It’s just too tough for most insurance operations to do consistently. Which means that more commonly, you’re third in line or worse, and talking to a lead that’s a day or more old. And as you know, sales in this range are tough.

But guess what. Half of those leads will eventually buy, it’s just going to take some work. You’ll need to nurture these leads and five to seven touches in, a good number will be ready to buy. Now ask yourself: if it’s going to take that kind of effort the close most your sales, why are you paying full price for a brand new lead?

Then there’s your competition.

So half of all sales aren’t sales-ready now, but will eventually close? That means that, yes, half of all sales are in aged leads. The competition here must be stiff, right? Wrong. Around 95% of agents do not call after the first week. They just give up. Instead, all those agents are chasing the 2–5% of sales that are found in fresh real-time leads. The other 45% or more of sales found in aged leads? Not so much. So that is your opportunity.

Why doesn’t everyone use aged leads then?

Now you might wonder if more agents read what you just read they’ll also want to try aged leads. After all, a cheaper lead cost, leads that are closer to being sales-ready, and almost no competition would be hard to pass up.

But the truth is that we humans are slow to change. For many there is also the herd mentality, to keep doing what everyone else is doing. This keeps many from trying aged leads to start. Some others try but have trouble with shifting gears, don’t know how to work a volume-based system, or aren’t consistent enough with their approach.

Aged leads do require you to use a system, use the right tools for more efficiency, and enjoy tinkering with the details to get everything, from your script to your CRMS, running just right. But for those that want to excel at insurance sales, there’s no better system than aged leads.


Ready to get more clients for your insurance business? 

Fill up your pipeline with a fresh supply of high-quality aged insurance leads from The Aged Lead Store

You’ll find thousands of sortable aged leads, ready to boost your sales, whether your business is auto, life, health, Medicare supplement or homeowners insurance, annuities, auto warranty coverage, mortgage refinance, or solar installation.

How to Use Aged Leads in Your Overall Sales and Marketing Plan
How to Use Aged Leads in Your Overall Sales and Marketing Plan
Learn how to increase lead flow, improve lead quality, and make more sales with help from Aged Lead Store.

About Bill Rice

Bill Rice is the Founder & CEO of Kaleidico, a lead generation agency. Bill specializes in mortgage marketing, legal marketing, lead management, and sales automation.

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