Success is a flighty mistress - she can be elusive at times and be extremely demanding. For a lot of people who do go into business for themselves; especially those who have turned into the virtual at home worker, this element of their plans for financial independent sometimes doesn’t come into fruition. This is especially true for people who have gone into direct marketing for themselves - their strategies and research sometimes come to nought because they miss a single, important element that are mailing lists. No true entrepreneur should over look them, because they can give anyone more leads for business than any other strategy put together.

Mailing lists help to make everything come together - taking the best of your efforts and focusing them into a database of highly targeted and conducive individuals who have a higher chance of making a purchasing decision. A lot of virtual managers put a lot of effort into their marketing strategies. Their carriers are often bright and bold, with a branding that speaks volumes on the product and service. Websites are done with layout and design elements in mind, tailor made to internet consumers with short attention spans, easy readability, visually ergonomic with a layout element that ‘leads’ visitors to the things they should be seeing.

The pitch is perfected and rehearsed a thousand times over, tweaked and shaped by experiences and listening to consumers. Trial and error often makes flawless the methods that all marketing experts use to sell their products. The sales copy - one of the most important elements of direct marketing is rewritten and honed to reach out and grab the reader’s attention and appeal to their senses - a 360 degree marketing experience integral to a direct marketing strategy.

With the work gone into these elements, most would expect that success is just a step away, but sometimes that is not the case. The product must be designed to sell itself and speak to the consumer but this is useless if the person you are talking to has no interest or will never have an interest to buy into the brand. This is where mailing lists which are highly targeted come into the picture. Companies who provide these services are not only out to make a profit - but they understand the difficulties of direct marketing to a market that is less than likely to buy.

Once you are entrenched into a market that is more than likely to buy, you will see more and more leads come in that can be transformed into sales dollars with a little dogged yet polite persistence and the all important follow ups. Speaking to someone who has a greater chance of wanting that service or special feature will more than likely make them either have a ‘buy now’ or ‘I’ll think about it’ attitude - which everyone knows in the grammar of selling - is a window of opportunity like no other where leads for business are concerned. Anyone who is either striving for success in direct marketing or thinking about going into it should seriously consider mailing lists - it is the difference between success and failure.



Thanks to Chris Burns for contributing this article to our Leads blog:

Marketing List Broker

A life insurance settlement may hold the hidden source of cash to fund your next fixed indexed annuity sale. Every agent on the planet who is actively selling annuities has heard the objection from a prospect, “I love your concept, but all my money is tied up.” Of course, your comeback is to motivate Mr. & Mrs. Prospect to move at least some of their funds into the safety of an FIA. But if and when you find yourself out of bullets, please do not part company without taking a final shot with something like, “One last thought before I go. We sometimes find that retirees may have an old life insurance policy they’re still paying on, or that may even be paid up. Oftentimes the reason for taking it out so long ago has changed because life circumstances change over the years. I have a way to ‘repurpose’ this kind of dormant asset for usually more than its cash value, and apply the money toward your retirement needs today…”

Eureka! Suddenly your dying sales interview springs back to life with the prospect of using the settlement on a life insurance policy as found money.

Actually, before life insurance settlements (also known as viatical life settlements), there were two options when a senior had a life insurance policy that was no longer needed. He or she could either let the life insurance policy lapse or cash it in for its surrender value.

Now seniors have an excellent opportunity to capitalize on their current life insurance policy using a life settlement solution. Such life insurance settlements allow seniors to cash in their insurance, but in a new way. Instead of cashing in their policy with the issuing life insurance company, they can work with a bonded life settlement broker to cash in their policy with a financial institution that will pay more.

Simply put, the transaction is a buy-and-sell exchange between a policy owner and an investor, facilitated by a bonded life settlement company or broker. The policy owner deals directly with the broker who negotiates on his or her behalf. There is no fee to the seller. The broker’s job is to package and present the deal for competitive bidding. Financial institutions bid for the best portfolio investments. Once limited to the terminally ill, senior life insurance settlements have evolved into a unique opportunity for today’s mature market. And it works for individuals, businesses and charities.

Dollar amounts are based on the death benefit, not the cash value. Ideal life settlements are a percentage of the net face value (death benefit minus outstanding loans and accrued interest) and are always greater than any cash surrender value. For example, one recent case involved a 74 year old male with a $420,000 term life policy, no cash value. The life insurance settlement broker converted the policy to whole life. The purchasing investor took over premium payments. The happy client tucked a tidy $68,000 into his equity index annuity. And the agent socked away $12,600 commission on the life insurance settlement (3% of the policy death benefit) plus $6,120 commission on the FIA. Not a bad day’s pay.

When your prospects need a little prompting on the reasons for using a life insurance settlement to fund an equity indexed annuity, suggest the following:

* Beneficiary is deceased and coverage is no longer needed, or beneficiary is financially well off and no longer in need of death benefit for survival

* Premiums are no longer affordable

* Estate size has changed and policy coverage amount is too large for estimated estate taxes

* People are living longer. Retirement income needed over longer period

* Better quality of life with greater cash flow

In its simplest form, your clients can receive more money in the secondary market than from their life insurance company. They avoid paying surrender charges from the insurance company and no longer need to make premium payments.

All of this may sound simple, but resources, time, and experience are essential. A bonded life insurance settlement company should have all the tools to make sure that your client’s settlement is completed properly and efficiently. While InsuranStar.com neither endorses nor recommends any life settlement solution or senior life insurance settlement broker, as an annuity producer and Wholesale Distributor I’ve worked with one bonded life settlement broker whom I can recommend with confidence. Please feel free to contact me for a trustworthy reference.



Thanks to Gary Le Mon for contributing this article to our Leads blog:

Exclusive Mortgage Leads

You need to fill the room because perception is everything. If you begin your Safe Money Seminar with empty tables and chairs in the room, those people who do show up will question whether they should have. The trick is to gauge attendance based on RSVPs. If you have 40 RSVPs for the event, figure 30 will show up. Then set the room up for 20 to 25. It sends a more prosperous message when you have to break out additional tables and chairs to accommodate the overflow. “Standing room only” is your perceived image. On the other hand, having empty seats at your meeting is just lame.

Holding your retirement planning seminar at the right restaurant will help fill the room. A safe bet is an Olive Garden style restaurant. Avoid Mexican food, Chinese food and pizza joints. Limit dinner choices to one: a salad with a single entrée of general appeal. You can’t go wrong with a chicken and pasta plate. Include a glass of ice water at each place setting. That’s it; no iced tea or Coca Cola. Never pass out menus, and limit waitress involvement to serving the food then disappearing.

In choosing a restaurant, stop by several possibilities around 4:30 on any given afternoon. If you see a lot of Seniors there, it means they like that restaurant and are familiar with it. Just make sure your entree is a notch above the typical early bird special.

Always remember that a Safe Money Seminar is not a teaching event and not a sales event. It’s a social event! Now that you’ve managed to fill the room, don’t set it up like a classroom or like a horseshoe. Set the room up just like people sit in a restaurant 2 per table or 4 per table at most. And don’t think it’s you they’re coming to see. It’s your food they’re coming to eat. You are just the dinner show. Remember, you must get people to (a) like you and (b) respect you, if they are to give you that all-important appointment. Now that you’ve gone to so much trouble setting the stage, go out there and show them your star power!

The most effective form of advertising to fill the room is direct mail invitations. Direct mail allows you to target your demographic. You can sort your mailing list by several parameters, but age (60 plus) and address (within 5 miles of the restaurant and your office) are all that really matter. Wedding style invitations look nice and cost around 75¢ each. Simple post card invitations cost around 30¢ each and often wind up under a refrigerator magnet for future reference. Surprisingly, both wedding style and post card invitations pull about the same. But with post cards you can mail approximately 2 ½ times the quantity for the same money.

Expect between a .75% and a 1% response on your mailings. By mailing 10,000 pieces, you’ll get 75 to 100 RSVPs, of which around 50 to 70 will come out to your two seminars. This will fill the room with 25 to 35 attendees per night, which keeps it cozy and gets you up close and personal.

Another way to boost your response rate is to add emotional appeal to your invitation’s headline. For example, which headline gets your attention better? (a) “You’re Invited To Our Safe Money Seminar” or, (b) “Five Serious Mistakes That Wipe Out Retirement Savings, And Simple Ways To Avoid Them.” The answer is B. Few people will show up to a Safe Money Seminar. We don’t use our seminar’s name in the invitation because it’s not an emotional draw. But once the people are in their seats, stop teasing them and start rewarding them. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our Safe Money Seminar,” is now music to their ears. Remember, people act on emotions then justify their actions with logic.

The seminar business is all about working the numbers and setting enough appointments so that if one or two should cancel (which they will) what you get is an unexpected but much needed break between eager, pre-sold prospects. As always, keep your eyes on the prize: This is a career objective leading to seven figures annually. Fill the room, set the stage, make a million.



Thanks to Gary Le Mon for contributing this article to our Leads blog:

Sales Lead Generation

 

What is all the commotion about Internet lead generation?  It’s not like it’s something new.  In fact, it has been used in advertising for years.  Well, the main reason why Internet lead generation has become the “talk of the internet town,” is because it has been recognized as a cost effective way to generate income for websites. If you are not using a lead generation system for your website business, you are without a doubt missing new business sales leads and losing money. 

With the competition getting smarter and marketing and advertising costs increasing, your goal should be to get the most bang for your buck.  In other words, if you are only utilizing Adsense or affiliate promotions on your website, you are operating your business in the Flinstone era.   If you are not including a lead generation form on your main page of your website, you are throwing money away.

What lead generation programs are available? 

Most websites, particularly niche sites have great lead generation potential.  Capturing all of the information about your visitor by giving them “something for nothing,” a free video, a free downloadable CD — something that they perceive as value, is almost a guaranteed way to capture a lead.  By offering “something for nothing,” you will be able to capture leads and create a valuable database of emails, mailing addresses, and sometimes even telephone numbers.

Once you have created a large mailing list you can use this to your advantage by soliciting other business and either offering them the database for a commission, a straight sale, or joint venturing.

You can also use emails in combination with an auto responder service.  You can offer to promote a related product or service to your list and theirs to yours by utilizing your database.  You can even charge a small fee, and earn income before you have even done anything.

Online and Offline Leads

Since sending an email doesn’t cost you a thing, this is the most cost effective method to keep in touch with your contacts.  You can quickly inform them of new products, promotions, and special sales.   The downside to emails is that with increased spam filters, it can sometimes be difficult to reach everyone and even if the email does get through, there is no guarantee that your customer will read the email.

Generating leads can work online as well as offline for your business.  You can contact your database of customers via email or direct mail.  You should limit your contact to once a week for emails, so they don’t feel like you’re knocking them over the head with offers.  Some businesses back up an email with a direct mailing, although this is advised only on a periodic basis.  By sending an email stating, “Please look for our offer in the mail,” will increase the chances of them actually opening the advertisement when they receive it. 

There is no question that lead generation programs are fast becoming a primary source for many sites to gain income.   Building a list of prospects now, is something that you can use to generate income from over and over again whether for your own products and/or joint venturing.  If you are not using some type of internet lead generation system, you are depriving your business of great potential income possibilities.

 



Thanks to Mike for contributing this article to our Leads blog:

Annuity Leads

Market is very demanding, isn’t it? It demand products, it demand capital, it demand buyers and sellers and if you want to survive in the market then it demands proper marketing. As you know that Internet is the latest shopping hub and it has proved itself as a market with immense opportunities. This has become possible due to the growth of online advertising techniques, which are multi-faceted. Nowadays companies with online presence are opting for B2B lead generation techniques to attract more customers and to earn more traffic.

Lead generation is one of the most important factors in the business of a product. Because without good number of leads, good number of sales is impossible. Various methods are used for this purpose and these days B2B lead generation or business to business lead generation is very popular. This is business to business advertising that helps a lot in lead generation. These days almost all online ventures are using these techniques to promote their products and services. Suppose you are selling greeting cards online and you are not getting good response. In that case you can take the services of an online gift shop. This is how you can promote. Its very beneficial and at the same time easy to practice.

If you are interested in making profit from B2B lead generation techniques then you can do that in many ways. Companies choose techniques like search marketing, online banners and Email campaign for lead generation. Companies run Email campaigns and they are also involved in offering free services, reports, profiles or horoscopes. These activities invite users and it is profitable in the long run. In fact, Email marketing has become one of the most popular ways of sales lead generation.

Different companies are opting for one or other categories of email marketing lists like bulk Email lists or permission-based Email list. They are sending useful write-ups to their online prospects and this is how they are generating online leads. Thus, if you also belong to the same school of thought where ‘proper promotion’ is necessary then B2B lead generation is just for you.



Thanks to Lalita N for contributing this article to our Leads blog:

Telemarketing Mortgage Leads