How do 401k Rollover leads compare to annuity leads in the field?
Which lead type has a higher average case size?
Every battle is won or lost before it is ever fought. ~ Sun Tzu.
Were annuity leads or 401k rollover leads easier to book appointments with?
Which are easier to actually convert into sales?
Keep reading because we share our experience from having 250 advisors and agents work our 401(k) Rollover leads and over 2,000 work our annuity leads.
This information comes straight from the trenches and not some back-office bozo!
When we started creating leads for the industry in March 2010, we focused exclusively on 401K Rollover leads for the first 9 months.
We chose 401k rollover leads because we had a database of 6,000 advisors and agents who had gone through our training at rollovercoach.com and wanted they 401k rollover leads.
And they wanted them yesterday!
The advisors told me via surveys “Scott, we like your training….but training does not put bellies in our seats. We need to get in front of more qualified prospects. NOW!”.
Sound familiar?
To create the leads we set up national partnerships with the huge job sites Monster and CareerBuilder. The theory was that we would target job changers with the 401k rollover message.
The job changer would be on the job portal looking for a new job and exposed to the rollover message.
The right message at exactly the right time.
In theory at least.
It took me 6 months of blood, sweat, and tears to sign up the 300 advisors we needed to have a national presence.
Later, we expanded into the radio and other traditional online forms to create 401k rollover leads.
I even hired a telemarketing outfit out of Canada to cold call resumes all day, ever day.
Here are a few key takeaways from what we learned creating 401k rollover leads:
- The people most likely to respond to become a 401k rollover lead are age 35-53.
- The consumers who because 401k rollover leads mostly had $30-$60k to invest.
- Consumers were more motivated to find a new job than to deal with their 401k rollover.
- It’s easier for advisors and agents to book appointments with seniors than the younger audience.
- Cold calls to resumes did not produce a high enough quality lead for the industry. Inbound calls and contacts were MUCH higher quality.
Advisors liked the lead, but the problem was that $50k deals don’t generate much revenue.
You can spend a LOT more to acquire $300K cases than you can $50k cases.
Amen!
And this is why we eventually shut down the 401k rollover program and focused on annuities.
Our annuity leads averaged a case size of $250,000. 5X more than the average 401k rollover lead.
Surprisingly, we found that advisors had an easier time booking appointments off of our annuity leads than 401k rollover leads.
In sales, we are taught its much easier to sell the solution to a current problem than a future need 20 years later.
Seniors view their money as super important because they are not working anymore.
The 45 year old job changer cared a lot more about replacing their $80k job!
From then on we focused on annuity leads because our clients were receiving much better results.
401k Rollover Leads Vs. Annuity Leads
Case Size $30k-$60k. $250,000
Average Age 33-53 62
Ease to book apt Average Easier
Winner – Annuity Leads.
We ended up terminating our relationship with both monster and career builder because the quality of leads was not high enough to make our clients happy.
I learned an important lesson in the process. DO NOT outsource the important functions of lead generation.
Today we do most everything internally because we want to have 100% control over the lead process and lead quality!
Click here to learn more about our annuity lead program.
