Common Questions @ Our Annuity Leads
1. How are your annuity leads different from other programs I have tried in the past?
• First and foremost, we understand what you want in an annuity lead. Because Scott is a CFP® who began in the industry in 1998, he knows the products, the industry, and how to create and scrub a high-quality annuity lead.
• Because over 2,900 insurance agencies and financial advisory firms have purchased leads from Scott since he began in March 2010. Our process has been improved every year and is proven to work.
• Scott’s leads come from multiple media platforms (Radio, TV, and Online). Working with Scott instantly exposes your firm to prospects you could not reach on your own.
• The annuity leads are exclusive and reasonably priced ($300/lead), with no long-term contracts. You can also set daily & monthly caps to protect yourself as a lead buyer.
• Because Scott has three full-time employees who do nothing but scrub leads. Scott’s team spends 25-30 minutes scrubbing each annuity lead we sell. The call center we partner with also has 200-300 people on the phone 24/7 to qualify the leads.
• Scott’s team is NOT an FMO and will never hassle you to switch contracts. They focus on one thing only – High-quality annuity leads.
• Scott’s annuity leads are responding specifically to annuities. This lowers the response but increases the conversion rate on the leads. The word annuity is in our brand, domain, and all over our advertisements. This crushes response but significantly improves lead quality.
• Because his annuity advertisements are more compliant and do NOT use rates of return or income riders to deceive consumers into becoming a lead. The public is already skeptical about annuities. Consumers who think they are getting 7-19% are not good leads and are a huge compliance risk. The New Jersey Dept of Insurance fined an agent for buying leads from our competitor because they promised a 7% return.
2. How are the leads created?
Our annuity leads come from national radio, TV, online, and direct mail campaigns. We realize that advisors & agents are selective and focus on the media options that produce the highest quality leads for our clients. For example, we often ignore game shows on TV because the leads are often lower-income individuals.
Our business revolves around getting what you want – high-quality, scrubbed annuity leads.
3. Who do you try to reach for your leads? Are they qualified? Are they exclusive?
We try to reach upper-income baby boomers and seniors with assets. This is important because 50-60% of Americans have virtually nothing saved for retirement and have little to put aside into any retirement product. We believe the leads must have money to invest and be interested in annuities specifically for them to add value to your practice. Our leads have been exclusive since January 2010 and have never sold shared leads.
4. What is the average age of your leads?
For Radio & TV, our average age is 64.
Online, our average age is 61
5. Can I protect myself from receiving too many leads?
Yes. You should never purchase leads from a company unless they allow you to cap your account. We enable our clients to set both a daily and a monthly cap. When the monthly cap is reached, our software automatically shuts off client accounts and resumes the lead flow on the first day of the next month.
6. How many leads should I expect to receive?
Your lead flow will depend on the # of zip codes you cover, the population within those zips, and how receptive your area is to the offers. Our clients receive 1-4 leads per week. The leads will trickle in slowly because you can’t have quality and quantity at the same time. Clients who receive more typically cover over 5-10 million in population. If you are in a rural area, we strongly recommend you cover at least a 90+ mile radius around your office. We would rather our clients receive fewer leads and be happy than too many and be unhappy.
7. How do you determine which agent/advisor receives your leads?
Our annuity leads are routed based on the zip code. Most clients sign up with a zip code and radius. We have a 60-mile minimum. If you want to maximize the lead flow, we recommend you cover 90-110 miles from your location. If you don’t want leads from a bordering state for licensing reasons, just let us know when you sign up on the enrollment form.
Note – we use a zip code to zip code distance, not a driving distance, when setting up a client’s territory. We can send you a file showing all of the zip codes and counties in your area before you sign up.
8. Do you have protected territories for your leads?
Yes and no. We usually restrict territories to 2-3 clients in most major metro markets. Contact us, and we can tell you if your area is open and can give you an estimate of what your lead flow might be.
9. Can I change my zip codes for the leads after signing up?
Yes. You may shrink or expand your area at any time. If your territory borders another state, let us know if you are not licensed there. We want to exclude the zip codes for states you are not licensed in or don’t want.
10. How long does it take to begin receiving leads?
This varies based on the population in your territory. Generally speaking, clients usually receive their first lead in 4-10 days. We set up new accounts within 24 hours and turn on the media campaigns. If we are not actively marketing in your area, it might take an extra week or so for leads to start coming in. If we are already running campaigns in your area, leads usually begin coming in the first 3-6 days.
11. Do I have to pre-pay or commit to a certain number of leads before I join?
No. If a company ever asks you to pre-pay, we suggest you run in the other direction. Lead companies do this because they have no confidence in their ability to create leads or the quality of their leads. This is why they want their money upfront.
Our agreement is simple (No long-term contract and no pre-payments of leads). Either party can discontinue the relationship at any time for any reason. This is what we would want if we were in your shoes.
We bill our clients weekly in arrears. You receive the leads first and then pay later. Most competitors charge you upfront or hit your card per lead. We trust our clients to do the right thing, and most people do.
12. What are you offering in the annuity ads to create the leads? Can we see the commercial?
We don’t release the commercial, but we can give you a summary of what it says. We offer a report which summarizes the best annuities on the market. Contact us if you need more specifics about what is being offered in our ads. New clients receive a “Common Question” video when joining, which answers this, plus several other commonly asked questions.
All our clients have access to Annuity Rate Watch, which they can use when working with our leads. We recommend Cannex Financial for SPIA and DIAs.
12. Is Annuity Rate Watch or Cannex FINRA approved by my broker-dealer or compliance department?
Our clients use Annuity Rate Watch and Cannex materials to send to the leads. Many broker-dealers, banks, and FMOs have already approved Annuity Rate Watch.
Cannex quotes are guaranteed accurate from the carriers and approved inside several wirehouses.
13. Do you send out the “annuity comparison report” to the leads, or do your clients?
Our clients (the advisor/agent) send all product information to the leads. We allow our clients to decide what to send to the leads based on their situation. We don’t send out product information because this could interfere with the sales process.
Our call center tells the callers that an annuity specialist will contact them in 1 business day. They are told this specialist will be their single point of contact and be the one who sends them the information on the annuities they requested. This is done intentionally to help you in the relationship-building process.
14. What is the average case size for your leads?
This varies based on the client and region. Our best guess is that the average case size is $250,000. 40-45% of our annuity leads have already purchased an annuity. In some markets like California, Washington State, and the Northeast, the average case size for many clients has been around $500,000 premium. One of our LA clients closed three-figure annuity cases in a row last year. The last was $1.9 million. When people fail in our program, it’s usually because they have a hard time closing the deals not because the leads do not have assets.
15. How are radio and TV annuity leads qualified?
Radio & TV Commercials produce high-quality annuity leads. These leads call in and speak to our call center, where they are asked 11 qualifying questions and told a specialist will contact them. After the call is finished, one of our internal employees audits the call independently to ensure our process has been followed.
Radio and TV are trusted media platforms that have a lot of credibility in the minds of baby boomers and seniors. TV is probably the most credible advertising medium there is. Most advertisers on TV are not start-ups but relatively well-established entities. This trust helps advisors work with the leads.
16. What information is provided with the leads?
• Full Name
• Address
• Telephone Number
• Caller ID Number (if different)
The leads are also asked a series of questions, which are almost always answered, such as
• Year of Birth
• E-mail Address
• Are they looking for income now or later?
• Do they own an annuity already, or are they first-time buyer?
• What is their time frame for making a decision
• What is the best time for an annuity specialist to reach them
The leads are also asked if they work as a licensed financial advisor or insurance agent.
17. How do you scrub the radio and tv leads?
Our leads call in and speak to our call center, where they are asked 11 qualifying questions and told an annuity specialist will contact them. The only optional question is their email address.
Next, one of our three assistants will re-listen to the call and spend 25-30 minutes scrubbing it. When auditing the call, we make sure the call center asks all relevant questions, takes notes to improve on the lead data, and visits 15 websites to scrub out any financial advisors, agents, or fee-only planners who call.
35-50% of our annuity calls become leads. The other 50-65% are scrubbed out because they work in the business, are over age 85, and do not want to answer our questions or object to an annuity specialist calling them.
18. Why are your online annuity leads qualified?
The internet can create great annuity leads if the campaigns are set up correctly.
Most educated & tech-savvy boomers/seniors will look online before buying a financial product. Therefore, online can be a great place to market because you reach them closer to making a decision (end of the buying cycle).
We market to boomers and seniors who are directly searching for information on annuities or are on high-quality websites and see advertisements on annuities.
After clicking on the ad, leads are taken to a website where they need to complete a 10-question online form to become a lead. Before the lead is processed, one of our assistants will spend 20-30 minutes scrubbing the lead.
We have a high-quality process set up for our online leads. We do this by targeting only the most interested prospects. Most competitors promise the annuity rider rate to consumers and ask for their information. We don’t do this. Instead, we have consumers go through a longer, more educational process for annuities.
We also make it harder and less obvious for them to become a lead. This reduces the response but increases the quality. We are also the only vendor who asks for their address online. This lowered our response by 30+% but increases the quality.
19. How do you scrub the online leads?
We spend between 20 and 30 minutes scrubbing each online lead. First, we verify the phone number is a good number. Next, we put the phone number through a database that we subscribe to.
We aim to identify the bad leads immediately so they don’t waste your time. After all, someone has to do this work. Since we provide a service for the industry, we should thoroughly scrub the leads to help our clients save time.
When scrubbing the leads, we are looking for bad data. Is the information on the lead form correct? For example, does the name assigned to the phone number match the name on the lead form? If not, we more deeply scrub the lead.
We also scrub the online leads to ensure they are not advisors or insurance agents. We perform advisor searches on the husband and wife because a male agent can supply his wife’s information on the lead form.
20. How do you scrub the leads to make sure they are not insurance agents or advisors?
Here are 8 of the 17 steps in our process
We google the leads name and zip code
We google the leads email address
We google the leads phone number
We visit the department of insurance for that state and do a search
We visit FINRA and do an agent locator
We visit the SEC IARD site to try to locate fee-only planners.
We go to linked in and do a member search around the lead’s zip code.
Finally, we repeat the entire process for the SPOUSE of the lead if the lead came from the web. We do this because agents and advisors online often hide behind their spouse’s name. They don’t hide from us 🙂 Call center leads can not fake their gender. If a man calls in and leaves his wife’s info….he is probably lying so we look up his name and scrub it.
We do this process for all of our leads regardless of source. Our call center asks callers if they work as financial advisors or insurance agents. We have found that advisors/agents lie 50% of the time when asked this question….so we scrub.
Why do all of this work? Because our clients love it. If we sell leads that lie about working in the industry our clients might spend weeks following up with the lead. This is prevented by us doing a great job on the front end.
21. Why do people fail in your lead program?
The #1 commonality of people who fail in our program is a low appointment ratio (under 20%)
Clients who do well typically book 30-70% of appointments on our leads. Watch our video “How Top Producers Work High-Quality Annuity Leads” for more information. If you need help converting appointments into clients, we recommend reading Harry Browne’s The Secret of Selling Anything.
You should also watch our videos:
“The 8 biggest mistakes financial advisors make when working leads” Video Link
“How top producing financial advisors and insurance agents work high quality leads” Video Link
“9 case studies from the trenches – what does and does not work when working annuity leads” Video link
“Overnight package video – How to improve your contact and close rate with shock and awe marketing packages” Video Link
“7 strategies to maximize your return on investment when working annuity leads” Video Link
May 2024 – Annuity Lead Generation Best Practices Video Link
22. Do you release the call recording for the radio and tv leads?
We keep the call recordings for 30 days and can use them in the event of a refund request.
We do not have call recordings for our online leads since they are completing a 10-question online form and then scrubbed by our internal team.
23. What is the average conversion rate on the leads? How should I expect to sell?
Conversion varies by client and is broken down into a few categories
Superstars close 1/3 to 1/4 leads.
Average producers close 1/5 to 1/10 leads
Below-average producers close 1/11 to 1/20.
GA Case Study – One of our clients in GA received 32 leads from us in 2014. He was new to working leads and paid some tuition as he only covered 1 of them. The case was $350,000.
Even he made 5X his investment.
Because clients use various methods for following up with the leads, it’s hard to give an exact figure as to the ratios. Sales ability, region, size of the city, and old-fashioned hard work affect the results.
24. What areas are the easiest/toughest to work in?
Generally, smaller towns and rural environments are easier to work with than larger metro markets.
The Midwest is the easiest area to work with leads because the leads tend to be easier to speak to and less skeptical. Rural areas in the midwest are the easiest.
San Francisco, New York, northern New Jersey, and the Boca Raton area have been the toughest historically but we’ve had agents succeed in every market. If you are familiar with the area/culture then you have a better chance of succeeding. Ex. New Yorkers can best sell New Yorkers.
We recently had a client in Northern NJ close the first three leads we sent him. Successful people can succeed anywhere. Our online leads perform much better in the tougher markets to work the leads than radio and tv because the leads are later in the buying cycle and easier to speak to. The more motivated the lead is, the better agents will go in these tougher areas.
We have had clients succeed and fail in all areas, but this is a general guideline. The right person will do well anywhere, and the wrong person will fail everywhere. We strongly suggest you watch our videos on working our annuity leads before joining.
25. What type of agents/advisors do well in your program?
Advisors with a history of working with leads tend to do better because they are better at booking appointments and converting them into closed business.
Also, advisors who have budgets and give the program time to work. If you must close the first lead to make your mortgage payment, knock on doors and cold call.
9 Case Studies on What Works & Does Not Work Working Annuity Leads – This video contains tips Scott gave existing clients on how to improve their results in the program – Video Link
26. Who is most likely to struggle in your program?
Advisors who aren’t good at building relationships or closing tend to struggle the most. This is a sales-oriented industry, and the results vary widely based on the salesperson. Advisors who don’t watch our five videos on working leads tend to do worse. Learn from our previous clients and don’t make the same mistakes they did. Post-pandemic, we have many more agents working with leads virtually. Your close rates should still be the highest in your state/area, and we suggest clients start there and “expand” later.
27. How do we sign up?
Click on this link 2024 Agreement to download our enrollment form. You can return it to us by fax or e-mail. After receiving the form, we will email you a username and password to log in to your online account, marketing materials you can use, and a video titled “Common Questions New Clients Have.”
We will follow up with you within 24 hours of receiving the form. If you don’t hear from us, contact us to ensure we receive the form.
28. How many leads do you consider a good test of your program?
We usually consider 10-20 leads to be a good test. If you can not afford to work ten or more leads, save your money and go to Vegas. It will be more fun.
29. Can you send me an invoice for my annuity leads to my FMO, wholesaler, etc?
Yes. Our software tracks all of our client billing histories. You can access this 24/7 inside your online account. We can send you a billing summary any time you request it.
30. How many refund requests do you receive?
Our refund request rate has been around 1% for the last decade. We get about one refund request for every 100 annuity leads we sell. Half of our refund requests are not legitimate. Our refund request rate is low because of our time scrubbing our leads. Our clients can request a refund inside of our software. From there, one of our assistants will call the lead and verify/deny the request based on our follow-up. Our refund request rate for 2023 was .50%.
31. Are you affiliated with an FMO or IMO?
No. We partner with several FMO/IMOs in the industry and do not care where you write the business. We are not an FMO and focus solely on creating high-quality leads. If you are a marketer at an FMO, we will send you our “coverage map,” which breaks down open areas. Marketers have direct access to Scott. Many marketers work with Scott to use the lead program to help grow their agent database.
32. How do I receive the lead’s information?
Our software will e-mail you the leads when they come in. Some clients notify their assistant, marketer, or backup email address.
We can also send a text message to your cell phone with the name and phone number of the lead.
The text message serves as a backup reminder to check your email or access your account online. We highly recommend this option if the lead email goes to your spam folder.
33. Do you create leads in my market? How do you reach my area?
Radio Annuity Leads – We advertise on several radio shows nationwide. The shows are made of hundreds and sometimes thousands of radio stations. When you advertise on the national level, each of the radio stations plays the commercial.
TV Annuity Leads – We advertise on national health, travel, news, and financial shows. These are regional or national and have calls from all over the USA.
Online Annuity Leads – Our online campaigns are customized for your territory.
34. How much do the leads cost? How does billing work?
Leads are $300/lead. There are no long-term contracts. We do billing every Wednesday in arrears. Our software will charge your credit card on file every Wednesday morning for the outstanding amount.
For example, if the lead is received on Thursday, it will be billed the following Wednesday morning.
Ex. Lead received Tuesday would be billed the next day (Wed morning)
35. Do you have references? People who you can speak to?
If you are skeptical, first look at our website’s over 40 audio testimonials.
Listen to them. We have more “real” testimonials than any annuity lead provider in the industry.
Next, watch our videos titled “How top producers work high-quality annuity leads” and “The 7 Biggest Mistakes Financial Advisors & Insurance Agents Make Working Annuity Leads.
If you still need help, we can have you speak with marketers at FMOs who send us business. They can attest to our ethics, honesty, and track record in the industry. You might or might not have success in our program.
36. Can we choose radio, tv, or online leads only?
No. Our message and process are very similar across the sources. We do reveal which source the lead came from in the lead details. We do not let our clients choose only one source, as our lead sources vary yearly. Since COVID started, our flow has been more online because our clients needed to reach the most tech-savvy leads for Zoom calls.
37. What do you suggest if we are in a tough market or if we want to maximize the ROI on our leads?
We suggest sending a professional “shock & awe” package to the leads before speaking to them. We made a video explaining how and what to include in the package. Video Link
We also created a video on maximizing the ROI on our leads. Video Link
Any other questions about our annuity leads? Call us, and we will happily answer any questions you may have.
