Approximately 80% of leads never lead to sales, but it doesn’t have to be this way.
A strong lead nurturing strategy starts before you have a conversation with the lead. There are concrete steps you can take, both during the process and before it happens, to keep the lead’s interest and encourage them to work with you. Here are a few tips.
1. Know What Their Needs Are
Think about who your highest-revenue clients are, and what challenges they routinely face in insuring their own customers.
No doubt they come to you because of your specific expertise in this area. What questions do you commonly hear? What issues do you see these agents facing every day?
Once you know the issues that keep your most revenue-generating customers up at night, you can design a content strategy that speaks to them. This can include blog posts, white papers, interviews in trade magazines, and more.
If you do this, not only will your website become more visible in search results for the questions these agents are likely to ask—but your leads will be more primed to see you as an expert resource and work with you before they even reach out.
2. Ask The Right Questions
When an insurance agent wants to talk to you on the phone, they may simply be information-gathering—or they may be ready to work with you right then.
If they are ready to work with you, then you don’t have to do a lot more nurturing in the moment—you can simply move forward with your business relationship. But if they’re calling to find out if you’re the right person to work with, make sure you ask some questions of your own.
Knowing their specific challenges will be key—not only to meeting their needs when you do work together, but in designing a strategy to keep in touch with them going forward.
3. Keep The Conversation Going
You may automate an email strategy for garden-variety leads, but for really important high-potential leads, you’ll want to use a personal touch.
Stay top-of-mind long after the initial conversation happens. Ask for permission to stay in touch, and if the prospect gives it, get in touch every few weeks. Send a personal invitation to a webinar or share a blog post or article that addresses their interests.
By staying in touch, you can cultivate a more personal relationship—and ensure that you’re the first person the prospect thinks of when they have a need.
4. Avoid Being Too Pushy
It can sometimes be difficult to know where the line is. But the key is to strike a helpful tone, rather than one that’s too focused on sales.
This is where knowing the specific challenges they face can really pay off—the more you know about those, the better you can address them.
Nurturing valuable leads is a skill you can learn. It all starts with knowing what their needs are—and how your expertise aligns with those needs.
Once you have that information, you can keep in touch with a personalized campaign of valuable content that will cement your reputation as an expert in exactly what they need.
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