The top 6 ways to generate high-quality leads for long-term success

By Lew Nason

Insurance Pro Shop


If I were forced to start over from scratch, I wouldn’t use any of the traditional lead sources. Here are the top six ways I would use to generate high-quality leads.

Are you frustrated with the quality of your current leads and the amount of money they are costing you, either from paying for your leads or taking reduced commissions? Have you tried buying leads and/or preset appointments? Have you tried postcards and direct mail systems? Have you tried running ads in your local newspaper or offering free reports? Are you frustrated because none of these lead sources have provided you with a consistent flow of high quality leads that produced consistent sales?

If so, you are not alone. It’s the biggest complaint we hear from most agents. Why are most agents struggling with the above lead sources? Is it because:
  • The lead systems don’t give them a good way to consistently turn those leads into appointments?
  • The amount of leads they get is inconsistent from week to week?
  • The leads/systems are too expensive to use on a long-term basis?
  • The leads are putting them in front of people who have never heard of them
All of the above leads sources are an adequate way for you to get started in this business and they can be used to provide a boost during the slow times. However, for long-term success, they aren’t your best primary source of leads. They aren’t what top producers do to generate consistent, high-quality business.

If I were forced to start over from scratch, offering something new, I wouldn’t use any of the lead sources listed above. No matter what product I was offering, whether it was investments, health insurance, P&C insurance, LTCI, DI, annuities or life insurance, I would do some research and determine how I could best help the people in my local area. What’s the biggest problem I could solve for them? Then, I would do everything I could do to position myself as the expert in that area.

Here are the top six ways I would use to generate high-quality leads:
    1. Ask my friends and family for their help. Would they allow me to practice on them and give me an honest opinion/feedback of the service I am offering?

    2. Invite everyone I know to a free educational workshop. People feel better about coming to workshops (five to 10 couples) than meeting a salesperson face to face.

    3. Create or join a local lead exchange groupto get know in the community, get leads and form a joint venture.

    4. Establish a joint venture with a local business that caters to my ideal prospects and get them to invite their clients to an educational workshop.

    5. Set up a system to make it easy for people to give me referrals.

    6. Send a monthly newsletter to everyone I know and meet.
People buy when they're ready to buy, not when you’re ready to sell. So, if you want to sell them, you must be in front of them when they are ready to buy.

I wouldn’t rely on someone else for my leads. I’d take in control of my business and make sure:
  • I’m consistently delivering a message of how I am helping people a specific group of people
  • I’m consistently contacting the right people for what I’m offering
  • I'm consistently building my professional and personal image in my local community.
  • I'm consistently in front of the people who already know me
  • I have a good system to consistently convert these leads into appointments
  • I have a good system to consistently convert those appointments into sales
These are the top six ways I teach advisors to use in order to consistently generate high-quality leads. Do these lead generation strategies work?The answer is yes! Over the past 30 years, using these strategies, I’ve had an 80 percent success rate with new agents, versus the industry failure rate of over 90 percent.