464. Lead Generation Is Changing. Here's What to Do About It.

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What's in this episode:
In this solo episode of The Insurance Buzz, Michael Weaver delivers a forward-looking breakdown of lead generation for insurance agents and agency owners. As regulations around internet leads, cold calling, and data privacy continue to tighten, Michael lays out a clear framework for building a lead generation strategy that does not depend on systems outside your control. From launching paid ads campaigns that deliver exclusive leads directly to your agency, to becoming the kind of professional that clients actively refer, this episode gives agents and producers a practical game plan for weathering whatever changes come next.

Michael walks through three high-leverage strategies - exclusive paid advertising, referral culture, and centers of influence - and challenges every listener to stress-test their business against a worst-case scenario: what would you do if internet leads disappeared overnight? The Insurance Buzz, hosted by Michael and Courtney Weaver, consistently brings insurance professionals the mindset shifts and tactical strategies needed to grow and protect their agency. This episode is a must-listen for any agent who wants to stop being reactive and start building a lead engine that runs on their terms.

[00:00] Why the rules of insurance lead gen are changing
[01:30] Times are changing fast and your career with it
[02:30] Internet leads: why the risk is real and growing
[03:30] Worst case scenario planning for insurance agents
[04:30] Strategy 1: paid ads you own and control
[06:00] Strategy 2: referrals and becoming referrable
[08:30] How to plant seeds that grow into referral business
[09:30] Strategy 3: centers of influence explained
[10:30] How to pick and approach your ideal COI partners
[12:00] What makes you the go-to over every other agent
[13:00] The worst case scenario exercise to do right now
[14:00] Six months of action: June through December plan
[15:00] Why there is only upside from building this now

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What happens if you take six months of action and going into next year, we get the same scare. Internet leads get shut off. Guess what? You're not doing. You're not panicking. Hey, welcome to the insurance buzz. I am your host, Michael Weaver, and I'm flying solo today without Courtney, and I'm going to be talking about lead generation and the future of your insurance agency and career. I don't care if you were an agent or you are a sales agent/slash producer, this episode is for you. One of my favorite Bob Dylan songs came on this morning when I was headed to golf, and it made me think about this topic. Now, if any of you have never listened to the song Times Are Changin by Bob Dylan, highly recommend that. It talks about now back then he was talking about the culture shifts that were happening in America. Right now, the reason why I was reminded by this song to do this episode today was because times are changing because of technology. They're changing very fast, they're changing rapidly. Um, and your career as an insurance professional is changing. It looks different. Uh the way that you do business now and the way that you do business here in two or three years, maybe even six months, is probably going to look slightly different. Now, at the end of the day, we're still in the people business, without a doubt. And we will always be in the people business. That's not gonna change. That's gonna be the the underlying the underlying uh theme here is that you will always be in the people business. That'll be a strength of yours. Where we're going with AI, research is already showing that humans are gonna want to work with humans, they're gonna want to work with the best humans. But this is not about how you're working with humans. This is about how you're attracting people to do business with you. And that is changing. I mean, at the beginning of this year, if you did, if you do internet leads, if internet leads are a part of your business, you were afraid that you weren't gonna be able to get internet leads anymore, or if you were, they were going to be very, uh, very small quantities, is what we could say. And I actually believe that with the regulations coming in the future, that I believe internet leads are going to be tougher to get. I do, I just believe with privacy, uh, certain types of of like uh even how you prospect or contact somebody, all of those rules and regulations are changing. And so this is not a how-to episode. This is a you need to start thinking now to prepare for the future and put yourself into a situation that allows you to be successful in the future if one day they're just like can't do internet leads anymore. Spam laws, nope, can't do it. Hey, you can't call, you can't cold call anymore, you can't call somebody that's more than 30 days old in your system. At any point in time, the rules of the game can change. And so, knowing that the rules of the game can change, what can you do right now to better prepare yourself for the future so that you're not just left when the rules do change saying, Oh my gosh, what do I do now? I don't know how I'm gonna pay the bills next month. That is a situation you do not want to be in. Because without a doubt, the times are changing. So let's talk about what you can do. Let's talk about what you can do. Uh, number one, you want to make sure that you have the ability to actually own the lead that you are working. Exclusive. Only you are calling it. If I'm in your seat right now, I'm really considering starting a paid ads campaign myself through Google to start. There are lots of different paid ads you can do. Lots of companies out there. You're gonna have to do your homework. But these are paid ads attracting people in your community, your zip code, your area that you can market, that when they click on it, it goes to you and to you only. You then own that lead, nobody else is calling it, and you can call it for a longer amount of time. So I'm really going to be if I if I'm in your situation right now, and if I'm not currently doing paid ads or I'm doing paid ads and they're not working, what can I do to actually start getting paid ads to drive prospects and leads into my agency for my sales team? That's number one. Number two, referrals. Hey, let's take a quick break and talk about something that actually matters in your agency. Carriers are expecting more out of you. Your commissions are getting cut. You're asking your team to do things that they've never been trained to do, and they're underperforming. Now, that's because you don't have a process and you don't have a framework for success. Good news is Weaver Sales Academy just turned eight years old this month. I'm so excited, and we are having a summer sizzle sell right now to where you can save $1,200 right now by signing up and getting started with Weaver Sales Academy. The average agency sees a 40% lift in production by day 90 of working with us. We're able to get brand new hires up and selling on average in about a week's time frame. So let's go ahead, team up, partner up, click the link below, take advantage of that $1,200 savings, and let's start working together and actually start crushing goals this summer going into Q3 and Q4 so that you do not have to worry about panicking in Q4 during the holiday season because you took action right now. Click the link below, let's get started. Other than that, let's get back to the show. Referrals, referrals, referrals. I feel like if you're getting a lot of referrals, I feel like you're Willy Wonka with the golden freaking ticket, man. Everybody wants to know what you're doing. Now there are a ton of Legion strategies out there for referrals. Whether you're calling your current customers, whether you're asking at the point of sell, whether you're asking on customer service transactions, whatever it, whatever it is, referrals is going to be a key to having success in the future. Again, your clients work with you, they know you, they like you, they trust you. They will refer people to you if you ask and if you are referable. So you have to ask, but you also have to be referable. And so if you want more referrals, the very first thing that I would work on is being referable, making sure that you are providing an exceptional customer service, an exceptional customer experience every single time. When you provide an exceptional like customer experience, think about yourself when you go somewhere and think about the places you go that's just like, that was okay. And the places that you go and you're like, that was incredible. That was insane, that was awesome. It doesn't matter if it is a out to eat, it doesn't matter if it's a movie theater, it does, it just doesn't matter if it's an art museum. What are the businesses doing that give you an incredible feeling, incredible experience? Take what they're doing, and you do it as well. It's the little things that matter. But if you want more referrals, you have to be referable and you have to ask for it. You have to ask for it. And remember, remember, referrals can sometimes take time. It's kind of like I used to I used to always tell my team, it's kind of like a farmer. You have to plant the seeds and then you have to really, really work it for a long amount of time. Like it's not like a farmer plants a seed in March or April and is harvesting the next month. No, they don't harvest till the fall. They have to work the fields, they have to work the relationship. And that's what you have to do sometimes as well. So just because you ask doesn't mean it's going to happen right away. Sometimes it may take a week, sometimes it may take a month, sometimes it may take six months. But if you ask, if you plant the seed, maybe you ask again, maybe you ask again, and most importantly, you're providing exceptional customer experience and service every single time, you will begin to generate referrals, without a doubt. And when I think about the future of insurance, and I know that referrals are super old school, but without a doubt, referrals coming from like-minded customers, customers with a house, a few cars, an umbrella, some life policies, those are the type of customers you want to work. Those are the types of customers you want to have. Those are the types of customers you want to attract. So the easiest way to do that is with your current customers. The last thing I would I would tell you just as an idea, and this is also partly referrals, but centers of influence. Now, centers of influence is slightly different than referrals. Centers of influence is where you build a relationship with an individual, um, like a mortgage broker, like a real estate agent, like a car dealership. Um maybe, maybe you are an independent agent and you go and you develop a center of influence with a captive insurance agent that can't write somebody that has a DUI, for example. I don't know, that's just an example. But developing rental property owners, by the way, rental complexes, rental property owners, these are all centers of influence. Centers of influence are individuals that work with customers that you would want to help out. So if I'm you, I'm going to be strategic here. I'm going to figure out number one, what type of center of influence do I want to have? And maybe I want to have multiple. Great. Now, who are the individuals I want to approach? Because I just don't want to approach anyone. For example, if I'm going to approach a mortgage broker, I'm going to make sure that this mortgage broker is doing multiple mortgages a month. I'm going to make sure they're one of the top mortgage brokers in the state. Those are the type of people I want to surround myself with. And a lot of times you have to prove yourself. This isn't where you just stop by and you drop off some donuts and all of a sudden they're going to start sending you business. No. This is where you have to really take time in my experience of building a relationship, selling yourself. What can you do for this person? It's not what can they do for you, it's what can you do for this person? What can you do for their customers? What is going to make you different? What is going to make you the outlier? What is going to make you the go-to? If you're like every other Tom, Dick, and Harry insurance professional, why would they send you the business? What is your value prop? What makes you unique? What makes you a winner? What makes you the best? What makes you the go-to? What makes you so good that they should send people your way? And here's the thing: what are you going to do for them? Because they work with you, what do they get in return? This is really, really important. It can't be about you. It can't be about growing your business. It can't be about just sending your customers. What are you going to do for them? What are you going to take off their plate? What is in it for them? What is in it for their customers? When you have that figured out, you take that out and you go and you develop centers of influence. Now, these are just three ideas moving into the future. And I'm telling you right now, I would move on these ideas sooner than later. And you don't have to roll with these three if you don't want. But my question for you is simple. What are you going to do from a lead generation standpoint if internet leads got shut off today? Or if you could not call anyone, any prospect in your book of business that was more than 30 days old? That is where I want to, it's where I want you to go. I want you to go to worst case scenario right now. What would you do? Both as an agent and a producer, what would you do? How would you generate leads right now if those two things happen to you right now, today? If a regulation was passed, if it if an act was passed overnight that allowed you to no longer buy internet leads from companies, or maybe you can only buy one a day, two a day, whatever. Let's pretend like zero though. Let's pretend like worst case scenario, you can no longer buy leads because of spam and regulations, and you no longer can call any prospect in your CRM that is older than 30 days old. What would you do? Think from that context, think from that situation, put yourself in a worst case situation. What would you do to start driving leads to your office? It just can't be one thing. I'm gonna wreck a minimum of three to five things. And when you have those figured out, create a plan and go out and execute and do the damn thing. Do that for the next six months. June through December. Do that for the next six months and just see what happens. Sure, internet leads are gonna keep coming in. Sure, you can work your current CRM. You're doing that because you have the ability to, but you're planning for what happens if you can't do that anymore. And if you do what I just said, there is nothing bad that comes from this. Let's pretend like business is normal. Moving forward, internet leads keep popping, you can still call people. Oh, and you went out and you just created two, three, four different other lead gen strategies. Now you have more qualified leads coming into the business. You're writing more business, you're making more money. There is only a win from this scenario. But what happens if you take six months of action and going into next year, we get the same scare. Internet leads get shut off. Guess what you're not doing? You're not panicking, you're not worried, you're not stressed. You're like, I've been prepping for this my whole life, man. What have y'all been doing? You didn't listen to the insurance buzz episode, did you? All right, that's all I got for you today. I appreciate you. I love you. As always, time and attention is by far your most important asset. I appreciate you spending time with me today on the buzz. Go out and make it great.