The Follow-Up Revolution – Reinventing the "Thank-You" Letter

You’ve been doing it for years.

You get a lead; you quote them and you follow up with a letter thanking them for the opportunity. You know you have to do it, if only to nudge the prospects that are closest to buying and staying in front of the others.

But how much time do you spend mailing (or emailing) letters? And how many are never responded to?

A Revolutionary Approach To An Old Strategy

Email kicked off the follow-up revolution. As it became a part of consumers’ daily lives, agents were able to do the majority of their initial follow-up over the internet instead of mailing a thank-you letter to every lead.

Today, 90% of consumers use email and check their inboxes several times a day (Double Click, 2005).

That means your prospect is likely to receive your “thank you” message within minutes instead of days… at least, that’s the way it should be.

Even with email, agents still have these problems:

• You only benefit from the speed of email communication if you have the time to cut, paste and send a personalized message to each lead
• The more leads you work, the more difficult it is to follow up with all of them
• And when those emails generate no response? The busy agent with no time for repeat follow-up tosses the lead in the garbage

Now you don’t have to feel guilty for missing follow-up opportunities or trashing leads that are slow to respond. New technology makes follow-up entirely automatic AND provides a unique opportunity to quote leads again and again.

Saying “Thank You” With Autoresponders

Bill M., an independent agent, used to create and send emails to follow up with prospects. But as his lead traffic grew he was having trouble keeping up: “I used to manually follow up on the email. But that took time and the more leads that come in, copy and paste just isn’t enough.”

Autoresponder technology has solved the problems agents like Bill have with traditional email follow-up.

• It’s all automatic. Autoresponders send personalized messages to prospects immediately after you quote them. Every leads gets contacted, no matter how busy you are.
• You can handle more leads. By turning over your follow-up to autoresponders, you save time to work more leads and you never have to worry about not being able to contact them all.
• You touch AND quote leads again and again. Instead of letting leads slip into oblivion, autoresponder programs like LeadMiner send out a series of emails that can even include a personalized health insurance quote. Because the quotes are online, your prospect can access them 24 hours a day.

Autoresponders have helped Bill improve his productivity and give him more time for selling. “It gets a response out right away,” continues Bill. “I may or may not be able to contact them right away…but I know that they’ve got something. [The emails] are personalized, and it’s a nice system.”

The best part? When a lead checks out your updated proposal – whether it’s 3 days since you quoted them or 3 months – you are automatically sent an email notice. It’s the only follow-up letter that actually tells you when your lead is interested!

Incorporating an autoresponder program into your agency turns your initial thank-you letter from a flat piece of paper or a bland email into a self-generating, fully interactive offer.