Good leads are a pillar of your business. Depending on your lead budget and the how you strategize sales, there are many options available to you. As all the types of leads work differently, you should know the pros and cons of each to decide how to buy them.

Real-Time Leads

Real-time leads come to you soon, often within seconds, after the prospect fills out a request. They’re great in that they allow you to contact the prospect soon after they request a quote, while they’re in the buying phase.

Real-time leads cost more than other types and you have to prioritize them to get their full worth, but their payout is high. Look at an auto dialer if you want real-time leads as the main part of your budget. This will allow you to get to your leads in an optimized way.

Live Transfer Leads

Live transfer leads are great because they come from verified consumers who have proven to match your filters. With live transfers, you can filter incoming prospects by factors such as risk type, geography, and other conditions.

When prospects who match your filters call for a quote right away, a qualified call center will screen them to ensure intent. They then connect them to you. The bonus here is that the prospects are coming to you, cutting down on your dialing time to reach customers.

Since you’re not waiting all day for prospects to come to you, you won't want to rely on live transfers alone. However, if they're used as supplements to your sales strategy they can boost your conversion rate.

Search Insurance Leads

Search leads are a direct result of a prospect’s internet hunt for insurance. When someone types “insurance quotes” into Google or another search engine, it shows a clear interest. Advanced algorithms filter through those searches to find the ones with the highest intent and make them available to you.

Given that the prospect is probably looking for many options for quotes, it’s important to act quickly. With search leads, conversion quite often goes to the first contact. If you use them as part of your sales strategy, you want to contact them quickly.

Exclusive Insurance Leads

Exclusive leads have their benefit front-loaded with the fact that they’re only sold to you. The insurance industry is a very competitive one. Having the chance to be the only agent working with a prospect steps around that competition.

The main thing to consider with exclusive leads is what you can afford. The unique nature of exclusive leads makes them incredibly valuable. You might not be buying them in high quantity, as they're unique and there aren’t that many of them.

A good tip is to purchase exclusive leads as an accessory to your lead strategy, not a primary factor. This ensures that they strengthen your ROI without a large monetary draw on your part.

Shared Insurance Leads

Shared leads generate for multiple agents. While this might not sound as good as the other lead types discussed, they still have some exclusivity.

Depending on the filters you use with leads, you can acquire some that other agents don't due to their filter types. This can narrow the playing field, making the number of other agents you’re sharing a lead with a small one.

Another thing to consider when looking at shared leads is the max number of agents to which your lead service sends the lead. Most services share a lead among eight agents maximum as the industry standard. QuoteWizard’s maximum agents per lead is half that. By choosing a service that keeps the sharing to a minimum, your chances of making the winning sale grows.

As you can see, there are many different lead types available to you in order to make your business successful. Consider how each sort can work with your sales goals both by themselves and as a whole. By using these lead types to your best personal advantage, you’re bound to see a large return on your investment.