Insurance Sales Group Unlocks New Sales Model and Accelerates Growth

Facing increased competition and issues like Spam Risk and Scam Likely labels, insurance lead generation and sales teams don’t have it easy. Against these headwinds, they need to find more efficient ways of doing things to survive and thrive. As this customer story reveals, sometimes it takes a switch to the right software and tools to shake things up.

We sat down with Zach Helton, Dialer Admin at Innovative Financial Group, to learn about how his organization charted a path from frustration to fast-paced growth with the help of a switch to Convoso’s dialer software.

Read the Innovative Financial Group story below to see how this life insurance and Medicare sales group sparked a sudden turnaround, switched to a virtual sales model, and rapidly expanded its workforce with the help of Convoso.

• Struggling to dial and contact enough leads to hit sales targets

• Limited revenue and growth potential

• Slow manual dialing process drives up idle time and inefficiency

• Agents failing to stick to paper-based sales scripts

• Powerful dialer and robust performance reporting

• Tools supporting virtual sales model, including Dynamic Scripting and Agent Monitor

• Caller ID reputation management

• Customizable, accurate answering machine detection

• 2X increase in appointments scheduled

• 2.5X increase in leads transferred

• 7X headcount growth

• Greatly improved training and coaching efficiency

“When we switched over, we saw a lot higher contact rate, a lot more efficiency, like how fast we were able to call through the leads…On Convoso, you’re always getting connected to somebody.”

Using their CRM’s built-in dialer, Innovative Financial Group (IFG) sales numbers were stagnant. A team of agents was tasked with calling Medicare and life insurance leads to set sales appointments for reps out in the field, but they were struggling to reach prospects at scale, let alone convert them.

The process they had in place was manual and cumbersome. Agents clicked around, dialed, and waited 30 seconds as the phone rang, usually with no answer ultimately coming. Frequently, agents started delivering their sales pitch only to realize they were talking to a voicemail message, not a live lead.

On a good day, they were able to manually dial 100 leads, 3 times each. But with falling contact rates these attempts weren’t adding up to nearly enough appointments. Field reps had room in their schedules and Innovative Financial Group had plenty of room to improve.

"We just couldn't reach enough people," - Innovative Financial Group’s Zach Helton.

On the recommendation of a consultant, Innovative Financial Group decided to give Convoso’s dialer software a try. The impact was immediate.

“When we switched over, we saw a much higher contact rate and a lot more efficiency,” says Helton. Rather than having to manually click, dial, and wait, Convoso hummed along in the background, connecting agents to live leads and giving the team the ability to customize their approach across various campaigns.

On campaigns where speed to lead and scale are especially key, Helton’s team chooses between predictive and power dialing to quickly penetrate its lists. However, when a select team of agents is working a smaller set of leads, preview dialing lets them slow down a bit, review customer info, and make the most of each call.

Between the improvements in contact rates and the added efficiency, IFG’s productivity has changed drastically. After switching to Convoso, the team more than doubled their booked appointments—and began fully booking out their field reps’ schedules.

“Before, with our CRM, we would get 25 to 50 appointments. Now, with Convoso, we’re able to book out over 100 appointments.”

The added productivity driven by Convoso was a game-changer.

But it also opened IFG’s eyes to the limits of their existing sales model. IFG field reps could only hold so many in-person appointments in a day, and Convoso was delivering more closing opportunities than they had room in their schedules.

With the Convoso system in place, eliminating this bottleneck had an easy solution: the field reps could just start closing sales over the phone. They got their closing agents up and running on Convoso and began teeing them up with live transfers.

Getting rid of the ceiling on their sales numbers, IFG saw explosive growth. Their marketing team had been proud of the 100-plus appointments they were setting, but they soon doubled their output yet again and began completing more than 250 daily transfers.

Meanwhile, Convoso’s blended contact center capabilities enable IFG closers to seamlessly take inbound calls as well. To handle all this increased capacity and capitalize on the revenue potential, the organization’s headcount has downright exploded, with the number of closers growing from 12 to over 90.

“We were maybe getting 100 transfers on a good day. Now we’re at 250 transfers from our marketers alone.”

With all this additional staff, you might think that things have gotten more difficult to manage. However, Helton says that couldn’t be further from the case.

As they’ve added all their new agents, it’s been easier than ever to get them ready to hit the phones. With a range of communication options, including call whisper, Helton has been able to quickly give agents pointers and deliver real-time coaching to help get more deals over the line.

Plus, with Convoso’s robust agent performance reporting tools, IFG managers can tell who’s performing and who’s not—and quickly take action. Whereas before, some agents may have tried to push back on comments, IFG’s feedback and decisions are now backed by hard data. And as Helton told us, “The numbers don’t lie.”

It’s not just agents that are easier to manage, though. Helton says real-time reporting data has played a huge part in helping them get the most out of their leads and their dialing strategies.

Using a custom dashboard, Helton can see on-the-fly which of their lead providers’ data is delivering the best bang for their buck. This ability has helped them focus on the top sources and steer clear of the lists that just aren’t cutting it.

As IFG’s dialer admin, he also has what he needs to handle the Spam and Scam Likely labels that are plaguing so many of today’s contact centers. With ClearCallerID™, Convoso’s caller ID reputation management solution, Helton is not only able to see which of his numbers have been flagged by each of the major carriers, but he’s also able to spend as little time as possible swapping them out—solving the issue before contact rates begin to drop.

“From a coaching standpoint, the training efficiency just goes through the roof.”

Since switching to Convoso, Innovative Financial Group has seen night-and-day improvements in virtually every aspect of their contact center’s operation—and that includes their agents’ everyday experiences.

The kind of lagging performance they had seen previously takes its toll on agent morale as well as their readiness to sell. With Convoso, agents are able to stay in a groove.

“You’re always getting connected to somebody,” says Helton. “You’re always on your toes. You know what you’re going to say, rather than waiting and forgetting.”

Along the way, agents have to worry about fewer tedious, manual processes that eat up time and ramp up frustrations. Not only are there many fewer clicks to worry about, but agents have also been able to ditch outdated practices. With dynamic scripting, IFG agents no longer have to sift through 17-page paper documents to find their proper place in a script and deliver the right message. Instead, Convoso automates away that hefty paper script and provides updated prompts in real time based on a customer’s responses.

The result is that agents can focus on what they came there to do, and what they’ve certainly been doing with Convoso: making more sales.

“From an agent standpoint, it’s just night and day. Because you don’t have to do anything. Convoso just does it for you. It’s just so much nicer.”