Buying insurance and mortgage leads: what to ask, and how to answer first
Buying insurance or mortgage leads? Exclusive vs shared, real-time vs aged, what to ask a vendor, call and text scripts, and how to hear about each lead fast.
When you buy shared insurance or mortgage leads, the person who filled in the quote form hears from several agents within minutes, so speed matters as much as the vendor. Exclusive leads give you some slack. Shared leads mostly reward whoever picks up the phone first.
Speed starts with how you hear about the lead. Most vendors announce each one with an email, a CRM notification email or a text, and on a busy afternoon those buzz like everything else on your phone. A lead email that reaches Gmail can be made to ring you on any phone. On iPhone, vendor app alerts need the PinG keyring; the email route doesn't.
Are bought insurance and mortgage leads worth it?
They can be, if the type of lead matches how you work. A captive agent with an assistant answering the phone all day can live on shared real-time leads. A loan officer who spends afternoons at closings might do better paying more for exclusive leads, or buying fewer of them. The vendor matters less than the fit between the lead and your calendar.
With shared leads, how fast you answer matters more than which vendor you buy from.
What should you ask a lead vendor before you buy?
Start with exclusivity. Ask whether the lead is sold to you alone or shared, and if it's shared, how many buyers get the same person. "Up to" a number is a ceiling, not an answer, so ask what the typical count is in your state and product line. An exclusive lead lets you finish an appointment before calling back. A shared one has already gone out to your competitors while you read the notification.
Then ask whether the leads are real-time or aged. Real-time means the vendor sends the lead within moments of the consumer submitting the form. Aged leads are older, anywhere from days to months, and they cost less because the person has probably talked to someone already or stopped looking. They aren't worthless. They're a different job, closer to patient follow-up over weeks than a same-minute call, and buying them while expecting real-time behaviour is how agents decide that "leads don't work".
Ask for the return policy on bad leads, and keep a copy. What counts as bad: a disconnected number, a duplicate you already bought, a consumer who says they never filled anything in, a renter in a homeowners campaign? How many days do you have to file, and do you get a refund or a credit? If a vendor has no return policy, that tells you how much they trust their own data.
Ask how each consumer agreed to be contacted, and ask to see the form and the consent wording they were shown. Your compliance team will know what they need on file; your job is to make sure the vendor can produce it. Then come the boring questions that decide your evenings. Can you filter by state, zip code, coverage type or loan purpose? Can you set a daily cap, and pause delivery when you're on vacation? And how does each lead reach you: an email, a post into your CRM, a text, or only the vendor's own app? That last answer decides how fast you can respond, so it belongs on the list next to price.
Where do the leads actually arrive?
Buy from two vendors and you can easily end up with three or four places to watch. The vendor emails a lead notice to the address on your account. If the vendor also posts leads into your CRM, the CRM sends its own new-lead email or push. Some vendors text the details to your cell. And the vendor's portal shows everything, which helps nobody at 7:40pm on a Saturday.
Pick one channel to be the one that wakes you up, and make it a channel you can filter. Email to Gmail is usually the easiest, since it carries the most detail and it's the same on any phone. If your vendor lets you add a second delivery address, put a teammate on it so evening leads don't wait for you.
What should you say when you first call an insurance or mortgage lead?
One rule before any script. Calling and texting consumers in the US is regulated: the TCPA, a federal law, sets consent rules for calls and texts, and some states add rules of their own. Check with your agency's or lender's compliance team, or a lawyer who knows these rules, before you call or text a bought lead, and use wording they approve. What follows is a starting point to take to that team, not legal advice.
Call first, and expect voicemail. Plenty of people let an unknown number ring out, so the voicemail does the introducing and the text that follows gives them your name next to the number that just rang.
Insurance: a 15-second voicemail, then a text
Hi Maria, it's Dan, a licensed agent with [agency]. You asked for an auto insurance quote a few minutes ago and I'm calling about that. I'll text you from this number so you know who it is.
Hi Maria, Dan from [agency]. I just left you a voicemail about your auto quote. Call or text me back here whenever suits you. Reply STOP to opt out.
Both name the request, because someone who filled in one form and then heard from five agents needs to know which one you are. Neither quotes a price, since you don't know their driving record yet.
Mortgage: a 15-second voicemail, then a text
Hi James, this is Priya, a loan officer with [lender], calling about the refinance request you sent this afternoon. I need about ten minutes with you before I can give you real numbers. I'll text you my details now.
Hi James, Priya with [lender]. I just left a voicemail about your refinance. When you have ten minutes, call or text me here and we'll go through it. Reply STOP to opt out.
Keep rates out of both.
A rate in a text with no scenario behind it gets screenshotted and compared against someone else's teaser rate, and you lose a conversation you never had. Loan officer leads are about getting the borrower on the phone; the rate comes after you know the file. Add whatever identifiers your compliance team requires, such as your license or NMLS number.
How do you get a lead email to ring your phone?
Most lead vendors send one email per lead, and if that email lands in Gmail, OLL.E can call you the moment it arrives. You type the watch in your own words, something like "call me when a new lead email arrives from my lead vendor", and it works the same on iPhone and Android, call included. It can send you a summary of the lead, forward the email to an assistant or teammate who covers evenings, and auto-reply by email with the first message you approved.
If your vendor or CRM alerts you by app notification or text instead, OLL.E can watch those on Android directly; on iPhone it needs the PinG keyring. Calling the lead is still your job; OLL.E only makes sure you know first.
| How the lead reaches you | OLL.E on Android | OLL.E on iPhone |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor email in Gmail | Call, summary, forward, email auto-reply | The same |
| CRM new-lead email in Gmail | Call, summary, forward | The same |
| Vendor or CRM app notification | Call or alarm | Needs the PinG keyring |
| Text from the vendor | Call or alarm | Needs the PinG keyring |
The same race, from a founder's side, is in speed to lead.
Many lead notices come from a no-reply address, so before you let OLL.E auto-reply to one, look at where a reply would go. Everything else works on any vendor email that reaches Gmail, iPhone included: a call the moment the lead lands and a forward to whoever covers your evenings. Pro is $19.99 a month; start on the free plan, which needs no card and gives you four watches. Before your first call or text to a bought lead, have your compliance team check the consent records and the wording.
Questions people ask
Are bought insurance leads worth it?
They can be, when the kind of lead fits how you work. Shared real-time leads suit an agency that can answer within moments all day; if you are often away from the phone, fewer exclusive leads may serve you better. Before buying, ask about exclusivity, the number of buyers per lead and the return policy for bad leads.
What's the difference between exclusive and shared leads?
An exclusive lead is sold to you alone, while a shared lead goes to several agents or loan officers at the same time. Shared leads cost less, but the consumer hears from all of the buyers, so speed decides most of them. Ask a vendor how many buyers a shared lead typically goes to in your state.
How fast should you call an insurance or mortgage lead?
As soon as you can, and for a shared lead before the other buyers do. Aim to be the first person the consumer hears from, because that person usually gets the conversation. Remember that calling and texting consumers in the US is regulated under rules such as the TCPA, so check with your compliance team first.
What are aged leads?
Aged leads are older leads, from days to months after the consumer filled in the form, sold for less than real-time leads. The person has often spoken to someone already or paused their search. They suit patient follow-up over weeks rather than a same-minute call.