Successfully building your insurance business depends in large part on obtaining viable leads. But not all leads will result in success. The only ones that matter in terms of building your business are qualified insurance leads. Unfortunately, many agents are conned into spending money on ancient or rehashed leads that only result in outflow of cash, and don’t bring in any useful prospects to build your business.

Is there any way to know whether you’re getting qualified insurance leads that will actually bring you new business? The answer is a resounding yes! Use the following strategies to evaluate insurance leads before you spend more of your hard earned money on dead end prospects:

Take some time to investigate the company you’re working with. There are a number of companies with great looking websites and inflated promises of qualified insurance leads, but looks don’t tell the whole story. Talk to other insurance professionals, either in-person or online, and find out what kind of experiences they’ve had with the company. If you hear good things, you’ll know the company provides quality leads.

Choose a company that will give your money back for bogus leads. Even the best companies sometimes let a bad lead or two slip through, but if they’re willing to offer you a money back guarantee, this is a good sign that the company is legitimate.

Exercise caution in purchasing shared leads. Sometimes companies will claim to only sell the lead to 4 other agents, but when you call the prospect, you encounter an angry diatribe from someone who’s already received 10 similar calls. While you might convert some of these leads, keep a close eye on the true cost by figuring out how much you have to pay before converting one of these leads.

Try to buy fresh leads. While a prospect may have been a qualified insurance lead at one time, leads go cold after a while. You’ll find that the person has already signed on with another agent, or has had time to change his or her mind about the necessity of buying insurance. Current leads are crucially important. When buying fresh leads, be sure to act on them before they go stale.

Be wary of leads that come from companies that also sell insurance. In these cases, they may not specialize in qualified insurance leads and are probably trying to earn money by selling recycled leads from prospects that they failed to convert. If you offer a sweeter deal and better service, you can make a sale. But keep a close eye on your results so you can determine whether it’s worthwhile to purchase these types of leads.

While buying leads can sometimes seems like a hit or miss proposition, you can maximize your chances of buying the best value qualified insurance leads by doing your homework ahead of time. Track your success rates and measure them against the per-lead cost to measure the true effectiveness of your leads. Taking these steps to get the right insurance leads will help you build your business and make you a viable competitor in the insurance marketplace.