What does ROI mean for final expense leads?
ROI, or return on investment, compares what you earned from leads with what you spent on them. For final expense leads, the simplest version is: commission earned from sales made on those leads, minus what the leads cost, divided by what the leads cost. A positive result means the leads paid for themselves; a negative one means they did not.
ROI is personal. It depends on your skill, your carriers, your contracts and your schedule. No vendor can tell you your ROI in advance, and you should be careful with any that tries.
What is cost per billable call?
Cost per billable call is what you pay for each call that counts as a lead. With Inbound Final Expense Leads, a call is billable only when it lasts 90 seconds or longer, so your cost per billable call is the price per lead shown on the pricing page. See pricing there. If a vendor bills per record instead, divide total spend by the number of real conversations you had to compare like for like.
What are billable calls per sale?
Billable calls per sale is how many billable calls it takes you, on average, to make one sale. Track it yourself: count your billable calls and your sales over the same period, then divide calls by sales. Early numbers can swing a lot, so track over enough calls to see a pattern.
How do I find cost per sale?
Cost per sale equals cost per billable call multiplied by billable calls per sale. You can also take total lead spend and divide by total sales from those leads. This is the number to compare with your commission.
How do I find commission per sale?
Commission per sale is what you earn on an average policy you sell. It depends on the premium, your contract level with each carrier, and how commissions are paid, for example advanced or as-earned. Use your own contracts. Account for chargebacks if a policy lapses early, since that reduces what you keep.
What is a worked example?
Here is a worked example using placeholder numbers. These are not our prices or anyone's results; replace every value with your own. To run your own numbers instantly, use the final expense lead cost calculator.
Placeholder A, cost per billable call: 100. Placeholder B, billable calls per sale: 5. Cost per sale = A × B = 500. Placeholder C, commission per sale: 800. Profit per sale = C − cost per sale = 300. ROI = profit per sale ÷ cost per sale = 300 ÷ 500 = 0.6, or 60 percent.
If your real numbers give a lower ROI, look at which input to improve: calls per sale through better phone skills, or commission per sale through your contracts and product mix.
Which inputs can I improve?
You can improve billable calls per sale by answering quickly, listening well and presenting clear options; see how to sell final expense over the phone and how to handle price objections in final expense. You can improve commission per sale through your carrier contracts and by placing policies that fit, which also lowers lapse risk. Cost per billable call is fixed by your vendor, so compare vendors on billing rules too; see how to choose a final expense lead vendor.
Should I include my time in ROI?
Yes, if you want a full picture. Leads that need heavy dialing cost time, and time has value. Live inbound calls remove most dialing time, so the hours you spend are mostly in conversations. You can add an hourly value for your time to the cost side to compare lead types fairly. See final expense leads: live calls vs lead lists.
How often should I recalculate?
Recalculate after each order. Use the billable calls, sales and commissions from that order to update your inputs. Over several orders, you will learn your real cost per sale and can decide how to scale; see how to scale your final expense calls. For the steps to order, see how inbound final expense leads work.