After graduating high school, Jacob Tahiliani served as a missionary for two years, without pay, through a Mormon mission. Even though he no longer identifies with the Mormon church, he cherishes the time he spent helping people while working at food canneries, homeless shelters and even family farms.
Tahiliani eventually left the mission and decided to move to Utah, where he got his real estate license. He didn't mind selling homes, but hated cold calling without leads. He was having a hard time getting by, so he got into ecommerce in an attempt to nurture his own leads. He had mild success until Covid hit so he moved back to Arizona to be with his family.
"I lived with my parents while giving real estate a try in Arizona but I didn't love it," he says. "It takes a long time to make any sales, and during Covid, it was so hard that I closed down my ecommerce site and got a really boring job working part-time for Amazon."
Tahiliani worked the summer at Amazon, and a month later his brother-in-law piqued his interest in selling life insurance. "He said 'You should join Family First Life with me," Tahiliani remembers. "When he said agents can get leads, I was sold. I got my life insurance license in a week!"
At first Tahiliani worked for FFL part-time, but he's been working full-time for the past few months. Experiencing steady growth, he's constantly finetuning his insurance sales strategies and practicing his phone skills, which he understands are the most important ingredients for success.
"My original goal was to only buy inbound calls," Tahiliani explains, "but I was only getting one or two a week at first so I tried data leads, which are much cheaper. I've started to get more inbound calls, but I still buy the data leads, which convert fairly well."
Tahiliani knows the value of buying quality insurance leads from past experience and from trying to generate his own leads when he worked in real estate. "You can't do anything without leads," he says. "I've gotten some sales off my network but an insurance business is not sustainable without leads. Folks like SmartFinancial are crucial. Without them, I'd have no business."
When measuring his success, Tahiliani knows to look at his CPA, which is the most important metric to watch as an insurance agent. "My average close is $800 to $1,000," he says. "If I buy a batch of leads for $250, I will make a sale or two, sometimes three, from that."
Staying in close contact with his account manager has helped Tahiliani, who considers his AM."his favorite person ever." He appreciates the encouragement and understanding SmartFinancial offers, as well as having someone in his corner as he grows his book of business.
"I was really new when I first met my account manager," remembers Tahiliani. "He showed me tricks that work for other agents. It's nice to have that kind of coaching when you need it."
Below are just a few tricks Tahiliani wants to share with you!
Jacob Tahiliani's 3 Golden Tips for Succeeding with Insurance Leads
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Set the right expectations for internet leads. Sometimes, users fill out lots of forms so expect them to say, "Oh, I don't remember doing this" when you call. More often than not you have to jog their memory or share their info and explain that they filled it out at some point. After that, you can get into the sale.
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I recommend buying lots of shared leads to practice and get your bearings straight. Don't be sad if they are mean to you. You have to convince them that you are not cold calling them.
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Think about data leads as a person going to the shoe store to buy shoes. When the sales person comes over and asks if they need help, they will most likely say, "No, I'm just looking." But they did go into the store to buy the shoes so there's an opportunity to make a sale. It's the same with the leads: The person trusted the lead vendor with their information at some point so you can make the sale even if they object at first. Saying no is just a knee-jerk reaction. Get past it.
