Q: How long have you been in the insurance business?
A: Twenty years.

Q: What types of insurance do you sell?
A: My agency focuses on personal lines, in particular auto and home.

Q: What is one of the secrets to your agency’s success?
A: NetQuote® provides prospects, but once you get the leads it’s still a sales challenge. Agents must have a sales process in place with a focused, scheduled, and measurable follow up process. Vigorous follow up is required. Don’t forget this.

Q: Why do you use online leads?
A: NetQuote removes time-consuming and wasteful prospecting, cold-calling and x-dating.

Q: What is your #1 tip for managing online leads?
A: We grew aggressively, from a one-county market in the beginning to our 19-county market now.  I always paid careful attention to returns. Also comb your zip codes.  Use (NetQuote) Agent Support to partner and monitor zip code portfolios and help you manage your lead portfolio and account. The leads don’t always perform the same way all the time, so you must be very active and engaged – partner with your ASG rep.

Q: What is your #1 tip for growing your business?
A: Start (your business) small, pay close attention to costs, establish a process to follow up on your leads, and then expand.  Monitor and optimize your marketing with NetQuote’s help. Then grow from there, and NetQuote will help train you about the best ways to get you where you want to be.

Q: Do you have any parting words of wisdom?
A: From my experience – from trial and error – NetQuote is the industry leader (for providing leads). No other lead service comes anywhere close.

Q: Your agency recently launched its website. How has this affected your business?
A: Most of our business is long-distance, so this allows customers to connect with us. Customers know that we’re a real-live agency with real-live people.  The website has helped build credibility, retention and customer loyalty. Communication by email is also a lot easier. It (the website) keeps our business smooth and flowing – we’re able to keep up with the speed of today’s business.

Rick Stone is the President of The Ormond Agency in Ormond Beach, FL, and has been a NetQuote user since February 2004.  Thank you very much, Rick, for your time and perspective!