Many insurance agents use the "hit and run" method of prospecting. These agents hit the prospect with a hard close and of the prospect does not buy, the agent runs onto the next prospect. This is a time wasting way to prospect because it assumes that if the prospect does not buy today, the prospect will never buy. In fact, good insurance prospects must be cultivated. And the best way to cultivate a prospect is with dripping on them with an insurance newsletter.

Using an insurance newsletter with new articles each month communicates the following to the insurance prospect:

1. you are on top of insurance news, insurance products and insurance trends and when ready to do business, you are the best candidate
2. that you stay in touch--something that most insurance agents don't do and the #1 complaint of consumers about their agents
3. that you are knowledgeable about life insurance, health insurance, long term care and annuities
4. you're not simply a salesman, you're a professional

Realize that insurance agents have a big problem--that they are mostly indistinguishable from one another. To a prospect, insurance appears to be a commodity, as does the insurance agent, differentiated only by price. While you know that there are tremendous differences between agents and products, you won't convince the prospect of that fact just by telling them so. You need to SHOW them.

The best way to show them, convince them, is with factual and well written insurance newsletter articles that hammer the same points, implicitly and explicitly, in every issue:

--you are superior to other agents because you know more
--you have greater insight into prospect problems that other agents
--insurance products are very different from each other, not just by price (and you are knowledgeable about these differences)
--if anyone is to be consulted about an insurance issue, you're the best choice because of your insight and experience

When you use a well constructed insurance newsletter, you get:

-Fresh articles per month, covering not only the items you sell (you don't want to appear focused on only one topic as that paints you as a sales person) but covering all types of insurance issues: life insurance, health insurance, long term care insurance, fixed annuities

-Email delivery for those prospects who are not yet on your "A" list. Email delivery allows you to reach hundreds and thousands at no cost. Send the print version however to your A list of prospects and clients because an item received in the mail has much greater impact than email.

--The ability to add your own news such as an upcoming seminar, a personal note, a product advertisement or any modification you want to make

--If you are securities licensed, you want the articles in the letters to be FINRA reviewed

While other agents use the hit and run method and waste time always pursuing a new prospect, you can do much better by easily cultivating warm prospects to "hot." Use an insurance newsletter to maintain a pipeline of warm prospects that can be consistently producing new insurance business. To make 2009 a year when you convert more prospects to clients and reignite your relationship with old clients, start sending an insurance newsletter.