TMone Provides Superior Lead Generation for State Farm Agents Seeking Clients in Auto, Home and Life Insurance

When State Farm agent Jeff Weedin started looking for client leads for auto insurance policies, he found his prospects limited. He didn’t have any files or a list from which to pull addresses.

A colleague pointed him to TMone, an Iowa-based call center and database marketing company that has served as a primary source of lead generation for State Farm agents nationwide. Weedin figured the best way to blanket the market was via direct mail.

So he purchased a list for 5,000 names in the Bozeman, MT., area from TMone’s Aaron Jones, and now sends approximately 2,500 to 3,000 post cards per month to lure new auto insurance customers.

“Since starting with nothing, it’s a very good bet that a large amount of my current clients are because of TMone,” Weedin said. “I believe there’s no other list vendor out there that offers the amount of names for the price.”

Weedin, who also tried competitor Choice Point, but didn’t have much luck, is just one example of numerous successes State Farm has seen by calling on TMone for lead generation. In fact, in two years, the insurance company has become one of the database sales division’s largest clients.

“Many were referred to us by other agents but TMone also proactively targeted the State Farm agent base, further developing the traction gained via the agent network,” said Ethan Z. Davis, director of marketing at TMone. “TMone has direct mailed and cold called State Farm agents to further penetrate the insurance market.”

Making Sense of the Lists

Besides working directly with individual agents, TMone has teamed with zone marketing managers to provide lists and databases to supplement and replace State Farm’s default database called Qualified New Neighbor with a program called Agent Alli.

The trouble with Qualified New Neighbor, however, is that agents have to share the list, diminishing its potential to target new customers.

That didn’t help Seattle agent Scott Scott, who knew he need to find some sort of prospecting list. Like Weedin, a co-worker led him to TMone, which sold him 37,000 names in three zip codes for $1,000.

According to Davis, Agent Alli is based on “proven demographic and behavior models TMone developed for the insurance industry,” including credit model, presence of children, life insurance expiration dates, age, income and more. The software can also pull targeted geography.

“Agent Alli allows me to take that spreadsheet and dump them into a database,” he said. The program has saved him countless hours of sorting through tons of information, either on his own or with hired help.

“If I have a list of 500 people, it helps me automate it,” he said. “TMone was really the one that got me the leads. I don’t know if I can put that in man hours the time it’s saved. I know people who have paid people to do data entry.”

The program effectively broke out the leads by specifics—renters versus homeowners, phone numbers versus no phone numbers, for example—and generated about 4,000 names Scott would contact directly with postcards by the end of October. He has already received bites, and looks forward to potentially extending his client base through TMone in the life insurance, home, investment products and health insurance sectors.

“One guy walked in with the postcard,” he said. “He had two cars and a house. If I can do a good job, I’m hoping to keep this guy as a customer for the next 10 years.”

Scott considers TMone an essential part of furthering his brand recognition. It might take clients two or three direct mail drops before they actually contact him, but it’s still worth it, he noted.

“You just have to be willing to spend the money,” he said. “Don’t just do it once.”

Whether an agent is buying 400 or 10,000 names, TMone’s campaigns are a tested, obvious value in building business.

“The bottom line impact is qualified sales leads that create direct mail and telephone prospecting efficiencies for agents, “ Davis said. “As with any marketing campaign there are many pieces to the puzzle. Good direct marketing starts with a targeted list/database, but creative timing and offers play a part in whether the campaign is a success.”

Many of TMone’s clients are repeat business, and one zone even purchased potential names for the whole state of Texas.

If that isn’t a selling point, then we don’t know what else is.

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