What closed sales taught us about following up
Before building an AI teammate for insurance agencies, we studied an agency’s sales history in depth. What it showed about persistence and timing is encouraging for any sales team.
When an insurance agency receives a new lead, there is a well-known piece of advice: respond quickly. It is good advice. We wondered what else distinguishes the leads that become customers, so before building Maverick, our AI teammate for insurance agencies, we looked closely at the evidence.
An agency shared its sales history with us. We read through well over a thousand closed sales from beginning to end, including the calls and the text conversations, and compared them with leads that did not go on to buy. The patterns we found were clear, and they are encouraging, because every one of them is within a team’s control.
Responding quickly is the starting point
Agents at this agency were already quick. Leads that became customers and leads that did not were first contacted about equally fast.
Speed, in other words, was a strength the whole team shared. To understand what made the difference, we needed to look at what happened next.
Persistence is rewarded
The clearest finding concerned follow-up. Each further attempt to reach a lead was more likely to succeed than the one before. By the sixth attempt, a call was roughly twice as likely to connect as the first.
That may seem surprising, and it makes sense on reflection. People are busy. A missed call on Monday says very little about their interest. A familiar number that has called a few times, at reasonable intervals, is one they are more inclined to answer.
For a busy sales floor, the practical challenge is that sustained follow-up is hard to keep up by hand. New leads arrive every day, and yesterday’s naturally slip down the list. This is exactly the kind of steady, patient work an agent does well.
Timing makes a real difference
The time of day mattered a great deal. Customers were far easier to reach in the late afternoon and early evening than in the middle of the day.
Calls are often made at midday, simply because that is when a team has the time. Moving follow-up calls to the hours when customers are free to talk is a small change with a large effect.
Many sales begin with the customer calling back
Most customers who went on to buy had, at some point, called the agency themselves. Often they were returning a call they had missed.
This changes how a missed call should be seen. It is an invitation the customer can accept when it suits them. It also means the agency should be ready when they do: the call should reach the agent who knows that customer, with their history in view.
The messages that lead to conversations
We also compared different opening messages. The most useful measure of a message turned out to be whether it led to a real conversation. Messages that referred to the quote the customer had actually asked for, and politely suggested a short call, led to more conversations and more sales.
It is a helpful reminder to measure outreach by the outcome that matters, and to keep messages personal and relevant.
How these lessons shaped Maverick
Each finding became part of how Maverick works.
- A steady follow-up plan. Every new lead is welcomed promptly and then kept in touch with by text and phone over the following weeks.
- Calls at the right time. Follow-up calls are scheduled for the hours when customers tend to answer.
- Ready for the call back. When a customer rings, the call goes to the agent working with them.
- A helping hand on the phones. When the team is busy, Maverick can call a lead for a short introductory conversation and connect an interested customer live to a licensed agent.
- Every lead matters. Maverick helps agents decide where to begin each day, and no lead is set aside.
Throughout, the licensed work stays with licensed people. Maverick does not quote rates or bind coverage. It makes sure the conversation happens, and agents take it from there.
Respect for the customer
Persistence works best when it is considerate. Maverick contacts people only within sensible hours. It pauses as soon as a customer replies, so that a person can respond. A request to stop is honoured on every channel, and stays in place.
Agencies also choose how much Maverick does unassisted. For each channel, it can prepare messages for an agent to approve, or send them itself.
An encouraging lesson
The qualities that win customers turned out to be patience, good timing and readiness: being there, politely, when the customer is ready to talk.
Many businesses hold the same kind of insight in their own records. Looking at it carefully is a wonderful starting point, both for an AI agent and for the team it works beside.