Insurance Lead Management

MEMOIRE DE RECHERCHE
2012/2013
NOM et PRENOM de l’auteur : Dhankhar, Avikar Singh
SUJET DU
MEMOIRE
How online leads in insurance could be converted to customers by combining online
distribution channels and physical sales force through lead management?
Presentation and analysis of AXA Group‘s recommendations
- NOM DU DIRECTEUR DE RECHERCHE: Prof. Dr. Thierry Boudès
CONFIDENTIEL Non ⁪
La diffusion de ce recueil est
strictement réservée à
ESCP Europe.

ESCP Europe
Strategy, Organizational Behavior, and Human Resources Department
European Research Project
How online leads in insurance could be converted to customers by combining online
distribution channels and physical sales force through lead management?
Presentation and analysis of AXA Group‘s recommendations
Director of Research: Prof. Dr. Thierry Boudès
Student: Avikar Singh Dhankhar
Master in Management Grande Ecole student
Student number: e113038
11 May 2013
Key Words
Digital – Multi-access – Internet – Lead– Lead management – Lead generation – Lead
prioritization – Lead allocation – Lead nurturing – Lead conversion

Abstract of the paper
This research paper explains and analyses the recommendations given by AXA Group
regarding how to do lead management. First lead management is introduced and existing
literature on lead management and its various processes are reviewed. Then why lead
management is important in today‘s digitalized world is explained before explaining AXA
Group‘s recommendations on how to do it. For better explaining the recommendations
practical examples from AXA Group entities and external benchmarks have been provided.
Then AXA Group‘s recommendations are compared with existing literature to find gaps.
Gaps have been found in AXA‘s recommendations and also it has been found that existing
literature is not exhaustive and there is scope of further research on lead management. Also, in
the end, AXA Group‘s recommendations are tested on the lead management model of one of
AXA entities and it has been found that all the recommendations are not applicable to every
entity. Entities need to test and learn to find the right set of recommendations applicable to
their lead management process.
Résumé du mémoire
Ce mémoire de recherche explique et analyse les recommandations du Groupe AXA en ce qui
concerne la façon de faire le Lead management. Tout d‘abord, le Lead management est
présenté et la littérature existante sur le Lead management et sur ses divers processus est
examinée. Deuxièmement, la raison pour laquelle le Lead management est important dans le
monde digital est expliquée avant passer aux recommandations du Groupe AXA sur la façon
de le faire. Afin de mieux expliquer les recommandations, des exemples pratiques tirés des
entités du Groupe AXA et de références externes sont fournis. Ensuite, les recommandations
du Groupe AXA sont comparées avec la littérature existante pour trouver des écarts. Des
écarts sont trouvés dans les recommandations du Groupe AXA et on constate aussi que la
littérature existante n'est pas exhaustive et qu‘il est possible de poursuivre les recherches sur
le Lead management. Finalement, les recommandations du Groupe AXA sont testées sur le
modèle du Lead management de l'une de ses entités et il en résulte que toutes les
recommandations ne sont pas applicables à chaque entité. Les entités ont besoin de tester et
apprendre à trouver les recommandations applicables à leur processus de Lead management.

Contents
1. Lead Management – Introduction.......................................................................................... 1
1.1. Definition of lead ................................................................................................................ 1
1.2. Scope of thesis..................................................................................................................... 1
1.3. Type of leads - Hot/Cold leads............................................................................................ 1
1.4. Definition of lead management process.............................................................................. 1
1.5. Lead management objectives .............................................................................................. 2
2. Review of related literature ................................................................................................... 2
2.1. General literature relating to lead management overall ...................................................... 2
2.1.1. Summary of general literature relating to lead management overall......................... 4
2.2. Literature review related to lead generation........................................................................ 4
2.2.1. Summary of literature relating to lead generation ..................................................... 7
2.3. Literature review related to lead prioritization and allocation ............................................ 7
2.3.1. Summary of literature relating to lead prioritization and allocation........................ 10
2.4. Literature review related to lead nurturing/conversion..................................................... 10
2.4.1. Summary of literature relating to lead nurturing/conversion .................................. 12
2.5. Summary and insights from the literature review............................................................. 13
2.6. Literature review and research question of the paper ....................................................... 13
2.7. Methodology and data collection...................................................................................... 14
3. Insurance and lead management.......................................................................................... 15
3.1. Types of insurance and lead management ........................................................................ 15
3.1.1. Life and savings (L&S) ........................................................................................... 15
3.1.2. Property and causality (P&C) – focus of lead management.................................... 15
3.2. Distribution channels under scope of lead management at AXA ..................................... 15
4. Effect of digital and multi-access on insurance business .................................................... 17
4.1. Effect on customer behavior and expectations.................................................................. 17

4.1.1. Information gathering .............................................................................................. 18
4.1.2. Buying online........................................................................................................... 19
4.1.3. Freedom of interaction............................................................................................. 19
4.1.4. Customers‘ willingness to use mobile devices to decrease insurance premiums.... 20
4.2. Effect on Insurance Business Operations.......................................................................... 21
4.2.1. Transformation of value chain................................................................................. 21
4.2.2. Changes in competitive dynamics ........................................................................... 22
5. AXA‘s digital and multi-access transformation levers and lead management.................... 23
5.1. Objectives 23
5.2. Transformation levers ....................................................................................................... 24
6. How to do lead management: AXA Group recommendations............................................ 25
6.1. Lead generation................................................................................................................. 25
6.1.1. Define scope ............................................................................................................ 25
6.1.2. Sources 25
6.1.3. Managing marketing campaigns – Preparation ....................................................... 26
6.1.4. Managing marketing campaigns - Execution .......................................................... 27
6.1.5. Measure and improve marketing campaign performance........................................ 28
6.1.6. Best practice for lead generation from existing customers: an example of ING..... 28
6.2. Prioritize and allocate leads .............................................................................................. 30
6.2.1. Prioritize leads ......................................................................................................... 30
6.2.2. Allocate leads........................................................................................................... 31
6.3. Nurture and convert leads ................................................................................................. 34
6.3.1. Conversion and nurturing of web-based leads......................................................... 35
6.3.2. Increasing lead conversion through KPIs ................................................................ 38
6.3.3. Increasing lead conversion through engaging agents .............................................. 42
6.3.4. Increasing conversion through good governance of lead management process...... 44

7. Lead Management Gap Analysis: AXA Group‘s Recommendations and Existing
Literature/Sources................................................................................................................ 46
7.1. Gaps in lead generation..................................................................................................... 46
7.1.1. Scope of improvements in AXA Group‘s recommendations.................................. 47
7.1.2. Scope of future research in lead generation............................................................. 47
7.2. Prioritize and allocate leads .............................................................................................. 47
7.2.1. Gaps in lead prioritization ....................................................................................... 47
7.2.2. Gaps in lead allocation............................................................................................. 49
7.2.3. Nurture and convert ................................................................................................. 50
8. Value proposition of lead management and practical implications of recommendations... 52
8.1. Basic financial approaches of sending leads to sales........................................................ 53
8.1.1. Billing leads............................................................................................................. 54
8.1.2. Price charged by lead generating and distributing companies................................. 54
8.2. Business case of lead management ................................................................................... 56
8.2.1. Key learning from the 5 different scenarios ............................................................ 66
8.3. Lead management‘s profit calculation: Upsell/cross-sell/retain....................................... 70
9. Conclusion........................................................................................................................... 71
9.1. Recommendations for future research .............................................................................. 72
Appendices…………………………………………………………………………............... 73
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………. 76
Declaration of
honor/Affidavit………………………………………………………………………..............79
List of tables
Table 1: Different distribution networks at AXA .................................................................... 16
Table 2: People considering buying auto insurance online, US............................................... 19
Table 3: Companeo's price list ................................................................................................. 54
Table 4: Insuranceleads.com price list for leads of different insurance products.................... 55

Table 5: Insuranceleads.com price list of auto insurance leads ............................................... 56
Table 6: Monthly income statement of lead management ....................................................... 57
Table 7: Monthly income statement of lead management if leads are sent for free................. 58
Table 8: Monthly income statement of lead management after starting lead prioritization..... 60
Table 9: Monthly income statement of lead management after lead prioritization and
increasing the number of leads generated by twice.................................................................. 61
Table 10: Monthly income statement of lead management after starting lead prioritization and
increasing the number of leads generated by four times.......................................................... 62
Table 11: Monthly income statement of lead management after gaining 2 years of experience,
starting lead prioritization and increasing the number of leads generated by two times ......... 64
Table 12: Monthly income statement of lead management after starting lead nurturing,
gaining 2 years of experience, starting lead prioritization and increasing the number of leads
generated by two times............................................................................................................. 65
Table 13: Monthly key results of lead management process of ‗AXA entity in country A‘ as
per different scenarios .............................................................................................................. 67
List of figures
Figure 1: Main steps of lead management ................................................................................. 2
Figure 2: Lead Source Metric Comparison................................................................................ 6
Figure 3: Initial dials to leads that become contacted by hours ................................................. 9
Figure 4: Initial dials to leads that become qualified by hours .................................................. 9
Figure 5: Leads contacted/qualified by 5 minute interval........................................................ 10
Figure 6: Importance of social media feedback in selecting insurance provider ..................... 18
Figure 7: % of very likely and somewhat likely people who would switch to other companies
if their company would not provide a multi-access communication channel.......................... 20
Figure 8: Number of people willing to accept using mobile to reduce their insurance premium
.................................................................................................................................................. 20
Figure 9: Market share of traditional and direct insurance players in the US.......................... 23
Figure 10: AXA's transformation levers and lead management .............................................. 24
Figure 11: Google search result of keyword ―assurance auto‖ in France and AXA‘s
positioning................................................................................................................................ 26
Figure 12: Outbound and inbound marketing campaign management .................................... 29

Figure 13: Private client website of ING ................................................................................. 30
Figure 14: Lead management portal of AXA Equitable fully integrated with CRM............... 32
Figure 15: Lead file sent by insuranceleads.com to sales ........................................................ 33
Figure 16: Different categories of web-based leads................................................................. 36
Figure 17: Flowchart of lead nurturing through telesales ........................................................ 38
Figure 18: Allianz‘s digital KPIs and targets for France ......................................................... 40
Figure 19: AXA Ireland‘s KPIs for lead management............................................................. 40
Figure 20: Performance monitoring of a US based insurance company.................................. 41
Figure 21: Online lead management performance monitoring – illustrative numbers............. 42
Figure 22: Conversion rate of health products‘ leads in AXA Germany................................. 44
Figure 23: Gap analysis of AXA Group‘s Recommendation and existing literature on lead
generation................................................................................................................................. 46
prioritization............................................................................................................................. 48
allocation .................................................................................................................................. 50
nurturing................................................................................................................................... 51
Figure 27: Key costs associated with revenue of 100 Euro in Insurance................................. 53
Figure 28: Per year profit from a typical lead management process........................................ 69
Figure 29: Importance of optimum number of lead generation in lead management.............. 70

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1. Lead Management – Introduction
1.1. Definition of lead
As per AXA, a lead is a customer or a prospect who corresponds to AXA‘s target segments,
who contacts AXA (inbound contact) through one channel (phone, website, mail, point-of-
sale, e-mail, etc.) or who is qualified to be contacted through a direct marketing campaign
(outbound contact).
In simple terms, lead could be defined as a person who would be potentially interested in an
AXA product and for whom, AXA have at least one contact detail.
1.2. Scope of thesis
This thesis will focus mainly on online leads generated from the company‘s website or other
online sources.
1.3. Type of leads - Hot/Cold leads
As per AXA, leads could be classified as hot or cold leads. Hot leads are people who
complete the online quotation and ask to be contacted by AXA. Cold leads are people who
start or complete the online quotation but do not ask to be contacted by AXA.
1.4. Definition of lead management process
It is a process through which insurance companies improve conversion of leads generated
through web/telephone. This is important, since, still the conversion on pure online selling is
low and lead management represents a strong value-creation lever in AXA‘s Digital and
Multi-access model1
.
As per AXA, overall lead management is a very transversal process involving three main
steps (see figure 1): generation of leads, ‗prioritization and allocation‘ of leads, and ‗nurturing
and conversion‘ of leads.
1
See section 5 for further details

2
Figure 1: Main steps of lead management
Source: AXA
1.5. Lead management objectives
The main objective of lead management is acquisition of new customers. Through lead
management a company could acquire new customers since the process will help it in
generating qualified leads and sending them to agents for conversion. Also, through sending
only qualified leads to agents, it enables agents to concentrate their efforts on leads which are
most likely to get converted.
Other objectives of lead management are to increase sales to existing customers (through
cross/upsell) or increase their retention.
2. Review of related literature
First, the general literature relating to lead management will be reviewed. Then, the literature
focusing on specific parts of lead management including lead generation, lead prioritization
and allocation, and lead nurturing/conversion will be discussed. Also, it is to be noted that the
literature review of lead management has not been limited to insurance sector, since in
insurance this is a relatively new term and not much research has been done.
2.1. General literature relating to lead management overall
Gebert H., Geib M., Kolbe L., and Brenner W. (2003) described lead management as one of
the six main customer relationship management processes. The other five processes
mentioned include campaign management, offer management, contract management,
complaint management and service management. Further they defined lead management as a
―consolidation, qualification, and prioritization of contacts with prospective customers”. In
their combined model of knowledge management and customer relationship management
called customer knowledge management, they placed lead management as a process to be
governed by both marketing and sales.

3
Dous M., Salomann H., Kolbe L., and Brenner W., (2005) surveyed 1000 CRM executives to
gather data on various CRM processes used by them. In the survey, they categorized the
processes under four themes: Service processes, Support processes, Analysis processes, and
Management processes. Customer scoring and lead management was placed under Analysis
processes. In terms of degree of implementation customer scoring and lead management
process received 12.9% (fully implemented), 20% (mostly implemented), 25.9% (partly
implemented), 22.4% (hardly implemented) and 18.8% (not implemented).
Rechtin M. (2012) described his interview with George Borst CEO, Toyota Financial Services.
During the interview, George Borst described Enterprise Lead Management program
launched by Toyota Financial recently. In the program, Toyota Financial calls customers six
months before the lease of their car is due to expire. After gathering information about the
customer‘s future needs, this information is provided to dealers through an automatic CRM
tool. George Borst said that 94% of the leads are contacted by dealers within three hours and
then they try to close the deal.
Cordo J. (2012) explained how lead management is the main area of misalignment between
sales and marketing. The major issue he described is how to transform the data marketing
department has on customer intelligence in to sales intelligence to increase efficiency of both
marketing and sales. He further described 5 ways to transform data.
Croft S. (2002) identified various important steps to manage leads. However, the context is a
B2B lead generation process, thus all the concepts are not relevant to this thesis. Some of the
things that might apply to B2C lead management include identifying your buyers, conducting
research and building relationship with buyers.
Blake T. (1999) explains how house renting agencies can gather and store data on their
customers or potential customers easily using a computer. Also, he explained various lead
management software companies could buy. This computerized tracking could also help
companies in increasing their marketing ROI, he explained.

4
Marketo2
has described what companies need to do to sell products to leads that are not sales
ready (as per a survey done by RainToday, of the total leads generated 25% are disqualified,
25% are sales ready and the rest of 50% needs to be handled appropriately to convert them).
Some of the steps explained include lead nurturing, lead scoring to identify strong leads,
giving all necessary information about leads to sales, tracking marketing campaigns, tracking
anonymous visitors to the website, and continuously learning about needs of customers.
SmartLead3
explained benefits of a lead management system and how companies should do it.
As per them, lead management is a six step process the first step is to capture the inquiries
received. Then, it is important to qualify these leads and rank them. After this, the leads must
be nurtured and distributed. The final important step is to track the journey of a lead
throughout the process to measure effectiveness of various steps.
2.1.1. Summary of general literature relating to lead management overall
Most of the early studies put lead management as a part of customer relationship management.
There has not been any significant study on insurance; however there have been studies on
house renting and automobile sectors.
The main sources are practitioners such as Marketo and SmartLead. Marketo has published an
extensive range of white papers which describe essentials of lead management. These include
qualifying leads, lead scoring and lead nurturing, giving detailed information to sales and
following-up with them, tracking all marketing programs and segregating them to see which
are more effective, and tracking anonymous visitors on the website.
2.2. Literature review related to lead generation
Aquino J. (2012) quoted the survey on 1200 US SMBs conducted by a research company
Techaisle to highlight importance of marketing automation. Some of the marketing
automation components used by SMBs include email marketing, message personalization and
campaign management. Lead capture was included in the components SMBs plan to explore.
Also, nearly half of the survey respondents highlighted importance of marketing automation
2
Marketing software providing firm
3
Lead management company

5
to enhanced management of sales leads: 46% observing better demand generation and 42%
better marketing ROI through marketing automation.
Shea P. (2012) described lead management as ―acquisition and maintenance of prospective
leads”. He conducted various interviews to investigate lead management in property market.
He interviewed Israel Carunungan, director of property marketing at Greystar. Carunungan
highlighted the advancement of their lead tracking platform, through which, they are able to
allocate 100% of leads to their sources. This helps Greystar to optimize their marketing ROI.
Also Carunungan described how through this lead tracking platform, they are able to identify
the trend of more leads being generated through online sources. Eric Broughton, president and
COO of RentSentinel, described importance of keeping various marketing channels and also
gave importance of each channel with online as primary channel. Kim Atkinson, director of
marketing and public relations at Mark-Taylor Residential, indicated the importance of their
company website in generating leads with nearly 50% of their walk-ins, emails and phone
calls generated through their website. Also, Atkinson described how rise of social media is
affecting online lead generation with Facebook bringing more prospects to their website than
search engines such as Bing and Yahoo.
Hosford C. (2012) described how we might be entering a great time for lead generation with
the ability to create personalized emails, rise of social media and new data analytical abilities.
Also, he highlighted how various sales channels coupled together will be more effective. He
quoted Yuchun Lee, VP-general manager of IBM's Enterprise Marketing Management Group
saying that augmenting the sales channel through lead generation by digital channel might be
―the most fruitful next step in lead generation”.
Marketo4
explained in detail how to bring more people to companies‘ website and then how to
convert those leads. For lead generation, they explained the importance of being in first few
Google search pages. In terms of how to allocate leads they explained about allocating leads‘
pipeline revenue to marketing programs as per first touch (allocation to the marketing
program that originally generated lead e.g. only Google) and multi touch (allocation to the
marketing programs involved in the entire process of lead conversion e.g. Google+website).
This helps to optimize advertising revenue.
4

6
Marketo explained that it is important to use all the channels including social. For social they
have provided extensive list of recommendation explaining how to effectively use social e.g.
what kind of status updated, how to measure your effectiveness, type of cove photo, etc.
SmartLead5
has given some best practices to generate leads by using referral programs with
the current customers or leads, in the current difficult scenario. As per them, for the referral
program to be a success the reward given must be good enough to motivate the customer or
lead to give referrals. This reward must not be based on luck and must be of appropriate
amount. Also, if the company has no money to allocate to rewards, a simple process of adding
a link ―refer a friend‖ in the thank you email could also help.
Mandelbaum A. (retrieved 2013) described companies should measure ―amount of spend on a
lead source (LSGC)” and ―Lead Effectiveness” (amount generated from each lead source).
Then they could be plotted on a bar and line chart to analyze their effectiveness. In the
example given by him (see figure 2), the LSGC for print is highest with a low lead
effectiveness. However, LSGC is lowest for webinars with the highest lead effectiveness.
Thus, companies could determine which medium they must focus on in the future.
Figure 2: Lead Source Metric Comparison
Source: Mandelbaum A. (retrieved 2013)
5

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2.2.1. Summary of literature relating to lead generation
Lead generation has both academics and practitioners as authors. However, academics‘
research is also based on interviews with practitioners in industries such as technology (IBM)
and residential mortgages/renting. Literature highlighted the importance of lead generation
and lead-tracking.
Some of the key findings from the literature on how lead generation should be done are to
include various marketing channels (including social media), allocating resources to different
channels as per their importance or lead generating capacity and tracking leads. Marketing
automation is important to generate high ROI and also it is important to track sources of
different leads and thus measuring effectiveness of leads coming from different marketing
campaigns. Other important suggestions include being in the first few Google search pages
and using referrals from existing customers to generate leads.
2.3. Literature review related to lead prioritization and allocation
Hosford C. (2012) through an interview with Ken Fredman, head-digital programs &
operations, at J.P. Morgan Asset Management described how J.P. Morgan Asset Management
generates leads online and then confirm them through their or third party databases. Only then,
these leads are sent to telesales teams. The result is that these leads have a better conversion
rate.
Croft S. (2002) identified the three most important aspects of lead management as qualifying
leads, developing right sales strategy and knowing when to walk away. She further described
each of the individual aspects in detail. To qualify and rate leads from 1 to 5, she identified 17
factors to be taken in to account such as lead‘s financial status, whether or not our
product/service mix matches with lead‘s needs and lead‘s potential to introduce to new leads.
For developing sales strategy they described to make a good pitch team and keep in mind the
budget. She further gave 6 conditions when to walk away from lead.
Marketo6
has given a complete guide on lead scoring. They explained that lead scoring is
required because on an average 75% of sales leads generated online are not ready to be sent to
6

8
sales teams. They further explained scoring could be done on basis of fit of lead (someone
you are interested in and someone interested in you) and interest or behavior (e.g. going to the
prices page, opening emails, watching demo videos). Fit could be done through explicit
functions such as demographics, BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing) and
Firmographics (details about their company, more for B2B) and implicit functions such as ISP
and data quality. Also, they explained the necessity of integrating social media scoring. Then
they explained 3 advanced scoring techniques that could be applied: score degradation
(reducing scores over a period of time in-case of inactivity), product scoring (score interest on
specific products) and account scoring (score all leads from a company, more for B2B). After
deciding scores and variables, they signified importance of deciding what is the threshold (e.g.
in case of 100 score it is a hot lead). They explained the matrix methodology to identify
qualified leads, which is an advanced method to only putting threshold on total scores. Then
after identification of good lead, they said it is important to set targets for sales people
receiving those leads (contact within 24 hours and process within 7 days).
Also, one another interesting concept Marketo explains is lead lifecycle. After sending leads
to sales and they are contacted, it is important to further score them. If they are not interested
at all, the reason for that must be noted and the fit/behavioral scores must be reduced, this will
help in lead nurturing process also. Further, if lead says that they will not buy now but after 3
months, it must be recorded and that lead must be put back in the system after 3 months. They
further explained how to show these leads to sales agents, and for that they took their example
and mentioned how they do it through number of stars and flames with stars showing quality
of lead and number of flames showing urgency of lead. Also, sales reps must have access to
leads‘ behavioral history. As per them, to do lead scoring practically the first step in to start
small and learn. Then, it is important to continuously review the scoring data.
Marketo7
has identified importance of effectively handing over leads to sales channels. They
highlight the importance of sending leads with information to sales thus increasing their
chances of converting them. Also, they advise to take regular feedback from sales to improve
the overall process.
7

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SmartLead8
gave advantages of distributing only hot leads to sales force. The advantages
include sending all leads have a negative impact on the value given by sales reps to all the
leads, it is costly to process all leads, and the time taken to reach hot leads increases which
increases the chances of them going to the competition.
Elkington D. and Oldroyd J. (2007) conducted research to determine the best day and time to
contact leads. Their research showed that the chances of contacting and qualifying a lead drop
significantly with time. After one hour, chances of contacting a lead ―drop over ten times‖
(see figure 3) and chances of qualifying (being able to collect relevant data) reduces by six
times (see figure 4). Also, “The odds of contacting a lead if called within five minutes versus
30 minutes are 100 times greater” and the odds of qualifying are 21 times greater (see figure
5)
Figure 3: Initial dials to leads that become contacted by hours
Source: Elkington D. and Oldroyd J 2007, InsideSales
Figure 4: Initial dials to leads that become qualified by hours
8

10
Figure 5: Leads contacted/qualified by 5 minute interval
2.3.1. Summary of literature relating to lead prioritization and allocation
Main sources are practitioners with a few articles being also published by academics. The
literature highlights the importance of categorizing/scoring leads and sending only hot leads
to sales channels to increase conversion rate. Also, the importance of walking away or
disqualifying leads is important to save time.
An advanced way of scoring different leads is scoring them as per various indicators (explicit
and implicit indicators) and thus classifying them as per: Hot (send directly to sales channel),
Warm (send to telemarketing) and Cold (nurture by marketing).
2.4. Literature review related to lead nurturing/conversion
Marketo9
explains the lead nurturing process in detail. First they explains that since 50% of
the leads generated need further work before sending them to sales representatives or making
them hot, lead nurturing is important. Then they explain how it could be done in three main
steps:
1. Incoming Lead Processing: Establish which leads require nurturing and which leads
are sales ready. This can be done by lead scoring. Then it is important to establish
which leads are ready to be nurtured and what medium is preferred by them e.g.
9

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call, email. Also, it is important to make an option available to prospects to opt-out
when they want.
2. Stay in touch: Key is to keep yourself in the leads‘ mind and make them to contact
you when they want to buy. For this, leads must be categorized in three categories
early stage (just learning), middle stage (evaluating possible solutions) and last
stage (making buying decision). Different content must be send to these leads to
maintain their interest in the company. Also, if possible, leads could be categorized
as per industry, their role, geography; and material must be send accordingly. The
frequency to send this content needs to be customized and this could be asked from
the lead, how many tomes per month they want the content.
3. Lead recycling: It is the process of tracking and reassigning leads that are not or
could not be contacted by sales representatives. Sometimes the leads are not
contacted and sometimes they are contacted by sales recycle the leads back since
they are not ready now. The marketing department should keep these leads and
must send them back to sales whenever the timeframe mentioned by sales is over.
However, at the same time, marketing department of Marketo maintains a
scoresheet and if their score goes above threshold, leads are anyways sent back to
sales. But key is, to make sure sales representative are sure that the lead will come
back when they recycle a lead to marketing.
Marketo, in collaboration with Spear Marketing Group, explained how companies can
increase efficiency and get started in lead nurturing. The paper is more focused on B2B. In the
paper they tackled issues of how to set-up a goal for lead nurturing program, how to analyze
the current lead nurturing process, how much effort to be put in and gives the 80/20 rule of
lead nurturing, how to be innovative in the content you send to nurture (use of blogs), how to
generate better response from the lead nurturing emails (keeping it relevant), how to respond
to email inquiries, how to start (test and start small).
Tangwall D., Cecil J., Soucie W. (2011) explained the advantages of using social media for
lead nurturing. Social media enables prospects to select the company instead of company
selecting them. This is particularly possible since everyone can see and share the social media
content. Social media through its media groups and other filtering options allow companies to
post relevant and customized information to their prospects. Social media has the capacity to

12
influence people. People share content and their passion on social media and seeing them,
many other people start trusting the products and start following. Also, it is easy to interact
through social media and it has the capacity to build long-term relationships.
ActiveConversion10
described how companies should prepare their lead nurturing content.
They explained lead nurturing content must have a “consultative tone” which would help to
increase company‘s reputation. Then, it is important to send content relevant to your customer
– which could be done by segmenting customers. Finally, prospects must also be segmented
on the basis of their stage of buying a company‘s product.
Brownell A. (2010) gave the 4‖P‖s of lead nurturing. The first P is Permission Marketing
according to which companies should take permission from prospects the way they would like
to be communicated. Next P is Preferences which signifies importance of knowing what kind
of material prospects would like to have for nurturing. The third P is Personal according to
which it is also important to have people calling prospects apart from email messages. A
personal contact would help companies understand what is really required to nurture that
specific lead. The final P is Pulling which is about getting to know prospects in greater detail
and then offering them relevant nurturing content.
2.4.1. Summary of literature relating to lead nurturing/conversion
Practitioners are the main sources of literature relating to lead nurturing. The key highlights
from the literature are that it is important to involve leads in the lead nurturing by asking their
permission, preferred medium of contact and frequency of material they want to obtain. Also
for nurturing it is important to establish the stage of cold lead in the lead nurturing and thus
sending them customized lead nurturing content. Social media is also highlighted as an
important medium to nurture leads.
For lead conversion, it is advised to include sales in the lead management process by taking
their feedback and leads must be sent to sales with additional information. Also, the literature
highlights that even after allocation of leads to sales channel they must be tracked and their
scores must be revised so that the leads not converted or contacted could be recycled thus
10
Marketing measurement company

13
increasing conversion rate. These leads must be send back to agents in the timeframe selected
by them or when their score goes above threshold.
2.5. Summary and insights from the literature review
The review of relevant literature has provided insights regarding what different practitioners
and academics think about lead management and also about the three main topics of this
research paper, lead generation, lead prioritization and allocation, and lead
nurturing/conversion. Main sources of literature are practitioners such as Marketo and
SmartLead. The literature is more general without focusing on one particular industry.
However, there is not much of literature regarding lead management highlighting it is a new
topic.
General literature relating to lead management overall gives a good understanding of various
necessary processes in lead management. Literature relating to lead generation highlights the
importance of effectively generating leads and how it should be done with various sources to
include and importance of measurement. Literature relating to lead prioritization and
allocation gave insights about the importance of lead prioritization and how leads could be
allocated after being prioritized. This is a critical step to increase the efficiency of lead
management process, since if right leads are sent to right sales force, the chances of their
conversion is good. Finally the literature relating to lead nurturing/conversion gives insight on
how we can gain the maximum out of every lead being generated ensuring maximum
conversion rate.
2.6. Literature review and research question of the paper
Literature review has helped to increase understanding of how lead management could be
done and various processes associated with lead management. Now, this will be used to assess
the lead management process recommended by AXA Group to its various entities. After
understanding and analyzing AXA Group‘s recommendations, a gap analysis will be done
between AXA Group‘s recommendations and existing literature11
. Through this gap analysis,
we will be able to see how different the AXA Group‘s recommended process is as compared
11
See section 7 for further details

14
to the literature and if there is any scope of improvement to AXA Group‘s recommendations.
Also, we will observe if there are some existing literature‘s recommendations which could not
be applied to AXA or there is scope for further research. Thus, this literature review will be
critical to the analysis of AXA Group‘s recommendations.
2.7. Methodology and data collection
In order to fully understand AXA Group‘s lead management recommendations I used my
experience in the Group‘s marketing and distribution team as an intern from May to
December 2012. During my internship, I attended various workshops and seminars conducted
by AXA Group to share its recommendations and best practices related to lead management
with AXA entities. Thus, I was able to gain a good insight of the topic and also understood
the concerns of AXA entities from a practical point of view.
Apart from my experience at AXA, I also had access to the lead management documents
prepared by AXA Group. These documents have been prepared by doing extensive internal
and external benchmarks of lead management and best practices from these benchmarks are
recommended by AXA Group to its entities. To further insure that I am staying up to date
with the recommendations proposed and not limiting myself to my knowledge and AXA
Group‘s documents, I interviewed people at AXA Group. Through these interviews I tested
my hypothesis and scenarios to ensure that this paper is very close to what is being done
practically at AXA.
Also, I carried out extensive search on the internet and research databases to explore existing
literature and find some best practices by companies in lead management and other relevant
information to support and validate my opinions in this paper.
Before analyzing the lead management recommendations of AXA Group, in the next few
sections the importance of lead management in insurance and at AXA will be highlighted, and
why it has become a focus now.

15
3. Insurance and lead management
3.1. Types of insurance and lead management
3.1.1. Life and savings (L&S)
These are complex insurance products which are sold once and then the buyer gives premium
after a certain time period depending on the initial contract. Since these are complex, it is not
easy to sell them online and thus lead management is not focusing on these products. This is
highlighted by direct channels having a small share in L&S distribution12
.
3.1.2. Property and causality (P&C) – focus of lead management
Property and causality could have both complex and simple products. The simple products
under P&C are sold online and thus lead management is focused on these simple products.
This is highlighted by direct channels having a large share in P&C distribution11
. Some of
these simple products include motor insurance, health insurance, and property insurance.
3.2. Distribution channels under scope of lead management at AXA
The distribution channels in insurance could be broadly categorized into proprietary and non-
proprietary networks. Proprietary channels are the distribution networks owned by insurance
companies. Non-proprietary networks are not owned by insurance companies and usually sell
multiple insurance policies. As per AXA, these could be further subdivided as in table 1. It is
to be noted that lead management covers only proprietary distribution networks at AXA. The
distribution channels in scope of lead management are direct, salaried sales force, exclusive
agents generalists and exclusive agents specialists. Non-proprietary networks are not included
in lead management since they could sell policies of multiple companies to customers and
thus AXA could not make sure that to a lead send by AXA they only sell policy of AXA to
that lead.
12
See Appendix 1

16
Table 1: Different distribution networks at AXA
Type of
network
Intermediate
consolidation
Name of
channel
Definition
Proprietary
networks
(client base
owned by
AXA)
Direct Direct There is no involvement of sales person or
intermediary and sales are done directly through
internet, telephone, etc.
Salaried Sales
Force
Salaried Sales
Force
This include AXA employees selling insurance
policies to retail / SMEs, large account managers
selling to corporate business, and also the insurance
policies of AXA employees taken without a
distributor
Agents
Exclusive
Agents
Generalists
These are independent distributors (not on the payroll
of AXA). As generalists, they sell both L&S and
P&C insurance
Exclusive
Agents
Specialized
These are independent distributors but specialized in
certain category E.g. selling only motor in P&C
Multi-tied
agents
(proprietary)
These are independent distributors that could sell
multiple companies‘ policies. However, after they sell
the policy, the client is owned by AXA and not them.
Non-
proprietary
networks
(Client
base
Brokers/
Independent
Financial
Advisors
Brokers
General
These are independent insurance intermediaries who
negotiate with insurance providers on behalf of their
customers selling L&S and P&C
IFAs These are independent financial intermediaries who

17
owned by
the
distributor)
(IFAs) negotiate with insurance providers on behalf of their
customers usually advising on L&S
Multi-tied
agents (non-
proprietary)
These are independent distributors that could sell
multiple companies‘ policies and after selling the
policy the client is owned by them
Bancassurance Bancassurance Agreements or JVs with banks or financial
institutions selling policies through their networks
Other
distribution
partnerships
Car dealers Agreements with car dealers to sell policies
Other
partnerships
and JVs
Other agreements or JVs
Source: AXA
Thus it is clear from above section that lead management covers mostly P&C insurance
products and proprietary distribution networks (excluding multi-tied agents). Now in the next
section, the focus will be on how these channels and insurance sector are getting affected by
rise of online and digitalization.
4. Effect of digital and multi-access on insurance business
Digital and multi-access implies various online and ICT mediums available to customers and
companies these days to interact. It has changed the way customers interact with insurance
companies and also their expectations. Also, it has significant impact on the way insurance
companies operate their business and various processes within.
4.1. Effect on customer behavior and expectations
New mediums are available to customers today with the rise of digital and multi-access.
Insurance customers are accustomed buying retail products online through sites such as
Amazon. Also, they expect seamless interfaces and one click information as given to them

18
through products such as Apple store. This has considerably changed their expectations and
way to interact with insurance companies. As per a insurance study done by Accenture on
7000 consumers in 13 countries, around 60% of people 13
use mobile devices to get
information on insurance products, do operations related to insurance and subscribe an
insurance service or product. The number is expected to increase to nearly 70% in next 2
years.
4.1.1. Information gathering
With the rise of digital and multi-access consumers are changing their buying behavior.
Consumers are spending more time online to learn about the insurance products. ―72 percent
of consumers use the Internet to learn about auto insurance” (Accenture 2011). ―Fiftyone
percent of consumers search the Internet before making a high-value in-store purchase”
(Accenture 2011). Thus now, customers have more transparency regarding insurance prices
with rise of aggregators (online websites giving combined information of products of various
insurance companies) and other online channels. Also, social media is changing the way
customers gather information regarding insurance products. As per Accenture survey in 2011,
30% of the people said that they took in account of feedback of other customers on social
media. This percentage is even higher among people in lower age group (see figure 6).
Figure 6: Importance of social media feedback in selecting insurance provider
Source: Accenture 2011
13
60% in each category separately

19
4.1.2. Buying online
With rise of internet, more and more people are buying insurance online. This is especially
facilitated with rise of aggregators which simplified the process by providing information
about various insurance companies at one place. As per comscore, a company measuring
internet usage, number of people in the US likely to buy auto insurance online has increased
from 28% in 2008 to 34% in 2011 (see table 2). These numbers are on the basis of a survey
conducted in February/March on 4 000 US internet survey.
Table 2: People considering buying auto insurance online, US
Percentage of Respondents
2008 2009 2010 2011
Likely to Purchase Online in
the Future
28% 35% 32% 34%
Unsure of Purchasing Online
in the Future
25% 25% 45% 44%
Unlikely to Purchase Online
in the Future
48% 39% 22% 22%
Source: comScore 2012
4.1.3. Freedom of interaction
Today, customers in the insurance sector wishes to be able to interact with their company
using various channels. 84% of consumers expect insurers to provide multi-channel access
(Accenture 2011). 71% of younger clients said it is possible that they will start an operation
using one channel and pursue it further using different channels (Accenture 2011). Also, it is
critical to have multi-channel access to retain customers as customers will switch to
companies giving multi-channel access (see figure 7).

20
Figure 7: % of very likely and somewhat likely people who would switch to other
companies if their company would not provide a multi-access communication channel
4.1.4. Customers’ willingness to use mobile devices to decrease insurance premiums
Significant amount of customers are willing to use mobile devices to lower their insurance
premiums. This gives a good opportunity to insurance companies and also makes a strong
case for them to offer such products. As per the Accenture survey, 60% of the people buying
P&C products and 45% of the people buying L&S products are very or somewhat interested
in using mobile to reduce their insurance premiums. Some of the applications of mobile
devices to reduce insurance premiums include recording how a customer is driving through
their mobile device, life insurance premiums depending on the daily activity level, etc. (see
figure 8).
Figure 8: Number of people willing to accept using mobile to reduce their insurance
premium

21
4.2. Effect on Insurance Business Operations
Since, customer behavior and expectations have changed with the rise of digital and multi-
access, insurance companies need to change the way they do business. Also, with the use of
digital and multi-access insurance companies could improve efficiency of their processes.
4.2.1. Transformation of value chain
The entire value chain of insurance companies needs to adapt with the rise of digital and
multi-access. The various modifications on different steps of the value chain could be:
Source: AXA
 New point of contact with customers through channels such as website, mobile
 Opportunity to do target marketing, since more customer data is available
 New mediums of markets enabling companies to remain connected with customers all the
time such as Facebook and twitter
 Opportunity to create customized products
 Ability to provide new services to clients such as mobile apps
 Necessity to simplify products since customers will be buying online without getting any
expert advice
 Selling directly through online channels
 Leveraging different channels to improve efficiency of all of them e.g. giving leads
generated online to agents in the field
 Rise of aggregators
 Generating quotes automatically for basic policies online
 Giving certificates and policies online
 Ability to do necessary changes in the client‘s policy online e.g. change of options,
change of address, etc.
 Option to allow customers to file their claims and track the status of their claims online
 Ability to share customer‘s file with different sales channels
Marketing
Offer
Development
Distribution
and sales
Claims
mgmt
Underwriting
& Policy
mgmt

22
4.2.1.1. Transformation of distribution network
Among the changes in value chain, transformation of distribution is one of the key challenges
and also the focus of this paper. In the new environment the way to access the client has
changed with new marketing channels. Also, the number of people going to traditional
insurance agents is reducing with more people buying online. This will have an impact on
value sharing agreements between insurance companies and agents e.g. change in
commissions. Also, there is possibility that insurance companies might need to reduce their
distribution footprint, which might led to greater political and economical issues. Also, with
the rise of digitalization insurance companies need to find ways to link all their different
channels, ensuring that instead of different channels competing against themselves, they assist
each other in achieving better results e.g. lead management process.
4.2.2. Changes in competitive dynamics
Apart from internal changes in value chain, external environment has also changed
considerably and especially the competitive environment. Insurance industry has become
more competitive due to rise of digital and multi-access. With the rise of digital, the entry
barriers for new entrants have reduced significantly since now they do not necessarily need to
have large scale agent network on the field. Also, digitalization has enabled customers to
collect information about different insurance products in the market easily. Clients have
become more demanding regarding services and speed online. This increases the chances of
customers switching to competitors and has decreased client royalty.
These two impacts could be easily seen with the change in market share of insurance
companies in the personal lines P&C market. Direct insurers are growing faster than
traditional insurance companies, taking their market share. As seen in figure 9, Progressive
and Berkshire Hathway (direct insurance companies selling only online) are taking market
share from traditional companies such as State Farm and Allstate. Since, they offer easily
designed products at low prices. ―By using the direct access of the internet, you minimize our
costs and eliminate all sales commissions, allowing us to pass savings on to you without
compromising product quality”- BRKDirect.com.

23
Figure 9: Market share of traditional and direct insurance players in the US
Source: PwC, SNL data, website of Progressive, website of Berkshire Hathway
Thus it is quite clear that digital and multi-access has transformed the way insurance
companies used to conduct their business. Their customers are researching on the internet
before buying and also buying on the internet. Customers‘ expectations have changed as they
expect to interact with their companies using various digital channels and not only the
traditional physical channels. Customers are even willing to share their data through mobiles
to reduce their premium. Also, the industry has become more competitive with reduced entry
barriers.
Due to this change in customer behavior and competitive environment insurance companies
are adapting their business model. In the next section, how AXA is adapting its business
model as per this new environment through transformation levers will be explained. Also how
lead management fits in this new model will be highlighted.
5. AXA’s digital and multi-access transformation levers and lead
management
5.1. Objectives
Considering the impacts digital and multi-access have on insurers and their customers, AXA
has decided to build a multi-access model focused on building a differentiated customer
experience by providing public & private digital services on all devices (web, mobile,
touchpad) and new digital tools and processes for distributors (paperless, e-signature). Also,

24
AXA aims to develop businesses originated from distant channels (online/telesales) through
developing simplified and adaptive offers, and providing choice to buy through full distant
channels or agents and increasing cross-selling to the existing customer base.
Another objective is to achieve a cultural shift towards experimentation through focusing on
increasing tests on innovative offers or relationship models, leveraging new technologies and
new media. Also, to switch towards a test and learn approach
5.2. Transformation levers
To achieve these objectives, AXA identified nine levers. Four of the levers have specific
focus with others being more transversal. Two of the nine levers are specifically related to
Lead Management (which is the main focus of this paper):
4. Multi-Channel Purchase funnel/CRM
7. Distribution Transformation
Figure 10: AXA's transformation levers and lead management
Source: AXA
Thus in AXA, lead management is a very important process in fully achieving the distribution
transformation necessary with the rise of digital and multi-access. To ensure that all the AXA
entities could perform lead management, AXA Group did an internal and external
benchmarking study to identify best practices and thus give recommendations on how to do
lead management. The results of this study, combined with my own research through my
internship, internet and interviews is presented in the next section describing AXA‘s
recommendation on how to do lead management.
Lead Management
identified as number #1
priority

25
6. How to do lead management: AXA Group recommendations
AXA Group gives recommendation to entities on how to implement different phases of lead
management process. In this section, these recommendations for three operational processes
of lead management: generate leads, ‗prioritize and allocate‘ leads and ‗nurture and convert‘
leads will be presented. Also, some best practice examples have been included to further
elaborate how it could be done in real world.
6.1. Lead generation
Lead generation is the first step of the lead management process. This is where insurance
companies find contacts of potential future clients. The recommendations by AXA include
following:
6.1.1. Define scope
The first step of lead management process is defining its scope. This includes some of the key
decisions including the product to be sold, the type of lead to target and whether the objective
is to acquire new customers or to cross-sell/upsell/retain existing customers.
The product must be decided in advance and the product should be a non-complex product
such as motor or health insurance so that leads could be generated online14
.
6.1.2. Sources
The leads must be collected through all the different channels available. The possible
channels to generate online leads include mail, email, aggregators (third parties) and website.
Also, it is important to be on top of Google search results. There can be two ways to be on top
of Google search results: Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization
(SEO). SEM is a way to be on top of search results by paying the search engine. SEO is a way
to be on top of search results through optimizing website and other methods on which search
engine selects and prioritize results. AXA recommends its entities to use SEM and pay for
being on top of Google search results, since it is quite hard to be on top through SEO due to
14
See appendix 1

26
lack of knowledge of how Google sorts its data. This can be seen in the screenshot of Google
search result of assurance auto (see figure 11). www.axa.fr is the second link on the
advertisement related to auto assurance (SEM). Also, it is second in the list generated by
Google through its prioritization methodology.
The third recommendation by AXA Group is that the data collected at different sources must
be same. The data collected must enable the entity to be able to identify and contact leads.
Also, it must have qualification data, enabling the entity to classify lead as hot/cold. E.g. one
qualifying data could be their behaviour on the AXA website. Which page they visit (main
page, buying page, products page), whether they complete the form or not, how far they go in
the buying process (generate quote or not).
The final recommendation for sources is that online channels must have necessary resources
to collect data. To do this online quotations must be provided to visitors on the website and
online forms and questions must include data which will help to classify leads in hot/cold and
enabling the entity to send them directly to agents/telesales.
Figure 11: Google search result of keyword ―assurance auto‖ in France and AXA‘s
positioning
Source: Google.fr
6.1.3. Managing marketing campaigns – Preparation
After deciding the scope and sources next step is preparation of marketing campaigns. The
marketing campaign must be designed keeping in mind the objective (sell, cross-sell, up-sell,
retain, etc.) and the target population (segment, demography, etc.). Further to prepare a good

27
marketing campaign, it is important to keep agents in the loop and ensure that the campaign
fits their needs.
Another key aspect of preparation of marketing campaigns is to select the right combination
of marketing actions. An appropriate action or a mix of actions must be selected based on
objective, resources and target population. There could be four main types of marketing
actions possible: ―advertising‖, ―push direct marketing‖, ―online lead generation‖ and
―experience based lead generation‖ which is a part of online lead generation. Advertising
involves campaigns run in TV, print, etc. They target both existing and new customers.
However, their cost is high and the quality of leads generated is not good. Push direct
marketing includes campaigns directly addressing consumers through medium such as mails
by post or emails. They also target both existing and new customers. Their costs are high but
generate good leads. However, it is difficult to acquire new customers through them since the
company would need to acquire customer data from a 3rd
party database.
Online lead generation include online campaigns which aim at bringing consumers to AXA
website or to a third party website from where AXA collect leads. They also target both
existing and new customers. They are less costly and if banner ads/message is done correctly
could get good quality leads. Another way of generating online leads is through experience
based lead generation. These campaigns mostly target existing clients through inbound
contact by private websites and generate excellent quality leads15
.
6.1.4. Managing marketing campaigns - Execution
For effectively executing the marketing campaigns first it is necessary to select a good source
for getting target files (people you would like to target). For existing customers an entity
could use CRM database and buy list from third-party for prospects and former customers.
After getting the target files they must be checked and additional data must be added. For
prospects it is important to check duplication. Then the entity must choose the marketing
media. Direct marketing media to use for each targeted prospect could be defined based on
previous campaigns response history
15
See section 6.1.6 for further details

28
Also, it is important to handle relationship with agents since AXA does not always own
agents. It is important to keep them in the loop since they are the end-contact to prospects.
Their role in the marketing campaign must be clearly defined. Also, agents must be allowed to
define the scope of campaigns and must have the option to add or exclude customers from
targets. E.g. AXA France informs agents of all marketing campaigns via a single tool (KIWI)
and allows agents to manage and control their participation to marketing campaigns via a
unique interface (NETAGENTS)
6.1.5. Measure and improve marketing campaign performance
After preparing and executing marketing campaigns, next important step is measuring their
performance. Key metrics must be defined to measure lead generation performance. Some of
these metrics per campaign could be lead generation rate (number of generated leads / number
of targeted consumers), cost per generated lead (marketing campaign budget / number of
generated leads). The results must also be split by tracking sources of incoming leads, per
products, per segments, customers and prospects, etc.16
.
6.1.6. Best practice for lead generation from existing customers: an example of ING
After doing the initial steps and establishing a web-based lead generation system, the next
advanced step for insurance companies could be using inbound marketing to generate
personalised offers to clients. These offers could be presented/pushed through customer
private websites to generate highly qualified ―cross-sell leads‖ at minimal marketing cost.
This has been done by ING Direct (Hesse A., 2009).
In late 2000s ING switched from traditional outbound campaign management to inbound
campaign management (see figure 12). In outbound campaign, first an offer is build and then
ING used to market this offer to best group of people. This led to similar offers being
marketed to every selected client. In inbound campaign, first data of a customer is analyzed
and then matched with various offers available. This enabled ING to provide customized
solutions to customers. Through providing these customized solutions ING expected to
increase the response rate by as much as 60% and an additional earning of Euro 20 million per
year. Also, ING expected to cut its direct marketing costs by 35% per year.
16

29
For selecting the type of product suited for a particular customer, first at least one product
most suited for the customer is selected from different product groups e.g. one product from
savings, one from payments and two from mortgages. Now the net present value of all these
products is calculated and the products most profitable to bank are proposed to the customer.
These customized solutions are presented to client through a private website (see figure 13).
In ING Direct, customers can see best offers for them on their private websites. When
customers login to their page, they could see customized as well as general offers and
promotions of ING Direct. To provide these customized solutions, ING Direct gathers
additional information about customers through online forms. Insurance companies could
launch similar private websites generating high-quality leads at minimal costs.
Figure 12: Outbound and inbound marketing campaign management
Source: Hesse A. 2009

30
Figure 13: Private client website of ING
Source: AXA, ING
Thus to generate leads effectively AXA Group recommends that its scope and the sources to
be used to collect the leads. Then it is important to meticulously plan and execute the
marketing campaign. After the leads are collected, they must be run through an initial quality
check. In the end, the marketing campaigns‘ performance should be measured and
continuously improved. Now, the next step of lead management is prioritize and allocate
through which the leads generated will be allocated to sales agents.
6.2. Prioritize and allocate leads
After generating leads, the next challenge is to allocate them to sales force. This is important
since not all the leads are sales ready and different sales force requires different kind of leads.
Thus, insurance companies must insure that their sales force get right kind of leads improving
their efficiency.
6.2.1. Prioritize leads
This is the first step in the process of allocation of leads. Leads must be segregated in
different categories as per their level of interest and value to sales force.
Before prioritizing leads first they must be qualified. After collecting leads from different
sources it is important to qualify them. The data collected must be run through software and

31
there must be regular checks put in place to remove leads putting wrong or incomplete data.
E.g. giving name as abc, incorrect pin code, etc.
AXA does not give detailed recommendation on how entities could do lead scoring to
prioritize these qualified leads. Currently, AXA recommends leads to be qualified on the basis
of whether they have asked to be contacted by AXA or not and their stage in online sale. If
they have completed online quote and asked to be contacted by AXA, they are qualified as hot
leads. If they have started the online quotation or finished it and do not ask to be contacted by
AXA, they are classified as cold leads. These cold leads are further prioritized on the basis of
their value. Cold leads with high value (ask to be contacted by AXA or searching for high
premium insurance) must be send to telesales for nurturing and cold leads with low value
must be nurtured through other mediums17
.
6.2.2. Allocate leads
After prioritizing the next step is allocating these leads. If the leads are hot they should be
send to agents directly. If the leads are cold and of high value they must be send to telesales
for nurturing and if the leads are cold and of low value they must be nurtured through other
medium18
.
If there is not an advanced lead management system comprising telesales and lead nurturing
then AXA Group proposes that leads could be allocated in a way that hot leads are pushed
(leads are send to agents) while cold leads have to be pulled (all the cold leads are put in a
portal and are available to all the agents. Agents are required to search actively for leads and
choose their targets). This system is recommended by AXA since all hot leads are allocated
quickly and agents are aware of new hot leads only making them to act upon them. Cold leads
would also be processed better since agents themselves will pick them which ensures their
motivation
17
18

32
6.2.2.1. Allocate leads with information
An important need in lead allocation is the ability of all sales channels to follow lead cycle till
they have reached them, and thus have the necessary information about the lead. This is
important since the final sales-point (agents, telesales, etc.) would be able to pitch right offers
and increase their efficiency if they know the needs and other information about clients. The
best in class method is to develop a fully integrated CRM platform where all stakeholders
(E.g. company, agents, call centre operators…) can follow and update contacts from the lead
generation until long after the first sale.
One such best in class example is AXA Equitable (US) which has a lead management solution
fully integrated with CRM providing information of all customers and prospects in one
system (see figure 14). In their CRM portal, stakeholders could see list of all the leads. Also,
agents can see information on these leads such as name, campaign through which they have
been attracted, area of interest, best time to call, potential investment, and age range. Contact
details are also included with phone number and address. Also, it includes information
regarding whether customer wishes to be contacted by email or not.
Another example is of insuranceleads.com. The website provides leads to insurance
agents/companies and also it provides information of these leads. An example of a motor lead
given on the company‘s website has information regarding lead‘s contact information, driving
license information, vehicle information, past record of traffic violations, and insurance
coverage amounts (see figure 15).
Figure 14: Lead management portal of AXA Equitable fully integrated with CRM
Source: AXA

33
Figure 15: Lead file sent by insuranceleads.com to sales
Source: website of insuranceleads

34
6.2.2.2. Allocate leads within specified timeframe
To improve conversion rates the leads must be allocated and acted upon quickly. This is
extremely important for converting leads as per AXA. There are high chances of contacting
and converting leads if they are contacted in a short timeframe of generating online quote and
asking to be contacted by AXA. Chance of contacting a lead is 100 times less if contacted
after 30 minutes as compared to 5 minutes.
6.2.2.3. Allocate leads to small agents/agents looking for new customers
This is another important aspect in insurance. The leads must be allocated to small agents
whose remuneration depends upon new leads they convert. Large agents having multi-million
sales through an extensive network of existing clients will not be motivated to use the new
leads.
To summarize, AXA Group‘s recommendations regarding prioritizing leads are simple based
on whether they ask to be contacted by AXA or not and also whether they finish the online
quote or not. To allocate leads prioritized as hot are to be sent directly to agents and cold leads
must be nurtured either through telesales (if they are of high value) or other medium (if they
are of low value). Also, other important recommendations regarding lead allocation are to
allocate leads with their information and allocate them in short timeframe. Now in the next
section AXA Group‘s recommendation on how to ensure these leads are nurtured and
converted will be discussed.
6.3. Nurture and convert leads
After scoring leads, many leads would not be sales ready and thus should not be allocated19
.
However, they still have potential to get converted and thus nurturing is an important step in
lead management.
19
As per a survey done by RainToday, of the total leads generated 25% are disqualified, 25% are sales ready and
the rest of 50% needs to be handled appropriately to convert them. Also, a test did by Marketo indicate that 25%
of the leads which were nurtured became sales ready after 1 month, as compared to, 8% of leads becoming sales
ready without nurturing.

35
6.3.1. Conversion and nurturing of web-based leads
High number of people visit website of insurance companies, however, a very low number of
these visitors make actual purchase. To ensure that these leads are not lost, there need to be a
special process in place to treat leads at different levels of making online purchase.
As indicated in the figure 16 below, these people could be segregated in five major categories:
People who visit the website but do not enter their name and contact information, people who
enter their name and contact information to demand newsletter and other content but do not
start an online quotation, people who start an online quotation but do not finish it, people who
are excluded by online filters due to factors such as high risk, possibility of fraud, etc., then
the final category include the people who completed the online quotation but do not proceed
to buying online. This can be further categorized in people who ask to be contacted by AXA
and people who do not ask to be contacted by AXA.
Now, all these categories must be treated differently to ensure they are efficiently nurtured
and converted. As per AXA, people in category 1 are not leads. People in category 2 are also
not leads as per AXA since they do not start online quote, however, they must be provided
with the information they ask for. People in category 3 are cold leads. However, they must be
treated on the basis of their value. If they are of high value (looking for high value products or
ask to be contacted by AXA) they must be nurtured through telesales and if otherwise (low
value) they must be nurtured through other media such as emails. People in category 4 must
be given personalized treatment and an insurance risk profile must be run on them. Also,
dedicated telesales specialised in high-risk profile insurance must contact them. People in
category 5 could be hot or cold depending on whether they ask to be contacted by AXA. If
they ask to be contacted by AXA, they must be send directly to agents. If they do not ask to
be contacted by AXA, they must be nurtured. Nurturing could be done through telesales (if
they are of high value) or through other media. During nurturing through other media, AXA
recommends that these leads must be provided with an agent‘s name/number to contact. At
the same time, the information about this lead must be provided to that agent through an
integrated tool, in case the lead calls that agent.

36
Figure 16: Different categories of web-based leads
Source: AXA
6.3.1.1. Nurturing cold leads with low value
In the above example of nurturing web-based leads, low-value leads in category 3 and in
category 5 who did not ask to be contacted by AXA must be nurtured through online media.
To nurture these leads AXA recommends that first an entity should discover what a lead
would like to know more according to its segment, interest (type of product) and past
characteristics and behaviours. Then it must decide the information to be send to leads as per
what they are looking for. The channel for nurturing must be decided not only on the basis of
its effectiveness but also on its ROI. Thus, different products with different margins must be
treated differently. Also it is important to decide on the deadline to convert them in hot leads.
After planning, the entity must focus on executing the nurturing plan. The nurturing
information must be provided in specified duration. Timeframe must be decided to ensure that
prospect has the chance to read nurturing material and keep in mind his need to contact the
company. E.g. timings of different e-mails could be first email to be sent within a few minutes
of collecting lead, second email to be sent one or two days after the first and third to sixth
emails to be sent in interval of three to four days. Also the entity must modify the content of
different emails as per the timeframe. First email could to be a thank you email and give
overview of the emails to follow. The content of second email must be specific to the client

37
needs. E.g. if the client wants to save for retirement, this email might contain a retirement
expense calculator. The third email must give exact information about how much he would
need for retirement. Fourth email could further explain him what are his options. Here
description or links of several products must be provided. Fifth email must help him in
deciding the best product – a decision tree. The sixth email must explain the process through
which he could generate a quote online and buy/contact AXA agents.
The data collected during the nurturing process must be saved as it could help in the final sale.
Also, in the end the leads which are hot must be sent to sales.
6.3.1.2. Conversion of leads through telesales: Best practice for nurturing cold
leads of high value (an external benchmark)
In the above example of nurturing web-based leads, high-value leads in category 320
and in
category 521
must be nurtured through telesales. There are no specific recommendations given
by AXA for this, however, they provide a best practice example on how an insurance
company is nurturing leads generated through telesales. This example is specific to leads
generated through telesales; however, it could also be applied to leads generated through web
(which is the case as per the scope of this paper and AXA‘s recommendations). In case of
cold leads with high value generated through web, telesales team could also call them and
repeat the same process.
The whole lead nurturing process for telesales (see figure 17) could be that firstly the
consumer calls telesales team after seeing advertising campaign (this step will be modified for
internet generated leads – telesales could also call consumers if they have left their data
online). Now the telesales team could assess the consumer and qualify him as hot/cold lead or
to be disqualified. In case of hot lead, the telesales team could fill lead‘s information and
generate a quote. This quote will be notified to the consumer. Also, agents will be notified
regarding the consumer. In case of cold lead, telesales will send nurturing information to
consumer by email with an attached document. Then, the next steps depend upon whether the
20
leads who do not finish online quote but of high value since they are looking for a high-premium product or
ask to be contacted by AXA
21
leads who finish online quote and do not ask to be contacted by AXA, but having high value since they are
looking for a high-premium product

38
consumer downloads the document or not. If the consumer downloads the document, it is to
be seen whether or not he generates a quote on the web. If he generates a quote on web,
telesales call him and finalises the quote. Then the quote is send to consumer and his
information is send to agent. If he does not generate a quote online, telesales still call him to
see whether he is still a cold or hot lead. If he is hot, he is send to agents, if he is still cold,
another email is sent to him with nurturing information and link to website. However, if he
does not download the document, telesales will again send him a nurturing document. Thus,
through this whole process it is ensured that agents only receive hot leads, cold leads are
nurtured and leads not useful are disqualified.
Figure 17: Flowchart of lead nurturing through telesales
Source: AXA
6.3.2. Increasing lead conversion through KPIs
Lead management process must be measured by KPIs across different agencies/agents. This
will give important insights to management on how the whole process could be improved and
which agents/agencies need special attention/training thus increasing overall conversion rate.
The KPIs must be for the whole lead management process and also as per different steps of
lead management process. Also, it will increase the accountability of agents making them to
process more leads and try to get higher conversion rates.
Lead generation and lead allocation KPIs would be specific to these processes. Some of the
KPIs for lead generation could be number of consumers that are targeted, number of leads
generated, total marketing budget and cost per generated lead. KPIs for prioritize and allocate
could be number of leads abandoned, number of leads that are transferred to the conversion

39
step, time taken to allocate, total budget to allocate and engage leads, average time taken to
act on a lead per product and number of leads acted upon within pre-decided timeline.
KPIs for lead conversion are more transversal and could be used to assess the overall
performance of lead management. Some of the KPIs could be number of converted leads, lead
conversion rate, total cost of converting leads (all costs in the lead management process), cost
per converted lead, total premium generated through leads and ROI. However, some KPIs
could be specific to conversion such as time taken to contact a lead after allocation. Leads
must be contacted within short timeframe22
.
Also, it is important to split these KPIs by marketing campaigns, customers, products, sales
channels, etc. to get a clearer picture of which campaigns are more effective.
6.3.2.1. Performance monitoring – Basic examples
Example of Allianz
Allianz published its list of digital KPIs and targets for France. They included KPIs which are
transversal in nature and measure the performance of their entire online sales. Some of the
KPIs could also be useful for lead management process such as ‗share of digitalized
documents‘ and ‗share of mobile numbers known‘ (see figure 18).
22
Elkington D. and Oldroyd J. (2007), See section 6.2.2

40
Figure 18: Allianz‘s digital KPIs and targets for France
Source: Allianz 2012
Example of AXA Ireland
AXA Ireland measures some basic KPIs weekly for lead management (see figure 19). They
measure how many people uploaded their records by filling online form, how many records
were excluded from data checks, how many of them were contacted through contact rate and
how many of these leads were finally converted.
Figure 19: AXA Ireland‘s KPIs for lead management
Source: AXA
Week Date
Records
uploaded
Records
excluded
% records
excluded
Unique
Quotes
Weekly
Sales
Conv
rate
Conv
rate on
contact
Contact
rate
Saved
Contact
rate
Unsaved
Contact
rate
Week 13 26.mars 5'914 640 11% 5'990 143 2.42% 6.72% 36%
Week 14 02.avr 6'151 1181 19% 6'494 124 2.02% 5.04% 40%
Week 15 09.avr 5'960 858 14% 6'298 103 1.73% 4.02% 43%
Week 16 16.avr 7'286 841 12% 7'417 179 2.46% 6.30% 39%
Week 17 23.avr 7'331 786 11% 6'820 153 2.09% 5.64% 37%
Week 18 30.avr 8'178 940 11% 7'193 192 2.35% 6.18% 38%

41
Thus it is clear from the above two examples that by using KPIs companies could set long-
term targets for digital and also assess weekly performance which helps managers to evaluate
performance of campaigns and take necessary actions.
6.3.2.2. Performance monitoring – advanced example
This is an example of a US based insurance company adopting advanced performance
monitoring (see figure 20). In this, the company segregates its customers in five markets:
Affluent market, Middle Market, Retired Market, Youth Market and Business & Institutions.
Then, the company compares total customers, total marketing investment and total profit in
each of these categories. This helped the company to focus its attention and finances to the
segment that is the biggest contributor to profits. Similar techniques could be used to measure
lead management process by companies.
This above example could be modified for online lead management and thus measuring
effectiveness of various campaigns being run on the internet for generating leads and
converting them (see figure 21). Looking at this chart in figure 21, it is easy to spot that
Banner 1 with a message highlighting the quality and value of the company is costing only
1%; however, it is generating 10% of leads with 13% of profits. Thus, company can
understand where to invest more in future. Another insight from this chart could be that
search engine marketing leads‘ share in total leads converted is 25%; however, their share in
total profit is only 12%. Thus, a company could understand which sources are producing high
value leads.
Figure 20: Performance monitoring by a US based insurance company
Source: AXA
1% 2%
13%6% 3%
9%26% 21%
12%
46%
30%
60%
21%
44%
6%
Total customers Total Marketing
Investment
Total profit
Affluent
Market
Middle
Market
Retired
Market
Youth
Market
Business &
Institutions

42
Figure 21: Online lead management performance monitoring – illustrative numbers
Source: AXA, interview with Julien Fursat, my analysis
6.3.3. Increasing lead conversion through engaging agents
Another effective way of ensuring good conversion is engaging agents since they are closest
to customers. Agents must be involved in the entire process. They must be kept in loop while
designing different steps of the lead management process. Agents must be informed about the
upcoming campaigns and plans, results of lead management must be shared23
, agents‘
feedback must be taken24
, and training must be given to agents on how to utilize various tools
and resources. Some other ways to engage agents include facilitating trust by appointing
advanced agents as ambassadors of campaigns and lead billing25
.
23
24
25
1% 2%
10% 13%6% 3%
5%
9%26%
21%
25% 12%
46%
30%
45% 60%
21%
44%
15%
6%
Total Leads
Generated
Total
Marketing
Investment
Share in
Total Leads
Converted
Total profit
Advertisement
on website 2
Advertisement
on website 1
Search engine
marketing
(paying to be
on top of
Google)
Banner 2
(message on
price)
Banner 1
(message on
quality)

43
6.3.3.1. Feedback loops and management involvement to increase conversion
It is important to set feedback loops with sales agents. This helps in improving the entire lead
management process and thus ensuring that overall conversion is improved. This can be done
by ensuring that sales agents report on sales actions. An easy portal must be provided to
agents to fill-in extra information about customers when they contact them. This will help the
company to get more information on leads. If these leads are converted it will be easier to
cross/upsell to them with this information and if these leads are not converted, the feedback
will help the company to decide how to nurture them and convert. Also, it is important to get
regular feedback of agents and all other distribution channels on the lead management process.
There should be monthly/quarterly meetings involving all stakeholders where major issues
could be discussed
Another important aspect is to involve management. The sales executives must be able to see
how various agents are performing as per the leads given to them. This transparency will help
executives to know how effective is the lead generation/nurturing process and thus modify it
accordingly in due amount of time. Also reports must be prepared and shared with all the
agencies and departments on how various agencies/agents are performing as per conversion of
leads. This will facilitate competition among agencies/agents ensuring better conversion.
6.3.3.2. Best practice example: AXA Germany
Through sharing reports AXA Germany was able to improve conversion rates. In 2010, AXA
Germany sent weekly list of leads to regional sales managers also instead of sending it only to
agents. This increased accountability of agents towards leads and the conversion rate in health
products increased from 6.52% in 2008 to 10.33% in 2010 – a 58% increases (see figure 22).
As per 2011, agents giving feedback to AXA Germany at least once, have conversion rate of
13.65% as compared to the conversion rate of 10.91% - thus 25% higher.
6.3.3.3. Example of AXA Equitable (US)
AXA Equitable extensively involves agents in managing the lead management process. In the
preparation of campaigns phase, agents are interviewed to identify their requirements. Then,
after the campaign has been formalised (documents, target segments, timeframe, etc.) agents
review it. Training is given to agents on how to use various tools associated. Also, specific

44
training is given to second year agents regarding lead management. Further, each campaign is
first tested on a small area before rolling it out to the entire country. This helps AXA
Equitable to make further improvements.
Figure 22: Conversion rate of health products‘ leads in AXA Germany
Source: AXA
6.3.4. Increasing conversion through good governance of lead management process
Another important aspect to increase lead conversion and thus the overall performance of lead
management is to set-up a good governance structure. AXA Group highlights importance of
setting-up an end-to-end lead management process. To set up this governance model entity
must first identify various stakeholders in the process to facilitate planning and defining roles.
Some of the possible stakeholders in a lead management process include top management at
Headquarters, marketing at Headquarters, campaign management team, customer relationship
management department, distribution department, telesales and servicing centre, IT and direct
sales channels (selling online).
After identifying key stakeholders one stakeholder must be made responsible (leader) for the
entire lead management process. Otherwise, a new lead management department could also
be established. The roles of the department leading the process and stakeholders must be
clearly defined. Regular meetings must be organized involving process leader and key
stakeholders. These meetings would help in clearly defining the objectives and goals of lead
management process, sharing and prioritizing the next actions to be taken for lead
management, sharing the past actions on lead management and how they could be improved
and improving the entire process and identifying bottlenecks.

45
6.3.4.1. Example of AXA Germany
AXA Germany follows an end-to-end lead management process. The leader of the process is
Marketing department at headquarters. Managers of different segments make campaigns for
their respective segments. There is a multichannel board which decides which campaign to
run. To make this decision, all the key stakeholders in the lead management process are
gathered. Then the campaigns are prioritized and selected on the basis of available resources
and needs of a specific segment. The campaigns are run by campaign management
departments. Distribution department is responsible for sales on each campaign. Marketing
department at headquarters analyses the campaign results and modifies/cancels campaigns
accordingly to improve the lead management process.
To summarize, as per AXA Group‘s recommendations for lead nurturing it is important to
categorize leads and send them the nurturing content (on specific timeframe) customized to
that segment. AXA further explains how this categorization could be done for web-based
leads and thus different nurturing steps to be followed. Also, a best practice example has
helped in understanding how nurturing could be done through telesales. For lead conversion,
it is important to measure the entire lead management process through KPIs which will
increase accountability of agents and also help management to improve the process. Also, it is
important to engage agents keeping them in the loop and setting up a good governance
structure for lead management.
With this, various processes associated with lead management and AXA Group‘s
recommendations for them have been explained. Also, best practices and examples have been
provided giving insight on how these processes actually work in companies. Now in the next
section AXA Group‘s recommendations will be compared with literature to find gaps in AXA
Group‘s recommendations or refute some of the literature as not applicable to AXA. Also,
through this comparison the next section will try to highlight gaps in existing literature which
could be topics for future research.

46
7. Lead Management Gap Analysis: AXA Group’s Recommendations
and Existing Literature/Sources
7.1. Gaps in lead generation
After analyzing AXA Group‘s recommendations and existing literature on lead generation,
some gaps have been found and summarized in figure 23. The processes/steps recommended
by both include using different sources for lead generation and tracking leads coming from
different sources in order to measure the effectiveness of various sources and marketing
campaigns. However, literature do not include recommendations by AXA such as first define
the scope and product to sell and involve agents in marketing campaigns preparation and
execution. These two recommendations are more specific for insurance industry and I believe
very important for AXA‘s lead generation process. But still involving sales force in marketing
campaigns preparation is something very important and applicable to many industries, thus
there is scope of research on this. The three processes/steps not included in AXA but included
in literature are to include social media, use referrals and marketing automation. I believe all
the three are applicable to AXA and thus AXA should include them in its recommendation to
improve the lead generation process.
generation
 Firstly, define the scope and type of
insurance product to sell
 Involve agents in the marketing
campaigns‘ preparation and execution
 Include leads from different sources
 Measure and improve marketing
campaigns by tracking leads from
different sources and campaigns run
on those sources
 Generate leads from social media
 Referrals from existing customers
 Use marketing automation
AXA Group‘s Recommendations
Yes No
Existing
Literature
Yes
No

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