Predictive Lead Scoring Increases Insurance Company's Top Line

Drowning in Leads, Starving for Sales

The insurance company, overwhelmed by a traditional lead scoring system, faced several critical challenges:

• Resource Inefficiency: Their current system lacked accuracy, leading agents to spend valuable time chasing low-quality leads with minimal conversion potential. This resulted in wasted effort, agent frustration, and ultimately, missed sales opportunities.
• Inaccurate Lead Prioritization:  The traditional system failed to identify high-potential leads effectively. Valuable time was spent nurturing leads unlikely to convert, while promising prospects languished on the back burner.
• High Lead Volume: The company received leads from diverse sources, creating a massive volume to manage. Manually prioritizing this influx was a logistical nightmare, hindering overall sales workflow.

‍_{The Traditional Lead Scoring Conundrum}

The existing system relied heavily on human intuition and assumptions. Sales teams assigned scores based on factors like demographics and behavior patterns, leading to inconsistencies and inaccuracies. Additionally, the static nature of the system couldn't adapt to evolving market trends and customer preferences, rendering it increasingly ineffective over time.

_{A Two-Pronged Approach with Machine Learning}

We recognized the need for a data-driven, dynamic solution and proposed a two-pronged approach utilizing ML to revolutionize the lead scoring process:

• Predictive Lead Scoring Model: This model aimed to analyze a comprehensive set of data points, including demographics, behavior on the company's website, quote requests, and property details. By leveraging the power of ML algorithms like gradient boosting, the model would identify complex patterns within this data, predicting the likelihood of each lead converting into a sale.  This would allow agents to prioritize leads with a high conversion probability, maximizing their time and closing more deals.
• Lead Efficiency Model: Beyond simply identifying promising leads, NineTwoThree proposed a model to assess the efficiency of agent interactions. This model would analyze call duration data alongside conversion rates, predicting the number of policies sold per call. This would provide valuable insights into agent performance and identify areas for improvement, further optimizing the sales workflow.

‍

From Raw Information to Powerful Insights

Building these models required a deep dive into the insurance company's data. Our engineers meticulously collected and integrated information from various sources, including:

Cleaning and Refining the Raw Material

‍

The data wasn't without its challenges. Missing values, historical inconsistencies, and variations in data formats presented obstacles. To address these issues, NineTwoThree developed a custom Python module. This module tackled various tasks, including:

• Extracting valuable features from text and time-based data.
• Grouping similar records to minimize model uncertainty.
• Cleaning data and imputing missing values in a statistically sound manner.
• Identifying and removing data anomalies and outliers.
• Encoding categorical data for future scalability and adaptability to new lead sources.

Overcoming Imbalanced Data: A Challenge Solved

The lead efficiency model faced a unique challenge – imbalanced data. Many leads resulted in zero sales, skewing the data towards non-conversions. To address this, NineTwoThree employed a  sophisticated training strategy. The training data focused solely on leads that resulted in sales, allowing the model to learn patterns associated with successful conversions. However, for validation and testing, a different approach was needed.

NineTwoThree leveraged the previously built predictive lead scoring model. By testing the efficiency model only on leads identified as high-potential by the scoring model, they obtained a more realistic picture without introducing bias from the imbalanced data.

The Results: A Quantum Leap in Sales Efficiency

The ML models developed by NineTwoThree delivered impressive results:

• Predictive Lead Scoring Model Accuracy:  Boasting an accuracy of over 90%, the model effectively identified high-conversion leads. Agents equipped with this knowledge could prioritize these leads, leading to a significant increase in closed deals.
• Increased Conversion Rate:  The case study highlights that for high-scoring leads (those identified as most likely to convert), the conversion rate jumped a staggering 3.5 times compared to the average. This translates to a significant boost in sales for the insurance company.
• Reduced Wasted Time:  The model also helped eliminate wasted time spent on low-scoring leads. With an 80% reduction in conversion rates for these leads, agents could focus their efforts on more promising prospects, leading to a more optimized sales workflow.
• Improved Overall Sales Performance:  By combining the power of both models, the insurance company witnessed a dramatic improvement in their overall sales performance. Agents were empowered to prioritize high-potential leads, maximize call efficiency, and ultimately close more deals.

The Value of Machine Learning

This case study showcases the transformative power of Machine Learning in the insurance industry. Here's how ML-based lead scoring goes beyond the impressive numbers:

• Data-Driven Decision Making: ML replaces guesswork with data-driven insights, ensuring agents prioritize leads based on concrete evidence of conversion potential.
• Dynamic Lead Scoring:  Unlike static traditional systems, ML models continuously learn and adapt to evolving data patterns. This ensures the lead scoring system remains relevant and effective over time.
• Scalability and Flexibility:  The system can adapt to accommodate new lead sources and data formats, future-proofing the insurance company's sales strategy.

Putting Insights into Action

NineTwoThree didn't just develop the models. We ensured seamless integration into the insurance company's existing infrastructure. The models were deployed using Amazon SageMaker, a robust cloud platform for machine learning. This ensured smooth operation and scalability for the future.

Continuous Improvement Journey

The case study concludes by emphasizing the ongoing nature of the solution.  As the insurance company gathers more data and interacts with new leads, the ML models can be continuously refined and improved. This commitment to continuous learning ensures the lead scoring system remains a valuable asset, driving sustained sales growth for the insurance company.

Winning Formula for Insurance Sales

This case study by NineTwoThree demonstrates the undeniable benefits of implementing an ML-based lead scoring system. By leveraging the power of data and machine learning algorithms, insurance companies can optimize their lead generation process, maximize agent efficiency, and ultimately achieve significant sales growth.  For any insurance company struggling with a traditional lead scoring system, this case study serves as a compelling blueprint for achieving success in the competitive world of insurance sales.