Exclusive vs. Shared Annuity Leads

Exclusive and shared describe who else is allowed to work the same person, not how good the person is. An exclusive lead or appointment is sold to one advisor, under whatever definition the contract actually uses. A shared lead is sold to more than one advisor, sometimes on purpose and sometimes because "exclusive" was only a headline. The prospect experiences the difference as the number of strangers who call them after one form.

This page will not quote other companies' prices. It does not have their contracts. It is the question list for the word exclusive when you shop anyone, including us.

What shared means in practice

A shared annuity lead is a contact more than one buyer can pursue. The form might have been filled out once. By the afternoon, several agents have the same number. The first useful call wins the conversation, and the later calls train the person to stop answering. You can still write business from a shared lead. You should expect some of the people to tell you they already have two meetings this week, and you should expect your setters to burn time confirming that.

Shared is not the same word as aged. An aged lead is old. It might have been exclusive when it was new and shared later, or shared from the start. The age and the headcount are separate facts. Ask both. "Exclusive for 24 hours, then shared" is a timed product. It is not the same sentence as "never shared."

Advisors buy shared leads because the price per name is lower and the volume is higher. That trade is rational when the desk is built to dial fast and to disqualify fast. It is expensive when the owner is the one dialing between client reviews. You are paying a low unit price to enter a race. The annuity leads guide is the longer version of that trade, including the moment a lead stops being the right product and a booked meeting starts being the right one.

What exclusive means in a contract

Exclusive, on a vendor page, is only as strong as the sentence under the headline. One contract means a single advisor for the life of the record. Another means a single advisor for a day, then the name goes back out. Another says the file will not be resold, and says nothing about whether the prospect already has two meetings booked. Read the sentence. A headline is not the rule.

The meeting we sell is a Zoom. We screen for $250,000 or more in movable retirement savings, send a short video class, and a setter books the time. You pay up front. We only charge a qualified show. Annuity appointments is the operating page. Our buyer's guide lines that meeting up against other firms using each company's public pages. A marketing page is not the agreement.

The asset screen is a different column from the contract's headcount. The floor, the Gold through Black tiers, and the 90-day movability rule are part of "qualified." They are not an exclusivity sentence. Keep the columns separate when you take notes.

Questions that make the word mean something

Ask who else receives this person, and for how long. If the answer is "no one, ever, for this appointment," ask what happens when the prospect says they are already working with another advisor. Ask whether a second product you sell, a live transfer plus a lead, can put the same household in two of your own pipelines or in a colleague's. Ask whether employee turnover at the vendor, or a recycled list, can re-sell last quarter's exclusive.

Ask what you are forbidden to do with the contact. A serious exclusive appointment is for serving that household, not for loading a ringless voicemail list. Our privacy materials describe how we handle data we collect. Your own privacy duty starts when the record hits your CRM. Do not add the person to an unrelated campaign because the meeting was exclusive and you feel you paid for the name. You paid for the meeting the contract describes.

Ask how exclusivity is monitored. "We promise" is not a control. A control is a statement you can show a partner: one advisor per appointment, not resold, and a remedy if you discover otherwise. Our published remedy is about no-shows and prospects who do not qualify, not a cash penalty for a broken exclusive. If you need a specific remedy, ask for it on the call and read it in the agreement. Do not assume a number that is not written down.

Exclusive appointments are still not exclusive leads

An exclusive lead can still be a name you have to chase. An exclusive appointment, in that same contract sense, is time on a calendar. We sell the appointment. The leads page exists so a contact and a meeting are not mashed into one SKU. You can pay an exclusive-lead price, do all the dialing, and correctly say you were not sharing the name. You have not bought what we sell. If a proposal says "exclusive" and will not say whether you receive a contact or a Zoom, send it back.

The billing rule is independent again. Exclusive does not tell you whether you pay for the record, the booking, or the show. With us you pay up front and we only charge a qualified show. We replace a no-show, a cancellation, or a reschedule. Leads versus appointments walks through why the unit matters as much as the headcount. A shared show and an exclusive name are easy to confuse if you only look at one column.

What exclusivity will not fix

It will not make an inexperienced advisor close. Our average close rate is around 30 percent, the close rate depends on you, and the sale is not guaranteed. Exclusive prospects can still say no. They can still fail the asset screen. They can still skip the Zoom. Show rate and exclusivity are different metrics. A room of one person who does not attend is a show-rate event. A room of one person who attends and mentions three other agents is an exclusivity event. Diagnose the one you actually had.

It will not print a dollar price. Our tiers are minimum asset ranges. Gold is $250,000 to $1 million. Platinum is $1 million to $2 million. Diamond is $2 million to $5 million. Black is $5 million to $10 million and above. A qualified prospect has at least that minimum, movable within 90 days. We do not publish a separate feature list or appointment count for each tier. Pricing shared on a call. There is no long-term contract. Optional CRM and follow-up tools are separate, and we do not price them here. None of those sentences become more true because the lead is exclusive.

It will not replace your judgment about the product. Fixed and fixed indexed annuities are the focus of the ads we run. FINRA's annuity guide is a neutral explanation of how annuity contracts differ. Exclusivity is a distribution fact. Suitability is yours.

How to decide

If your setters are fast and you want cheap at-bats, shared leads are a category you can study with your eyes open. If you are tired of being the fourth call, exclusive is the contract term to demand from the vendor you are reading, and you should demand it in writing rather than on a slide. If you also do not want to make the first call, you are no longer shopping a lead. You are shopping a booked appointment. That is what we sell.

The checklist version, useful with any vendor, is questions to ask before you buy. When you are ready to see whether our version fits, use the qualification form. Ask the rep to show you the sentence in the agreement that says who else may work the same person. If the call and the agreement disagree, believe the agreement.