MAN... This is Tough!!!

[Lyn]

True Paul, people are resistant to change (who moved my cheese?) and usually afraid of what they may be giving up or losing, no matter how much the current discomfort.

I hated that book.

 

[expressinsure]

I am in the process of starting an agency and I know how frustrating it can be..... Hang in there.... It will all come together. I seen NBI and Eastwood Insurance start from an idea and blossom to an dynasty.... these guys all started from humble beginnings ... and I watched them do it.... so now its my turn ....

 

[ksigmtsu]

I think I'm not been constant with marketing, netquote for example, I got leads from them for only one zip code, about 1 lead a day, 30 leads a month... that's nothing according to what I'm reading here so, what did I do? spent a few hundreds in three or four months, wrote 2 apps and considered a terrible thing. result canceled the contract. I know I'm talkative, I can establish a good and nice conversation, I can listen, I can talk, fine, but I'm not leading them to close the deal. I don't have the skills and I'm doing this the hard way. By myself and after business hours. It's tough, really tough, is there a good advise or something you can share about how to guide prospects to close? I know there is no one size fits all, but you might have some sort of "big picture".

The BIG PICTURE I bet you're missing is follow through.

You might want to try leads in a product line with a higher conversion rate. Medicare comes to mind. You'll convert about 17% of those after some practice. If I had this to do all over again, that's the first place I'd start. Health converts at a higher rate than life leads. Cross sell your medicare and health leads life. I spent over 400 dollars on leads in December on medicare and sold 33 policies, my best was 5 policies on 1 lead. I have nothing near that rate of return on other lines, but I am drifting into health now because I cannot get the volume I was getting in medicare now that AEP is over. Remember that speed to contact and follow up are the most important things.

If your health leads close in 1 call, you're really lucky. I close around 10% of my health leads that are good leads, which translates to roughly 7% of total leads purchased. I close around 10% of those on the first call.. Which is roughly .7% of the gross. 7 out of 1000 leads. For math junkies, that's $100 to convert if you don't claim bad leads, and $70 to convert if you do claim them. Heres the number that will eat you alive. If you only convert the first call sales and don't report bad leads, your cost to convert is going to be 1000 dollars per sale.

Most times it takes me 3 phone calls to reach them the first time, and 3 follow up calls to close. 6 phone calls each, on average. Should be getting a picture from that now anyway.. It takes me on average roughly 64 phone calls per sale on health leads. I don't speak to anyone on 1/2 of those. If you have a good dialer system, and a good tracking system in place, you maximize your cost per sale by not letting good leads fall through the cracks and not overpaying by claiming bad leads, and you don't work yourself to death trying to contact.

Don't let anyone tell you that there is some shortcut to success, or some magic system, there isn't. The "trick" is calling your leads, and asking them what they wanted, then doing what they asked for. The more of your leads you can contact and get what they asked for, the higher your sell rate is. Don't buy leads if you aren't committed to calling each one 6 times, and averaging about 64 calls per sale. There is no magic shortcut. If you are lazy you will bankrupt yourself.

On average, it takes a lot more calls than that for me to self generate and close a telemarketing list. My data is not big enough to be statistically super relevant yet, but my outright guess on it is that per 100 calls I am generating 12 leads. This is on the 4 person or less small business leads. My close rate feels similar to purchased vendor leads. Same on number of calls. By that ratio, I can assume 10% sale on 10% interested per 100 contacted people. 3 dials each to contact. That's up to potentially 330 dials for 1 sale. Trick here is how fast can you dial. Just know that starting in and don't be discouraged when you dial the phone 180 times and haven't sold anything yet. If you dial the phone 600 times and haven't sold anything yet, you're probably doing something wrong though. All in all, 50 bucks worth of data and 150 a month for mojo = approximately 25 sales. The cost per policy that way turns out to be 8 dollars instead of 70. If you aren't going to make at least 1800 dials total in a month, don't buy mojo or data. That's enough calls to make a minimum about 550 dollars net a week in first year commission on B to B health.

Medicare is taking less dials but more time talked per connect. I'm not saying go all leads or all dialer either. I'm saying combine the 2. Fill space between internet leads with self generation.

Frankly, if you aren't committed to that level of work on the phone, you should quit now.

On the bright side, here's just an example of realistic expectations:
Dial 2000 data pieces in a month. Sell 20 policies. You might have to dial 7000 times to hit those data pieces to sell them. 100 dialed per hour = 70 hours. You'll make average of 9000 on that.

Buy 150 leads in a month. You have to dial around 450 times to get them on average on the phone, then 200 more dials to sell 15. If you dial immediately, you can drop that 450 times to get them on the phone number DRAMATICALLY. You make 6700 dollars on your 1500 invested at those ratios, with about 10 hours work. By the way, yes I know this is proof that leads are better than dialing for yourself. However, I have found that this ratio drops DRASTICALLY if you go too far away from home. I can't realistically get over 150 leads a month, because of volume on the websites I buy from.

Figure the rest of your time working doing paperwork, going to in person appointments, chasing insurance companies around, servicing existing policies, and chatting on this forum, and you're probably putting in 240 hours a month to make 14,000 a month minus overhead in first year commissions. 60 bucks an hour. That's on 9 deals a week. 1.5 deals per day. Can't make that anywhere else I know of in the town I live in.

That is a realistic expectation. Work 60 hours a week and you can make six figures this year. You should work out your own numbers, gather up what is working, figure out a plan, and execute it. My plan may not work exactly for you.

 

[redgo]

I am in the process of starting an agency and I know how frustrating it can be..... Hang in there.... It will all come together. I seen NBI and Eastwood Insurance start from an idea and blossom to an dynasty.... these guys all started from humble beginnings ... and I watched them do it.... so now its my turn ....

Thanks!! good to hear other people are going through the samething!!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I realize nothing in life is worth having, is easy….hard work will pay off…. And so on, however, I do wonder to myself if I’m that guy in high school that asked every girl out but they always said no! sorry bad analogy but I think you get my drift… how long should I work my ass off for just 1-2 polices a week? (Home & auto).

With that said… I’m only 3 weeks into this so I’m no where near giving up, but I’m just saying? Is it a year? Two years? Three?

 

[cusaba]

The BIG PICTURE I bet you're missing is follow through.

You might want to try leads in a product line with a higher conversion rate. Medicare comes to mind. You'll convert about 17% of those after some practice. If I had this to do all over again, that's the first place I'd start. Health converts at a higher rate than life leads. Cross sell your medicare and health leads life. I spent over 400 dollars on leads in December on medicare and sold 33 policies, my best was 5 policies on 1 lead. I have nothing near that rate of return on other lines, but I am drifting into health now because I cannot get the volume I was getting in medicare now that AEP is over. Remember that speed to contact and follow up are the most important things.

If your health leads close in 1 call, you're really lucky. I close around 10% of my health leads that are good leads, which translates to roughly 7% of total leads purchased. I close around 10% of those on the first call.. Which is roughly .7% of the gross. 7 out of 1000 leads. For math junkies, that's $100 to convert if you don't claim bad leads, and $70 to convert if you do claim them. Heres the number that will eat you alive. If you only convert the first call sales and don't report bad leads, your cost to convert is going to be 1000 dollars per sale.

Most times it takes me 3 phone calls to reach them the first time, and 3 follow up calls to close. 6 phone calls each, on average. Should be getting a picture from that now anyway.. It takes me on average roughly 64 phone calls per sale on health leads. I don't speak to anyone on 1/2 of those. If you have a good dialer system, and a good tracking system in place, you maximize your cost per sale by not letting good leads fall through the cracks and not overpaying by claiming bad leads, and you don't work yourself to death trying to contact.

Don't let anyone tell you that there is some shortcut to success, or some magic system, there isn't. The "trick" is calling your leads, and asking them what they wanted, then doing what they asked for. The more of your leads you can contact and get what they asked for, the higher your sell rate is. Don't buy leads if you aren't committed to calling each one 6 times, and averaging about 64 calls per sale. There is no magic shortcut. If you are lazy you will bankrupt yourself.

On average, it takes a lot more calls than that for me to self generate and close a telemarketing list. My data is not big enough to be statistically super relevant yet, but my outright guess on it is that per 100 calls I am generating 12 leads. This is on the 4 person or less small business leads. My close rate feels similar to purchased vendor leads. Same on number of calls. By that ratio, I can assume 10% sale on 10% interested per 100 contacted people. 3 dials each to contact. That's up to potentially 330 dials for 1 sale. Trick here is how fast can you dial. Just know that starting in and don't be discouraged when you dial the phone 180 times and haven't sold anything yet. If you dial the phone 600 times and haven't sold anything yet, you're probably doing something wrong though. All in all, 50 bucks worth of data and 150 a month for mojo = approximately 25 sales. The cost per policy that way turns out to be 8 dollars instead of 70. If you aren't going to make at least 1800 dials total in a month, don't buy mojo or data. That's enough calls to make a minimum about 550 dollars net a week in first year commission on B to B health.

Medicare is taking less dials but more time talked per connect. I'm not saying go all leads or all dialer either. I'm saying combine the 2. Fill space between internet leads with self generation.

Frankly, if you aren't committed to that level of work on the phone, you should quit now.

On the bright side, here's just an example of realistic expectations:
Dial 2000 data pieces in a month. Sell 20 policies. You might have to dial 7000 times to hit those data pieces to sell them. 100 dialed per hour = 70 hours. You'll make average of 9000 on that.

Buy 150 leads in a month. You have to dial around 450 times to get them on average on the phone, then 200 more dials to sell 15. If you dial immediately, you can drop that 450 times to get them on the phone number DRAMATICALLY. You make 6700 dollars on your 1500 invested at those ratios, with about 10 hours work. By the way, yes I know this is proof that leads are better than dialing for yourself. However, I have found that this ratio drops DRASTICALLY if you go too far away from home. I can't realistically get over 150 leads a month, because of volume on the websites I buy from.

Figure the rest of your time working doing paperwork, going to in person appointments, chasing insurance companies around, servicing existing policies, and chatting on this forum, and you're probably putting in 240 hours a month to make 14,000 a month minus overhead in first year commissions. 60 bucks an hour. That's on 9 deals a week. 1.5 deals per day. Can't make that anywhere else I know of in the town I live in.

That is a realistic expectation. Work 60 hours a week and you can make six figures this year. You should work out your own numbers, gather up what is working, figure out a plan, and execute it. My plan may not work exactly for you.

Thanks a lot, to you and to all the community who takes the time to help us.
I have a lot to do and a lot to plan, I guess I have to create a better plan and stick to it.

 

[ksigmtsu]

Thanks!! good to hear other people are going through the samething!!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I realize nothing in life is worth having, is easy….hard work will pay off…. And so on, however, I do wonder to myself if I’m that guy in high school that asked every girl out but they always said no! sorry bad analogy but I think you get my drift… how long should I work my ass off for just 1-2 polices a week? (Home & auto).

With that said… I’m only 3 weeks into this so I’m no where near giving up, but I’m just saying? Is it a year? Two years? Three?

Honestly, took me 3 months to get up to averaging around 8 a week with 60 hour+ work weeks working 7 days a week after I stopped trying to sell for EMG and moved into medicare/health.

 

[sr22]

Have you tried buying leads?

 

[redgo]

Have you tried buying leads?

I have heard from so many experinced agents that buying leads is a waste of time and money, so no I have not.

 

[ksigmtsu]

It is a waste of time and money if you don't follow up properly. They're easier to work than pure cold calls, harder to work than people who call you from referrals.

 

[Josh]

I have heard from so many experinced agents that buying leads is a waste of time and money, so no I have not.

Then you cold call? "Many experienced agents" will tell you to buy them, not buy them, and everything in between.