Prospecting for Medd Supps

[Josh]

I agree with Tom, if you can avoid paying for "leads" do so, and do your own calling, and find other ways to market.
I spent a small fortune, and the results were not what I expected.

I believe I was not successful, because I thought the leads were my holy grail to riches...Was I wrong. I am not new to calling to make an appointment, since my previous position, was calling business to business in New York City for 10 years.

I am new to Franks system, and I imagine it will take a week or so, to where I am sounding coversational to the person on the other end.

2 months before I spoke with Frank Stastny, I sent out 1000 mailers, and it was about 8 weeks later I received 10 leads from the mailer for med supp campaign. So far half the people do not remember filling out any card, and they didn't need my services. Live & learn.....SO in my opinion, do your own marketing.

The mentality of "any money spent on leads is money wasted" is something I'll never understand. I realize that buying leads isn't for everyone and that some agents in some areas do well doing the cold calling themselves, but that is absolutely not for everyone. In addition to having telemarketers that dial for my agents and myself, I have other agents who lease my telemarketers. Over the last few months I've had the privilege of speaking with some of the folks on this forum and the misfortune of speaking with others.

Lead buyers tend to fall into one of three categories:

1. Agents who have a lead system that used to work well but things have changed. A good example of this would be with direct mail in some areas or agents that have been using autodialer leads.
2. Agents who are doing well but keep an open mind about ways they can improve their business. Often times this is an individual who is actually running a team of agents and is looking for multiple lead sources so they don't live or die by one or two marketing methods.
3. My personal favorite: Agents who can't sell so they're always looking for a new lead source because they expect too much from a lead and can't recognize a good prospect when they have a preset home appointment with them.

Because I've worked with too many agents who fall into the third category, I'm becoming very selective about the lead customers I take on. Within a week or two I think I'll actually be using my lead marketing websites to do recruiting more than anything else.

I believe that a HUGE part of why my system is working for me is that I hire the telemarketers to work directly for me. I don't have another company between me and the prospect. I built my own dialer, track the number of calls the telemarketers are making and I listen in on their calls randomly to check and make sure they're following the script and doing what they should be doing. Usually all their team leader is doing is answering any questions they have and keeping them honest about how much time they're spending on facebook. I'm not saying it's a perfect system or that it's a good fit for everyone in every market, but I buying leads or paying others to generate them can be an extremely productive use of resources.
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I'd say, too, that Sales Genie is too expensive.. try this:

Order your list of local seniors here: Click here to order online.

Use: Customize a List using demographic filters
​

Under Telephone Options select: Provide only records with phone numbers (100% phone numbers)
Age:Select 68-77
Estimated Household Income: Select $20,000 and up

The phone numbers provided by USData are already scrubbed against the DNC list.

1) Get a list (see above)
2) Use a great script (thank you, Frank!)
3) Write the Medicare Supplement policy based on price/value
4) Cross-Sell into Final Expense, LTC, etc
5) Follow-up with an automated referral gathering and client appreciation system
​

 

[Frank Stastny]

The mentality of "any money spent on leads is money wasted" is something I'll never understand. I realize that buying leads isn't for everyone and that some agents in some areas do well doing the cold calling themselves, but that is absolutely not for everyone. In addition to having telemarketers that dial for my agents and myself, I have other agents who lease my telemarketers. Over the last few months I've had the privilege of speaking with some of the folks on this forum and the misfortune of speaking with others.

Apparently you have spoken to agents on the board who I have not. It has never been my "misfortune" having spoken to any of them.

You are correct, buying leads is not for everyone nor is spending thousands of dollars each year having someone else do an agent's prospecting for him/her. There is a lot more to being an agent besides going on appointments.

In my experience agents do not do their own prospecting, not because they "hate" it, but because they have never learned how to do it successfully. There is no magic to what a telemarketer does or says. They call off of a list the same as I do. Unless the person doing the telemarketing is not paying attention to the do not call list.

If it were possible, I could take the exact same list a telemarketer uses and set a lot more appointments than the telemarketer can. I have both used and hired and trained them. Even the best ones I have trained still can't have the same degree of success I can. They can't because they are not agents and cannot carry the phone call to completion.

I have trained a lot of agents who all but refused to pick up the telephone who today would not even remotely pay someone to make phone calls for them. Using the phone correctly is an art.

If an agent has the money and wants to explore other methods of prospecting then I would never discourage him/her from trying. However, if they are not at least exploring doing their own prospecting they are missing an opportunity to dramatically increase their ROI.

It sounds like you are recommending that an agent purchase a fish to eat for dinner and occasionally try fishing for one. I am suggesting that an agent learn to fish as their primary source of food and occasionally go out to dinner and purchase one if they have the money to do so.

The big difference that I see is that you have a fish market, "I have other agents who lease my telemarketers", and I have a fishing school.

You said you have agents leasing your telemarketers, how much is the cost to those agents? I'm sure there are many on the board who would like to consider that as an option.

 

[Josh]

It sounds like you are recommending that an agent purchase a fish to eat for dinner and occasionally try fishing for one. I am suggesting that an agent learn to fish as their primary source of food and occasionally go out to dinner and purchase one if they have the money to do so.

The big difference that I see is that you have a fish market, "[/FONT][/SIZE]I have other agents who lease my telemarketers", and I have a fishing school.

You said you have agents leasing your telemarketers, how much is the cost to those agents? I'm sure there are many on the board who would like to consider that as an option.

There is no question that an insurance agent can do a better job booking appointments than a telemarketer and generate a better quality lead as well.

To continue with the fishing analogy, what I'm suggesting is that if you're interested in having more than a fish or two per day it might be a good idea to have ways to catch fish rather than just fishing yourself. Even if other fishermen and fisherwomen aren't as good at catching fish as you are, if you're able to take home 4 or 5 fish each day instead of 1 or 2, even if you have to pay other people to do the fishing for you, you still end up with more fish at the end of the day.

I'm infinitely less in the business of leasing telemarketers than I am I in the business of using them to generate leads for me and mine. The cost of leasing out my telemarketers varies by the area and what product lines they're marketing, but I can usually get something started for a little less than $400 for a week of telemarketing.

 

[Tom Highway]

The big picture of the original question in this thread is that you absolutely can prospect for med supps on the phone.

But, to continue this discussion about using telemarketers vs calling for yourself, here's where you can take it a little further. And, before I get there, both you and Frank concur that calling leads is a viable option, this discussion is about having a telemarketer to do it for you.

Scenario. It's today, Monday, August 31, 2009. Say you just heard that Banker's Life is having a 25% across the board rate increase in your area effective October 1, 2009.
Going the route that Frank says, you start calling, and you look for interest. If you're the agent calling for your own appointments, you'll spend an hour or two more on the phone every day, but if you set up 2 quality appointments that you know are interested, that you know are qualified, and that you know you have some chemistry with, is that not just as good as going on 5 appointments with someone you haven't even talked to before?

Doesn't it increase your closing ratio to prescreen the people you visit? So, if you're cold calling for yourself and you set up 2 quality appointments a day that you have a very high probability of closing, is that not as good as going on a bunch of visits cold? What if you went on 2 appts a day, 10 per week, but you prequalified them so that you have an 80% closing ratio (yes, it can happen) - 80% of 10 appts is 8 sales per week.

On the other hand, if you go on 4 appts per day that are set by telemarketers whose incentive is to set as many appts as they can for you, would it be safe to say that you could reach a 40% closing ratio, which is actually pretty good in med supps? So, if you did it this way, you'd go on 20 appts, at a 40% closing ratio, and have 8 sales per week.

So, is this a moot point? Maybe. But, what about those telemarketers - are they local? What if you're calling people in a whole different state, and they say "yeah, what do you think about so and so restaurant, or how politician so and so is in the news now"? Are those telemarketers licensed insurance agents in that state? What if the prospect starts bringing up some specific questions and they're really interested RIGHT THEN?

Again, this is sort of an academic debate, but i've been trrying this both ways, and I am completely sold that Frank's method is the best route for me. It may not be best for everyone, but that is the beauty of this industry - there's way more than one way to skin a cat!

There is no question that an insurance agent can do a better job booking appointments than a telemarketer and generate a better quality lead as well.

To continue with the fishing analogy, what I'm suggesting is that if you're interested in having more than a fish or two per day it might be a good idea to have ways to catch fish rather than just fishing yourself. Even if other fishermen and fisherwomen aren't as good at catching fish as you are, if you're able to take home 4 or 5 fish each day instead of 1 or 2, even if you have to pay other people to do the fishing for you, you still end up with more fish at the end of the day.

I'm infinitely less in the business of leasing telemarketers than I am I in the business of using them to generate leads for me and mine. The cost of leasing out my telemarketers varies by the area and what product lines they're marketing, but I can usually get something started for a little less than $400 for a week of telemarketing.

 

[mike6075]

How much do you net from the 5000 after you subtract the cost of the leads?

Dwayne,

Got your PM, but I am unable to PM you. Please send me your email to [email protected] so I can reply.


thanks,

 

[theinsuranceman]

How much do you net from the 5000 after you subtract the cost of the leads?

I usually need 20-25 leads to write $5k. Lead costs are $20/lead (generated by my upline). So net is about $4500-$4600. And this is all done 100% over the phone with no driving to see the prospect and no mailing app to the prospect. We use digital recorders in this process. Takes about 40 hours using the phone and digital recorder.

 

[Tom Highway]

Is this final expense or med supp? Who is your upline?

I usually need 20-25 leads to write $5k. Lead costs are $20/lead (generated by my upline). So net is about $4500-$4600. And this is all done 100% over the phone with no driving to see the prospect and no mailing app to the prospect. We use digital recorders in this process. Takes about 40 hours using the phone and digital recorder.

 

[Frank Stastny]

To continue with the fishing analogy, what I'm suggesting is that if you're interested in having more than a fish or two per day it might be a good idea to have ways to catch fish rather than just fishing yourself. Even if other fishermen and fisherwomen aren't as good at catching fish as you are, if you're able to take home 4 or 5 fish each day instead of 1 or 2, even if you have to pay other people to do the fishing for you, you still end up with more fish at the end of the day.

Your thinking is very logical and with the way you and your people do it I'm sure they are successful. I also have hired and trained my own telemarketers and found doing it myself to be much more efficient.

Any agent who is consistently writing two, three or more apps a day is definitely a hero in my book. He/she is generating between $150,000 and $225,000 or more per year in commission income.

I no longer have the luxury of spending a lot of time going on appointments, not nearly as much as I use to. I can't afford to go on appointments unless I know I am going to write an app. I close over 90% to 95% of the appointments I go on.

Four elements have to be in place or I am going to be reluctant to go on the appointment. I have to know the company they currently have their insurance with and how much they are paying per month. They know exactly what it will cost if they take a policy with me and I know if they qualify.

A telemarketer cannot do all of that unless he/she is a licensed agent. I literally sell it over the phone. When I go on an appointment it is more of a formality to get the app, a check and to make them feel warm and fuzzy.

 

[theinsuranceman]

Is this final expense or med supp? Who is your upline?

Final Expense. Upline is the Powell Agency out of Thomasville,Ga. This agency writes 1.5 - 2 million annualized premium per month! I have heard no other agency in the US produces more in FE on an ave. monthly basis.

 

[policy doctor]

Those are impressive numbers for sure. I am familiar with the Powell Ins group out of Thomasville, ga back when they did mail leads. Many agents just wound up with huge debits and vector probs. Believe they used Boston Mutual out of Ariz...they really were high in premium. They also run those ads for Silver....(something, can't recall) on TV.

are they still using the same ins co and the same lead generation m.o.? (modus operandi) mail bakc, tv and telemktd?

Getting 20-25 leads per week is good if interested prospects.