Telesales Tips Thread

[Thad.Sipple]

My name is Thad Sipple and I approve this thread.... But to be fair GymGuy is fat.

All honestly I don't thing "anybody" can to this. GymGuy is a beast and One of, if not the most disciplined person I've ever met, and I've hired and trained hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of agents he also has the best attitude and work effort I've ever seen, along with that he doesn't falter when it comes to the plan of getting it done.

He was also able to do what most Agents can't or won't do which is develop his own leads. The vast majority a companies and agencies that do telesales all develop their own leads which controls the cost, Quality and quantity of leads.

Lastly he is not hard up for money.

 

[theinsuranceman]

I woke up this morning and had two more private messages about telesales. Throughout the year I have got messages on a weekly basis from various people asking different things. I'll do my best to share some the insight I have gained over the years regarding telesales. I don't mind responding to peoples messages, but I think this will help those who are too timid to inquire. I'll add bits and pieces of info to this thread in the future. As a starting point, Ill cover the two big things people ask me about: Which carriers do you recommend & How do you even do this over the phone?

Just to get this out of the way because I know it would be important to me. Here is a brief background about me and telesales. I have been doing strictly telesales since 2010. I was Thad Sipple's very first agent, and by a large margin I was inarguably his most successful agent. I have worked independently since late 2013. This year has been my best so far since being independent working from home. I have been averaging about 2200 in AP weekly. I generate my own Press 1 Leads (not robo calls). All I pay is $400 for a phone bill. These numbers are jack squat compared to the guys in the field who are really killing it, but its decent in my opinion doing this from home. I am not special in anyway, and I wholeheartedly know that anyone could what I do (and even be better for that matter). I have just devoted a lot of time and focused effort into mastering my craft, and I can confidently say that I can speak on this subject in a qualified matter.

Here are some indisputable truths regarding telesales that you must accept​

1. Some of these people won't buy via the telephone.
2. No matter how much they profess that they will buy if you just send them some information via mail, it will NEVER happen. I have tested it. It never once out of over 50 attempts resulted in a sale.
3. Your closing ratio of any lead source will never compete with the closing ratio field guys achieve.
4. Quality of business will suffer greatly if you attempt to hard close or pressure them into buying.
5. Telesales will not take over face to face sales for quite a long while.

Carriers​

Here are your most common options: Foresters, Americo (Eagle only), Liberty Bankers, Balitmore Life, Equitable, Gerber (GI). There are more, but these are the most common. These all offer a 100% phone application. No emails or wet signatures.

In my opinion Foresters is far and above the best carrier for telesales. You can place most clients with them. Over 90% of my applications are approved level. They have competitive rates, they pay great and super fast, and you can set a draft date up to 45 days out (this is unbelievably helpful). I try to place most business with them except for a few scenarios. I put people with liberty bankers when they have liver or kidney problems, COPD issues, lupus, or Parkinson's. They qualify for an immediate benefit with liberty whereas with foresters it would be a 30/70 payout. This year, I have placed all my business with foresters and liberty. Americo's eagle product is a joke and its ultra rare that it is needed. Click here to see a post I made about when to use eagle. I absolutely do not write GI over the phone. In my opinion, it would be a waste of time for such little comp. I simply give them the number to Mutual Of Omaha and tell them to call. That number is 1-800-377-9000. I also don't write DE business.

How the heck do you do this over the phone​

This is a tricky one to answer. There are so many different things that go into what I do that allow me to sell via phone consistently and reliably. I will not attempt to go through them all (it would be too long). I'll try to stick to a basic core that is paramount to successful telesales selling. There is no magic script that can just land you sales. In fact I don't have a set script because every client is different and they all respond to things differently and they have all had different experiences. Because of this, you must be able to adapt like water to conform to the glass which you are given.

First contact intro script​

If you are working a lead where you have heard their voice and you know it's the lead who answered:
Hi _____, this is (agent name). You probably remember the other day/today/last week you got a phone call from my company regarding these state regulated final expense life insurance plans. You said your favorite food was ____. Is that right your favorite food is ____? Great, well look I don't need to take up your whole day on this but I wanted to connect with you about these plans. Were you wanting to get some information for yourself or a loved one? **obviously if you have a different lead source you would adjust the verbiage.

If you are working a lead where you have NOT heard their voice:
Hi may I speak with _____? Hi _____, this is (agent name). You probably remember the other day/today/last week you got a phone call from my company regarding these state regulated final expense life insurance plans. You said your favorite food was ____. Is that right your favorite food is ____? Great, well look I don't need to take up your whole day on this but I wanted to connect with you about these plans. Were you wanting to get some information for yourself or a loved one? **obviously if you have a different lead source you would adjust the verbiage.

I start every single call this way. Take note that I did not ask them if they have time to talk or anything of the sort. If you ask that, you may as well throw your leads out. 95% will put you off indefinitely (and yes I have tested this). Some people will give you a real response to your intro question and some will give you a fake answer. I will not go into what you should do if they give you fake answers because I am not trying to write a book here. A real answer will usually be something short like: "For myself" or "for me and my husband/wife". Occasionally you will get people who will open up about their history with final expense coverage. If they do this, LET THEM TALK ABOUT IT! When this happens, look up to God and say thank you because they are your dream client.

Fact finding​

So they have now confirmed they are indeed looking for info for them self or for someone else. This is where I try to begin the fact finding process. It's not as simple as just firing off 20 questions because that usually won't end well. The trick is to tactfully probe without pissing them off. You have to pay close attention to the client. Listen to their voice and how they are responding to everything. Do they sound like they don't want to talk with you? Do they sound agitated as you ask more questions? Some people might answer 1 question and them demand you tell them prices. Some might answer 2. Some might answer all your questions joyfully. As I said before, everyone is different, so you have to learn to adapt to each one. I pay close attention to EVERYTHING they do, so that I can adjust my own words to give myself the best chance at being able to probe properly. The probing process has two objectives. 1) The why MUST be discovered & 2) You need to know their prior experience with FE (the more you know the better).

The Motive​

The guy who posts here regularly, Jdeasy says it best. He does not present to people unless they can tell him why they sent in that card. It's exactly the same with phone sales. I do not and will not ever present or give prices to ANYONE unless I can get them to tell me why the heck they are a lead in the first place. If people say things like: "I just wanted to see what this was all about" or "I was just curious" or "I thought I would check it out", I do not buy those as reasons why they are a lead. You must must must discover their motive. Why are they going to buy final expense life insurance? If you don't know why, you have literally 0 chance at making a sale. Furthermore, you are 100% wasting valuable time on a non prospect. Anyone who can't tell you why they are a lead, is not a prospect. Ask yourself: Do you think it's a good idea to talk to a non prospect? I certainly don't, and therefore I do not. Do not be the stereotypical sales person and just present for the sake of presenting. Be better than that. Just because they said they wanted to get info on them self or someone else, that alone does not make them a prospect. The presence of a motive is what makes them a prospect. They either have it or they don't. If they have it, YOU must pull it out of them. If they profess they have no motive, thank them for their time and let them go.

Sometimes you will encounter someone who is just not saying their motive. Here is a question that you can use that will surely get them to reveal their motive and say it slowly: "Now this may sound strange, but I promise you that I ask it for a very important reason- Why do you want a final expense plan?" This works because the beginning of the question tells them WHY you are asking it. When a person understands why they are to do something, they are far more likely to do it. This is a technique I have learned to use over the years to help me get questions out and overcome objections. I may go into that in the future, but this whole thing is too long already.

Their prior experience with FE​

This is all their prior dealing with final expense life insurance. I want to know the following: Do they have some now? If so, how much, with who, when, how, what kind. Have they been looking for FE? Have they formally applied with anyone? I think you get the idea. My goal is to familiarize myself with everything they have experienced about final expense life insurance. If they have been looking for this, I want to know how that search has been going, how long have they been looking, where have they been looking, why did they not take something out, what challenges did they face if any, what would it take for them to get approved for a plan. There are many things to discover. My goal is to methodically employ a line of questioning in such a way as to discover all of it. Notice that I said it's my goal, but that does not always mean I achieve it. Sometimes, there will be info that I will not be able to extract, and that is ok. What is key is that you have the mindset that you will do all you can at attempting to discover this info. You might be thinking, why the heck do you want to know all of this? Well there are many reasons:

1. It builds trust. You will get people to give you their bank info and ss# because of trust. This is unequivocally the best way to build that. You are making a sincere attempt at finding out all you can about them. Think of dating women. Its honestly a joke to get them to like you. You literally just ask them questions and boom they love you.
2. You gain the info you need that assists you in making a qualified recommendation about a solution to their problem.
3. You will often discover any potential objections you would not otherwise know.
4. Often, the client will inevitably sell themselves. Through their discussion with you about the past experience, its common where they will verbally state something like: "here is what I need...".
5. You separate yourself from 98% of all the sales people of the world. Most sales people Sham- Wow people as a sales process. Going with the masses is a guaranteed way to a life of mediocrity and strife.

Once I have their motive and I have learned all I can about them, I feel confident about moving forward. I will find out info about their health, make sure they understand whole life vs term (ill make a post on how to do this another day), I find out if they would prefer burial vs cremation so I can determine benefit amounts. I then give them 3 prices and ask them which one works best for their monthly budget. If they chose one, I do an assumptive close by telling them how the process works. Then I just ask for their date of birth and starting filling out the app.

Obviously, there is SO MUCH more detail in all of that, but again I have to end this somewhere. The key to telesales is unequivocally the motive and fact finding. If you master those two things, you can probably screw up most other stuff and do ok. I'll try to add more in the future. Hope this helps. Feel free to post questions in this thread.

GL and happy hunting!

Good post. Even though tele-sales closing % may be 10%-20% less than field sales, the fact that you can get many more "phone" presentations in a 40 hour week than "field" presentations will usually more than make up the differences in closing %. Eliminates the wasted time of driving from point A to point B to point C.Profit per hour is the name of the game.

That part of "just mail me something" is spot on. When I hear that excuse doing tele-sales I know that's just a nice way of them saying they're just not interested in going forward, either because of me or because they don't have the desire/money.

I remember 2 years ago everyone up here was saying FE tele-sales didn't work. Good to see folks like you, Thad, even Newby doing some tele-sales.

 

[PA Bill]

Boy, that post was a lot of work!. But thanks for putting it in for our benefit. Very interesting and informative.

 

[gymguy]

Is it for the preferred or standard plan? Also, is it as long as the person isn't using oxygen?

Its the standard plan and they cant be on oxygen.

Gym:

Barring physical or severe geographical restrictions, why would you prefer telesales over face-to-face sales when all your metrics directly tied to your profitability are lower selling over the phone?

Not sure you are asking me personally or just rhetorically. I am not adverse to doing what it takes to be successful in the field. I do telesales because I have a vision for what I want to accomplish in the future, and telesales is a required part of that.

For others, they have to decide. They would make more money doing face to face. In fact, I would not recommend someone go out and try to be successful at telesales. Its simply too challenging. Yes it can be done, but for a person with no prior experience doing it, its just too large of a task.

If a person is intent on exploring telesales, they absolutely need to have access to someone like me who would be training them. If you can't gain access to someone who has been effective at selling fe by phone, your chance of success is very low. I believe most people would absolutely quit long before they put in enough time to figure it out on their own. I am a humble guy and yes anyone can do anything, but I know human beings and I know that most people are not disciplined or resilient enough to endure the learning curve.

But again, its up to each person to decide what is best for them. I didn't make this thread to try to lure people into telesales or to make people think they could easily get into it and start making money. I did for the people who are in it now or for those who are seriously going to attempt it.

 

[Rearden]

Not sure you are asking me personally or just rhetorically. I am not adverse to doing what it takes to be successful in the field. I do telesales because I have a vision for what I want to accomplish in the future, and telesales is a required part of that.

For others, they have to decide. They would make more money doing face to face. In fact, I would not recommend someone go out and try to be successful at telesales. Its simply too challenging. Yes it can be done, but for a person with no prior experience doing it, its just too large of a task.

If a person is intent on exploring telesales, they absolutely need to have access to someone like me who would be training them. If you can't gain access to someone who has been effective at selling fe by phone, your chance of success is very low. I believe most people would absolutely quit long before they put in enough time to figure it out on their own. I am a humble guy and yes anyone can do anything, but I know human beings and I know that most people are not disciplined or resilient enough to endure the learning curve.

But again, its up to each person to decide what is best for them. I didn't make this thread to try to lure people into telesales or to make people think they could easily get into it and start making money. I did for the people who are in it now or for those who are seriously going to attempt it.

Gym:

No attempts to bait or attack at all.

For me, the "how" is not as important as the "why."

From a strictly-business generating stand-point, you are saying that you pass on GI and DE type business, combined with lower closing ratios and equivalent if not higher costs of generating leads (I may be wrong regarding the lead cost constraint).

Considering that - and besides being paralyzed or living in Alaska - I am wondering what type of business advantages a sell-by-phone final expense agent has versus a face-to-face agent, ie, for the sake of making the most financially, why would an agent choose to sell final expense via the phone versus face-to-face given the inherent obstacles?

Note that I am completely ignorant of telesales and don't pretend to know the answer - perhaps it's as Greg said above and an agent can utilize efficiency advantages of the phone. I just don't understand.

If it's because of personal reasons? I can accept that.

 

[goillini52]

I woke up this morning and had two more private messages about telesales. Throughout the year I have got messages on a weekly basis from various people asking different things. I'll do my best to share some the insight I have gained over the years regarding telesales. I don't mind responding to peoples messages, but I think this will help those who are too timid to inquire. I'll add bits and pieces of info to this thread in the future. As a starting point, Ill cover the two big things people ask me about: Which carriers do you recommend & How do you even do this over the phone?

Just to get this out of the way because I know it would be important to me. Here is a brief background about me and telesales. I have been doing strictly telesales since 2010. I was Thad Sipple's very first agent, and by a large margin I was inarguably his most successful agent. I have worked independently since late 2013. This year has been my best so far since being independent working from home. I have been averaging about 2200 in AP weekly. I generate my own Press 1 Leads (not robo calls). All I pay is $400 for a phone bill. These numbers are jack squat compared to the guys in the field who are really killing it, but its decent in my opinion doing this from home. I am not special in anyway, and I wholeheartedly know that anyone could what I do (and even be better for that matter). I have just devoted a lot of time and focused effort into mastering my craft, and I can confidently say that I can speak on this subject in a qualified matter.

Here are some indisputable truths regarding telesales that you must accept​

1. Some of these people won't buy via the telephone.
2. No matter how much they profess that they will buy if you just send them some information via mail, it will NEVER happen. I have tested it. It never once out of over 50 attempts resulted in a sale.
3. Your closing ratio of any lead source will never compete with the closing ratio field guys achieve.
4. Quality of business will suffer greatly if you attempt to hard close or pressure them into buying.
5. Telesales will not take over face to face sales for quite a long while.

Carriers​

Here are your most common options: Foresters, Americo (Eagle only), Liberty Bankers, Balitmore Life, Equitable, Gerber (GI). There are more, but these are the most common. These all offer a 100% phone application. No emails or wet signatures.

In my opinion Foresters is far and above the best carrier for telesales. You can place most clients with them. Over 90% of my applications are approved level. They have competitive rates, they pay great and super fast, and you can set a draft date up to 45 days out (this is unbelievably helpful). I try to place most business with them except for a few scenarios. I put people with liberty bankers when they have liver or kidney problems, COPD issues, lupus, or Parkinson's. They qualify for an immediate benefit with liberty whereas with foresters it would be a 30/70 payout. This year, I have placed all my business with foresters and liberty. Americo's eagle product is a joke and its ultra rare that it is needed. Click here to see a post I made about when to use eagle. I absolutely do not write GI over the phone. In my opinion, it would be a waste of time for such little comp. I simply give them the number to Mutual Of Omaha and tell them to call. That number is 1-800-377-9000. I also don't write DE business.

How the heck do you do this over the phone​

This is a tricky one to answer. There are so many different things that go into what I do that allow me to sell via phone consistently and reliably. I will not attempt to go through them all (it would be too long). I'll try to stick to a basic core that is paramount to successful telesales selling. There is no magic script that can just land you sales. In fact I don't have a set script because every client is different and they all respond to things differently and they have all had different experiences. Because of this, you must be able to adapt like water to conform to the glass which you are given.

First contact intro script​

If you are working a lead where you have heard their voice and you know it's the lead who answered:
Hi _____, this is (agent name). You probably remember the other day/today/last week you got a phone call from my company regarding these state regulated final expense life insurance plans. You said your favorite food was ____. Is that right your favorite food is ____? Great, well look I don't need to take up your whole day on this but I wanted to connect with you about these plans. Were you wanting to get some information for yourself or a loved one? **obviously if you have a different lead source you would adjust the verbiage.

If you are working a lead where you have NOT heard their voice:
Hi may I speak with _____? Hi _____, this is (agent name). You probably remember the other day/today/last week you got a phone call from my company regarding these state regulated final expense life insurance plans. You said your favorite food was ____. Is that right your favorite food is ____? Great, well look I don't need to take up your whole day on this but I wanted to connect with you about these plans. Were you wanting to get some information for yourself or a loved one? **obviously if you have a different lead source you would adjust the verbiage.

I start every single call this way. Take note that I did not ask them if they have time to talk or anything of the sort. If you ask that, you may as well throw your leads out. 95% will put you off indefinitely (and yes I have tested this). Some people will give you a real response to your intro question and some will give you a fake answer. I will not go into what you should do if they give you fake answers because I am not trying to write a book here. A real answer will usually be something short like: "For myself" or "for me and my husband/wife". Occasionally you will get people who will open up about their history with final expense coverage. If they do this, LET THEM TALK ABOUT IT! When this happens, look up to God and say thank you because they are your dream client.

Fact finding​

So they have now confirmed they are indeed looking for info for them self or for someone else. This is where I try to begin the fact finding process. It's not as simple as just firing off 20 questions because that usually won't end well. The trick is to tactfully probe without pissing them off. You have to pay close attention to the client. Listen to their voice and how they are responding to everything. Do they sound like they don't want to talk with you? Do they sound agitated as you ask more questions? Some people might answer 1 question and them demand you tell them prices. Some might answer 2. Some might answer all your questions joyfully. As I said before, everyone is different, so you have to learn to adapt to each one. I pay close attention to EVERYTHING they do, so that I can adjust my own words to give myself the best chance at being able to probe properly. The probing process has two objectives. 1) The why MUST be discovered & 2) You need to know their prior experience with FE (the more you know the better).

The Motive​

The guy who posts here regularly, Jdeasy says it best. He does not present to people unless they can tell him why they sent in that card. It's exactly the same with phone sales. I do not and will not ever present or give prices to ANYONE unless I can get them to tell me why the heck they are a lead in the first place. If people say things like: "I just wanted to see what this was all about" or "I was just curious" or "I thought I would check it out", I do not buy those as reasons why they are a lead. You must must must discover their motive. Why are they going to buy final expense life insurance? If you don't know why, you have literally 0 chance at making a sale. Furthermore, you are 100% wasting valuable time on a non prospect. Anyone who can't tell you why they are a lead, is not a prospect. Ask yourself: Do you think it's a good idea to talk to a non prospect? I certainly don't, and therefore I do not. Do not be the stereotypical sales person and just present for the sake of presenting. Be better than that. Just because they said they wanted to get info on them self or someone else, that alone does not make them a prospect. The presence of a motive is what makes them a prospect. They either have it or they don't. If they have it, YOU must pull it out of them. If they profess they have no motive, thank them for their time and let them go.

Sometimes you will encounter someone who is just not saying their motive. Here is a question that you can use that will surely get them to reveal their motive and say it slowly: "Now this may sound strange, but I promise you that I ask it for a very important reason- Why do you want a final expense plan?" This works because the beginning of the question tells them WHY you are asking it. When a person understands why they are to do something, they are far more likely to do it. This is a technique I have learned to use over the years to help me get questions out and overcome objections. I may go into that in the future, but this whole thing is too long already.

Their prior experience with FE​

This is all their prior dealing with final expense life insurance. I want to know the following: Do they have some now? If so, how much, with who, when, how, what kind. Have they been looking for FE? Have they formally applied with anyone? I think you get the idea. My goal is to familiarize myself with everything they have experienced about final expense life insurance. If they have been looking for this, I want to know how that search has been going, how long have they been looking, where have they been looking, why did they not take something out, what challenges did they face if any, what would it take for them to get approved for a plan. There are many things to discover. My goal is to methodically employ a line of questioning in such a way as to discover all of it. Notice that I said it's my goal, but that does not always mean I achieve it. Sometimes, there will be info that I will not be able to extract, and that is ok. What is key is that you have the mindset that you will do all you can at attempting to discover this info. You might be thinking, why the heck do you want to know all of this? Well there are many reasons:

1. It builds trust. You will get people to give you their bank info and ss# because of trust. This is unequivocally the best way to build that. You are making a sincere attempt at finding out all you can about them. Think of dating women. Its honestly a joke to get them to like you. You literally just ask them questions and boom they love you.
2. You gain the info you need that assists you in making a qualified recommendation about a solution to their problem.
3. You will often discover any potential objections you would not otherwise know.
4. Often, the client will inevitably sell themselves. Through their discussion with you about the past experience, its common where they will verbally state something like: "here is what I need...".
5. You separate yourself from 98% of all the sales people of the world. Most sales people Sham- Wow people as a sales process. Going with the masses is a guaranteed way to a life of mediocrity and strife.

Once I have their motive and I have learned all I can about them, I feel confident about moving forward. I will find out info about their health, make sure they understand whole life vs term (ill make a post on how to do this another day), I find out if they would prefer burial vs cremation so I can determine benefit amounts. I then give them 3 prices and ask them which one works best for their monthly budget. If they chose one, I do an assumptive close by telling them how the process works. Then I just ask for their date of birth and starting filling out the app.

Obviously, there is SO MUCH more detail in all of that, but again I have to end this somewhere. The key to telesales is unequivocally the motive and fact finding. If you master those two things, you can probably screw up most other stuff and do ok. I'll try to add more in the future. Hope this helps. Feel free to post questions in this thread.

GL and happy hunting!

That's a really good post! Thanks for sharing.

I've thought of doing telesales, but I'd probably lead with Med Supps and cross sell FE. Do you do much cross selling? About what % do you make more than one contact with(after you already have the lead? What kind of persistency do you have with telesales?

 

[gymguy]

Gym:

No attempts to bait or attack at all.

For me, the "how" is not as important as the "why."

From a strictly-business generating stand-point, you are saying that you pass on GI and DE type business, combined with lower closing ratios and equivalent if not higher costs of generating leads (I may be wrong regarding the lead cost constraint).

Considering that - and besides being paralyzed or living in Alaska - I am wondering what type of business advantages a sell-by-phone final expense agent has versus a face-to-face agent, ie, for the sake of making the most financially, why would an agent choose to sell final expense via the phone versus face-to-face given the inherent obstacles?

Note that I am completely ignorant of telesales and don't pretend to know the answer - perhaps it's as Greg said above and an agent can utilize efficiency advantages of the phone. I just don't understand.

If it's because of personal reasons? I can accept that.

I know you arent baiting or attacking

The thing is you are asking me about my personal reasons why I do this. For me, its about the future. I know I will likely earn less now doing this via phone. However, in the future I will earn more because of the groundwork that I am laying right now.

For others, I cant speculate why they would. I can only tell you why I do

 

[MTulipani]

Wow. Thank you for taking the time to share all of that information. Comfort on the phone is so important and you have some great tips in there. Thanks again!
Matt

 

[gymguy]

That's a really good post! Thanks for sharing.

I've thought of doing telesales, but I'd probably lead with Med Supps and cross sell FE. Do you do much cross selling? About what % do you make more than one contact with(after you already have the lead? What kind of persistency do you have with telesales?

I don't currently cross sell med sups. I have been so focused on my present task, that I didn't want to put time into something else. I am sure one day that will happen though. I usually have to call a lead at least 5 times before I get a hold of them. I don't try to one call close people. Sure it happens, but most will not. I end up having a steady pipeline of people I need to follow up with and work through. My persistency is far above what is required, and is better now than ever. Part of it is not trying to push people into doing this. The other thing is I follow up with people for six months after I sell them.

This will probably be my last response until the work week. My wife and I are in route to San Fran for our 5 year anniversary

 

[WinoBlues]

That's a really good post! Thanks for sharing.

I've thought of doing telesales, but I'd probably lead with Med Supps and cross sell FE. Do you do much cross selling? About what % do you make more than one contact with(after you already have the lead? What kind of persistency do you have with telesales?

I do not cross sell other than life products. But it is not unusual to start with a small FE plan and write large FU plans or visa versa.