Cold Calling Opening Question

[ksigmtsu]

I'm about to start cold calling medicare supplements on afternoons and nights/weekends, and b to b during the weekdays. I have what I believe to be a good b to b script, but I do not have one for medicare at all.. Basically I'm just looking for a good opening question. My b to b script is an introduction, then just "can i have your email or fax to send you over some information?" I don't see why medicare wouldn't work in the same way, but what I'm looking for is a good segway from:

"Hi, I'm (name), with (company name). I am a licensed health and life insurance agent in (town) and I specialize in medicare supplement policy reviews. On average I save my customers over 300 dollars per year without any reduction in benefits."

That's where I'm stuck. I can't decide what to ask them for. I want to remain as neutral to asking any personal information as possible. I don't want to know or care if they are happy with their supplement.

I'm leaning toward:

"Do you currently have a medicare supplement?" or
"What company do you currently purchase your medicare supplement from?" or
"How much does your supplement cost right now?"

I know my products, my presentation is fine, I know my underwriting, ect, I just want to be fishing with dynamite so to speak with the opening question. I want something that will engage an answer, before I waste time/money.

 

[Josh]

Personally I think you're going about it the wrong way. I'm sure some of it is personal taste and style, but why not lead in with exactly what you're doing and why you're bothering them.

"Hi, I'm calling you today because I'm a local insurance agent that has saved seniors hundreds of dollars on their health insurance, would you like to know how much you could save by getting the exact same coverage you have now through a local agent another great company?"

Certainly not a finished product, but if you have a long enough list to call and the right setup you'll get a much more qualified lead more quickly that way.

A guy I used to work with would use a certain line on the ladies in a bar to get them to spend some more intimate time with him after. A real Casanova, this one. He'd walk up to every girl in the bar and say "are we f***in'?" All he needed was one yes and there was an entire bar full of ladies and an entire city full of bars. A heart touching story I know, but the point is that when you're cold calling you can use a very similar and direct approach. "Hi, are you buying insurance from me if I can save you money and you keep your current coverage?" Odds are there are seniors waiting for you as their local agent to call them and save them money, so why spend time finessing the conversation with ones that aren't interested?

Sure, it's a different approach than Frank's (which I do have a lot of respect for and think it's a great system), but being direct is a great way to learn to stop being afraid of the phone, get some quick deals, and start to understand better the way to finesse a prospect so they don't feel like you're trying to sell them (Frank's style).

 

[Russ]

I'm about to start cold calling medicare supplements on afternoons and nights/weekends, and b to b during the weekdays. I have what I believe to be a good b to b script, but I do not have one for medicare at all.. Basically I'm just looking for a good opening question. My b to b script is an introduction, then just "can i have your email or fax to send you over some information?" I don't see why medicare wouldn't work in the same way, but what I'm looking for is a good segway from:

"Hi, I'm (name), with (company name). I am a licensed health and life insurance agent in (town) and I specialize in medicare supplement policy reviews. On average I save my customers over 300 dollars per year without any reduction in benefits."

That's where I'm stuck. I can't decide what to ask them for. I want to remain as neutral to asking any personal information as possible. I don't want to know or care if they are happy with their supplement.

I'm leaning toward:

"Do you currently have a medicare supplement?" or
"What company do you currently purchase your medicare supplement from?" or
"How much does your supplement cost right now?"

I know my products, my presentation is fine, I know my underwriting, ect, I just want to be fishing with dynamite so to speak with the opening question. I want something that will engage an answer, before I waste time/money.

I'm not sure what you mean by "b to b"? I'm assuming you're cold-calling(telephone calling?). If so....you are already greatly lowering your chances of selling them NOW by your statement...""can i have your email or fax to send you over some information?"" If you're cold-door knocking and ask them for their email or fax #, how are you going to sell them now?

First off, a good portion of those age 65+ don't have a computer or a fax machine. If they do and agree to accept your offer, a very small pct. will ever call you back. You're calling to sell them your product now, not send them literature. You're cold-door knocking to sell them now too. Some, you will have to send literature to and a small pct. will call you back and buy from you. Usually they won't. I wrote a gentleman this afternoon that did.

I can't speak for calling those above T65. I telemarket T65's about 4 months BEFORE their Medicare starts and tell them my name, plus where I'm out of and let them know what I'm calling for....I'm calling folks today that are fixing to be on Medicare to see if they may be in the market for a Medicare supplement. Let them know the companies I represent...that they are some of the lowest, premium-wise, in the area. That I've been in the business for 25+ years. They'll let you know if they have a need.

I called a T65 lady yesterday who I have been trying to get up with for a few weeks. She seemed interested from the start. She told me to call her back this morning. I did and she bought both a supplement and a PDP plan today.

 

[jerry176]

Contact Frank Stastny on the forum. He has some good ideas on how to sell medicare supplement insurance. Frank is top shelf.

I was not paid for the endorsment

Gerry

 

[arnguy]

Of course, you could use reverse psychology by asking: "You don't want to buy insurance, do you?"

 

[ksigmtsu]

I'm not sure what you mean by "b to b"? I'm assuming you're cold-calling(telephone calling?). If so....you are already greatly lowering your chances of selling them NOW by your statement...""can i have your email or fax to send you over some information?"" If you're cold-door knocking and ask them for their email or fax #, how are you going to sell them now?

Cold calling b to b is business to business for major medical or life. I ask businesses to send emails and phone calls to them. Not seniors. Just trying to develop a good leading question to engage conversation, to set appointment over the phone. I can call about 50-100 an hour, door knocking wouldn't be quite as fast to qualify.

I'm cold calling seniors, on the phone. Normally, when you door knock, you call that "door knocking". Cold calling is when you use a telephone.
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Contact Frank Stastny on the forum. He has some good ideas on how to sell medicare supplement insurance. Frank is top shelf.

I was not paid for the endorsment

Gerry

Lol I'm afraid Frank might charge me since I already have a CRM that I like because I can use it with my blackberry.

 

[Frank Stastny]

Cold calling b to b is business to business for major medical or life. I ask businesses to send emails and phone calls to them. Not seniors. Just trying to develop a good leading question to engage conversation, to set appointment over the phone. I can call about 50-100 an hour, door knocking wouldn't be quite as fast to qualify.

I'm cold calling seniors, on the phone. Normally, when you door knock, you call that "door knocking". Cold calling is when you use a telephone.
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Lol I'm afraid Frank might charge me since I already have a CRM that I like because I can use it with my blackberry.

Well, you are probably correct if you want me to train you. I spend an average of 5.5 hours on the phone with an agent and then they have unlimited access to me after that. My time and experience is worth something, at least I think so.

However, there are a whole lot of agents who I have helped get started that I have spent many hours on the phone with and received no payment at all. (Aren't I a nice guy? I just damn near broke my arm patting myself on the back. )

I will give you this much. Never start by asking a question you don't know the answer to. Don't start by telling them you have saved seniors hundreds of dollars. They are not going to believe it, everyone who calls says that.

It is imperative you main control of the conversation. If you permit them to say "I'm not interested" then you may as well thank them for their time and go on to the next call. It is very difficult to regain control after they have assumed control. Nothing will be sold during a phone call, not even an appointment, you must engage them in a conversation first.

Never ask them "who do you have your insurance with". That will throw up a huge red flag with them. They will be suspicious and be reluctant to tell you the name of the company. It will illicit a more spontaneous response if you instead say, "Do you recall the name of the company...".

You are really asking them if they remember the name of the company. Seniors are old and old people get accused of not having as good a memory as they use to. When I say "do you recall..." most will just blurt out the name of the company without even thinking about it. They want me to know that they remember.

Using the phone is a learned well practiced art. As in the example above, the individual words an agent uses can make the difference between getting an appointment or a sale and ending up wasting time.

 

[Russ]

Cold calling b to b is business to business for major medical or life. I ask businesses to send emails and phone calls to them. Not seniors. Just trying to develop a good leading question to engage conversation, to set appointment over the phone. I can call about 50-100 an hour, door knocking wouldn't be quite as fast to qualify.

I'm cold calling seniors, on the phone. Normally, when you door knock, you call that "door knocking". Cold calling is when you use a telephone.

Thanks. I couldn't figure out what you meant by b to b. I don't call on businesses.

I should have figured the "cold calling" out, since I've been doing it for over 20 years. I've just gotten use to calling it telemarketing....er, that's the best excuse I could come up with.

 

[ksigmtsu]

Well, you are probably correct if you want me to train you. I spend an average of 5.5 hours on the phone with an agent and then they have unlimited access to me after that. My time and experience is worth something, at least I think so.

However, there are a whole lot of agents who I have helped get started that I have spent many hours on the phone with and received no payment at all. (Aren't I a nice guy? I just damn near broke my arm patting myself on the back. )

I will give you this much. Never start by asking a question you don't know the answer to. Don't start by telling them you have saved seniors hundreds of dollars. They are not going to believe it, everyone who calls says that.

It is imperative you main control of the conversation. If you permit them to say "I'm not interested" then you may as well thank them for their time and go on to the next call. It is very difficult to regain control after they have assumed control. Nothing will be sold during a phone call, not even an appointment, you must engage them in a conversation first.

Never ask them "who do you have your insurance with". That will throw up a huge red flag with them. They will be suspicious and be reluctant to tell you the name of the company. It will illicit a more spontaneous response if you instead say, "Do you recall the name of the company...".

You are really asking them if they remember the name of the company. Seniors are old and old people get accused of not having as good a memory as they use to. When I say "do you recall..." most will just blurt out the name of the company without even thinking about it. They want me to know that they remember.

Using the phone is a learned well practiced art. As in the example above, the individual words an agent uses can make the difference between getting an appointment or a sale and ending up wasting time.

Frank it was not a knock against you above, I'm frigging broke right now (9 Blue Cross of TN health apps just sitting in u/w since Jan worth over $4000 and Moo failed to process my paperwork for advances so instead of making about 2400 from them since December I've made 120) or I'd probably pay you for the CRM just for training even though I already have a CRM, and I feel like it'd be wrong of me to request training for free from someone that does that for a living. I had to get mojo and norvax going as a first priority. I feel like I can probably slog my way through it as long as I have a good opening. I found out the importance of individual words when I was doing mortgage protection leads from EMG to set appointments, you can't say words like "interested" or let them control the conversation ect, I understand that aspect pretty well. I learned over time that key words to actually say were words like "important, benefits, entitled, protection, protect, family, trust, your, yours, help, health, healthy, specialist" and to avoid negative words like "interested, insurance, agent, product, sell, buy". Conceptually I get that part of it. No reason to lead people to a No.

And as for the above, probably right I didn't think about everyone saying they could save them money. Frankly the 300 dollars thing was my wife's idea she said my approach initially was too simple and I didn't have anything to draw people in so I needed to have some sort of an incentive to keep them on the line to talk to me. Looking at that line objectively I think you're right it immediately establishes you as a telemarketer which is not a great thing.

The "do you recall the name of your medicare supplement company?" line is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks. I think I can drop the 300 dollar comment, try to replace that with something. Maybe rework the line before that into "I am a medicare supplement benefits specialist" or something of that nature that is more positive. Do you normally work toward in home appointments or policy reviews over the phone? I'm just curious what the success level of 1 call sales over the telephone in this market actually is, I'm going to start with a 30 mile radius around my house so I could drive to the apps no problem.

 

[Frank Stastny]

Frank it was not a knock against you above, I'm frigging broke right now (9 Blue Cross of TN health apps just sitting in u/w since Jan worth over $4000 and Moo failed to process my paperwork for advances so instead of making about 2400 from them since December I've made 120) or I'd probably pay you for the CRM just for training even though I already have a CRM, and I feel like it'd be wrong of me to request training for free from someone that does that for a living. I had to get mojo and norvax going as a first priority. I feel like I can probably slog my way through it as long as I have a good opening. I found out the importance of individual words when I was doing mortgage protection leads from EMG to set appointments, you can't say words like "interested" or let them control the conversation ect, I understand that aspect pretty well. I learned over time that key words to actually say were words like "important, benefits, entitled, protection, protect, family, trust, your, yours, help, health, healthy, specialist" and to avoid negative words like "interested, insurance, agent, product, sell, buy". Conceptually I get that part of it. No reason to lead people to a No.

And as for the above, probably right I didn't think about everyone saying they could save them money. Frankly the 300 dollars thing was my wife's idea she said my approach initially was too simple and I didn't have anything to draw people in so I needed to have some sort of an incentive to keep them on the line to talk to me. Looking at that line objectively I think you're right it immediately establishes you as a telemarketer which is not a great thing.

The "do you recall the name of your medicare supplement company?" line is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks. I think I can drop the 300 dollar comment, try to replace that with something. Maybe rework the line before that into "I am a medicare supplement benefits specialist" or something of that nature that is more positive. Do you normally work toward in home appointments or policy reviews over the phone? I'm just curious what the success level of 1 call sales over the telephone in this market actually is, I'm going to start with a 30 mile radius around my house so I could drive to the apps no problem.

I know it wasn't a "knock against me" and I didn't take it that way. I understand what you said.

You definitely sound like you have the desire and are willing to put forth the effort necessary.

I stopped doing "Medicare Reviews" and setting appointments to drop off "valuable information" a very long time ago. It is not cost effective for me. When I set an appointment the prospect knows that I am coming to fill out an application and pick up a check. As a result, I close over 90% of my appointments.

Within the first sixty seconds of the phone call I get the name of the company they currently have their insurance with, how much they are paying per month, I tell them exactly how much a policy would cost with me and I ask some general health questions to help me determine if they are going to qualify.

If those four elements are not in place then I am going to be reluctant to either continue the phone call, try to sell it over the phone or schedule an appointment.

I don't tell them that I am a Medicare Specialist in my opening statement. That throws up a huge red flag and does not impress them.

When they answer the phone I say, "Hello Mrs. Smith my name is Frank Stastny, the reason I'm calling is to bring you up to date with all the changes Medicare is going to make in the next several months...".

I call them Mr. or Mrs. If I say "Hi Betty my name is Frank how you doing today...". Every telemarketer says that. If you call her Mrs. Smith and introduce yourself using your first and last name she is going to listen because for all she knows at this point you could be calling her to tell her she just won Publishers Clearing House ten million dollars.

Learning to use the phone is so much more than just having a "script". The word "script" has too many negative connotations. If an agent has a "script" it is usually something they print out, and read when they make the call. It will sound exactly like that when the make the call. I teach agents how to use a telephone presentation.

If you want to give me a call we can talk about it. Without exception, every agent who has received my phone presentation really didn't understand it or how and why I do it the way I do until we spend a substantial amount of time on the phone discussing it. Damn, I just broke my other arm. haha

What I say and the way I say it will work for everyone. Purchasing YIO and receiving the training really isn't an expense, it is an investment in your business. It's the only way I know of to dramatically shorten the learning curve.

This is not a ploy to sell programs. If an agent wants to learn what I do and how I do it,YIO is an integral part of that. I can make a lot more than $299 selling Med Supps in the five plus hours I spend on the phone talking to insurance agents. I only said that as a point of information.