Numbers Don't Lie

[eclipsed]

Since there doesn't seem to be a thread like this, I wanted to start one. Pretty much, I would like to know how much marketing you guys do before you get a sale. This is mainly for life insurance agents. There seems to be a lot of new agents on these forums (me included) and I think this will really help us.

Here are the questions. Please answer based on your average:

1. Cold Calling (phone): How many cold calls (on the phone) do you have to make before getting a sale? (I hate cold calling!!!)

2. Cold Calling (in person): How many cold calls in person are you doing before getting a sale?

3. Brochures: How many brochures are you mailing or leaving at houses before you get a sale?

4. Website: How long did it take to start getting sales from your website? (how many weeks, months, days)

5. Leads (regular): How many average quality leads do you usually call before getting a sale?

6. Leads (good): How many good quality leads do you call before getting a sale?

9: Aged Leads: How many aged leads do you call before getting a sale?

10. Appointments: On average, what percentage of your appointments actually close the deal?

11. Deals Per Week: How many sales (not just appointments) do you average every week, and how many hour a week are you working to get these results?

Thanks for your help. Sorry for all the questions.

 

[Josh]

I think you're asking a lot of the wrong questions. The reason why those are probably the wrong questions is that you in your situation can be completely different than the way other agents work.

If you *hate* cold calling, you probably are going to constantly struggle until you fail out of this. Cold calling sucks, but it's worth it. If you get over the rejection and can get comfortable on the phone you can make a lot of money, but you can't mindf*** yourself while you're doing it.

With respect to leaving brochures, that's pretty much a waste of time. Talk to them right then and there and try to get the deal. If they don't buy then, you leaving a brochure most likely will not make any difference. If you do it, great, but don't do it with the expectation any great number of them will be calling you back.

Using a website to generate leads is all over the place. Odds are, not your best bet at this point.

Real-time leads are probably going to be too expensive for you to learn on.

Aged leads might be the ticket, but it's going to be very similar to cold calling.

When you set appointments, you should be closing at least 35% of them, higher if you're actually qualifying them before you go.


Honestly, I think you're two biggest challenges now are that you hate cold calling, and the bigger challenge is that you are *not* being trained right, if at all. You're all over the map on this stuff and that's a problem. You need to get yourself a good upline that will train you in exchange for a reduced commission or go find a new line of work.

 

[njh_lfg]

I think you're asking a lot of the wrong questions. The reason why those are probably the wrong questions is that you in your situation can be completely different than the way other agents work.

If you *hate* cold calling, you probably are going to constantly struggle until you fail out of this. Cold calling sucks, but it's worth it. If you get over the rejection and can get comfortable on the phone you can make a lot of money, but you can't mindf*** yourself while you're doing it.

With respect to leaving brochures, that's pretty much a waste of time. Talk to them right then and there and try to get the deal. If they don't buy then, you leaving a brochure most likely will not make any difference. If you do it, great, but don't do it with the expectation any great number of them will be calling you back.

Using a website to generate leads is all over the place. Odds are, not your best bet at this point.

Real-time leads are probably going to be too expensive for you to learn on.

Aged leads might be the ticket, but it's going to be very similar to cold calling.

When you set appointments, you should be closing at least 35% of them, higher if you're actually qualifying them before you go.


Honestly, I think you're two biggest challenges now are that you hate cold calling, and the bigger challenge is that you are *not* being trained right, if at all. You're all over the map on this stuff and that's a problem. You need to get yourself a good upline that will train you in exchange for a reduced commission or go find a new line of work.

couldn't of said it better!

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Since there doesn't seem to be a thread like this, I wanted to start one. Pretty much, I would like to know how much marketing you guys do before you get a sale. This is mainly for life insurance agents. There seems to be a lot of new agents on these forums (me included) and I think this will really help us.

Here are the questions. Please answer based on your average:

1. Cold Calling (phone): How many cold calls (on the phone) do you have to make before getting a sale? (I hate cold calling!!!)

300

2. Cold Calling (in person): How many cold calls in person are you doing before getting a sale?

75

3. Brochures: How many brochures are you mailing or leaving at houses before you get a sale?

1,000

4. Website: How long did it take to start getting sales from your website? (how many weeks, months, days)

3 to 6 months

5. Leads (regular): How many average quality leads do you usually call before getting a sale?

15 shared

6. Leads (good): How many good quality leads do you call before getting a sale?

8 shared

9: Aged Leads: How many aged leads do you call before getting a sale?

100

10. Appointments: On average, what percentage of your appointments actually close the deal?

11. Deals Per Week: How many sales (not just appointments) do you average every week, and how many hour a week are you working to get these results?

4

Thanks for your help. Sorry for all the questions.

Can only comment on individual health.

 

[Mark]

I do so much at once, it is hard to keep track of it.

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

I also can only comment on individual health and the numbers would bore you to death.

But I do a lot of marketing. Whether you have a week with 5 sales or 15 sales...you have to keep marketing.

 

[Frank Stastny]

I think you're asking a lot of the wrong questions. The reason why those are probably the wrong questions is that you in your situation can be completely different than the way other agents work.

If you *hate* cold calling, you probably are going to constantly struggle until you fail out of this. Cold calling sucks, but it's worth it. If you get over the rejection and can get comfortable on the phone you can make a lot of money, but you can't mindf*** yourself while you're doing it.

With respect to leaving brochures, that's pretty much a waste of time. Talk to them right then and there and try to get the deal. If they don't buy then, you leaving a brochure most likely will not make any difference. If you do it, great, but don't do it with the expectation any great number of them will be calling you back.

Using a website to generate leads is all over the place. Odds are, not your best bet at this point.

Real-time leads are probably going to be too expensive for you to learn on.

Aged leads might be the ticket, but it's going to be very similar to cold calling.

When you set appointments, you should be closing at least 35% of them, higher if you're actually qualifying them before you go.


Honestly, I think you're two biggest challenges now are that you hate cold calling, and the bigger challenge is that you are *not* being trained right, if at all. You're all over the map on this stuff and that's a problem. You need to get yourself a good upline that will train you in exchange for a reduced commission or go find a new line of work.

Excellent advice.

He appears to be trying to wrap everything up in a neat, tidy little package. That if he does this and such then these are the exact results he is going to get.

Doing "research" is a wonderful thing but I know people that spend all of their time trying to develop a "plan" and never get around to doing the work.

This is sales. The person's personality comes heavily into play, how well they speak, the knowledge they have, the ability to put people as ease and make them feel comfortable. Can they break things down in their simplest form and explain the benefits and policies in terms that the prospect understands using examples they can identify with?

Many agents try to be way too "business like" when dealing with prospects. Their speech patterns are totally different when talking to a prospect than when having a "normal" conversation. They are way too "stiff". (Many would do better if they would "take the stick out".) They use insurance terms instead of common ordinary language.

And, you guessed it, does he know how to "give good phone"? Can he maintain control of the call and not relinquish control to the prospect, transition it from a phone call to a conversation and qualify the prospect in the first 60 seconds of the call? There is an art to doing this and it takes time to learn to maximize every opportunity.

 

[ksigmtsu]

In a macro sense, all of those methods work. In a micro sense, it's very easy to be upset that one thing doesn't work and give up as if it does not work when the problem is typically in the mirror.

The question is not what works. The question is which of the methods do you enjoy doing.

It helps in this field if you possess skills outside insurance.

Direct aggressive marketing is a skill, building websites is a skill, writing good advertising is a skill. If you pay someone effective enough to do all the marketing for you they'll make most of the profit.

You need to learn a marketing skill or attach yourself to someone that has one.

 

[brooks]

From a talk with my marketing guy ... people now, more than ever ...have their choice of how they choose to receive their communication. Some like mail. Some telephone. A few internet. Couple like references. Some like F2F. Some even read newspapers. He has never successfully pinpointed one exact technique and unfortunately says you have to use all of them because you can never be sure of a customer's choice.