Getting Started. Need Advice About Getting Out There!

[Dvdman]

Hello Everyone. I am getting my Health and Life license next week and working as an agent selling primarily health and life. I plan on getting P&C soon. The company has phone leads for me to call whenever I want. My question is on the advertising part outside the offie. If anyone can give me suggestions on what worked for them or what is a waste of time, I would appreciate any help. Is it worth it to:

1. Go to colleges and set up a booth or pass out cards?
2. Send Facebook messages to all my friends or post that I am in the business if they need help.
3. Leave cards on cars or parking lots
4. Hand out cards at the mall.
5. Hit up all my friends, Family and neighbors. ( Worried about this one. I feel some might be offended or hold some sort of resentment).

I am sure I should do all of these but I wanted hear from some of the more experienced and successful insurance agents here. Thanks for any helpful advice!!

 

[pcbinsurance]

"I am sure I should do all of these"
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I would avoid doing #3 and #4.

Certainly there is nothing wrong with letting your friends and family know what you do and you should get business that way (and then, hopefully many referrals).

 

[Josh]

For life and health college seems like a terrible place to market.
Messaging folks on facebook could get spammy, but at a minimum you might want to make every 5th status update or so something about what you're doing. Linked-in can be a great place for this type of thing.

Do you have any particular niches you want to focus on and/or are more competitive in?

 

[Dvdman]

For life and health college seems like a terrible place to market.
Messaging folks on facebook could get spammy, but at a minimum you might want to make every 5th status update or so something about what you're doing. Linked-in can be a great place for this type of thing.

Do you have any particular niches you want to focus on and/or are more competitive in?

Well.....I am joining a company called Healthcare Solutions Team out of Lombard, Il. They were voted number 1 in the industry and 16 in Chicago's Crain Magazine for fastest growing companies in the city. They really only specialize in Healthcare and Life. I feel that this limits things but they said they have enough leads for the company and looks like they have done well. It's all commish and no benefits but you can go from one level and eventually senior after reaching X amount of dollars and larger commission structure of course.

 

[WinoBlues]

If I was a young agent just starting out and looking to build long term. I would add short term to my offerings. 10, 15 and 20 term. A couple good competitive non med products as well as low cost convertible.

That 25 year old is going to be at a much different place at age 35 & 40.

Make them a loyal customer of your brand.

Just my two cents.

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OK just read your other post. Keep all your own records off site and in your own crm.

 

[Josh]

College students are the wrong crowd to sell life and health to. That's especially true since they can stay on their parents insurance til age 26 now.

 

[Dvdman]

College students are the wrong crowd to sell life and health to. That's especially true since they can stay on their parents insurance til age 26 now.

Good point. How about setting up a booth somewhere like a county fair or mall? Is that effective?

 

[DHK]

My thoughts in red below:

1. Go to colleges and set up a booth or pass out cards?

As already discussed, this is a no-go.

2. Send Facebook messages to all my friends or post that I am in the business if they need help.

An individual message is a good start. A heart-felt letter sent in the mail... would probably work better. I would do this and follow up with a monthly newsletter about the work you are doing.

3. Leave cards on cars or parking lots

Uh... no.

4. Hand out cards at the mall.

Mall security would escort you out... unless you're handing out cards to the managers of the stores in the mall only.

5. Hit up all my friends, Family and neighbors. ( Worried about this one. I feel some might be offended or hold some sort of resentment).

That's what your facebook message or heart-felt letter is all about.

I am sure I should do all of these but I wanted hear from some of the more experienced and successful insurance agents here. Thanks for any helpful advice!!

As for setting up a booth at the mall... does it work? How many other agents do you see setting up booths at the mall? There's your answer.

The only other time I see agents with a booth, is during AEP at Walmart or the local grocery stores. Does that work? Maybe.

At the county fair? What is the cost? Will you follow up? How often can you do this?

Before you get into "one-shot" prospecting, you need a strategy that you can do day in and day out. Without this strategy... you won't have enough activity and leads to work on to earn a living.

 

[Dvdman]

Great advice so far. I appreciate all the insight. I will be hitting the phones hard but looking for some other ideas as well.

 

[Josh]

Good point. How about setting up a booth somewhere like a county fair or mall? Is that effective?

In my heart I've always been a telemarketing guy. Doesn't mean it's the only way, but that's always what I've liked. Over the last year I've been working more with trying to leverage LinkedIn and Facebook, but I'm also focusing on b2b right now (selling lists vs selling insurance).

I've rarely seen anyone do well with a county fair or a mall. I was out with my wife today looking at houses. We stopped for lunch and looked at some furniture and a few other things and then we went for ice cream and did some looking at other shops. Folks in the mood of out and shopping aren't going to really want to think about "adult" things like insurance. I have a friend that has known he needed life insurance for years now. We've talked about it and he's just never pulled the trigger. I am still licensed to sell life and have some contracts, but it's mostly for as it comes up vs trying to push it on folks.

A lot of b2b transactions can do well with cold calling. It's great for folks with more time than money that are hungry enough and resilient enough to hear no a bunch. There isn't a faster way to generate leads and there isn't much investment at all. Of course I sell lists, but you can also get them for free through things like Manta.com or ReferenceUSA from the library.

Cold calling is a different critter, it's a quick way to get in front of a lot of people and find existing interest. Of course you could also take a look at internet leads, but it's going to be tough, especially with little experience.

What do your uplines say? Have you explored other options that give you a stronger portfolio?