Cold Calling to Business Owners

I agree and disagree with your post. Yes, don't try to sell business owners on the initial call, but that doesn't mean you can't sell OTP as opposed to F2F.
Health insurance, term, and commercial are suited for OTP (because they're commodities), whereas disability, employee & executive benefits along with permanent life insurance are better off sold F2F due to their complexity...
 
I agree and disagree with your post. Yes, don't try to sell business owners on the initial call, but that doesn't mean you can't sell OTP as opposed to F2F.
Health insurance, term, and commercial are suited for OTP (because they're commodities), whereas disability, employee & executive benefits along with permanent life insurance are better off sold F2F due to their complexity...

JBJ, your reputation and body of work/posts here speak for themselves, several juicy nuggets in my mastermind notebook I keep adding to are from your posts.

I'm not setting you up for a smackdown, in fact I think your superior to me in experience and you also have a lot more in the field hours than I ever will. So if you say Comm can be sold OTP, I want to believe you because I am confident if it's possible that I can make it work. I would love to be able to write premium from the desk.

I believe there is a happy medium but if you are good on the phones, why not exploit it?

-I would definitely try some early morning calls and even some after hours calls

Quick story: The Mrs works in the field of non-profit, in particular she is an expert in a software program that unlocks or increases the money raised for every organization she walks into for the last 15+ years. She stopped answering calls from headhunters a while back...until...someone called her at 6:00/6:30 after the office was closed and she decided to pick up, she was not distracted so she could listen to the lady on the other end of the phone who ended up convincing us to listen to what the new place had to offer but we would have never moved forward if that headhunter had settled for 9-5 office hours.

What could you do if you made a handful of targeted calls between 7:30-8:30 AM when owners are in and not interrupted by as many distractions? Or how about 6:00-7:00 at night? Those 2 hours of cold calling just might be the ticket for you to expand your book in Commercial.

Thanks for your post JBJ.
 
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JBJ, your reputation and body of work/posts here speak for themselves, several juicy nuggets in my mastermind notebook I keep adding to are from your posts.

I'm not setting you up for a smackdown, in fact I think your superior to me in experience and you also have a lot more in the field hours than I ever will. So if you say Comm can be sold OTP, I want to believe you because I am confident if it's possible that I can make it work. I would love to be able to write premium from the desk.

I believe there is a happy medium but if you are good on the phones, why not exploit it?

-I would definitely try some early morning calls and even some after hours calls

Quick story: The Mrs works in the field of non-profit, in particular she is an expert in a software program that unlocks or increases the money raised for every organization she walks into for the last 15+ years. She stopped answering calls from headhunters a while back...until...someone called her at 6:00/6:30 after the office was closed and she decided to pick up, she was not distracted so she could listen to the lady on the other end of the phone who ended up convincing us to listen to what the new place had to offer but we would have never moved forward if that headhunter had settled for 9-5 office hours.

What could you do if you made a handful of targeted calls between 7:30-8:30 AM when owners are in and not interrupted by as many distractions? Or how about 6:00-7:00 at night? Those 2 hours of cold calling just might be the ticket for you to expand your book in Commercial.

Thanks for your post JBJ.

I was referring to opening a case via a cold call and getting the dec-pages, not the inspection (hence it can't totally be sold over the phone). I would have to say my referral source for commercial gets their business from mostly inbound marketing, maybe 25% based on cold calls.
I agree about calling at early hours 8-9am and after 5pm you can directly reach the owner while the staff has gone home.
 
I was referring to opening a case via a cold call and getting the dec-pages, not the inspection (hence it can't totally be sold over the phone). I would have to say my referral source for commercial gets their business from mostly inbound marketing, maybe 25% based on cold calls.
I agree about calling at early hours 8-9am and after 5pm you can directly reach the owner while the staff has gone home.

My producer/partner preaches Dec Pages. His close ratio when he receives them is high but we're talking personal lines.

When you ask for Dec pages in Commercial, does that require the current agent to get a little notice? Most cannot break their current insurance policy without penalties and the like, so you likely cannot help them until it is time for renewal. X Dates for Commercial, where do I obtain that list?

Can you unwrap the "referral source fro Comm gets their business from inbound marketing"...tell me more please. 25% would be a shot in the arm around here. Anything I can do personally to get the phones to ring a little in here would be outstanding.

Thanks!
 
My producer/partner preaches Dec Pages. His close ratio when he receives them is high but we're talking personal lines.

When you ask for Dec pages in Commercial, does that require the current agent to get a little notice? Most cannot break their current insurance policy without penalties and the like, so you likely cannot help them until it is time for renewal. X Dates for Commercial, where do I obtain that list?

Can you unwrap the "referral source fro Comm gets their business from inbound marketing"...tell me more please. 25% would be a shot in the arm around here. Anything I can do personally to get the phones to ring a little in here would be outstanding.

Thanks!


Asking for dec-pages could alert the agent if the business doesn't have their own copy handy (why don't they?). Correct gotta wait for X dates, which is why with commercial it's all about making an introduction, getting an x-date, staying top of the mind, then trying to sell on savings of premium if you haven't charmed them compared to their current agent. Commercial is all about building a list of x-dates and following up.

As far as inbound marketing goes here's my recommendations:
0. Get a website
1. Do your local seo citations including Google My Business
2. Get on prospect's social media, follow them, like them, like their stuff, comment on their blogs etc.
3. Go to Network After Work, and be a card collector, connect with people on Linkedin, then hit them up for their info or X dates (if you happen to work with more white collar businesses)
4. Find out when associations of your niches meet in your local area and look for sponsorship opportunities.
5. Send a thank you card after someone gives you their X date info, let them know if they have a question they can contact you whenever, just not when their insurance comes up for renewal. This will make you more memorable and referable.
6. Connect with as many people on LinkedIn as possible.

What's your major metropolitan area and business niches you serve?
 
Asking for dec-pages could alert the agent if the business doesn't have their own copy handy (why don't they?). Correct gotta wait for X dates, which is why with commercial it's all about making an introduction, getting an x-date, staying top of the mind, then trying to sell on savings of premium if you haven't charmed them compared to their current agent. Commercial is all about building a list of x-dates and following up.

As far as inbound marketing goes here's my recommendations:
0. Get a website
1. Do your local seo citations including Google My Business
2. Get on prospect's social media, follow them, like them, like their stuff, comment on their blogs etc.
3. Go to Network After Work, and be a card collector, connect with people on Linkedin, then hit them up for their info or X dates (if you happen to work with more white collar businesses)
4. Find out when associations of your niches meet in your local area and look for sponsorship opportunities.
5. Send a thank you card after someone gives you their X date info, let them know if they have a question they can contact you whenever, just not when their insurance comes up for renewal. This will make you more memorable and referable.
6. Connect with as many people on LinkedIn as possible.

What's your major metropolitan area and business niches you serve?

Printed out the post, hole punched and into the mastermind notebook.

-South Florida but I'll zero in on West Palm Beach/Ft Laud/Miami are all in play. Would prefer to stay up in Palm Beach, easier to communicate and deal with people.

-Business niche is a great question, I don't have an answer yet. The obvious are small offices but calling dentist offices all day, they get hit from a lot of directions. I would love to hear what has worked. Example...restaurants must get hit up a lot for insurance, not sure I could offer anything of value to those folks. I need a niche where I can be of real service and in a few short research hours have the talk/lingo down in that niche so I sound like I know what I'm doing.
 
Printed out the post, hole punched and into the mastermind notebook.

-South Florida but I'll zero in on West Palm Beach/Ft Laud/Miami are all in play. Would prefer to stay up in Palm Beach, easier to communicate and deal with people.

-Business niche is a great question, I don't have an answer yet. The obvious are small offices but calling dentist offices all day, they get hit from a lot of directions. I would love to hear what has worked. Example...restaurants must get hit up a lot for insurance, not sure I could offer anything of value to those folks. I need a niche where I can be of real service and in a few short research hours have the talk/lingo down in that niche so I sound like I know what I'm doing.

Looking at the local 3 pack in google local for the keyword term: Miami Commercial Insurance shows the competition is pretty weak. One guy doesn't even have a website! And the other two have only 2 reviews. You could EASILY dominate that.

https://www.prestigeinsurancegrp.com/business/

This guy's site is your model and competition. You need very similar content and categories.

Here's a list of backlinks for their site, which isn't much. That's easily beatable. In fact I bet you could be the highest ranking site for that term by the end of this year if you bust ass (but don't spam):

https://www.google.com/search?num=1...j2.2.0....0...1c.1.64.serp..0.0.0.5oK9wsB5JAE

There's quite a bit of traffic, I would recommend starting an online presence immediately.
 
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Looking at the local 3 pack in google local for the keyword term: Miami Commercial Insurance shows the competition is pretty weak. One guy doesn't even have a website! And the other two have only 2 reviews. You could EASILY dominate that.

https://www.prestigeinsurancegrp.com/business/

This guy's site is your model and competition. You need very similar content and categories.

There's quite a bit of traffic, I would recommend starting an online presence immediately.

Local 3 pack-Google=WPB/FtL/MIA?

You link to Prestige, you mean to build another site like that one?

What businesses are they targeting or are they building a site to capture traffic of those looking for insurance? I feel like we are close to one of those A-Ha moments, we might have already has 1 or 2 already in this exchange, in fact I'm sure of it.
 
Rick Deckard

I'm a some-what inexperienced, not new, agent looking for additional tips on approaching business owners which is the reason I'm researching the forum.

I am however new at this forum stuff but I think I have something you should look at based on your comments:

"Example...restaurants must get hit up a lot for insurance, not sure I could offer anything of value to those folks. I need a niche where I can be of real service and in a few short research hours have the talk/lingo down in that niche so I sound like I know what I'm doing."

TALKING VALUE ADDED SERVICES AND SETTING YOURSELF APART

It works with my warm market and it should work with yours. As an experienced agent, you more than likely have existing clients who can benefit as well.

Haven't done the cold market yet but I do see how it can get me to the decision maker because "I could offer" something of value and a "real service" that they will see as such.
If you would like, inquire privately.
 
Rick Deckard

I'm a some-what inexperienced, not new, agent looking for additional tips on approaching business owners which is the reason I'm researching the forum.

I am however new at this forum stuff but I think I have something you should look at based on your comments:

"Example...restaurants must get hit up a lot for insurance, not sure I could offer anything of value to those folks. I need a niche where I can be of real service and in a few short research hours have the talk/lingo down in that niche so I sound like I know what I'm doing."

TALKING VALUE ADDED SERVICES AND SETTING YOURSELF APART

It works with my warm market and it should work with yours. As an experienced agent, you more than likely have existing clients who can benefit as well.

Haven't done the cold market yet but I do see how it can get me to the decision maker because "I could offer" something of value and a "real service" that they will see as such.
If you would like, inquire privately.

PM sent, glad you are here. Grab a hard hat n hammer and head down the tunnel.
 
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