Cold Calling Sales Cycle

[Bitnis]

I've decided cold calling business owners will be where I spend the majority of my time prospecting for now. I'm wondering what my options might look like for a sales cycle with the customer. From what I've read here business owners tend to be "stoic" until you have established some credibility. I'm a business owner and I completely agree with this. I'll take a call if someone has something of interest to me though.

I know some of you do online conferences and others do face to face meetings. My agent simply sends me quotes and plans in the mail and we've never met face to face in the last six or seven years. He's never once explained anything to me and I will not operate the way he does.

In my start up phase I'm kind of leaning towards doing it my agents way of sending out information and throwing as much mud at the wall as I can to see what sticks. How can I best use this old school way to gain new customers and do it better than my agent?

For example I read where John of IHIAA sends out a letter, then a call, then quotes, then another call, etc. He also said 70% of his new customers didn't know they were looking for health insurance so I like the throw mud at the wall approach for now.

How would you suggest I prospect like this while doing a much better job then my agent has done with me? I hope this makes sense. I'm looking for a basic system of cold calling and follow-up that seems to have worked for you or somebody you know. I'm not ready to do online presentations yet and I'm only a half time agent right now so I don't have time to do everything in person. The phone is where I feel I need to be right now.

Thanks

 

[Delta76]

Don't make this more complicated than it needs to be. In reality, it's extremely simple. Call business owners and ask them if they are "frusterated with their health insurance premiums?"

If no, "thanks for your time, bye".
If yes, "can you tell me more about your situation?"

If after talking you think you may be able to help, ask them if "it's enough of a concern to have you look at their options?" If yes, run quotes and go over it with them (in person or online conferencing).

It only takes one call to develop a lead, my personal sales process is three steps:

1. Initial Cold Call: Determine if a concern and if they want to look into options. If yes, I get the information necessary to start looking at options. I'm not going to run full fledge quotes at this point or send anything to them since I don't have any committment yet.

2. Call Back Next Day or Day After: I give a general overview of whether or not I think I can help them. "Don, it looks like your savings are likely to be around $1000 to $3000 a year for something similar to what you have now. If that's enough to justify looking further, we can get together, go over the specifics, and if it make sense, put in an application to get firm rates back. If it's not much of a concern, that's fine to. What do you think?"

3. Appointment (online or in person): Go over specifics, write app. If you got this far, you are going to get an application unless you get blindsided by something you can't control, such as the prospect lying about a health condition.

Most of my leads drop out on stage #2 before I do much work. Like I said, at that point I just run one or two plan options I know are competitive and ascertain desire to go further before running all the options. Never accept the request to "send me the information and let me take a look at it." Too much work for too little committment.
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I assumed you were looking for individual/family health prospects. If not, my process is different for group sales.

 

[Bitnis]

Thanks Delta I was hoping to hear from you.

 

[HomeService]

I just walk right in businesses and hand out cards and ask who wants quotes. I then get the info and say I'll return with quotes, or do it right then and there, depends on how busy they are.

 

[Bitnis]

Homeservice, I like that one.

At what point in the process are you guys getting personal info such as height, weight, age, etc? As soon as possible I presume. Isn't that info mandatory to get any sort of realistic quote?

 

[arnguy]

That is an excellent post, Delta, on IFP health insurance sales. I am curious about your procedure on group sales. Thanks in advance for your reply.

 

[AtlantaLife&Health]

Sounds like good advice to me. Short and to the point to find out if they need any help. No need to waste time blabbing with uninterested prospects. Oops I mean suspects.

 

[Delta76]

arnguy,

My sales cycle is different for group. After the initial phone conversation and uncovering some "pain", I ask if "it would make sense to invite me over, ask each other some questions, and see if there is anything I can even do to help you?" If yes, I set the first meeting without any more qualifying.

So, my typical sales process is this:

1. Initial Call: Set meeting if appropriate.

2. Fax a "Pre-Meeting Survey" to find out what concerns they have for meeting (basically a roadmap of how to sell them). I set it up like this, "Ted, so we can make the most efficient use of our time together and only discuss what you want to talk about, would it be OK if I send you a 3 minute survey and have you fax it back to me?"

3. Initial Meeting: I start by discussing the survey they completed and find out what bothers them (believe it or not, price usually isn't the only major concern). If I didn't get it faxed back to me before the meeting, I have them fill it out immediately after getting there. Second, I determine their committment level to fix their problems. Third, I find out who there current broker is and if they are willing and able to give me the business if I can help. If not a clear "yes", we're done! Fourth, I find out who else needs to be involved. Last, I get the "facts" (census, current plan design, ect.).

4. Go to office, run some options to see if I can help, then make the "come to Jesus" phone call. I give a brief summary of what I found, but close with "the numbers aren't even worth the paper their written on until you apply to the carriers to get firm rates. If we apply and don't get what we want, we simply stay put. Does it make sense for us to get firm rates?"

I make this call for a few reasons: It means I won't be giving them any free consulting if their not willing to give me a shot, remember, I haven't given them any plan designs or firm numbers and refuse to do so without any committment. Second, I'm not going to take the time to put together a formal proposal that won't mean anything without firm rates anyway or leave myself open for a competitor (current agent) to attack it when I'm not around.

5. If they want to move forward and submit apps to get a firm rate, I set a time to go out and enroll the employees.

6. After I get underwritten rates, I go back and talk detailed strategies and options, even putting together a "formal proposal" (usually on a yellow pad!). If I can help them at this point, it's a new client.

The process changes if in the first meeting their main concerns are service oriented. In that case, I'm going for an AOR.

Does that help? Check your PM box in a few minutes.

 

[Bitnis]

Delta,

Where does one learn to do group health? No doubt if one is calling on business owners you are going to come across a lot or at least some of this.

Thanks!

 

[arnguy]

Thanks for the post, Delta. Very good process. I found it quite helpful. BTW, I did check my PM.