- 14,809
Cold calling works and there are those who do very well at it. Then there are those who can't stand cold calling. They end up writing books about how it doesn't work.
Cold Calling Without a Gimmicky Script
- Thread starter squeed
- Start date
G
Guest
Guest
The only thing in sales that comes to you is a gift known as a referral, not the kind you ask for, the kind that is sent your way when you didn't even ask. Anything else is work, whether it's advertising, cold calling, mailers, buying leads, etc, basically everything else is going after a client.
Even if you merely tell someone "do you mind if I stay in touch?" it's still proactive.
Even if you merely tell someone "do you mind if I stay in touch?" it's still proactive.
JacquesWerth
Expert
Most people (including prospects) can only keep four new concepts in their minds. Look it up. Scientific studies have been done by Educators, Broadcasting Companies, Psychologists, and Communication Scientists.
Most people will listen to a sales offer with an open mind for 15 to 20 seconds. After that, they rapidly go negative. Read 'How to Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds or Less" by Milo O. Frank.
If your prospecting “pitch” does not conform to those criteria, you are operating with major handicaps.
Anything that you say that is not completely true will sabotage most sales, including implications that you do not intend to sell the prospect anything.
Engaging prospects in conversation, who have not said “Yes,” to your Prospecting Offer, is a losing strategy. It sets up an immediate adversarial relationship.
Most people will listen to a sales offer with an open mind for 15 to 20 seconds. After that, they rapidly go negative. Read 'How to Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds or Less" by Milo O. Frank.
If your prospecting “pitch” does not conform to those criteria, you are operating with major handicaps.
Anything that you say that is not completely true will sabotage most sales, including implications that you do not intend to sell the prospect anything.
Engaging prospects in conversation, who have not said “Yes,” to your Prospecting Offer, is a losing strategy. It sets up an immediate adversarial relationship.
- 7,066
Amen!
Cold calling is extremely effective when done properly. The operative term is "done properly". It is a learned skill, not something that one can get a "script" for, pick up the phone and start reading.
Agents are inherently lazy when it comes to prospecting. I get really tired of hearing "I'm just not good on the phone" or "these leads suck" or "I'm so busy writing apps that I don't have time to do my own telemarketing". Horse feathers!
Anyone, absolutely anyone can "sell" insurance. It is not rocket science. Put a knowledgeable person in front of a prospect who is ready to make a purchase and bingo, a sale is made.
Agents need to quit whining and looking for those "magic" words. They do not exist unless they are your words that you have carefully put together after a lot of trial and error. Once the agent "has the words" then it takes a lot of practice to learn how to say them.
What I say is smooth, conversational and non "script" or "gimmicky". Does anyone really believe that there is a "gimmick" that can be used that the prospect will not recognize as a "gimmick"? I think not.
I have taught many, many agents how to prospect and helped them choose their "words". Once the agent has the words then he/she needs to learn how to say them. The timing used to say those words can be just as important as the words themselves.
- 9,744
Yes, once your marketing plan is working like this, the business is much easier and more enjoyable.
- 14,809
The entire sales world operates on cold calling. At some point in time almost every sale started with a cold call.
There are not many sales industries that all where some form of cold calling is not made.
If you don't want to cold call you're looking at things like retail or car sales.
In our industry, in theory, you can just buy leads. Really. I guess if just buying leads worked we'd see a 95% success rate. Leads me to wonder why 95% of all agents who buy leads crash and burn.
- 9,744
"Leads me to wonder why 95% of all agents who buy leads crash and burn."
John, I've been in this industry for almost 20 years now. The reasons vary, but 95 % of the agents crash & burn - whether they buy leads or not.
John, I've been in this industry for almost 20 years now. The reasons vary, but 95 % of the agents crash & burn - whether they buy leads or not.
- 14,809
True. The only one solid piece of info I can give any new agent coming in is if they're "broke" with no previous successful cold-calling experience their odds are near zero.
- 7,066
This is not a very popular answer or what most want to hear but it accounts for the majority of the agents I have seen crash and burn.
They are too lazy to learn and invest the time it takes to know how to prospect. They want it handed to them by one of the "seasoned agents" on the board.
"Go to my website, find the plan you want, click here and fill-in the blanks, put my agent number here and click send."
The internet is a wonderful thing but it has drawn a lot of "wanna-bees" into the insurance market who think all they have to do is have a website and clean underwear once a week.
We get new agents here every week who are looking for the "easy way to do it" or a "gimmick" to fool the prospect into filling out an app.
- 9,744
If this is true, how did ehealthinsurance.com get to be the largest health insurance agency in America?
Now we'll get all kinds of posters that will tell us that ehealth is not competition for them...can't do the job that they do, blah, blah, blah.
They're fools.
I don't argue that they are wrong...but it is what it is. The results don't lie!
Frank, don't get me wrong, I admire the relationships you've built doing medsupps over the last what, 20 years? But anybody that thinks that insurance (or anything) will be sold at the end of the next fifteen years like it was at the beginning of the last fifteen years will go the way of Eastern Airlines, People's Express, the railroads, dodo birds and...General Motors!
It will still be all about relationships - but relationships will be built far differently in 2024 than they were in 1994.
