I Need Your Help Getting Started....

[Insurance_Dude]

Hello, I'm in the process of becoming a Captive Agent that will sell mostly p&c. I have all my state licenses.

I will not be opening my agency until early 2014, but need to build a list of hot leads. These would be folks that will commit to getting a quote from me when my doors open.

Instead of drying up my family and friends for leads, I was thinking of getting into cold calling. I'm really stuck and could use some advice on the following:

1) Would you recommend I purchase a list of names from sales genie, affordable marketing lists.com, etc. OR best to buy old Internet leads to start x-dating?

2) I have a google voice number setup for now. Can I use an auto dialer? Should I use an auto dialer? Where can I find one?

3) I won't be able to provide a quote until I open in 2014. What should I say to get people to commit to a quote when I open? I'm having a hard time bc I'm just asking if I can put them in my list to call in 2014, instead of trying to quote on the spot.

Does anyone have any ideas or could point me in the right direction? Just feeling a bit lost.

Thanks in advance!

 

[CaliforniaINS]

Hello, I'm in the process of becoming a Captive Agent that will sell mostly p&c. I have all my state licenses.

I will not be opening my agency until early 2014, but need to build a list of hot leads. These would be folks that will commit to getting a quote from me when my doors open.

Instead of drying up my family and friends for leads, I was thinking of getting into cold calling. I'm really stuck and could use some advice on the following:

1) Would you recommend I purchase a list of names from sales genie, affordable marketing lists.com, etc. OR best to buy old Internet leads to start x-dating?

2) I have a google voice number setup for now. Can I use an auto dialer? Should I use an auto dialer? Where can I find one?

3) I won't be able to provide a quote until I open in 2014. What should I say to get people to commit to a quote when I open? I'm having a hard time bc I'm just asking if I can put them in my list to call in 2014, instead of trying to quote on the spot.

Does anyone have any ideas or could point me in the right direction? Just feeling a bit lost.

Thanks in advance!

I think I understand where you're coming from, why are you waiting until 2014? Have you thought about direct mail campaigns, internet marketing, ads in the papers, referrals from other agents through relationship building?

I'm not too familiar with cold calling campaigns but it seems like it would be a bit of a time waster compared to other marketing tactics.

I'm sure I could be wrong, everyone has their own secret "recipe" you know.

 

[Insurance_Dude]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I'm not allowed to do any direct mail campaigns or send out news letters. Only able to use word of mouth. It really limits me.

When I'm done with my training and sign my contract(January 2014), I can then fully represent the company and market any way.


I purchased a small prospect list and thought I would give cold calling a try. Reason for my call is to inform people they are getting a new agent in their area and to introduce myself. I would try to get info about their current insurance and offer to quote them in January 2014.

Do you think this is a good approach or should I switch to purchasing cold x-date list?

 

[xrac]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I'm not allowed to do any direct mail campaigns or send out news letters. Only able to use word of mouth. It really limits me.

When I'm done with my training and sign my contract(January 2014), I can then fully represent the company and market any way.

I purchased a small prospect list and thought I would give cold calling a try. Reason for my call is to inform people they are getting a new agent in their area and to introduce myself. I would try to get info about their current insurance and offer to quote them in January 2014.

Do you think this is a good approach or should I switch to purchasing cold x-date list?

I think doing the Edward Jones thing and going through neighborhoods door knocking would be more effective.

 

[vic616283]

I think doing the Edward Jones thing and going through neighborhoods door knocking would be more effective.

Oh God it looks like they did me a favor when they decided not to hire me.

OP, just to throw an idea out there for you, you could try going on the website for a couple of local chamber of commerce chapters and put together lists of phone numbers that way. Should be easy to get a few hundred numbers at least. Go through the directories of big local companies and add numbers of reasonably high ranked workers to your list. Go to the local library and use reference USA to get names of local businesses. If you have time on your hands then exhaust all of the tedious ways to get free names and phone numbers.

If you want to look into a sales dialer, I haven't used any yet but the most attractive price point I've found was from the guy josh who posts on this forum. His site is affordabledialer dotcom. If I were you I'd stay away from spending money on marketing at this time and rather save up as much as you can so that you can do your marketing once your full time contract goes into gear.

 

[Norwayguy]

Oh God it looks like they did me a favor when they decided not to hire me.

OP, just to throw an idea out there for you, you could try going on the website for a couple of local chamber of commerce chapters and put together lists of phone numbers that way. Should be easy to get a few hundred numbers at least. Go through the directories of big local companies and add numbers of reasonably high ranked workers to your list. Go to the local library and use reference USA to get names of local businesses. If you have time on your hands then exhaust all of the tedious ways to get free names and phone numbers.

If you want to look into a sales dialer, I haven't used any yet but the most attractive price point I've found was from the guy josh who posts on this forum. His site is affordabledialer dotcom. If I were you I'd stay away from spending money on marketing at this time and rather save up as much as you can so that you can do your marketing once your full time contract goes into gear.

The OP was not asking how to get phone numbers he is asking if calling now in Aug to try and get some info so that he can call back in 2014 4 months or more from now would be effective.

It would not be effective in me remembering the call. However if they give up the info it does not matter if you can come back at the right time with the right solution.

 

[vic616283]

The OP was not asking how to get phone numbers he is asking if calling now in Aug to try and get some info so that he can call back in 2014 4 months or more from now would be effective.

It would not be effective in me remembering the call. However if they give up the info it does not matter if you can come back at the right time with the right solution.

He also asked whether he should start buying lists from salesgenie and such...

 

[SThomas]

I would suggest sending out postcards to people from the phone book in your area, and something that mentions your "Grand Opening" in 2014. Also you want the postcard to be returnable saying something like "Please see that I receive the information on....and a place where they can put name, address, phone#, spouse name, age and sign.

 

[xrac]

I would suggest sending out postcards to people from the phone book in your area, and something that mentions your "Grand Opening" in 2014. Also you want the postcard to be returnable saying something like "Please see that I receive the information on....and a place where they can put name, address, phone#, spouse name, age and sign.

I do not think this is good advice. Nobody cares that a new insurance office is opening. Do people really look to do business with a greenhorn agent. Save your postcard money unless you can come up with something that generates a response.

 

[SThomas]

I been a professional appointment setter for insurance agents around the U.S. for the past 2 years, and the company sends out post cards to generate warm leads along with making some cold calls. The most successful agents were the ones who generated leads through post cards and had an appointment setter. My opinion is based on experience, so before you said something do not work, you need to base it off of experience or offer another solution.

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I do not think this is good advice. Nobody cares that a new insurance office is opening. Do people really look to do business with a greenhorn agent. Save your postcard money unless you can come up with something that generates a response.

Keep in mind, that regardless if you send postcards, go door knocking or buy leads you will have to send money.