Tips for Getting Started

[tlmarketing]

I just moved to the city (stl) where I work and I am from a different state (NC). The company I started with made me do a project 200 list and I only knew 47 ppl here and most of them not very well at all. They are basically my girlfriends family and friends. I am two weeks into my career and have had very little success with my project 200 list. I am honestly just looking for ideas to get in front of some warm leads so I can have the fastest start I can have.

After you get the project 200 list together...tell each prospect that you will remove their name from your prospecting if they either refer you to 2 people they like or 10 people who they know would be pissed off to hear from an insurance agent....you'll get a lot more prospects!

 

[LifeWorth]

"Residential or business" isn't a "target market".

Dentists are a target market. Lawyers are a target market. High salaried executives are a target market.

It pays to know the difference.

old old old thread, but I figured I'd bump it with a question and hope that M&Ms replies to this.

My method of marketing is D2D residential and business walk and talks. I find these type of professionals impossible to speak to. They all have a secretary. Walking in doesn't work.

I've tried sending mailers to them and when I call to touch base on my letter I get the secretary. I call and I call and I call and the secretary doesn't pass my call on to the guy. Granted, these professionals, especially doctors, usually work by appointment and have a stacked day, all day long, so it's not like they want to just drop whatever it is that they're doing to talk on the phone to a guy that sent them a letter.

Is the way to make these people clients truly just networking? How did the likes of Feldman, Gandolfo, Mehdi, get through to these guys? These three agents mainly worked by walking in cold. So, what gives?

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Also, how do you handle when a secretary or worker bee says the following:

"oh, we already have all our insurance taken care of". If I wanted to be extremely blunt and semi-rude I would reply "yes, I'm sure you do, but I'm not here to talk to the owner about any group insurance or any insurance related to this business at all. Now, when is a good time to speak to the man?". Of course, this wouldn't do me any favors. Any better ideas?

"he's not interested in life insurance". Again, if I wanted to be rude I would say "oh, so you, as an hourly employee, make his personal financial decisions for the guy who hired you?"

I know secretaries and employees are told to keep away salespeople and solicitors, but there should be some common sense involved. I could be someone wanting to give a million dollar check to the owner and I wouldn't be able to because some worker shouts "not interested!" before I even open my mouth. They say "not interested" without even knowing what I'm there for. What if I were just a customer that happened to be wearing a tie?

You get the point. I can understand why most people will hear insurance and immediately think of benefits the job already provides. When I emphasize that I'm working with life insurance for the OWNER, I can see in their face their confusion. "But-but-but, I just said all benefits are taken care of!!!" Their frustrated look is hysterical.

 

[DHK]

First, you never know if the person you're talking to is the SPOUSE of the owner, or not. So any kind of "rude retort"... won't work no matter what you do.

Second, I listened to a Ben Feldman recording (searchable on this forum) where Feldman didn't 'walk in cold'. He did a Dunn & Bradstreet search, evaluated the company, found a problem... then he would approach the key contact.

For M&M's post above, I know he's being very specific. For me, I call that a 'niche' market. However, when you're just "shotgunning" it, you need a general market focus - the business market, residential/family/retiree market, etc.


I believe that you are getting the responses you are getting because you are introducing yourself as an insurance agent. The term "insurance agent" implies that you sell life insurance policies... that they don't believe they need... because if they needed it, they would've called you. Plus, they think that all you do is sell the policy, and it doesn't imply the MINDSET or MENTALITY on why they should buy it or other services you offer.

It's not the reality... but it is the perception... and perception is... reality.

My personal best advice:
- Treat every person who works at a company as though they are the owner.

- The person you talk to... simply tell them what you do and who would be the best person to talk to... and when (if they aren't there).

- If they are there, ask them if they have 30 seconds to introduce yourself, shake their hand and offer to set an appointment for a more convenient time.

- If they aren't there, ask for their advice on what they would do if they were me? How would you reach out to this person? Do they have an email address so I can send an introductory message?

- When you shake their hand, state what you do (that's well above just being a 'life agent') and that you'd like to get together to give them a PREVIEW of the kind of work you do. I'd probably do a search on the "5 ways" and adapt it. I might have something... and I might not, but I'd rather YOU judge my work, instead of me guessing if it would be a fit or not. Now set the appointment.


In short, what you want... is that when you leave a business, they say "Wow! What a nice guy!" not "Wow... what a pretentious jerk!"

 

[scagnt83]

My method of marketing is D2D residential and business walk and talks. I find these type of professionals impossible to speak to. They all have a secretary. Walking in doesn't work.


Is the way to make these people clients truly just networking? How did the likes of Feldman, Gandolfo, Mehdi, get through to these guys? These three agents mainly worked by walking in cold. So, what gives?

----------

Also, how do you handle when a secretary or worker bee says the following:

..........

You get the point. I can understand why most people will hear insurance and immediately think of benefits the job already provides. When I emphasize that I'm working with life insurance for the OWNER, I can see in their face their confusion. "But-but-but, I just said all benefits are taken care of!!!" Their frustrated look is hysterical.

I have made a career out of cold calling business owners. I started at Aflac doing supplemental benefits. Now 9 years later I do it for retirement plans and executive benefits.


You are having "gate keeper" issues. At least thats what we used to call assistants/secretary. And yes, they are often told to screen out salespeople. But it is all in the approach.


First, you must change your mindset about the gate keeper. They can actually be your best friend a times. It sounds cheesy, but a positive attitude breeds positive results. Most will not be that helpful, but some certainly can. Who knows better when the best time to talk to the owner than the secretary? I have been given very valuable info about best time to contact, what current plan is, etc. from gate keepers before... not always, but it does happen.


I have found that calling works better than d2d. Not just with appointment ratio, but with time spent too. d2d takes A LONG time. You can cover 2-3 phone calls in the average time it takes to walk in and attempt to speak to the owner. But that is just my preference. You can still be very effective going d2d.


But here is the thing, you cant expect to go in randomly and speak to a busy business owner. Things were different in Feldman's days. Business owners are twice as busy now vs. then, mainly because life in general is twice as busy. You can still learn from the godfathers of life insurance, you just have to apply the teachings to modern society.


If you go d2d then your goal should not be to speak to the owner. You goal should be to find out who "handles" xxxx ... or "who to speak with about" xxxx . That xxxxx can be whatever line of business you are trying to sell. In your case its personal Life Insurance... that is hard to communicate effectively.

In your case (and this is what I do when I d2d cold call) I would just go in and ask for the owner's card. 99% of the time the front desk has a stack of them. You can leave your card too if you want.
Just say: "Hi, how are you doing today? Could I get the owner's business card from you?" that is when you hand them your card and say "I specialize in personal insurance planning for business owners; and just wanted to leave him my card and give him a call one day." Just smile, say those lines, smile again, and wait for them to respond.
If they give you a hard time and dont want to give you a card then just ask for the owners name.

Then you call the owner the next day, tell them you stopped by yesterday and left a card for them. And ask them if you could stop by and introduce yourself to them one day next week (give them 2 days, then give them 2 times after they pick a day).

Sometimes if the secretary seems nice I will ask if the owner is busy at the moment and if I could just shake his hand real quick. But I know that 90% of the time the answer will be no... and if I lead with that then it will be no 99% of the time.

Your d2d goal should be to get a card, possibly a bit of info from the secretary (maybe as when best time to call is) call the next day to set introduction meeting, send postcard a few days in advance to remind them of meeting (or email).


If you are cold calling on phone. You have to already know the owners name. So you need a good list to call from, or have access to some type of business database with names of owners.
Then you simply just call and ask to speak to "Joe". You have to sound confident and casual, like he is even expecting your call. Often they will just put you right through.


Never get in a tit for tat with the secretary. Its not worth your time. Some are bitchy, some are nice, some are in between. But your approach, expectations, and attitude will be the main influence on how positive the experience is. It is amazing how some of the coldest gate keepers become some of the nicest people when you come back in a week and have an appointment made with the boss.... lol

 

[LifeWorth]

Thank you thank you thank you DHK and scagnt. TREMENDOUS help.

I assume these would also work for professionals such as doctors and lawyers?

The secretary never gives the personal number for these guys. Always the office number, which means I'll just get the secretary again when I call.

 

[DHK]

When you get the secretary... and he's in his meeting for the next 18 months... ASK for his voicemail and don't leave your phone number.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4VamwrwL3s

 

[LifeWorth]

When you get the secretary... and he's in his meeting for the next 18 months... ASK for his voicemail and don't leave your phone number.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4VamwrwL3s

Great video. It totally makes sense. I haven't started a drip campaign yet though because I can't justify spending money on stamps and envelopes when I'm still having a hard time having every week booked with at the very least 5 appointments. I'm struggling too much to be spending money I don't have. All I'm doing right now is prospecting.

Scagn, how many calls a day do you make?

 

[DHK]

Great video. It totally makes sense. I haven't started a drip campaign yet though because I can't justify spending money on stamps and envelopes when I'm still having a hard time having every week booked with at the very least 5 appointments. I'm struggling too much to be spending money I don't have. All I'm doing right now is prospecting.

My suggestion would be to prospect a market that is more accessible and get some momentum going. Then you can increase your client profile to include business owners and get going the right way with them.

This video by Wayne Cotton may help - not because you want to buy his system, but because he tries to help advisors get started with a market that's easy to run with and become productive and profitable.

The Cotton Client Acquisition System | Market Specific Modules

 

[scagnt83]

Thank you thank you thank you DHK and scagnt. TREMENDOUS help.

I assume these would also work for professionals such as doctors and lawyers?

The secretary never gives the personal number for these guys. Always the office number, which means I'll just get the secretary again when I call.

Yes it is for any business owner for the most part. Doctors suck because they cant exactly take time away from a patient to talk to you. So call them before opening or closing.

The key to calling back is that you now have the actual name. So you dont say anything to the secretary other than "can I speak to mr/dr xxxxxxx . If you dont know the name of the guy, your chances of getting through are slim. But if you ask for them by name then your chances increase a good bit. You dont give the gate keeper your pitch, you simply are asking to speak to her boss. If they ask what about you can even just simply say "an insurance matter", its none of her business. (dont say that last part.. lol)

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Scagn, how many calls a day do you make?

Not enough most days. At your point if your not running appointments each day then you should be calling until you set 2 appointments each day for sometime in the future. Even if one of them is a month away; 2 appointments each day for sometime in the future. Doesnt matter if its a d2d, cc off a list, fish bowl, info booth, individual, business, whatever. If you have nothing else to do then pick up the phone and dont stop until you have set 2 appointments each day. (it can even be an appointment to talk to a center of influence about a marketing event or referrals).

So basically you should be making somewhere inbetween 2 a day and 200 per day. How many is up to you, just set 2 per day. If you get a list of business owners and make 200 calls a day I promise you will get at least 1 appointment a day just out of pure luck.

 

[LifeWorth]

200 numbers with a business owner name attached to it is a lot. I barely have 200 numbers now, much less 200 WITH owners names. From which amazing database are you pulling your phone numbers?