For those working shared internet leads, or telemarketed for that matter, what kind of message do you leave initially? How about the 2nd, 3rd, 4th or later time?
I call 4 - 7 times over 14 days before dropping them into Constant Contact.
For those working shared internet leads, or telemarketed for that matter, what kind of message do you leave initially? How about the 2nd, 3rd, 4th or later time?
I call 4 - 7 times over 14 days before dropping them into Constant Contact.
I notice several people mention Constant Contact, how can you be using this as an effective autoresponder? You first must create the email and then before your prospect reads your message, they are sent a verification email and they must first accept your message. AWeber is the same way.
Even though you have permission to contact a shared lead. Constant Contact does not work that way, I doubt your clients are reading the emails you are sending, using this system for an autoresponder. Great Tool for your existing clients to send quarterly newsletters or periodic emails to stay in touch.
Constant Contact is a permission-based email-marketing tool that follows the strictest permission-based philosophies:
Verification - Constant Contact automatically sends all of your new contacts an email confirming their interest in receiving emails from you. Additionally, if your contact changes his or her interests or unsubscribes, Constant Contact automatically sends an email confirmation.
Unsubscribe - Every email generated from Constant Contact contains an unsubscribe link which allows your contacts to opt-out of future emails and automatically updates your contact lists to avoid the chance of sending unwanted emails to visitors who have unsubscribed.
I used to use MS BCENTRAL which had NO OPT IN until they went belly up and left me high and dry (Thank you Mr. Gates - and yes I am enjoying my new MAC's).
Double opt in - you must be joking?
I use my own in house server based drip marketing , it was not cheap I had it custom built off of an existing platform (around $3000 one time). It integrates with ACT and has an unsubscribe. All messages are CAN SPAM compliant.
I am of the opinion a voice mail after the initial contact is a complete waste, or even for that matter.
We do not leave voice mails (very rare). If you want to really upset someone leave them 14 voice mails. Sorry but I want my voice when I am 80 years old, and automated messages despite what others may think from my research are indeed illegal.
Leaving voice messages is a horrendous waste of time and effort. Calls are almost never returned - I get much better response from my emails. I will indeed leave one message - never another one.
When you call after leaving the 1st message and go to leave the second message that "L" needs to start creeping up towards your forehead. Yes, they got your first message and aren't returning it for a reason.
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Leaving voice messages is a horrendous waste of time and effort. Calls are almost never returned - I get much better response from my emails. I will indeed leave one message - never another one.
When you call after leaving the 1st message and go to leave the second message that "L" needs to start creeping up towards your forehead. Yes, they got your first message and aren't returning it for a reason.
I have to disagree on this 100%, emphatically. I (like Somarco and probably many others) leave about 3-5 messages over an initial 10-21 day period and I think it is this, and the pleasant/fun/odd(?) way I leave these messages that results in me getting a high close percentage over time. I know this because MANY of my customers say things like:
"That message you left mimicking a computer voice and then calling yourself a loser cracked me up(I'll describe in a sec)...I wanted to call you back instead of some of those others..." etc etc. I have NEVER, in the years being involved in insurance sales had someone call/email and tell me "Yeah, it was your 4th email that really got me". Now, I am sure sending those email followups work but how on earth does that distinguish you from the competition with the average email box being flooded with crap everyday anyway?
Obviously whatver works for each person should be continued but I am a big believer in personalized Voice Mails and have had great success with them and couldn't fathom giving them up even if I go to a semi-automated system at some point.
A common message I leave on like the 3rd/4th try:
(In mock robot voice) "Hello Mrs._________, this is Dave-bot from the Massive Insurance Cyberspace Annoying Corporation. We wanted to tell you we have prepared 476,325 health quotes for you and we will be downloading them straight to your toaster as we have found your email box to be full. Please toast 2 slices of wheat bread and you will then see the quotes revealed. Please do not burn them or pricing could be affected...Hey Mrs. _________, this is Dave from [my office] and hopefully things haven't gotten that outrageous for you but I know online Health Searches can be maddening. I have emailed/mailed you sent rates, I hope you did get them, and please call me back if I can offer some no-pressure guidance/advice for ya. Have a great afternoon, and please excuse my lame attempt at comedy."
Cheesy? maybe. A little long? Could be. Does it work? Absof**kingloutely! I have had women in their 60's call me back a month later and say "That message was great...your message/number was the ONLY one I saved..." etc etc. I find this kinda stuff works across the gender/age lines generally and only very rarely do I eventually reach someone and they seem put off by it. It's not for everyone, I understand, you have to be semi-nuts like me, but it DOES work.
When you call after leaving the 1st message and go to leave the second message that "L" needs to start creeping up towards your forehead. Yes, they got your first message and aren't returning it for a reason.
Word on "the Street" is that you're a guy who knows his sh*t, so let me ask you how can you make that statement?? Entire Sales Training theories have been built on the idea of repeated calling and "you need x number of no's or no responses before getting a sale", etc. Hell, the entire multi billion dollar telemarketing industry was built on HAMMERING with phone calls. I hate telemarketers and I would still say in 20 years (since I was 18) I have bought at least 5 things or more that way (Invisible Fence, my first Mortgage!, a couple different newspaper/mag subscriptions, chartiable donations, and one round of "Herbalife" products. F**k those bastards NEVER leave you alone...what a mistake!)
To me - complete waste of time and energy that needs to be spent on people who actually contact me. Onto the next lead.
I find that agents who go nuts trying to hunt down every lead are not getting enough leads.
My time and headache also has a price. I'll take a slightly worse ROI and have a life.
I get where you're coming from in regards to ROI, meaning "Why dick around with EVERY cold lead and keep trying to reach them on the phone when you can buy more, be more automated, probably make more sales, etc etc." That is not a bad premise but here's where I disagree:
I feel that a "worked" sale, if done right, results in far more referrals (which are FREE!) and better retention where simply having more sales, based on website ads resulting in auto-sales or apps done through web links and having never spoken to them result in very little referrals and a MUCH lower retention rate. Based on the fact that a huge part of our business is Residual Income, I want cases to stay longer and I want referrals which I don't have to pay for.
In a perfect world I would just clone myself and have all 5 of us make calls and leave wacky messages all day but at some point, if I truly want to take it to the 100+ apps a month level, I am going to need to automate more...bummer though.
My time and headache also has a price. I'll take a slightly worse ROI and have a life.
I won't argue that...being more "hands on" has it's downfalls. I have plenty of free/play time (I played 18 holes today!) but I have to field more service calls and be more involved with clients during and after the sale. I really haven't found it to be a bad thing though, just annoying once in awhile. Back in the Schmega days, I never dealt with service but had to shower 5 times a day and always felt like even the "good plans" were garbage. I suppose a hands on, with a little more automation, with be the perfect balance.
Again, when I can make six figures without a hassle I'm not gonna add a hassle. If you have time to call back 40, 80, 150, etc...leads over and over then you need more fresh leads.
My ROI on shared leads in 1/12 without chasing anyone. At $8 on average that's $96 to return $700+ - move on - buy another batch - call it a life.
Maybe if I hammered the phones over and over I'd see those 20% closing ratios....but I don't have the mental energy.
When I sold cars I saw salesmen trying to grind it out with every up - at the desk just hammering away at dead wood. They'd leave the lot and it would be a flurry of follow-up calls trying to get 'em back in.
Me? Cut 'em lose and grab a fresh up. No - no way in the world I'm leaving multiple voice mail messages. Works for me
Me? Cut 'em lose and grab a fresh up. No - no way in the world I'm leaving multiple voice mail messages. Works for me
Hey, no arguement there, if it aint broke don't fix it! Like I said, it also has to do with peoples personality...ask NewMindFashion, he'll tell you I'm certainly not the "typical Insurance salesman"...LOL.
Right, and Jesse doesn't even make calls - he pays someone to do that. And you know you're writing a crap load of business when Connecticare sends you to the Bahama's.
Right, and Jesse doesn't even make calls - he pays someone to do that. And you know you're writing a crap load of business when Connecticare sends you to the Bahama's.
Well Jesse makes some calls, but he's never been a real a pounder of the phones for sure. More credit to him for being able to make great $$ by using a part time telemarketer and being a great "massager" of existing business. Plus he has helped me immensely since I started!
Leaving voice messages is a horrendous waste of time and effort. Calls are almost never returned
I totally agree. In the senior market I get more return phone calls by not leaving a message and people seeing my number on caller ID than if I actually left one.
There are way too many prospects out there to waste time trying repeatedly to get to talk to someone who obviously doesn't want to talk to me. I'm calling to help them, if they don't want the help there are plenty of others who do.
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Again, if you find yourself when enough time on your hands to pick up the phone and call leads from 4 days ago then you have too much time on your hands. But more leads or get a part-time job. I heard delivering pizza's was great.
Constant Contact is not an autoresponder. Never said it was. Not sure where that came from.
I use CC after calling, sending proposals, emails, etc to those I have contacted and those I have not. I also put existing clients on my mailing list.
The thing about CC is it helps me to keep in contact with those who want more information and weed out those who do not.
Two days ago I sent out a newsletter to 340 clients & prospective clients. 10 emails were non-existent, 4 opted out, 51 opened and read and 8 clicked through to links.
Some of those who opened the email are folks I have never talked to (they never answered the phone or returned voice mail) and some are folks who are still trying to make up their mind.
FWIW, I took an app 2 weeks ago on a lead from October. She never returned my calls, never responded to emails (but she did open my proposal and most of my emails).
Turns out she is a business owner and travels a lot. She was paying close to $900/mo for BX coverage. When we finally connected it turns out she grew up less than 2 miles from where I live now. Her new coverage is under $400 per month and she thinks I hung the moon.
This sale came from gentle persistence.
Currently I call several times, email proposals and use CC but I do not physically mail anything via USPS.
That will change very soon. Just toying with what to include and what to leave out.
Jesse. Haven't heard from him in months. I always appreciated his input and counsel. The forum has not had his insight in quite some time and that is too bad.
Whether he calls or uses telemarketers really isn't the issue. The point is, he call.
Do repeat emails work?
Sure.
Eventually.
With some.
But for the most part they are either deleted without opening or they are opened but never really absorbed. I can't tell you how many clients I have picked up who said they never got my email, including some who I called within minutes of them opening it.
I have closed people who never responded to email, had already bought from someone else (including those who actually had an agent come to see them).
Email is nice but not a substitute for the human touch.
Closing ratio's mean nothing to me. They don't put money in the bank. The only thing that really matters is how much I invest to find a new client and my ROI.
It also matters that I develop clients rather than deals.
Clients offer referrals. Deals don't.
CT guy, contact me sometime. I would love to connect and pick your brain as well as find out how Jesse is doing.
For newer agents on this board - they need to find a system that works for them - not the system that works for TX, Somarco, M&M or me.
Agree...and disagree.
You need to have a model AND marketing plan to be successful. Those can be individual things.
Newer people can either waste a LOT of time and money in a learning curve, or if they're smart - they'll learn from experienced people who've already made those mistakes...
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