You said on a previous post that cold calling was the answer. This is something I really don't want to do. I've done it in the past and prefer to spend money on leads so I can at least speak with people who asked for me to call them.
I know that a lot of the big money makers in the industry do cold calling but in sales there is enough rejection without having to voluntarily pile it on through cold callling.
You'll never successfully engage in any marketing technique that you hate. I'll never do residential cold calling (phone or in person) - ever. Don't care if it would make me $5,000 a week I ain't doing it. B to B phone and in-person sales are different. Business owners are used to getting called on. It just comes with the territory. I'm registered as a business in many directories and I get cold-called 2 or 3 times a week.
Bottom line is if you hate cold calling you'll never do it. I don't look forward to cold-calling but for me it's like excercising - don't look forward to it but once I'm into it I'm in a zone. Once I've made the first 10 calls or walked into the first 10 stores I'm in a zone and it's all good. I even enjoy it once I get the first lead or two - then I'm on fire.
------------------------------------ Health Insurance Agents: Training, Support, Discounts, E&O for $440 www.ihiaa.com
I agree with you. I understand being in the zone. It's like having a certain rithym. I did b to b for a very short period in the printing business. I found a good opening line that didn't feel like an intrusion on them and some of the front office people invited me in for a short chat on what I could do for them.
Over the phone though is a whole different story. I'm a lot better in person. It's to easy for someone to hang up on you over the phone. I don't like that at all. I wouldn't do it either for 5,000 a week. Thats why I'll find another way on these leads.
Direct mail is not getting any where near the response it used to in MP. A friend of mine agreed to drop 1000 pieces for free just to get me to work his system.
2 months after the mailing there was no response. He offered to drop another 1000 in a different area. I passed.
This guy used to get 2 - 3% response, now he is looking at less than .5%.
Even at .5% that is 5 leads per 1000 at $700 or about $140 per lead.
The day I pay $140 per lead they better meet me at the door with a check in one hand and a cold beer in the other.
You can go broke quickly in that market. You would be better off with rehashed stale leads for next to nothing from NAA than fronting your own money.
Someone, cant recall who, may have been Golddoor, said he found leads for something like $6. You might want to go back to the old forum and scrounge around, contact the poster and see how that worked out.
I really hate you see you beating your head against the wall for a term product that almost never pays. Clients just don't see the value and it lapses quickly. It's also very hard to market and you basically can't do any form of cold calling. It's mailer driven and you simply need a large bank roll.
My advice is to get into health, real life insurance, disability, ltc or the senior market. All of these can be done with very inexpensive marketing methods and you'll keep clients on the books for life.
Don't see the point with MP. No renewals and hardly any referrals. Just seems like Groundhog Day. Not the product I would concentrate on.
I can't find your email address. Where do I go the find it on here?
Sorry about that, I have it in the profile now, I use a intergrated appoarch now that helps with term,perm and ci and di. And from time to time health and annuities.
I was wondering if you used the same script cold calling as you did walking and talking. If not, what do you say differently. Also you swore by walkin and talkin, do you get a larger response cold calling?
You remember my other post for when I was an agent two other times and went broke fast. One of those times I tried health. It took a long time to get paid. The rates went up all the time so my customers had to try a different plan almost every year or two. I had an incredibly difficult time trying to sell health.
I don't know how anybody can be a success in it. Obviously, you are but I never had the hang of it. Mortgage Protection seems so easy it's almost a slam dunk for me.
I was wondering if you used the same script cold calling as you did walking and talking. If not, what do you say differently. Also you swore by walkin and talkin, do you get a larger response cold calling?
Script is almost the same:
"I'm John Petrowski with the Health Solutions Agency. I'm calling to let you know about new health insurance plans that are available through United Healthcare, Aetna, and Time Insurance. Do you have your own plan or group?"
You remember my other post for when I was an agent two other times and went broke fast. One of those times I tried health. It took a long time to get paid. The rates went up all the time so my customers had to try a different plan almost every year or two. I had an incredibly difficult time trying to sell health.
I don't know how anybody can be a success in it. Obviously, you are but I never had the hang of it. Mortgage Protection seems so easy it's almost a slam dunk for me.
You don't know how anyone can be successful selling a product that everyone knows they need, everyone uses and everyone understands? I can't believe I get paid what I get paid to sell health. If I'm lucky I put in a good 20 hours a week on new business. It's arguably the only product you can market for next to nothing: B to B, doorhangers and cold calling. No other product pulls that kind of response.
Oh oh, now you're after some of my hidden treasures. Yes, unlimited small business listings that you can customize anyway you want for $9.95 per month. I can spend a day calling all the beauty salons in Michigan and the next day calling all the mortgage brokers in Virginia. You'll have to call me to get that info - won't post it on the board. Don't need the competition.
http://local.google.com/ Go to "find businesses" and you are done. You can tweak your settings to display 50 results on a page. Now just cut and paste onto a word doc, or call direct from google. The nice part about calling from google is that you can check with no effort to see if they have a website. I do that as I call, and I can look up some general info about the company if they do.
That's a nice theory. In reality I can only call "micro businesses" which is under 10 employees. Actually, under 5 employees is what I'm looking for. I can't randomly call businesses without knowing their employee size since I'd just be hitting company group all day. Pure waste of time. As it stands now an overwhelming majority of micro businesses have company group. I'll looking for the 5% that have individual plans. I'm sure I could just call a regular listing and but sheer number of calls get some leads. But that would double or triple my calling time and I don't have that kind of time.
Also, for the $9.95 I get the owners name - which is invaluable to say "Is Kathy Hill in?" HUGE difference between that and "Is the owner available?" Then Kathy picks up the phone and says "who's calling?" I say "John Petrowski." She says "what's this regarding" and it's over. She says "Kathy's not in now."
If you were making money from the small group health side, it would not be a waste of your time. You may not want to right now, but you can hire someone for your agency to just do group health. Send them to IMC or benefit mall for some training, and just pass along the leads. When a group goes through, figure out a commission split.
Most micro businesses don't have a gatekeeper. Usually the owner answers and if not whoever does just puts me through.
Larger businesses have a gatekeeper:
Me: "Hi, is Rob Long in"
Gatekeeper: "I'm sorry he's busy, who's calling?"
And it goes downhill from there. He's not busy - he's in his office. The gatekeeper's job is only to let important calls through, so it's "Who are you" "Why are you calling" and "Is Mr. Long expecting your call?"
I don't have any time for it. And for $9.95 per month it's well worth it not to get Google lists and ask "is the owner in?" Most of the times the owner picks up the phone and says "no."
You do make a good point. It might be worth it just for the names. Still, I can tell you from my own experience, and I think Bob can agree from his, you can make plenty of money doing those google cold calls for group health. Especially when you are already up and running, and you can make a profit from almost any answer.
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