Scroll down for a discussion on No Show Fixes within the Getting Started Selling Insurance.
New to the insurance business. Is there any secrets to actually having the client that schedules the appointment with you to ACTUALLY BEING THERE? I ...
New to the insurance business. Is there any secrets to actually having the client that schedules the appointment with you to ACTUALLY BEING THERE? I have not had any reason to believe the client wouldn't be there from the phone call, but for some reason, I'll travel 50 miles, get there 5 minutes early, and NOTHING. No lights on, no answering of the phone, vehicles gone...
Just some tips on how to lock that customer in to letting in me in the door...
I ran a lot of in-home presentations and while it'll never be perfect:
1) Qualify, mainly for interest. Anyone can use their 6th sense to tell if they're setting an appointment just to get you off the phone or if there's general interest. I never ran those; "well, sure you can come by if you want" appointments.
2) I always called right before I left. If they answered I told them I was calling to verify directions since Mapquest can be wrong. If they didn't answer I left a message stating that I wanted to confirm directions. If they didn't call back I never ran the appointment.
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Assuming this is husband and wife, set the appointment with BOTH, not just one of them. Tell them you are writing it down as a confirmed appointment and you will be making a special trip to see them.
None of this I will be in your area crap. Let them know up front this is not an oh by the way . . .
Tell them you will send them an email/post card confirming the time and date and will call the day before to confirm.
Do it.
Then call again, as John said, to verify directions. You might even mix it up a bit. "I have the 4th house on the right, correct?"
"No, it is the 3rd house on the left".
"Great! I will see both of you at 7:30 sharp. Our meeting should take about 30 minutes, longer if you have questions. Our goal (this assumes you are going for a one call close) is to address your concerns, answer any questions, and provide a choice of solutions that fit your needs and budget."
You have to qualify, qualify and qualify some more for F2F appointments especially if it is one call close. You need to verify they understand they have a problem, you have a range of solutions, they have told you their budget (most important) and you expect a decision.
You have to set the bar high or else spend a lot of time listening to the radio and not making any money.
When I did F2F appointments they always knew when I was coming, why I was coming, and they knew to have a check ready if I had something that met their needs and budget.
You can fool yourself into thinking you have viable prospects and end up cursing them on the way back home empty handed, or you can take the time to sniff out the tire kickers up front and spend less windshield time and more time going to the bank.
When I was running my own appointments, not those set for me, I closed 3 out of 4. I could have pressed and had a higher closing ratio but when I did that most of it fell off the books.
If your no shows are more than 20% you are doing something wrong. I rarely had no shows or one legs but I gave them every opportunity to back out.
That goes against conventional wisdom of managers but so what? They aren't paying my gasoline bill or my mortgage. I would rather run 4 - 5 solid appointments a week and sell 3 - 4 than running 20 only to have 10 actually be there and sell 2.
"" one legs ""?
Good post. A lot of times they know the price and I am going just to do the paperwork. And of course to show them a couple of upgrades.
Originally Posted by somarco
Assuming this is husband and wife, set the appointment with BOTH, not just one of them. Tell them you are writing it down as a confirmed appointment and you will be making a special trip to see them.
None of this I will be in your area crap. Let them know up front this is not an oh by the way . . .
Tell them you will send them an email/post card confirming the time and date and will call the day before to confirm.
Do it.
Then call again, as John said, to verify directions. You might even mix it up a bit. "I have the 4th house on the right, correct?"
"No, it is the 3rd house on the left".
"Great! I will see both of you at 7:30 sharp. Our meeting should take about 30 minutes, longer if you have questions. Our goal (this assumes you are going for a one call close) is to address your concerns, answer any questions, and provide a choice of solutions that fit your needs and budget."
You have to qualify, qualify and qualify some more for F2F appointments especially if it is one call close. You need to verify they understand they have a problem, you have a range of solutions, they have told you their budget (most important) and you expect a decision.
You have to set the bar high or else spend a lot of time listening to the radio and not making any money.
When I did F2F appointments they always knew when I was coming, why I was coming, and they knew to have a check ready if I had something that met their needs and budget.
You can fool yourself into thinking you have viable prospects and end up cursing them on the way back home empty handed, or you can take the time to sniff out the tire kickers up front and spend less windshield time and more time going to the bank.
When I was running my own appointments, not those set for me, I closed 3 out of 4. I could have pressed and had a higher closing ratio but when I did that most of it fell off the books.
If your no shows are more than 20% you are doing something wrong. I rarely had no shows or one legs but I gave them every opportunity to back out.
That goes against conventional wisdom of managers but so what? They aren't paying my gasoline bill or my mortgage. I would rather run 4 - 5 solid appointments a week and sell 3 - 4 than running 20 only to have 10 actually be there and sell 2.
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." Charles Darwin
The worst advice you'll ever get - typically by "managers" is set as many appointments as possible, never call to confirm and it'll all sort itself out. No it won't. You'll have a lot of no-shows, a lot of one-legged appointments and a lot of no-sales. More bad advice is "if you call you're giving them a chance to cancel." Good - I wanted weak prospects to cancel if I called. Saved me a wasted trip.
One of these clowns when I was with Mega taught agents this method. He ran 3 appointments a day to submit 20K a week. I ran 6 appointments a week to submit the same.
Another piece of advice, and this is just my personal preference - I didn't drive to apartment complexes - especially on the wrong side of town nor did a schedule appointments with young singles.
Last edited by healthagent : 11-07-2009 at 08:23 PM.
On the back of my business cards I have appointment information that I can fill in and I send my business card and a thank you note to the customer as soon as I get of of the phone. On the back of my card, on the bottom it say's, "if you can't keep this appointment please call me at ***-***-****". I think it also depends on the product you are selling. I have never, not once, been stood up on a Medicare supplement appointment. Seniors keep their appointments.
I'm selling life (mortgage protection, final expense, etc). I called prior and got an answering machine. I made the trip anyway because there were a couple of other leads that lived within a few miles of this particular customer. Confirmed the other leads still lived there (working b leads), got the correct phone number for one of them, the other was at the college football game and I was told by the neighbor to try calling them Sunday afternoon...they were always home on Sunday afternoons (watching NFL games). If I can get something with either of those, trip wouldn't have been wasted...we'll see.
I'm selling life (mortgage protection, final expense, etc). I called prior and got an answering machine. I made the trip anyway because there were a couple of other leads that lived within a few miles of this particular customer. Confirmed the other leads still lived there (working b leads), got the correct phone number for one of them, the other was at the college football game and I was told by the neighbor to try calling them Sunday afternoon...they were always home on Sunday afternoons (watching NFL games). If I can get something with either of those, trip wouldn't have been wasted...we'll see.
Thanks for the quick advice.
I have heard a couple of people say that final expense appts. are the worst for no-shows.
Yes, most folks are home on Sunday afternoon and PM. And they are all waiting for the insurance guy to call.
Problem with a lot of the advice given by managers is this. It just doesn't work any more.
A manager will often sort through the leads, cherry pick the ones they want to work, hand out a few more to their top producers, and everyone else get's the leads that are so old they should be in a nursing home.
You can make money working B leads, but you have to be smart about it. Most folks have caller ID now and won't pick up the phone if they don't recognize the number or it comes up "Howard's Insurance Agency".
B leads have been pounded already, by mail, by phone, etc. Used to work with a guy that said he called leads until they bought or died.
Yeah, that works.
You need to be unique and take control. You do that in the qualifying process over the phone. You can mail info to B leads as a teaser and get some response.
On mtg leads you know their address, mtg amount, DOB. Send them something like this.
For less than $30/mo (or whatever the figure is) your mortgage will be paid by our company for up to 2 years when you are sick and can't work due to a major accident or illness. If you die while the policy is in effect, they will pay off your mortgage. For an extra $10 per month you could be eligible for a full refund of premiums paid at the end of the term.
Some will respond to this, some won't.
Clean it up a bit so you don't get in trouble with the insurance police, but you get the idea.
And one legs are appointments where both husband & wife need to be present but one is not there.
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