Anyone Willing to Share a Good Commercial Intro Call Script?

[PotentialFarmer]

It's all in the title. I have my own way of doing things, but I want to get some more of my personal lines guys writing some small commercial accounts to round things out. I've been doing things my own way for some time and mainly focus on larger accounts with 50k + premiums. I could use something simple to work into the personal lines guys as their referral partners are starting to dry up a bit on the personal side. I'm thinking of getting them into small garage deals, restaurant, office etc.

Thanks any thoughts would help. I recently got something from a conference but it feels a bit wishy washy to me. I don't like the beat around the bush style where you don't mention insurance till you get a face to face. Seems a bit "used-car-salesman" to me. Yes, we are consultants that once we know more about your business we may be able to identify cost savings and risk management strategies till the cows come home, but I'm an insurance broker and proud of it. I want my guys to have that same confidence to say what you do and deliver on it. No gimmicks.

 

[PotentialFarmer]

It's all in the title. I have my own way of doing things, but I want to get some more of my personal lines guys writing some small commercial accounts to round things out. I've been doing things my own way for some time and mainly focus on larger accounts with 50k + premiums. I could use something simple to work into the personal lines guys as their referral partners are starting to dry up a bit on the personal side. I'm thinking of getting them into small garage deals, restaurant, office etc.

Thanks any thoughts would help. I recently got something from a conference but it feels a bit wishy washy to me. I don't like the beat around the bush style where you don't mention insurance till you get a face to face. Seems a bit "used-car-salesman" to me. Yes, we are consultants that once we know more about your business we may be able to identify cost savings and risk management strategies till the cows come home, but I'm an insurance broker and proud of it. I want my guys to have that same confidence to say what you do and deliver on it. No gimmicks.

Bump. Not a soul will offer anything? This forum getting stingy on their helpfulness.

 

[Justin Bilyj]

Commercial isnt this forums strong suit, but you can find many scripts and commercial cold calling threads in the cold calling subforum. Seek out Vadwayne, its my understanding that he calls for X dates and follows up with them. Considering the fact that commercial accts. usually have a high persistency, it comes down to three ingredients to succeed in commercial p&c,
1. Good Intro
2. Utilizing the Wedge
3. Have a good follow up system

Intro:
Hi is X there? Hi X this is empty giving you a call, and X, you wont recognize my name because Im calling you as a cold call. Can I quickly tell you the reason Im calling?
I work with small business owners like you (or other dentists or whatever niche you prospect for) who may be fustrated/pissed/angry with the amount of money they are paying for their commercial insurance. Do you share that same concern?

Get an X date to follow up on. In the discovery period you may want to utilize the wedge, it will help you learn to differentiate yourself and compete against the incumbent agent. I am firmly convinced the Wedge was made for commercial insurance, financial advising, and employee benefits.
Keep contact with anyone who will give you an x date by using send out cards SOC.

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https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140522183851-57512307-cold-calling-objections-cont-can-you-send-me-information-we-already-have-a-supplier?trk=mp-details-rr-rmpost

This is a good article to read for commercial (the second half of the article deals with how to deal with we already have an agent), since everyone will have an agent/agency already you need to position yourself as #2 so that you can:
A. Place them into your pipeline
B. Drip on them with helpful value filled information (maybe a quarterly newsletter)
C. Position yourself to use the wedge in order to let them understand what they are missing or receiving as far as bad service without specifically putting them down.

Commercial is amassing pipeline leads while you drip on them while wedging them away from their current agent...

 

[PotentialFarmer]

Commercial isnt this forums strong suit, but you can find many scripts and commercial cold calling threads in the cold calling subforum. Seek out Vadwayne, its my understanding that he calls for X dates and follows up with them. Considering the fact that commercial accts. usually have a high persistency, it comes down to three ingredients to succeed in commercial p&c,
1. Good Intro
2. Utilizing the Wedge
3. Have a good follow up system

Intro:
Hi is X there? Hi X this is empty giving you a call, and X, you wont recognize my name because Im calling you as a cold call. Can I quickly tell you the reason Im calling?
I work with small business owners like you (or other dentists or whatever niche you prospect for) who may be fustrated/pissed/angry with the amount of money they are paying for their commercial insurance. Do you share that same concern?

Get an X date to follow up on. In the discovery period you may want to utilize the wedge, it will help you learn to differentiate yourself and compete against the incumbent agent. I am firmly convinced the Wedge was made for commercial insurance, financial advising, and employee benefits.
Keep contact with anyone who will give you an x date by using send out cards SOC.

----------

https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140522183851-57512307-cold-calling-objections-cont-can-you-send-me-information-we-already-have-a-supplier?trk=mp-details-rr-rmpost

This is a good article to read for commercial (the second half of the article deals with how to deal with we already have an agent), since everyone will have an agent/agency already you need to position yourself as #2 so that you can:
A. Place them into your pipeline
B. Drip on them with helpful value filled information (maybe a quarterly newsletter)
C. Position yourself to use the wedge in order to let them understand what they are missing or receiving as far as bad service without specifically putting them down.

Commercial is amassing pipeline leads while you drip on them while wedging them away from their current agent...

Empty,

Firstly, thanks for the response. I like where your head is on this and it makes sense. It's a longer sales cycle and gathering x-dates and continuing the follow up is how I've gone about things.

I am curious though how this P&C section wouldn't be very heavy on Commercial, as we have a P&C, Homeowners and Auto section, so I would imagine Homeowners and Auto would handle Personal Lines and P&C should be only commercial.

Either way thanks for your help. I did enjoy the article on objection handling. And the Wedge aspect is important as well. I'll pass this on to my guys. Thanks.

 

[nyc2phi]

It's all in the title. I have my own way of doing things, but I want to get some more of my personal lines guys writing some small commercial accounts to round things out. I've been doing things my own way for some time and mainly focus on larger accounts with 50k + premiums. I could use something simple to work into the personal lines guys as their referral partners are starting to dry up a bit on the personal side. I'm thinking of getting them into small garage deals, restaurant, office etc. Thanks any thoughts would help. I recently got something from a conference but it feels a bit wishy washy to me. I don't like the beat around the bush style where you don't mention insurance till you get a face to face. Seems a bit "used-car-salesman" to me. Yes, we are consultants that once we know more about your business we may be able to identify cost savings and risk management strategies till the cows come home, but I'm an insurance broker and proud of it. I want my guys to have that same confidence to say what you do and deliver on it. No gimmicks.

Don't make it complicated...

Call, ask to speaking with the person who handles the insurance, mention you are with abc agency or xyz company and you specialize in insuring their type of business. You want to know if would be interested in a proposal. If not now then at renewal. If they say renewal ask for the date, thank them, and hang up.

 

[EugeneM]

P&C is so renewal specific. If the prospect does have a renewal coming up in 30-90 days they do not want to talk about it. unless they have specific pain with their incumbent.

I am assuming your list does not have effective dates and is complete cold call so the first thing I would do is find out when they come up for renewal.

hint! record every conversation and save the renewal dates so you can call them through out the year as they effective dates come up.

Script should be direct, simple and non intrusive. I personally ask for the owner every time if the company is under 30 employees. Then get passed down to controller or cfo if applicable, much easier getting passed down then working your way up.

"Hi this is X from X how are you today?" Let them answer " I wanted to submit a proposal for the commercial insurance next year, I wanted to find out what time of year it renews and if you accept quotes from time to time"

this opening sentence will tell you a lot. if they will not give you the effective date they will typically tell you why. Been with agent 20+ years. They have multiple year plan. They dont bid every year w.e the case maybe.

my favorite one liner is "whats the appriopriate way to submit a bid next year"

or

"how can I be considered for the bidding process next year?"

very open respectful lines at the same time direct and not waste time. I always saying next year always makes the prospect feel better. They get lots of calls with agents trying to give them quotes on the spot. Its refreshing when the agent respects their time.

If the renewal is actually coming up in that 30-90 day window thats when you ask if they will accept a bid this year.

over time you will collect enough effective dates to keep you busy throughout the year and you wont need to cold call. You will call off a list that already has X-dates on it.

 

[Robbie]

This is the exact script I am using right now to get an X date. It is important to collect an email address so that you can set them up on an auto follow up system. I use gmail with a free application called Steak. It allows me to send follow up emails on a scheduled basis. I send one email between when the call is made and the renewal date to keep the prospect warm, then I send an email two months before their renewal date to remind them that I need their information for a quote.

“Hi, my name is [your name],

I got your number from Google and I was calling because I need to speak with the person who is responsible for handling the company’s insurance, would that be yourself?”

[wait for gatekeeper's response]

(If gate keeper gives you the name of the person who handles insurance, ask them to provide you an email address to contact them directly)

[If transferred to decision maker use the following]

“I work for an insurance agent in Southwest Houston and we like to work with small local businesses. I would love for our agency to review your current coverage to see if we save you money, get you better benefits or hopefully both!”

“Does this sound like something that you and your company could benefit from?”

[Common scenarios]

My insurance is not up for renewal yet…
“I would love the opportunity to earn your business at that time. Is it ok if I follow up with you a couple of weeks before your next renewal date? Great! Who should I ask for when I call back? [wait for answer] Is it ok for me to send you my contact information via email? [collect email] Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me, I look forward to connecting with you again around your renewal date!”

 

[leroman]

This is the exact script I am using right now to get an X date. It is important to collect an email address so that you can set them up on an auto follow up system. I use gmail with a free application called Steak. It allows me to send follow up emails on a scheduled basis. I send one email between when the call is made and the renewal date to keep the prospect warm, then I send an email two months before their renewal date to remind them that I need their information for a quote.

“Hi, my name is [your name],

I got your number from Google and I was calling because I need to speak with the person who is responsible for handling the company’s insurance, would that be yourself?”

[wait for gatekeeper's response]

(If gate keeper gives you the name of the person who handles insurance, ask them to provide you an email address to contact them directly)

[If transferred to decision maker use the following]

“I work for an insurance agent in Southwest Houston and we like to work with small local businesses. I would love for our agency to review your current coverage to see if we save you money, get you better benefits or hopefully both!”

“Does this sound like something that you and your company could benefit from?”

[Common scenarios]

My insurance is not up for renewal yet…
“I would love the opportunity to earn your business at that time. Is it ok if I follow up with you a couple of weeks before your next renewal date? Great! Who should I ask for when I call back? [wait for answer] Is it ok for me to send you my contact information via email? [collect email] Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me, I look forward to connecting with you again around your renewal date!”

Best one so far!

 

[indienoise]

P&C is so renewal specific. If the prospect does have a renewal coming up in 30-90 days they do not want to talk about it. unless they have specific pain with their incumbent.

I am assuming your list does not have effective dates and is complete cold call so the first thing I would do is find out when they come up for renewal.

hint! record every conversation and save the renewal dates so you can call them through out the year as they effective dates come up.

Script should be direct, simple and non intrusive. I personally ask for the owner every time if the company is under 30 employees. Then get passed down to controller or cfo if applicable, much easier getting passed down then working your way up.

"Hi this is X from X how are you today?" Let them answer " I wanted to submit a proposal for the commercial insurance next year, I wanted to find out what time of year it renews and if you accept quotes from time to time"

this opening sentence will tell you a lot. if they will not give you the effective date they will typically tell you why. Been with agent 20+ years. They have multiple year plan. They dont bid every year w.e the case maybe.

my favorite one liner is "whats the appriopriate way to submit a bid next year"

or

"how can I be considered for the bidding process next year?"

very open respectful lines at the same time direct and not waste time. I always saying next year always makes the prospect feel better. They get lots of calls with agents trying to give them quotes on the spot. Its refreshing when the agent respects their time.

If the renewal is actually coming up in that 30-90 day window thats when you ask if they will accept a bid this year.

over time you will collect enough effective dates to keep you busy throughout the year and you wont need to cold call. You will call off a list that already has X-dates on it.

Yes. Please. Be direct, and be brief. Respect the business owner's time.
I'm involved in another business besides my agency, I get plenty of sales calls, and I am normally willing to listen to pitches if I have time. If they are distracted or sound busy, ask when a better time is to call them. Be direct. The only thing more irritating than robocalls is when multiple telemarketers call me using the same ploy trying not to sound like a salesperson. Own it. Know you bring value, they will hear it in your voice.