Is there a way to weed out the prospects based on their income level? Or is it more or less in today’s day and age a crapshoot? My lead company doesn't ask for income information unfortunately and I won’t waste my budget on mailing lists. Besides, even if the lead company asked for income levels, 90% of the prospects lie.
There's got to be a way to weed out the leads that don’t have any money. There has to be a way to weed out shoppers.
Yes, I have a script/process/questionnaire that I designed that I do over the phone to determine if they can even afford to eat, but I want this process done before I get them on the phone.
Any good screening companies out there? Or maybe that doesn’t even matter because prospects lie and I’ll just have to chalk-it-up…….again.
-CR
(slowly getting fed up with shoppers and chasing my tail).
Imagine you open a clothing store and positioned people at the store entrance.
Before people come into your shop you want an income statement - proof that they either have cash or credit on them and determine that they are going to buy something when they come in.
Do you want that model or do you want as many people as possible going through your store.
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If you look hard enough, you could probably find extremely qualified prospects, filtered by age, income, insurability, etc. In other words, a dog with a note in his mouth could sell them.
The question is, how much are you willing to pay for these leads.
An underwriter once confessed it is possible to ask enough questions and put enough barriers up that the carrier is never exposed to any risk. The only problem is, you won't write any business.
Most of my leads are currently insured but some are not. (I pay extra to filter out those who are not insured). One question I always ask early on is this.
If they have insurance, how much are they paying and are their rates going up.
If they do not have insurance, I ask how much they would EXPECT to pay for coverage.
Those who have insurance now are more reluctant to reveal their premiums (at least initially) than those who are not insured. Some of the responses cause me to almost laugh out loud.
Oh, yes, I understand the costs will go up. I have to decide, the money's almost gone.
"Those who have insurance now are more reluctant to reveal their premiums (at least initially)"
Those who HAVE insurance are reluctant?! Unbelievable! You would think, that they think you might, just might be able to save them money. Unbelievable, it really is.
Yeah, my own screening process is pretty good. I ask those questions too. I really don't think people who are shopping for LTC have a clue to the cost, this is why they shop and it's important for me to get them on the phone immediately like some here have advised. Rather than just getting the proposals together and giving my services away where they don't need to call me anymore after that. I simply end my initial email with "Call me if you wish to proceed". If they don't call, hey, that's ok. They didn't waste anymore of my time.
You would think, that they think you might, just might be able to save them money. Unbelievable, it really is.
Baffles me too.
Finally took a life app last week on a lady looking to save money on insurance. Currently paying $640, I showed her the same plan with an estimated premium of $480.
Took her 6 months to get around to doing something.
I don't churn clients, but I do show them ways to save on renewal. I have at least half a dozen who looked at the comparison and said they wanted to save anywhere from $40 to $125 per month for similar coverage. Everyone of them is stalling. They have other things more important than taking 15 minutes to complete a new app.
People are resistant to change, even when it is to their advantage. Status quo is also making a decision.
Call me if you wish to proceed
How about, "Call me when you are ready to move forward". "When" implies consent while "if" conveys indecision. "Move forward" is a bit more forceful.
And this . . .
When I find myself chasing prospects I realize I don't have enough people to talk to. That is when I do things to drum up new prospects.
Excellent advise Bob, thanks. Drum up new biz? You? But how? Don't tell me cold call, there's no way. Prospect? Going into town and handing people your flyers? No way again. How do YOU drum up new biz? I'd like to learn how. I'm tired of "reaching as many people" as I can and driving all over Pa and Jersey. Yeah, eventually that'll pay off, but how do seasoned pros like yourself aquire new biz?
Going on the hunt for the qualified prospect will lead to frustration and likely a short lived insurance career.
This is not to say that you don't qualify prospects when you contact them but looking to only contact qualified prospects will leave you very frustrated.
How long does it take me to qualify someone? Around 30 seconds so my goal is to speak to a lot of people.
Would you like it if your website generated 100 leads a day? Sure - yet not a single one of them would be remotely qualified.
Yes, I follow. I understand your clothing store scenario. Besides, like you, to pre-qualify over the phone, with my own script I have only takes about 2 mins. And you're right. Searching for pre-qualified prospects will lead to a lot of frustration and ultimately a short career.
Excellent advice.
When I sold cars we had reps who "curb qualified" - they determined a buyer from a non-buyer buy looking at what they drove up in, the way they were dressed, ages, etc...
They always made the least amount of money since they never wanted to waste their time with an "unqualified" prospect. The took less prospects = made less money. Always.
The reps who made the most simply greeted everyone.
Sending thank you cards (something I am working on now and trying to improve my overall "snail mail" correspondence), a monthly newsletter (Constant Contact), phone calls to existing clients as well as those where we spoke in the past but nothing happened (the Ed Koch approach), sending out updated proposals with a note that things have changed in the market, drip marketing via automated email, volunteering time on public forums in "help" sessions, and . . . buying more leads.
It all works together. All are things to make sure they don't forget me and give them an opportunity to respond.
Excellent advise Bob, thanks. Drum up new biz? You? But how? Don't tell me cold call, there's no way. Prospect? Going into town and handing people your flyers? No way again. How do YOU drum up new biz? I'd like to learn how. I'm tired of "reaching as many people" as I can and driving all over Pa and Jersey. Yeah, eventually that'll pay off, but how do seasoned pros like yourself aquire new biz?
If the money is running out (I believe you said that in an earlier post) and you're not willing to do any sort of cold prospecting, unfortanetly, your time in running out. I still get most of my business from telemarketing and B2B, however, there are some other things you can do besides internet leads:
-start developing referral relationships with P&C guys along with financial advisor types. The easiest way to motivate them is commission splits unless you can send them enough business to make it worth their while.
-speak in front of some groups that are independent contractors or small business owners
The bottom line is you have to be able to speak with enough people every business day that are generally qualified as a group to do business with you or you won't make it, the source doesn't matter as much. As much as you may not like cold calling, it is the fastest way to jump start your pipeline if it is struggling.
With everyone going nuts looking for "the best" lead sources a decent portion of my business comes from flyers I lay in counters when I'm out doing s**t. Are they qualified? Hell no.
Prospect screening
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