What is more important to you? More referrals? Or higher quality clients from referrals? Or both? Here are a few simple things to keep in mind if you’d like to get better quality clients from referrals in 2009.
Get Clear
What type of client do you want to attract into your business? Are you crystal clear? Can you write it down right now, on the spot? Clear intentions produce clear results. Fuzzy intentions produce fuzzy results. You will be amazed at how much easier it becomes the right kind of clients into your business when you are crystal clear what comprises an ideal client.
A couple of years ago I read Tim Ferriss’ now famous book The Four Hour Work Week for the first time. It’s a book that I pick up and re-read quite often and it has made a world of difference in my life and agency. Most importantly, it helped me free myself of the many low paying jobs I used to be responsible for. Today, I work less than four hours a week in my agency. However, I do work more than four hours a week on my agency, but I work where and when I want. And I only work on what makes me the most money.
I am often asked by other agents, “How can you spend so little time in the agency while it continues to grow faster than ever?” It comes down to eliminating and delegating the tasks that bring less value to me and using systems. Our time is the most valuable resource we have. It’s not our insurance knowledge or even our ability to service our clients. We only have so much time in a day and every minute of it is as valuable as you make it.
Let’s just jump right in to JV’s and endorsed mailings.This is something that is so underutilized, it’s ridiculous.In the marketing world, joint ventures are the life blood of many, many companies and they make people hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars on a regular basis by
-list sharing or mailing to each other’s lists and
-cross-selling to each other’s lists of customers.
So it works online well and it works offline as well.Most people just don’t do it because it takes a little bit more effort than most are willing to put in.This is going to make you so much more powerful than all the other agents out there that are just scraping the bottom of the barrel to get leads.By doing this, you’re going to get access to the best clients, and potential clients, that you can possibly get.
That is because its coming from a referral of somebody they are already doing business with, an endorsement, and you know that they’re obviously a buyer because they’ve currently been purchasing something from the other individual that you’re joint venturing with.
The first thing to remember when you’re doing direct mail is that the list is everything. The best direct mail piece in the world is no good if you send it to the wrong list, or to a bad list, or to a bunch of people who have already moved and aren’t there to receive their mail.So, focusing on, and getting, a good list is key to making your marketing pieces perform well.
Write that down.The list is everything.
How do we go about getting a good list?First of all, it’s important to know who your best customer is.
Do you have a lot of customers in a certain geographic area?If so, then that’s probably a good indication that you can mail to that area and be successful in getting clients.Do you have a lot of people who own a certain type of home, or a certain type of car, a boat etc?These types of things give us demographic information that tell us “this is the type of individual that I want to mail to”.
Just taking a zip code and saying, “Okay, I’m going to send a mailing piece to everybody in this zip code” is the most common approach to direct mail.And trust me, there’s a ton of bulk mail blasting out there.Taking this “shotgun” approach with your money and with your mailing can work, but it’s not the way to really get the best results and return on investment.
The idea of being on the news or being on the radio or being highlighted in the newspaper or magazine may not appeal to you, but what I can tell you is you’ll get some very, very qualified and quality clients from using this strategy.
1.The first thing to do is to develop relationships.Unfortunately, I know this is a pain in the neck, but you’re going to have to identify who the folks are that you want to develop relationships with. Is there a talk radio show that talks about finance in your area, or family finances, family planning, financial planning etc.?You can easily relate to that subject matter as a protection specialist or emergency preparedness specialist etc.
1.Create a valuable tool that you can send to their list.
It’s so important to be developing some of this stuff like an emergency preparedness plan or an inventory record book or an insurance shoppers checklist, etc, that you can say, “Hey, Mr. President of the Association (or Mrs. President), I have this great tool that would be valuable to your members.Would you willing to let me mail it out to them or send them an e-mail and have them go to my website and get it?”
This is a great way to position yourself as the expert, offer something of value before you ask them for something.
2.Develop relationships with the Presidents or the leaders of these associations to get endorsed mailings.
Selling is an art that evolves through time. Through the years, we have seen insurance companies and individuals achieve tremendous success by employing various methods of getting more leads. In the past, a provider could become a big business just by using one way of gathering prospects. The conventional methods of getting insurance leads include telemarketing, direct mail, face-to-face selling, radio, and print media.
However, the reason why a lot of those who engage in insurance sales eventually fail in their craft is because they lack foresight on the direction of their business. The advent of advanced technology as well as the new laws have inevitably brought forth a revolution in sales and marketing.
Don’t look now, but the Mavs’ have come out from behind the curtain, and reveal their identities…kind of.
We know we look ridiculous, but it was fun and hopefully really helpful to you. (We failed to mention the reason for our silly costumes in the video, see below!)
Watch The Video Now->
As you know there are a multitude of “insurance villains” out to beat up insurance
agents and make our lives difficult. You have the Ultimate Villain Mastermind, Corporate Carl who
loves to find ways to shrink agent commissions, and IMA DRAGON the underwriter who never wants
to write any business.
We face these villains on a daily basis, and to keep ourselves anonymous, we’ve donned these
superhero costumes.
Please leave us a comment and let us know if this video was helpful (or just entertaining).
Here’s another post from a forum I contribute to. I’m getting more and more questions about this stuff, so I thought I’d share with you the question and the answer i gave.
On the forum that this came from the previous posts were saying how much they love postcards, and that letters get tossed before they even get a chance to get opened. Thats what some of my comments below reference.
Here you go…
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Hey Beachbroker,
i must say that your website is interesting and obviously you guys are trying to sell your services.But would you be willing to throw a bone to a forum member?Below is a post that i made recently (with no replies) on a DM thread.What I would add to you is that I respect your opinion on the letters - but any letter that isn’t obviously pertinent goes straight to the shredder at my house.I was thinking of doing a DM campaign with a large, heavy stock piece (maybe folded to keep post down) that is eye catching enough to make an impression in those precious seconds from the mailbox to the trash can or shredder.What are some call to action lines or headlines that you have used successfully?What kinds of stock photos - shocking pics or warm fuzzy’s?would you do a joint health and life campaign?I know that you guys are running a business but i thought i’d ask.
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My reply:
Marc, no problem on the question.
I’ve had a lot of experience in this area.
Blanket statements like “Postcards are best” is not the best advice in the world .
Of course it takes testing. For some offers postcards may prove betters, some times self mailers, and some times letters.
I’ve had much more success with self mailers than postcards, and I mailed to the exact same list multiple times. What does that tell me?
Hmmm, not hard.
I can assure you that most people never use letters the way I’ve described, and so they can’t say whether they are effective or not, can they?
There’s a couple of ways to get your mail opened. There is a long line of data and statistics pointing to letters as a better way to get response than postcards, but for your question specifically, I’ll address that.
What is your target’s biggest PROBLEM when it comes to what you offer. Is it too expensive? Too complicated? Scary? Confusing, Frustrating?
After you have identified what you most often hear in terms of a problem, (from your clients) then turn that into a headline.
I’ll use price because that tends to be a popular way that we agents sell ourselves.
“How A Legal IRS Loophole Allows Angelina Jolie To Save 27% on Her Health Insurance Premiums…And You Can Too!” OPEN TO LEARN MORE…
Then I would go into how the IRS allows business owners to write off 100% of their health and dental insurance premiums.
Why Angelina Jolie? 2 REALLY good reasons. (She’s a business owner of some type so that’s the tie in.)
1. She’s a hot superstar and you can put her picture in there to capture attention.
2. She is in a movie right now that is doing a ton of marketing, and you’ll be able to leverage their marketing to enhance yours.
Now you will show them how they can set up a company that will only cost them $12 per year to maintain and it will save them hundreds, even thousands in taxes over the course of the year, or several years. (of course hypothetical, but you get the idea.)
Another example headline would be “How Savvy Americans (use your specific city for a better effect) Are Beating The Skyrocketing health insurance Costs.” Open to learn more…
Also, have you downloaded the 100 Power Headlines and 32 Great Headline Templates from our video site? Insurance Marketing Mavericks
If not, it will be a great help to you, watch the video on Copywriting for maximum lead attraction or (maximum response), put in your email address and go download the tools.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to spam you. But I am giving a lot of value, and I need an email address to update people on the new content we put up. (For those who are offended…don’t do it.)
Hope that helps,
Beach Broker
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Beach Broker “Make Them Come To You”
PS. If you have an comment or question, feel free to post it below and I’ll do my best to respond.
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