There’s a huge fallacy that creates much of the frustration and shattered expectations of advisors in this industry.
That fallacy is that there is — ’somewhere out there’ — a group of highly qualified people hiding in some cramped corner of the universe who are ready and wanting to buy what you sell. And all you have to do is “get in front of them” and you’ll close deals easier than selling water to parched desert travelers.
The truth is that no such ‘group of golden prospects’ exists.
The problem lies in people pitching pipe dreams of ‘hot qualified leads’ begging you to sell them something.
Now I’m not saying that you can’t get people to come to you, who are exclusive, and who are better prospects than the jokers who go online and fill out 13 quotes and have their information sold to 79 different agents.
If that’s the type of lead you are working…THAT IS miserable. Of course it may not be as bad as having no leads at all, but just barely.
But what I am saying is that usually there is a PROCESS required to take someone from merrily enjoying their day, to getting interrupted by you, to reading your message, to realizing they might possibly be interested, to wanting what you sell, to trusting you, and ultimately realizing that they need your product worse than they need their own money.
Does that sound like something that happens within 30 seconds of receiving a postcard in the mail, or seeing an ad in a magazine?
Nope.
In some cases you’ll use the internet to capture people who’ve already gone through maybe 30-50% of that process, but usually they don’t have their credit card on the desk anxiously waiting to buy insurance, it just doesn’t happen that way.
So how do you get someone to the point where they ARE ready and willing to buy?
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by Tom Wiecek
Yesterday, my mastermind friend, Russ Lowry and I were talking about our upcoming webinar interview with Ethan Kap in a couple of weeks. As we discussed some of the points that have helped us get the most freedom from our agencies, I brought up the mail. I said to Russ, “I wonder how many agents still open their agency’s mail?” Russ immediately fired back “I LOVE opening the mail!” We chuckled and agreed that we both love opening the mail.
We also agreed that it was a huge waste of time. Both of us have passed this task on to those that make less money than we do, but there are a few exceptions. Of course, we like to check out the “junk” mail. Why, because as a marketer, it’s good to see what other marketers are doing and steal good ideas from them. And, anything to do with fishing, I’m reading it!
Opening the mail is one of the tasks that many agents have a hard time letting go and is probably the biggest waste of money. Why? Because, Time is Money! Every minute of your day should be spent doing what makes you the most money. Everything else should be delegated.
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by Russ Lowry
The answer is, 24 hours in a day. They wake up just like you and start every day with 24 hours, yet they control and manage Billions even Trillions of dollars every day. So how do these guys do so much in the same time as you have? I can sum it up in two words delegation and systems.
Sounds easy enough but is it? Do you have what it takes to delegate and automate your daily tasks? How about that one client you always handle just because? Or better yet the “mail”? Who doesn’t love to spend valuable time going through the mail? I mean why pay someone $8.00 an hour to do this when you can do it yourself (at a cost of what $150.00, maybe $200.00 per hour)?
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by Tom Wiecek
My staff has always been trained to go for the “no” when working with prospects. Meaning don’t give up until you hear the word “no”. We never accept “I’ll think it over”. Of course, when we get a “yes”, I’ll accept that. This rule has helped us close more additional sales that would have simply gone away. It’s too easy for a CSR or a producer to accept a “think it over” and move on to the next prospect. It’s an easy way out and a common trait of a lousy salesperson.
Early in my career, I have to admit I used to focus on grabbing the “low hanging fruit” especially, when we had an abundance of prospects to work with. I remember a time when my agency couldn’t handle the amount of prospects coming into our office. We were the low price leader and everyone knew it. It was during a hard market and I had some very competitive carriers. We were order takers and business was good. Today, it’s a little different.
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by Sid Walker
Early in my 30-year coaching career I discovered that it worked better to get permission to talk about subjects that were challenging for people to talk about. If someone says they are working really hard and not making the money they want to make, you don’t jump in and say, “I’ve got some great ideas on how you can make more money, let me tell you what they are.” Instead you take an approach that is more respectful and more permission –based. You say, “I have had some experience in helping people with that issue, would you like to hear a couple of ideas that have worked for other people?” If the other person says, “Sure,” you have respectfully included the other person in the process and prepared him or her for the discussion to follow. What usually happens when you treat people with this level of respect is that they feel a increased degree of safety in talking with you. You have demonstrated you care about them and don’t want to start into a conversation they are not ready to have.
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by Sid Walker
One of the approaches I have used for decades to help reps get their prospective clients more excited about working with them in the initial interview is to start out by asking more questions. Instead of telling prospective clients how great you are, start out by asking them questions. People actually think you are smarter if you ask questions about them rather than talk about yourself. I think that is an accurate assessment, you are smarter if you ask questions about your prospective clients rather than just talk about yourself!
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by Tom Wiecek
Don’t you love it when sales happen out of the blue? Like when someone calls in and wants you to sell them a policy. They don’t waver or concern themselves on how much it’s going to cost. They just want it and they want it now.
Well, this has been happening a lot in my agency lately. We’re getting clients that we’ve had a long time, calling our office and telling us exactly what they want. Just the other day, we got an email from a client that said, “I need a million dollar 30 year term policy and I need to get this handled today”. That was the easiest $1400+ commission I’ve ever made. Cross selling policies to our current clients has jumped an astounding 17% last month with no effort from my staff except quoting and issuing the policies. They’re not calling anyone or sending letters. Just taking the calls and writing policies.
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by Ethan Kap
I remember the first time I bought leads. I was so desperate. I needed leads bad.
I wanted something quick and easy, delivered right to my email box .. or a service where someone would call me.
That is the dream for any agent or advisor.
I mean, come on let’s be honest… who really wants to *work* to attract their own leads when someone could deliver high quality leads on a silver platter?
(Of course learning to attract your own leads IS the best way long term)…
Sadly, so many charlatans wave their little flag, promising agents and advisors “guaranteed leads … but just enter in your credit card. The majority are scamming agents right out of their money. In fact, here is another post just last week on our blog about a company that screwed one of our fellow agents…
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