The sentence below is badly written. I meant it to mean that I consider the method of mailings and then calls when I want to make some immediate marketing penetration and growth.
<<Going through the phone book with my finger and making an immediate call isn't my style. I consider this method when I want to make some immediate marketing penetration and growth.>>
Respect Your Prospects
Moderators: Josh, independent guy
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volstrike3
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Not all "cold calls" are created equal
I have found that if you have a product that is valuable, the client does not mind the interuption. If you are fairly specialized and know your market niche, then cold calling is easy. Ex: If you have a great GL market with a low minimum premium for new residential contractors in California that is not available to all brokers, they are all willing to listen to you. The point is, if you can provide value then you are not bothering people or begging for business. If you are just hoping for a meeting and do not have anything to bring to the table, you are a hack.
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scott
- Insurance Journal Addict
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A phone call is always an interruption. Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, "I hope that insurance guy who has sent me ten letters will call me today."
You are no more than an uninvited guest.
You say your cold calling method works. It may. However, we know that some of the people you call are unhappy that you have called. Why would you want a marketing plan that ticks off a rather large segment of the population?
I follow a marketing plan based on value to the prospect/client. It is a long term strategy that depends on making myself a person-of-interest to my market by speaking to groups, writing articles, giving interviews to reporters, providing seminars to accountants, cultivating referral sources, attending association meetings, writing and speaking for trade groups.
It is a process that works for agents and consultants.
It is a plan that creates a marketing gravity where prospects call me. It is a system that allows me to create the clientele and business that I want.
If I call you begging for business, you control the process.
If you call me begging for help, I control the process.
You are no more than an uninvited guest.
You say your cold calling method works. It may. However, we know that some of the people you call are unhappy that you have called. Why would you want a marketing plan that ticks off a rather large segment of the population?
I follow a marketing plan based on value to the prospect/client. It is a long term strategy that depends on making myself a person-of-interest to my market by speaking to groups, writing articles, giving interviews to reporters, providing seminars to accountants, cultivating referral sources, attending association meetings, writing and speaking for trade groups.
It is a process that works for agents and consultants.
It is a plan that creates a marketing gravity where prospects call me. It is a system that allows me to create the clientele and business that I want.
If I call you begging for business, you control the process.
If you call me begging for help, I control the process.
Scott Simmonds, CPCU, ARM
Insurance Consultant
Insurance Consultant
Been holding off on jumping into this thread because we are like fire and a match but....
Oh poppy-cock! You have far too much time on your hands. As one poster said, you will out type us.
I use many different methods of selling and there are times that I need to use the phone.
If you are and do as you profess to do, you are dealing with people that have already bought insurance, they've already proceeded through a buying process and they are using you as a sounding board. So you really weren't part of the initial buying process, were you? You are riding on the backs of others that have already sold the product and you get to review it.
I think life is an interruption for you. Phone calls are interruptions, direct mail is an interruption, emails are an interruption. Everything is an interruption. There are people that think billboards are a nuisance, signs that sit in front of businesses are a nuisance, some people think the size of the phone book is a nuisance (yes the book that includes those Yellow Pages). Some may find it tacky that you advertise on this list by including your business tag line with each post.
Personally I wish we were back in the days when the Fuller Brush person showed at my door, we had a butcher that came to our house, we had a bread man, a milk man, etc. Those were days when people were civil to each other and didn't need to cloak their wares in some hidden grandiose marketing plan. The problem in the world is we no longer want to interact with each other. People are so xenophobic of their fellow human being that they only want to be spoken to when they request it. That's how you get to the point that people will watch a woman being raped and not lift a finger. They are only interested in their little sphere of existence. How do they say that the "me generation."
Almost each and every one of my small contractor clients started with calling people on the phone for siding, windows, decks, etc. How the He** do you think these people ever would have made it and have enough money to become a client. Not everyone starts off with a brand recognition or 100 years of past clients or the $8,000 a year for the yellow page ad.
After this I'm not biting on anymore of your musings on life as a hermit. Looking at your past posts about doing business all over America with all these agents I read about what you really think of them, I do wonder, "Exactly what type of Business Plan do you have?" Coming on this site and berating other agents doesn't sound like a great business plan.
Oh that's right....you are a Consultant, you don't get involved in that messy, messy sales stuff. Pardon me.
Now I've got to go and get an application signed or is that an interruption?
Oh poppy-cock! You have far too much time on your hands. As one poster said, you will out type us.
I use many different methods of selling and there are times that I need to use the phone.
If you are and do as you profess to do, you are dealing with people that have already bought insurance, they've already proceeded through a buying process and they are using you as a sounding board. So you really weren't part of the initial buying process, were you? You are riding on the backs of others that have already sold the product and you get to review it.
I think life is an interruption for you. Phone calls are interruptions, direct mail is an interruption, emails are an interruption. Everything is an interruption. There are people that think billboards are a nuisance, signs that sit in front of businesses are a nuisance, some people think the size of the phone book is a nuisance (yes the book that includes those Yellow Pages). Some may find it tacky that you advertise on this list by including your business tag line with each post.
Personally I wish we were back in the days when the Fuller Brush person showed at my door, we had a butcher that came to our house, we had a bread man, a milk man, etc. Those were days when people were civil to each other and didn't need to cloak their wares in some hidden grandiose marketing plan. The problem in the world is we no longer want to interact with each other. People are so xenophobic of their fellow human being that they only want to be spoken to when they request it. That's how you get to the point that people will watch a woman being raped and not lift a finger. They are only interested in their little sphere of existence. How do they say that the "me generation."
Almost each and every one of my small contractor clients started with calling people on the phone for siding, windows, decks, etc. How the He** do you think these people ever would have made it and have enough money to become a client. Not everyone starts off with a brand recognition or 100 years of past clients or the $8,000 a year for the yellow page ad.
After this I'm not biting on anymore of your musings on life as a hermit. Looking at your past posts about doing business all over America with all these agents I read about what you really think of them, I do wonder, "Exactly what type of Business Plan do you have?" Coming on this site and berating other agents doesn't sound like a great business plan.
Oh that's right....you are a Consultant, you don't get involved in that messy, messy sales stuff. Pardon me.
Now I've got to go and get an application signed or is that an interruption?
scott wrote:A phone call is always an interruption. Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, "I hope that insurance guy who has sent me ten letters will call me today."
You are no more than an uninvited guest.
You say your cold calling method works. It may. However, we know that some of the people you call are unhappy that you have called. Why would you want a marketing plan that ticks off a rather large segment of the population?
I follow a marketing plan based on value to the prospect/client. It is a long term strategy that depends on making myself a person-of-interest to my market by speaking to groups, writing articles, giving interviews to reporters, providing seminars to accountants, cultivating referral sources, attending association meetings, writing and speaking for trade groups.
It is a process that works for agents and consultants.
It is a plan that creates a marketing gravity where prospects call me. It is a system that allows me to create the clientele and business that I want.
If I call you begging for business, you control the process.
If you call me begging for help, I control the process.
Hm? I've found someone of my same species.
JSJAG wrote:Been holding off on jumping into this thread because we are like fire and a match but....
Oh poppy-cock! You have far too much time on your hands. As one poster said, you will out type us.
I use many different methods of selling and there are times that I need to use the phone.
If you are and do as you profess to do, you are dealing with people that have already bought insurance, they've already proceeded through a buying process and they are using you as a sounding board. So you really weren't part of the initial buying process, were you? You are riding on the backs of others that have already sold the product and you get to review it.
I think life is an interruption for you. Phone calls are interruptions, direct mail is an interruption, emails are an interruption. Everything is an interruption. There are people that think billboards are a nuisance, signs that sit in front of businesses are a nuisance, some people think the size of the phone book is a nuisance (yes the book that includes those Yellow Pages). Some may find it tacky that you advertise on this list by including your business tag line with each post.
Personally I wish we were back in the days when the Fuller Brush person showed at my door, we had a butcher that came to our house, we had a bread man, a milk man, etc. Those were days when people were civil to each other and didn't need to cloak their wares in some hidden grandiose marketing plan. The problem in the world is we no longer want to interact with each other. People are so xenophobic of their fellow human being that they only want to be spoken to when they request it. That's how you get to the point that people will watch a woman being raped and not lift a finger. They are only interested in their little sphere of existence. How do they say that the "me generation."
Almost each and every one of my small contractor clients started with calling people on the phone for siding, windows, decks, etc. How the He** do you think these people ever would have made it and have enough money to become a client. Not everyone starts off with a brand recognition or 100 years of past clients or the $8,000 a year for the yellow page ad.
After this I'm not biting on anymore of your musings on life as a hermit. Looking at your past posts about doing business all over America with all these agents I read about what you really think of them, I do wonder, "Exactly what type of Business Plan do you have?" Coming on this site and berating other agents doesn't sound like a great business plan.
Oh that's right....you are a Consultant, you don't get involved in that messy, messy sales stuff. Pardon me.
Now I've got to go and get an application signed or is that an interruption?
scott wrote:A phone call is always an interruption. Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, "I hope that insurance guy who has sent me ten letters will call me today."
You are no more than an uninvited guest.
You say your cold calling method works. It may. However, we know that some of the people you call are unhappy that you have called. Why would you want a marketing plan that ticks off a rather large segment of the population?
I follow a marketing plan based on value to the prospect/client. It is a long term strategy that depends on making myself a person-of-interest to my market by speaking to groups, writing articles, giving interviews to reporters, providing seminars to accountants, cultivating referral sources, attending association meetings, writing and speaking for trade groups.
It is a process that works for agents and consultants.
It is a plan that creates a marketing gravity where prospects call me. It is a system that allows me to create the clientele and business that I want.
If I call you begging for business, you control the process.
If you call me begging for help, I control the process.
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volstrike3
- Insurance Journal Addict
- Posts: 212
- Joined: Mon May 15, 2006 1:44 pm
- Location: Northern CA
[quote="scott"]Instead of attacking me, tell me why I'm wrong.[/quote]
Scott,
Your not wrong but you are generalizing. Are cold calls the best way to get new business? Absolutly not. Obviously being a well known specialist in you insurance niche that works strictly off of referrals would be ideal. but producers need to sell insurance ang get paid while working to get to that point.
What should I tell a new 25 year old producer? Go speak at an industry event or write articles for trade publications? That is good advice and would eventually be a successful tactic but how is he going to make a living while he is waiting for the referrals to come in? Cold calling is part of starting a career as a insurance broker. It is ideal, no but it is necessary and effective when done well.
Scott,
Your not wrong but you are generalizing. Are cold calls the best way to get new business? Absolutly not. Obviously being a well known specialist in you insurance niche that works strictly off of referrals would be ideal. but producers need to sell insurance ang get paid while working to get to that point.
What should I tell a new 25 year old producer? Go speak at an industry event or write articles for trade publications? That is good advice and would eventually be a successful tactic but how is he going to make a living while he is waiting for the referrals to come in? Cold calling is part of starting a career as a insurance broker. It is ideal, no but it is necessary and effective when done well.
"you are generalizing"
Yes that is something he seems to do quite well and it is the reason people show a pungent distaste for.
I've done speaking, radio and TV but to be truthful that didn't get the phone ringing a lot or a line of people lining up outside the door.
Do you know how many people know they should do estate planning but have no plan. The numbers are stunning. Every news pundit, every expert writes articles about why they should do it but they fail to make a plan. That is until some estate planning person calls them.
People are at this moment, sitting with homes that are under insured, businesses that lack adequate coverage and nothing happens until some mis-informed salesperson calls and makes the changes needed to correctly insure them.
It doesn't happen until you are proactive and do something. It is an arrogant position to sit there thinking I am so good....come to me?
Scott, that is how you sound to many of us on these pages.
You call agents names, you tell us we are intrusive and our marketing / sales techniques are wrong. What do you expect us to think of you?
Yes that is something he seems to do quite well and it is the reason people show a pungent distaste for.
I've done speaking, radio and TV but to be truthful that didn't get the phone ringing a lot or a line of people lining up outside the door.
Do you know how many people know they should do estate planning but have no plan. The numbers are stunning. Every news pundit, every expert writes articles about why they should do it but they fail to make a plan. That is until some estate planning person calls them.
People are at this moment, sitting with homes that are under insured, businesses that lack adequate coverage and nothing happens until some mis-informed salesperson calls and makes the changes needed to correctly insure them.
It doesn't happen until you are proactive and do something. It is an arrogant position to sit there thinking I am so good....come to me?
Scott, that is how you sound to many of us on these pages.
You call agents names, you tell us we are intrusive and our marketing / sales techniques are wrong. What do you expect us to think of you?
volstrike3 wrote:scott wrote:Instead of attacking me, tell me why I'm wrong.
Scott,
Your not wrong but you are generalizing. Are cold calls the best way to get new business? Absolutly not. Obviously being a well known specialist in you insurance niche that works strictly off of referrals would be ideal. but producers need to sell insurance ang get paid while working to get to that point.
What should I tell a new 25 year old producer? Go speak at an industry event or write articles for trade publications? That is good advice and would eventually be a successful tactic but how is he going to make a living while he is waiting for the referrals to come in? Cold calling is part of starting a career as a insurance broker. It is ideal, no but it is necessary and effective when done well.
Re: Respect Your Prospects
Mr Martin. I see you are new to this forum, which is fine but we all know about name games. There is only a minor que of people that are posting to this topic and I think we will need to agree to disagree.
As much as I consider Howard Stern to be a good entertainer, I don't think I'd place his website address in my profile. Hm?
I just know this, I can't remember the last time I talked with someone that wasn't pleasant to me. I guess it is that universal law, if you expect bad things you'll receive bad things. I expect good things (kind people) and I get good things (kind people).
This is my last post on this issue.
I'll give you this...you did hit a few good debating points.
As much as I consider Howard Stern to be a good entertainer, I don't think I'd place his website address in my profile. Hm?
I just know this, I can't remember the last time I talked with someone that wasn't pleasant to me. I guess it is that universal law, if you expect bad things you'll receive bad things. I expect good things (kind people) and I get good things (kind people).
This is my last post on this issue.
I'll give you this...you did hit a few good debating points.
RileyMartin wrote:Well, our respective beliefs about a Higher Power notwithstanding, I think you've missed the point. It's not so much about whether my time is more important than your time, but about your right to impose your needs ON my time and whether or not your entire demeanor in cold calling me reflects humility and the understanding that you have no automatic rights to ANY of my time.etimer wrote:God gave us each time on this earth and your time / my time really is no more valuable than the person on the other end of the line. That's the way I look at it.
Therefore, if your cold call starts with some kind of acknowledgement that you need my time more than I need yours at this particular moment, I might listen to you and be more polite when I respond that I'm not interested. However, if your demeanor, tone, and your "spiel" is more consistent with an arrogant assumption that you have some "God-given" RIGHT to even a second of my time (especially when you're already intruding into my PRIVATE time at home), then don't be surprised or offended that I respond accordingly.
For example, I have interrupted an apparent sales call to ask "Excuse me, is this a sales call?" only to be told "No Sir". If they continued and then offered to SELL me something, let's just say they didn't make the sale and probably wished they'd answered more honestly and allowed ME to decide whether or not I wished to devote any of MY time to THEIR needs at that particular moment.
Actually, you're contradicting your premise and making my counterargument here: Only a person with a "me...me...me..." world view makes cold calls without any regard for the fact that he might very well be calling someone at a time when "he...he...he..." might have something else more important to "him...him...him..." than "your...your...your..." sales call.etimer wrote:At the moment we have a society that far too many people consider "their" time more valuable than the next person's time. For that we get, people talking loudly on cell phones in restaurants, people driving as if they are the only person on the road, people deciding that the red light was on long enough so I'll just run through it, it is a me...me...me view of the world.
My personal favorite is when they call with an authoritative tone and say they "need to talk to the person who receives the long distance phone bill." In response to asking them to identify themselves they simply repeat their "needs" a little more authoritatively. At that point, I have ZERO concern for them, precisely because they've exhibited no humility and no understanding that they have no right to impose their needs on my time, much less to bully me into a response. That's usually when I tell them that I don't give an eff about "their needs" and that MY "needs" include their full name and company information before we have ANY "conversation" or they can get lost.
I agree 100% about cell phones and aggressive/rude drivers, but I think the burden of being humble rather than rude, presumptuous, or self-centered falls on the cold caller, not the cold callee.
Again, apples and oranges, and you're contradicting your own premise: Reluctance to allow a stranger to decide unilaterally that HIS need for my VERY LIMITED time on this earth grants him any rights to my time has absolutely nothing to do with one's considering himself "above" or "better" than anbody else. If you cut ahead in line in front of that person or the trash collector or news paper delivery person, THAT would relate to valuing your time over his. As a stranger looking for some of my time for your benefit, you better make very sure that your entire delivery manifests some understanding that I'm already doing you a favor just to listen on your schedule. If you do, you'll get a polite "no thank you" at worst; if you don't, you'll be told to "Get the eff off my phone!" at best.etimer wrote:In the end all the time in the world will not matter because we are gone from this planet. Dead --- gone and there will be another person using our time slots. My time is no more valuable than the man that picks up my trash, the paper delivery person or the leader of the free world. I don't own time and it can disappear from me at any moment.
I don't consider a disagreement on a point of discussion a "flame war" but you can't type a lengthy analysis like that, "back out" of the conversation, and summarize your opinion yet again on the way out without being receptive to hearing a response on point. In fact, THAT might even be considered slightly arrogant as though you have more right to express your view to others than they have to an equal amount of your time to listen to a response on point.etimer wrote:I think I'm going to back out of this discussion because I have adjectives for those that think their time is more valuable than another person's and it is a flame war in the making. We just agree to disagree. It is just my opinion that what is needed are more people that don't consider their time more valuable than another persons time. Humility is a dying word in this brave new century.
Please. Plenty of people also smoke and eat poorly enough to compromise their health. Do you cold call them to remind them to live a more healthy lifestyle? Do you cold call any strangers to help them with anything unrelated to your bottom line? Don't rationalize your need for my time because it's potentially in your financial interest by characterizing it as some altruistically motivated goal of "helping" me. Yes, many people are under-insured; but that's not your main motivation in placing the call. Suggesting otherwise detracts from your credibility in a conversation.etimer wrote:Do you know how many people know they should do estate planning but have no plan. The numbers are stunning. Every news pundit, every expert writes articles about why they should do it but they fail to make a plan. That is until some estate planning person calls them...People are at this moment, sitting with homes that are under insured, businesses that lack adequate coverage and nothing happens until some mis-informed salesperson calls and makes the changes needed to correctly insure them...It doesn't happen until you are proactive and do something. It is an arrogant position to sit there thinking I am so good....come to me?
Humility is a wonderful thing, but that's much more an issue for strangers to keep in mind when intruding into my private time than for me to worry about in responding to those who don't seem to understand that.
Cold calling
I don't like cold calling and I never have but it works. In 3.5 years I've gone from nothing to a 4M book and I just started my own agency this month. 90% of my business has come from cold calling and I still do it.
My advice to anybody getting started in this business is: pick up the darn phone!
My advice to anybody getting started in this business is: pick up the darn phone!
Re: Cold calling
Nobody likes cold calling. That's why the insurance salespeople that make it get paid well. I try to stay as far from cold calling as I can but it is a necessary evil. Manufacturing gets plenty of calls from vendors wanting their business, doctors get pharmaceutical sales people. I'm 98% commercial and call on businesses. I find that business people understand why I am calling, they had or have to grow a business from bottom up. They understand the need for growth.
My best friend is an industrial sales person. He's been doing 6 figures for almost 20 years. He has to gain new business and his employer isn't going to pay him to sit and wait for the business to come to him. My friend could do all the newspaper articles, TV shows, radio, etc. and he would be shouting in the wind. His message would not come any where near reading his target audience.
In the world of answering machines, voice mail, etc. you have the
choice to answer or not answer. When I was a kid I went around selling tickets for the baseball for boys league I played on. I wonder if you could even do that in today's world without people telling you how rude of you.
All of the sudden Scott has disappeared and we have a new person taking up the banner. Odd circumstance.
We live in a world of politically correct speech and thought. Condemning professional sales is a logical extension of the same.
My best friend is an industrial sales person. He's been doing 6 figures for almost 20 years. He has to gain new business and his employer isn't going to pay him to sit and wait for the business to come to him. My friend could do all the newspaper articles, TV shows, radio, etc. and he would be shouting in the wind. His message would not come any where near reading his target audience.
In the world of answering machines, voice mail, etc. you have the
choice to answer or not answer. When I was a kid I went around selling tickets for the baseball for boys league I played on. I wonder if you could even do that in today's world without people telling you how rude of you.
All of the sudden Scott has disappeared and we have a new person taking up the banner. Odd circumstance.
We live in a world of politically correct speech and thought. Condemning professional sales is a logical extension of the same.
ericusn wrote:I don't like cold calling and I never have but it works. In 3.5 years I've gone from nothing to a 4M book and I just started my own agency this month. 90% of my business has come from cold calling and I still do it.
My advice to anybody getting started in this business is: pick up the darn phone!