Prospect Qualification and Appointment Setting to Land More Meetings

The objective of prospecting is to find quality opportunities to narrow the sales funnel, and then consistently target that focused group with marketing messages to get noticed.

For insurance brokers, you have the luxury of finding third party list sources that start you off knowing key data about your prospect universe. Instead of chasing non-qualified prospects — or worse, not even knowing who your prospect universe even is — prospecting followed by properly executed appointment setting leaves no rock unturned.

Every prospect on your list is a new opportunity to qualify, disqualify, set a callback or land a sales meeting for a producer.

Phone outreach is the best way to land more sales appointments and the only way to determine if, in fact, the opportunities in your local universe or target industry are sellable.

Phone outreach is also one of the only ways to incite two-way communication between a buyer and a seller, which will then lead to more closed deals.

What Is Strategic Prospecting Through Appointment Setting?

Appointment setting, also known as telemarketing, is based on strategically conducting calls in order to schedule introductory sales meetings with decision-makers. For best results, the prospects are pre-qualified through a qualification process, based on specific parameters set by your agency.

Typically, to get in the door with workers’ compensation or property/casualty insurance, the qualifier is either total premium, or at least, staff size. Chasing opportunities that equate to less than $1,500 in premium annually is not good use of time or marketing dollars. Instead, reserve those opportunities to close for inbound only.

When investing in outbound telemarketing or any other marketing technique, segment the prospect population into premiums that would likely yield at least $3,000 in commission, these will yield great ROI. Once you’ve identified the “A” list of pursuable prospects, then the targets are primed with the company’s messaging of its features and benefits as well as engaging questions utilized to get the prospect talking. When the prospecting agent has identified a reason to meet, and the prospect agrees, an appointment for the producer to meet with them is scheduled.

Whether the appointment is set by one of your producers or by an outside appointment setting group, the reason to meet is always positioned towards the buy-side in the buying cycle. The goal is to offer your producers more closeable sales opportunities.

Why Right Now?

January 1 renewal season is here and almost behind us. Using an appointment setting service would help your producers land more sales meetings during this crucial period, with the largest universe of prospects renewing at this time. Lists with renewal dates and MOD ratings make for great talking points when trying to pin down a meeting with the decision maker.

Appointment setters will reach out to prospects based on upcoming renewal date and strategically build up your pipeline with these pre-qualified opportunities.

Engage the Prospect with Questions

Even though you have a compelling reason to cold-call a specific business owner or CFO, you cannot simply unload your great value proposition on them as soon as they pick up the phone.

In order to get the prospect to listen to how you can help their business, engage them by asking intelligent questions designed to find pain-points with their current broker or carrier.

For example, what questions can you ask the prospect specific to their manufacturing business that may lead to a conversation on better coverage or deeper discounts based on their property and safety procedures? Once the prospect starts talking about their situation, it will be much easier for you to tailor your solutions to their group dynamic — all you have to do is listen.

The Difference, Again, Is Qualification

Tired of wasting time on accounts that are unqualified or don’t take your business to the next level? The qualification process weeds out potential prospects who do not fit the set staff size minimums or premium dollars.

Imagine only meeting with prospects who account for the higher premiums your team is looking for. Gaining the opportunity to meet with these accounts justifies the investment for an appointment setting service or, at least, a person dedicated to the prospecting. Email marketing or direct mailer inbound leads, as less expensive alternatives, would be more appropriate for lower premium opportunities that do not warrant the higher initial investment for the labor costs of outreach. With a prospecting machine in place, you’ll be right place, right time in front of your best prospects.

‘When investing in outbound telemarketing or any other marketing technique, segment the prospect population into premiums that would likely yield at least $3,000 in commission, these will yield great ROI.’

One-to-One Human Engagement

There’s no better way to meet with qualified commercial insurance buyers than through skilled B2B telemarketing. It is still among the only successful ways to incite two-way communication.

When considering other marketing outreach options, such as mailers, email newsletters and social media, it is often seen as one-sided with a low return. These are still valuable as an inbound demand generation approach. However, telemarketing, when done correctly, develops opportunities that are not only in your sweet spot of doing business, but also uncovers opportunities that may not have otherwise come to you.

This communication could lead to disqualifying a potential prospect or it could solidify them as a target. Either way, the back and forth leads to a next step faster than some other marketing strategies, segments your prospect list, and identified leads for now and callbacks for later.