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The Queen City Charlotte, NC
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Cold Calling
- Thread starter roger_lockless
- Start date
The Queen City Charlotte, NC
I'm in Raleigh. Do you know any of the Guardian / Consolidated Planning reps in Charlotte?
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Can't say that I do..
I will give a good prospecting method...Strike up a conversation with people you meet tell them what you do and give them a business card. The grocery store is a great place..Sometimes you can get their phone no. to call them. You can speak to someone and just being polite will get a good response. I know a agent who lives in a town of 20,000 people. He was a debit agent for 20 years before going independent. He grew up in this town and he will get stopped in grocery store or Walmart and someone might say hey Don my mother is ready for the Med Supp or can you come by and see my father about life he is retiring etc.He plants the seed and reaps the harvest. The most successful agent I ever knew would go to an IMO meeting with say 200 people. If you sat beside him you could learn more in 3 hrs. than 3 years. He was likeable and went to top with AFLAC and won the Amos Award while hitting FE and going to top of every company he represented. He died of cancer about 3 years ago at age 65. His name was Frank. Regards
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Agents who believe that are the one's who get sucked in by lead companies or agencies who run ads saying "First year commission $150,000 selling part time from home in your underwear while you leisurely surf porn sites".
Goat porn, that is!
Hardest part about cold calling is sticking with it long enough to make it pay.
It's not a magic silver bullet that produces instant results. When I first got into the business, I cold called 3-4 nights a week and Saturdays too. Two months of cold calling later, I sold my first policy as a result of my telemarketing efforts. ( I sold plenty of other policies to my natural market and referrals from my natural market in the interim).
Had to develop a database of about 2000 warm names who I could go back to periodically, every 3-6 months. Most people would start out as a cold call. If friendly but not interested now, I'd mark them down for a follow up in 3 months and make sure they were on my mailing list. Mail them a post card 2 months later and call again. Repeat process up to 6 times before they finally agree to see you.
Once I got up to about 2000 names, I could cut my cold calling efforts back to 1 night a week, just to keep the database full because there will be people who move, disconnect their phone, tell you to go jump in the lake, etc. Then I could concentrate on running appointments, generating referrals, and setting appointments with the names in my database.
If I was going to do this again today I would find a way to become an expert in an sourcing the names and business phone numbers of everyone who works at a company. I'm sure there are recruiters/headhunters who are good at this. My thought would be I could cold call white -collar professionals at work and I could become much more efficient at converting cold calls to warm names in my database (more replies, no DNC issues, a lot less of the salesman bugging you during dinner to sell you something over the phone image).
It's not a magic silver bullet that produces instant results. When I first got into the business, I cold called 3-4 nights a week and Saturdays too. Two months of cold calling later, I sold my first policy as a result of my telemarketing efforts. ( I sold plenty of other policies to my natural market and referrals from my natural market in the interim).
Had to develop a database of about 2000 warm names who I could go back to periodically, every 3-6 months. Most people would start out as a cold call. If friendly but not interested now, I'd mark them down for a follow up in 3 months and make sure they were on my mailing list. Mail them a post card 2 months later and call again. Repeat process up to 6 times before they finally agree to see you.
Once I got up to about 2000 names, I could cut my cold calling efforts back to 1 night a week, just to keep the database full because there will be people who move, disconnect their phone, tell you to go jump in the lake, etc. Then I could concentrate on running appointments, generating referrals, and setting appointments with the names in my database.
If I was going to do this again today I would find a way to become an expert in an sourcing the names and business phone numbers of everyone who works at a company. I'm sure there are recruiters/headhunters who are good at this. My thought would be I could cold call white -collar professionals at work and I could become much more efficient at converting cold calls to warm names in my database (more replies, no DNC issues, a lot less of the salesman bugging you during dinner to sell you something over the phone image).
Very good post on cold calling....I had a friend who died a few years ago that would stay on pho. all day on Mon. His wife would bring him coffee etc. he set up all appts for week ..once he got 2000 written..he kept on and referrals kicked in. I have mentioned him before.. I ask him years ago what was his secret..He said" Just throw one over your shoulder and keep on going" His name was Frank Naso who passed away 3 yrs ago at age 65. He worked up until his last hospital stay. There are suspects and prospects. It took me a while to firure that out. Regards
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There has to be someone out there 80% writing and 20% prospecting..50/50 60/40??
If I'm working, then I will spend 50% of my time with prospects/clients, 20% office work (copies, scans, mailing, etc.), 30% in my car.
Eeek! That leaves no time for cold-calling, unless I spend about an hour each day making calls (yes, while driving). So, 5-6 hours per week cold-calling.
If we only look at face-time and calling, then my week is about 35 hours, since I can hire an admin person for the office crap and driving can be personal time.
Face-time to calling, I'm 80-20. Unfortunately, not all of my face-time is writing.
Metalrocker1962
New Member
- 3
Volume and being committed to calling is a good start . I will talk about there business and get them to commit to talking about themselves .. theres a lot of telemarketers that call all the time , So being different and using a backward approach can get them talking . Now if dont get a appointment that very same call , you will next time because you listend to a key topic about them .. You now have a warm call . you ask for email or ask to stop by to meet . etc etc ,, if anyone claims cold calling is easy .. than They have a large ego . I am sure all of agents do not like cold calling , Its very Important to have a positive mind-set when calling . I dont agree that cold calling is extinct , its some a good tool to have in your quiver . as a old saying goes .. " Some will Some wont, So What !! NEXT !!!
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For cold calling purposes you would be able to reach more people if you were using a list that you could upload into a dialer like Mojo that allows you to call up to 3 numbers at a time and will stop dialing when you reach someone.
