How Many Times Would You Call a Lead Before You Give Up?

[wln417]

I have this card that has these sales statistics (source is Send Out Cards):
48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect
25% make a 2nd contact and stop
12% make 3 contacts and stop
Only 10% make more than 3 contacts (I'll skip down to the bottom for the sake of brevity:
80% of sales are made on the 5th to 12th contact

Another one I have says (I don't know the source of this one):
1st contact you are a stranger
2nd contact you are an acquaintance
3rd contact you are a friend

 

[FESooner]

They aren't.

Some want to think that they are, that it takes something special to connect with the market. It doesn't.

Good sales fundamentals work - in every market.

Really, the 72 yr old lady that lives off of $1100/ month is the same as the mortgage protection client that has the credit and savings necessary to qualify for a home loan?
I appreciate your intelligence, and correction of grammar, (that was an appositive) but I differ with you here.

FE is a different animal. While fundamentals are crucial, that is not near what it takes to reach the typical FE client.

 

[goillini52]

Have you been to my office?

Hahaha...nope. I was referring to the face to facers.

 

[WinoBlues]

Really, the 72 yr old lady that lives off of $1100/ month is the same as the mortgage protection client that has the credit and savings necessary to qualify for a home loan?
I appreciate your intelligence, and correction of grammar, (that was an appositive) but I differ with you here.

FE is a different animal. While fundamentals are crucial, that is not near what it takes to reach the typical FE client.

While the two clients are different the same agent could easily sell both

 

[FESooner]

While the two clients are different the same agent could easily sell both

Sure, I get that.
You are clearly missing my point......it was correct grammar, that is all. A final expense agent that has correct grammar, sorry I was foggy on that humor.

 

[somarco]

Have you ever sold FE? And not just cross selling to your medsupp clients, I mean straight away fully sold only FE? If you have then you know the answer, they are different....thats the nicest way I can post.

My question was genuine. If you don't know the answer, or can't express your answer in words, just say so.

I have sold a lot of things to a lot of people over the years. Tangibles and intangibles. I have sold to C level execs and the bluest of blue collars. Sold in conference rooms, restaurants, kitchen tables and the hood of a car. Sold F2F and over the phone.

If the prospect has a genuine need or want you can make a sale if you are any good.

 

[FESooner]

I ask because I think most agents don't work leads hard enough. My real life example below.

It took 38 calls (all no answers) from 1-6-2014 to 2-4-2014 to create the lead and make note the Data was incorrect, the data shows it's a women who is 72 years old. It was a man who is 52.

So we got the lead on 2-5 it took 35 calls before it turned into a $117 sale.

On the 8th call it was dispositioned as a "not interested", 1 week later I recycled all the not interested for this agents leads. Another agent got this lead and talked to the lead for 20 min and put him as a call back, then it took 27 calls to turn it into a sale, this time period was from 2-5 to 4-4, total time spent to turn this lead into a sale 59 mins of talk time and no answer time.

Maybe it's worth it maybe it's not. What if it was a $50 per month sale? Anyway this happens all the time and to me it proves that you can't call a lead too many times.

Man, I probably walk away somewhere between 7-10 attempts. Reading that made me feel like a slacker. Now, I do run F2F and after 4 months I drop a letter and circle back around 3 attempts, but 38 attempts....that is a sobering number to me. Surely I am missing sales....grrrr!

 

[John Galt]

My question was genuine. If you don't know the answer, or can't express your answer in words, just say so.

I have sold a lot of things to a lot of people over the years. Tangibles and intangibles. I have sold to C level execs and the bluest of blue collars. Sold in conference rooms, restaurants, kitchen tables and the hood of a car. Sold F2F and over the phone.

If the prospect has a genuine need or want you can make a sale if you are any good.

No, I understand, I know you are being genuine, Im just saying its funny that the agents that DO NOT sale FE full time are always the ones giving advice on different product platforms in insurance yet they dont really understand the FE market. Not saying you are one of them, clearly we see eye to eye on the basic principles of sales philosophy, training and metrics, but to say "if the prospect has a genuine need or want you can make a sale if you are any good" may be slightly less apt in Final Expense. Of course for you or me it would not, but Im speaking in large generalities here in regards to most agents across the board.

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My question was genuine. If you don't know the answer, or can't express your answer in words, just say so.

I have sold a lot of things to a lot of people over the years. Tangibles and intangibles. I have sold to C level execs and the bluest of blue collars. Sold in conference rooms, restaurants, kitchen tables and the hood of a car. Sold F2F and over the phone.

If the prospect has a genuine need or want you can make a sale if you are any good.

By the way, Ive sold over $5,000,000 of intangibles in the last 6 years. Before that produced over $3,000,000 in tangible business use products each and every year for a very large distributor with a very niche product line and client group in a completely different field and ranked #1 nationally for 5 straight years. Yea, they should have not crossed me, cost them lots of Benjamins, lol. Have a good night. I appreciate the exchange, you are tops in my book.

 

[WinoBlues]

No, I understand, I know you are being genuine, Im just saying its funny that the agents that DO NOT sale FE full time are always the ones giving advice on different product platforms in insurance yet they dont really understand the FE market. Not saying you are one of them, clearly we see eye to eye on the basic principles of sales philosophy, training and metrics, but to say "if the prospect has a genuine need or want you can make a sale if you are any good" may be slightly less apt in Final Expense. Of course for you or me it would not, but Im speaking in large generalities here in regards to most agents across the board.

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By the way, Ive sold over $5,000,000 of intangibles in the last 6 years. Before that produced over $3,000,000 in tangible business use products each and every year for a very large distributor with a very niche product line and client group in a completely different field and ranked #1 nationally for 5 straight years. Yea, they should have not crossed me, cost them lots of Benjamins, lol. Have a good night. I appreciate the exchange, you are tops in my book.

I do not know him but I think he is talking more about selling the "FE product" more than the FE market.

 

[jdeasy]

There is most definately an FE demographic. And if you are to focus on selling fE as a career then you damn well better understand and target that demograhpic.

Can a jack of all trades agents sell to any demographic? Yes. But that's a different conversation than we are having here.