2019 Telesales Revolution

[shonceman]

One other thing to consider. In my experience, I don't believe the people I tend to write on the phone are the typical cat pee, single wide people FE guys talk about. All mine have checking or saving accounts we draft from. So, the lead source probably makes a difference.

If FE Telesales were a real option and not just Marketer Speak that is.

Seems like I remember a couple of the bigger FE telesales guys saying that they purposefully market to a slightly more affluent demographic than the typical F2F agent running DM leads. I think they've learned from persistency issues in the early days of the system.

A couple of years ago an exec at one of the bigger FE carriers told me they were trying to figure out what to do about the terrible persistency they were experiencing from call centers. Apparently there was some hand wringing because one of the bigger IMO's brought them a significant amount of business, but their call center business was so bad they were on the verge of cancelling their contract! They must have figured it out, though. The problem seems to have been solved since then.

 

[somarco]

Call centers seem to be universally hated and loved at the same time. I have never heard the top brass with any carrier brag about call center business.

Great volume but persistency and loss ratio's suck. Also, the HO ends up servicing the policy base because the call center is there to SELL not SERVICE.

 

[Rearden]

I have a "gut feel" that the quality of business issue is related to how the lead was developed (ie, internet versus telemarketed lead).

Obviously how the deal is closed matters greatly, but the means in which the lead is generated plays a very important role.

For example, I would gather that there is a measurable difference in average household income when you compare the closed deals generated from telemarketed versus Facebook generated new business.

 

[KRobby]

I am a consultant and adviser, not a policy peddler.

 

[WinoBlues]

Call centers seem to be universally hated and loved at the same time. I have never heard the top brass with any carrier brag about call center business.

Great volume but persistency and loss ratio's suck. Also, the HO ends up servicing the policy base because the call center is there to SELL not SERVICE.

<Mind Blown>

I will happily take that over for them.

 

[WinoBlues]

I can see a new agent having different struggles in Telesales v an agent that has a book.

If you have a book........

 

[Rob Lion]

Don't limit yourself by focusing specifically on FE,

So are you finding that FE is good product to lead with, given your business model? Or is this more of a random informative post regarding telesales?

Lead with Life insurance in general. You'll find moments to write FE,IUL,GUL, Term, etc.

 

[WinoBlues]

Don't limit yourself by focusing specifically on FE,

Lead with Life insurance in general. You'll find moments to write FE,IUL,GUL, Term, etc.

I lead with 'Hello'

 

[Newby]

I have a "gut feel" that the quality of business issue is related to how the lead was developed (ie, internet versus telemarketed lead).

Obviously how the deal is closed matters greatly, but the means in which the lead is generated plays a very important role.

For example, I would gather that there is a measurable difference in average household income when you compare the closed deals generated from telemarketed versus Facebook generated new business.

I think the telesales agents that sell the high dollar FE companies are going to always have more problems than the more competitive ones. That part is just like face to face.

When a face to face agent goes in a home and discovers a fairly healthy senior bought any of the products on the higher end of FexQuotes he's going to replace it just based on price 90% of the time. However if they bought something that's hard to beat regardless of if it was sold by phone or face to face it's going to be left on the books most of the time. From my perspective that is where a lot (not all) of the difference in in persistency comes from. There have been many call centers in the past decade that sold everyone one company (Americo Eagle, AmAm, etc.) which are fine for some cases but leave a LOT of exposure if the customer keeps shopping for a better rate AFTER they bought. Which they do. We have all had direct mail leads, Facebook Leads and telemarketer leads where they responded to the AFTER they recently bought a policy. They want to see if they can find a better deal.

As more telesales agents become more of the independent model where the agent can match the applicant with a more competitive company if he health qualifies for one (just like face to face agents do) the persistency gets better. But a remaining obstacle is still that many of the most competitive companies don't allow phone sales (Trinity, Family Benefit, Security National Life, TransAmerica, KSKJ, etc. )

My personal phone sales which were all done in one Medicare Season 4- years ago have been very persistent. Possibly 100%. But it was a small sample of around 30 cases which were all done with very competitive companies (LaFayette, Oxford and Aetna when needed). All three of those companies have had rate increases since then but I don't think it was due to my massive phone campaign lol.

I'm certainly no phone sales expert. So I can only think that the strong persistency is due to placing people with companies that were a great deal for them. And f they reasearched prices further after they bought (as people do) they found out that they had a good price.

But if a face to face agent runs across a high premium policy it's no different than running across a Lincoln Heritage policy, they can easily show the person exactly what they were looking for when they mailed the lead card in. A lower price.

 

[Todd King]

100%.
Myth: Persistency is terrible. If you sell correctly, it's no worse than f2f FE sales.

I have never been one of the naysayers when it comes to selling FE by phone. The right person can do it, but not all agents can.

However, there is one fact that I've always preached. You have to sell more simply because more are going to drop off the books. It's a natural thing that the persistency is lower for phone sales...and yes, it's a fact that has been a problem in the industry that can't be denied.

So, unless you have come up with the secret answer to this problem that the industry has been looking for, it is not a myth.