B2B Marketing: Share your idea for various industries

[Crabcake Johnny]

I also want to state that when going B to B never take anything personal. Several things could be happening that makes the owner appear completely disinterested or even rude:

1) You walked in at the worst possible time - they're having a terrible day and 2 employees called out.

2) You walked in and the owner is simply swamped with work at that particular moment. An hour earlier or later could have made all the difference.

3) Just having a bad day in general; big fight with wife, kid in trouble at school, business is doing bad.

4) Owner is uninsurable and has already applied to several companies and been turned down.

Just realize it's not all about you and your pitch. You either walk in at the right time or wrong time. A very good pitch, a positive attitude, a belief in what you do and you'll do fine B to B.

Other advice: be goal oriented, not time oriented. Don't say "I'll be out for 3 hours day." Instead say "I need 6 leads today and I don't go home until I get them."

Track everything. Track the number of place you pitch, the number of leads you get and how many of those close. Then you'll have a fantastic idea over time of just how many stores you need to hit to make "X" amount of money.

 

[James]

"Can I interest you in purchasing life insurance?"

Can't say I think much of it, upfront and I suppose most/everyone will say no.

 

[Guest]

your pitch

NHB, in reference to your pitch
"IÂ’m talking with business owners about various ideas such as tax-deferred savings vehicles, protecting retirement assets from creditors or judgments, business continuation planning, and general benefits for business owners and employees such as medical care, disability insurance, retirement accounts and various other solutions to your needs. I would like to sit down with you sometime for 15-30 minutes and see if I can offer some recommendations and perhaps meet some needs?"

Let me put it to you this way,

I coming knocking on your front door and say,

"Hi, I'm talking with people in the neighborhood about various products such as vaccuum cleaners, carburators, vegetable oil, crew neck T-shirts, dog food, tutoring services, water filters, baseball gloves and various other products we all need. I would like to sit down with you sometime for 15-30 minutes and see if I can offer some recommendations and perhaps meet some needs?"

If you must pitch, pitch the niche! Pick one of those areas and find the target market for that area. Traditionally, my niche has been seniors on Medicare. I focus on health products for them and am much better to target my marketing efforts there. Once I get that, I am now able to move into one or two other products.

All of these areas can not possibly be covered in 15-30 minutes and I guarantee you will not get one person out of 100 to say yes to sitting down to discuss ALL THESE ISSUES.

 

[NHB_MMA]

Confidence? Listen Dr's aren't as grand as you would think, just because someone made it through Med School doesn't mean they are financially smart, in fact some would suggest Dr's are terrible.

That's very true.

If you ever get an apt. with a Dr that has his own practice try to explain a BOE and uses, many simply can't grasp the idea, at least in my expierence and others I talk to have the same exact epierence!

I don't know why I'm braindead today, but what is BOE? I know I've seen it before.

Outside of that don't worry about the big client, there is plenty of normal everyday mom and pop shops or individually ran businesses that should provide a never ending prospecting list for you.

True. WL makes a lot of sense for people like doctors, so we could be talking some serious $$$.

The 5 way, basically a Exit Stragedy

That's good stuff. I remember you talking about it on the other thread a few weeks ago.

Greatest authors to seek out if you can find their books, may not be so easy. Brent Meisel, John Savage, Feldman. Go look over at the MDRT Site and their book section.

I'll have to check out that MDRT site. I looked for Feldman (being a NYL guy) on Amazon and there were only a couple of things and were pretty steep in price.

 

[NHB_MMA]

I like to pose it as a no-brainer for owners who are on the fence after my little pitch:

"Listen, I'll call you when I get back to my office later today and give you some quotes. If I can save you money with fantastic benefits then great. If I can't save you money then at least you know you have the best deal out there."

That might work for health companies carried by NYL, but NYL is not going to be the cheapest when it comes to annuities, life and LTC. Nor do I think anyone should buy those on price alone. The bottom line is I'll be selling them on me. We'll see how it goes.

 

[NHB_MMA]

I also want to state that when going B to B never take anything personal. Several things could be happening that makes the owner appear completely disinterested or even rude:

That's true. I have some old NASE leads laying around I missed returning to them when I left. I didn't keep them on purpose. Anyway, I've been looking at some of them where I wrote something like "total asshole" on the back and wondering if I should call them, after checking online to see if they're still in business.

Other advice: be goal oriented, not time oriented. Don't say "I'll be out for 3 hours day." Instead say "I need 6 leads today and I don't go home until I get them."

Track everything. Track the number of place you pitch, the number of leads you get and how many of those close. Then you'll have a fantastic idea over time of just how many stores you need to hit to make "X" amount of money.

I think you're absolutely right about that. Good advice.

 

[NHB_MMA]

Re: your pitch

"Hi, I'm talking with people in the neighborhood about various products such as vaccuum cleaners, carburators, vegetable oil, crew neck T-shirts, dog food, tutoring services, water filters, baseball gloves and various other products we all need. I would like to sit down with you sometime for 15-30 minutes and see if I can offer some recommendations and perhaps meet some needs?"

While they are related product lines, I see your point. I need to figure out how I can shorten it and still keep an appeal to different situations.

I think what I'll change is I won't mention employee benefits until they tell me they're not interested:

Okay, I can understand if you don't want to look at your situation now. Let me ask you one last thing, would you be willing to see if I could help with the health benefits for you or any employees you might cover?

All of these areas can not possibly be covered in 15-30 minutes and I guarantee you will not get one person out of 100 to say yes to sitting down to discuss ALL THESE ISSUES.

Yes, I do realize that. I think it goes back to "if they say they'll give you 30 minutes, they'll give you an hour" and while I certainly consider myself an honest salesman, I probably am low-balling the time slot a little bit to get in the door.

 

[James]

Re: your pitch

Okay, I can understand if you don't want to look at your situation now. Let me ask you one last thing, would you be willing to see if I could help with the health benefits for you or any employees you might cover?

Stop it! Go in with one thing, its just makes sense. Don't prospect with a shotgun thinking you'll get a good response, you won't!. Go in with the 5 Way or just go in and ask them if they are paying too much for their H/C! One or the other, just that simple.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

I'm not a fan of a multi-product pitch and I don't think you'll do to well with it. I had an agent once think he could triple his potential leads if he went in with a flyer touting health, life and dental quotes. He did far worst them me because people think they're gonna get hit up for everything and don't want to bother.

If I happen to be looking for life and a life agent contacts me I'll want a quote. If I'm looking for life and someone contacts me who wants to quote me on life, disablity, homeowners and auto I probably won't deal with him since I'm not interested in all those products and know he's gonna want to discuss and run quotes for all of them. I'm also gonna think he doesn't specialize in life.

Listen, a pediatrician doesn't increase his business by also being a podiatrist. Most professionals specialize. You don't expect the same attorney who's handling a divorce to also handle a serious criminal charge.

I'm sure you think you're increasing your odds by pitching a variety of products. I think that reaction you'll actually get is the owner thinking "I don't have time for all that."

Choose a product you like the best and market that directly. Then cross-sell to existing clients.

 

[Sam]

Thats a good point, John. I use it in my rebuttal when they tell me that they want to use their auto insurance agent for their life insurance, since they know he is trustworthy.

Prospect: I think I will get Statefarm to give me a quote, they did a very good job on my Auto and homeowners.

Me: If your head hurts, do you go to a butt doctor? Of course not, you go to someone who deals only with butts.