Calling All Experts, I Need Help!

[newone]

Okay so I have been reading this forum for some time now and appreciate all the good advice that has been posted on here. I have a lot of respect for all the insurance veterans on this forum and understand the road of an insurance professional is not an easy one. So here are my questions, what strategies did you all use to initially start bringing in customers? I am a brand new agent and am finding it hard to find customers. I can do life, health, property, and casualty so there is a lot of things that I can do. I do however work in a very rural area, so there isn’t a lot of traffic through the office. In addition I work for a captive agent, so I can’t just undercut everyone’s prices. I talked to my boss about cold calling but he really didn’t want me to do it. He mostly tells me to talk to my family and friends, but I just don’t have all these people to work with. I am not from a very wealthy family so it’s not like they all have money to throw around. I know it’s not like people should just be running to see me, now that I am an insurance agent, but how can I get people in the office in a rural area? If there is anyone that has been in a similar situation I would love to hear what you did. So please just shoot me some advice and thanks for all your help!

 

[Bob Klee]

NewOne,

Your agent is telling you to just wait for folks to drop by the office & to sell your family & friends? WOW, not a very good marketing plan.

I can think of a couple of things. 1) send a mailer-specifically a Post Card, with the picture of either a Baby or a Dog on the front, to a targeted list of folks. Farmers, homeowners, business, etc. [I don't know what type of rural area you are in]

2) Yellow pages typically work well in rural areas. does he advertise?

3) I trained an Allstate guy in KY that was very successful in a very small town walking neighborhoods & leaving a door hangar with info and an ear of corn [he was a farmer too]. He had people call the office before he got back! Another trick he had was just driving down streets & when he saw a nice car or two in the driveway he'd park & go up to the door & introduce himself. It worked!! Amazed me.

You said he doesn't want you cold calling. So is he just paying you a salary to sit in the office waiting for the phone to ring or someone to drop in? Sure seems like something is odd or missing from this picture.

Best of luck. Don't be shy about asking questions. We are all here to help if we can.

I reserve the right to get Smarter!!

 

[xrac]

NewOne,

Your agent is telling you to just wait for folks to drop by the office & to sell your family & friends? WOW, not a very good marketing plan.

I can think of a couple of things. 1) send a mailer-specifically a Post Card, with the picture of either a Baby or a Dog on the front, to a targeted list of folks. Farmers, homeowners, business, etc. [I don't know what type of rural area you are in]

2) Yellow pages typically work well in rural areas. does he advertise?

3) I trained an Allstate guy in KY that was very successful in a very small town walking neighborhoods & leaving a door hangar with info and an ear of corn [he was a farmer too]. He had people call the office before he got back! Another trick he had was just driving down streets & when he saw a nice car or two in the driveway he'd park & go up to the door & introduce himself. It worked!! Amazed me.

You said he doesn't want you cold calling. So is he just paying you a salary to sit in the office waiting for the phone to ring or someone to drop in? Sure seems like something is odd or missing from this picture.

Best of luck. Don't be shy about asking questions. We are all here to help if we can.

I reserve the right to get Smarter!!

I think door knocking could be very effective in a rural area.