Calling First?

[HoosierLife]

Well I hate door knocking and suck at it, but funny enough I did DK yesterday. I just walk up, knock introduce myself (usually these leads are a month or older by the time I DK them), and say something like "You had recently, well it's been a few weeks now, but you filled this card out and mailed it back to us requesting info about the final expense programs." I show them the card, and point to where they filled it out, and ask, "Is that you." "Ok, well I tried calling a few times before, but I was in the area so I thought I just bring the info to you...you got 2 minutes."

Honestly, I'm not the guy to help here, but when I do DK I usually get in the door, but I would seriously consider taking a swan dive off of a bridge if I had to DK week in and week out.

 

[SirAlexFerguson]

Yeah, it's also not fun in the heat we're having but my upline/mentor is really insistent that it's a necessary evil for a new guy, the thinking being that it's more difficult for people to blow you off at the door than on the phone. Haha, not true so far!!

 

[jdeasy]

I know you are with EFES. Take a look at the left side of the leaderboard. 905 of the ones that are on there every month are not doorknockers. Take a look at the top 10 agents year to date and none of them are doorknockers.

I think your upline is FOS.

Now most of these people do DK before they will throw away the lead as I will, but the top agents across the country are not doorknockers. There will be a few exceptions as there is to everything. My LH manager insisted that I doorknock. I did it one day and then started calling.

If I were to bother with doorknocking as my primary way to do business. I wouldn't buy the leads. I would use a targeted list or just pick out a neighborhood and work it. No sense paying for leads twice. Once with money and once with time.

It's amazing the amount of agents on here who can door knock and get multiple sales out of it. I'm stumped. Can I ask what you're doing/saying while at the door? Are you doing anything special between the time you get the lead and hit the door? I'm having a lousy time door knocking -- hard time getting people to answer; "We already have insurance..."; "My wife sent this in but she's not home now"; "We didn't know what it was we were signing up for" (What the heck?); "Thought we'd get something back in the mail"; etc., etc. I've only gotten inside to make 4 presentations for about 25 leads the past two weeks. NO SALES. Yes, I have a copy of the lead with me to show them at the door. Obviously I know it's ME as I'm brand new at this. It just seems so counterintuitive to show up unexpectedly and then expect them to just let you in to sell them insurance. How are you guys so successful at it? I KNOW I need to work on the presentation but getting in the door is my bigger obstacle right now.

Thanks for any advice.
SAF

 

[xrac]

Nice user name Reardon, how many people have picked up on it?

Picked up on what??????????

 

[houcoogster]

I know you are with EFES. Take a look at the left side of the leaderboard. 905 of the ones that are on there every month are not doorknockers. Take a look at the top 10 agents year to date and none of them are doorknockers.

I think your upline is FOS.

Now most of these people do DK before they will throw away the lead as I will, but the top agents across the country are not doorknockers. There will be a few exceptions as there is to everything. My LH manager insisted that I doorknock. I did it one day and then started calling.

If I were to bother with doorknocking as my primary way to do business. I wouldn't buy the leads. I would use a targeted list or just pick out a neighborhood and work it. No sense paying for leads twice. Once with money and once with time.

This just blows me away!
HALF at least half of all the leads I ever got/get had to be DK'd....they wouldn't answer the damn phone. I don't know what it is about down here vs. up there? I even use different phone lines with different names they still won't answer. Now heres the thing after you DK it and sell it they tell me "when the answering machine comes on just say who you are and we'll pick up.".....lol ....yeah people still have those.
JD, Do the guys (or are there guys) on the leader board that work around the Houston area strictly call??

 

[xrac]

This just blows me away!
HALF at least half of all the leads I ever got/get had to be DK'd....they wouldn't answer the damn phone. I don't know what it is about down here vs. up there? I even use different phone lines with different names they still won't answer. Now heres the thing after you DK it and sell it they tell me "when the answering machine comes on just say who you are and we'll pick up.".....lol ....yeah people still have those.
JD, Do the guys (or are there guys) on the leader board that work around the Houston area strictly call??

I would say that the majority of people where JD works still answer the phone.

 

[houcoogster]

I would say hat the majority of people where JD works still answer he phone.

I know that. That's not my question. My question is, is there a leader board agent in the Greater Houston area that strictly calls his leads. If there is I would like to meet him.

SAF, get somebody to train you in the field. I think you're going about this too direct, you gotta learn the FE Shuffle then the Twist then you can Shake, Rattle and Roll.

 

[jdeasy]

This just blows me away!
HALF at least half of all the leads I ever got/get had to be DK'd....they wouldn't answer the damn phone. I don't know what it is about down here vs. up there? I even use different phone lines with different names they still won't answer. Now heres the thing after you DK it and sell it they tell me "when the answering machine comes on just say who you are and we'll pick up.".....lol ....yeah people still have those.
JD, Do the guys (or are there guys) on the leader board that work around the Houston area strictly call??

The leaderboard is all over the country, including Texas. The number agent with EFES for the past 2 years is based in the Dallas area. he has an appointment seter and he also doorknocks the ones they can't reach.

Number 2 agent this year is in New Jersey. She sets appointments and has an appointment setter sometimes.

There are a lot of dorrknockers with EFES. They are on the right side of the leaderboard.

 

[houcoogster]

The number agent with EFES for the past 2 years is based in the Dallas area. he has an appointment seter and he also doorknocks the ones they can't reach.

While I don't think Dallas is as bad about "no answers" compared to Houston. I would imagine he still has to DK at least 20% of his leads.

About 10% or more of my leads do not even write a phone number on the card.

I prefer to set the appt. over the phone and that's about half of them.

 

[SirAlexFerguson]

Thanks for all the feedback. This only confirms (not that I actually needed more confirmation) what I already knew. I expect to have to dk the ones I can't get on the phone but I would rather have to make 15 phone calls in an hour(?) and spend the rest of my day doing something else, than kidding myself about the 6 to 8 hours I spent out in the field door knocking and not getting anywhere. Supposed to be 100 today on top of it all.

I definitely need to get used to the type of objections I come across at the door. As far as the FE Shuffle, is that anything like the Ickey Shuffle (shout out to all you Bengals fans out there)? I posted a story (I think under 'funny FE happenings') awhile ago about a lady I worked with who was always annoyed by the Jehovah's Witnesses knocking on her door. Guess what? She eventually converted! Ya just never know! Their mouth may say, "We're covered" but their brain may eventually kick in and say "Come on in!" Of course the catch is they had to knock on multiple occasions, something I can say I will hopefully not be doing much longer.

Got an appointment (from dk'ing) today at 11am. We'll see how than pans out... other than that, when i get my new batch of leads tomorrow I'll start calling for appointments (right after listening to the great JD call on Newby's site. I've listened to it twice and need to keep reviewing it. Good stuff!)

SAF