Cold Calling Help

I am glad my tips helped you pass your test! Cool stuff. Cold calling for me is knocking doors and not so much on the phone. But when I do get on the phones, I seem to do OK, especially with businesses and health ins.

When I first started out with leads, they were leads for DI, then when I got in the house, we were discussing health, life, and DI. The whole package. Or, I got orphans and asked them if it was time for a "review". If I got there to the appointment and they had the life and DI and health thing all figured out, I kind of wasted a little of my time.

Just plain cold calling people on the phone offering life and health in general, would be tough, so I would agree with the posters above and pick one. Pick a niche. Like, "term life", Call them up and say something like, "Term life is now a very important part of most people's insurance portfolio, are you certain you have enough?" --or something like that.

Or, something similar with health, but just hitting people up for both of them at once is kind of tough to do.
 
Hummmmmm, something is missing here? Most people burn out on sales for two reasons.

1. They can't sell or perform the activities that it takes to get to the sale as in cold calling/walking.

2. Expend to much effort for meager results.

Sell more comprehensive solutions, and even though you'll have to prospect hard, you don't have to do it everyday!

Learn to contact your clients and do that yearly review and you will make it, eventually.

Remember what you Momma use to say, it isn't the quantity but, the Quality!

Remember its your choice, you can sell Term or WL. You can sell Health or DI, choose you poison carefully. Remember this old saying, "Everything that glitters is not Gold".
 
Another technique is to use Monday and Tuesday as marketing days. Some people don't like the thought of having to cold call every single day so spend 7 straight hours on the phone Monday.

And now I'll plug getting Gary's CRM - instead of manually dialing 40 or 50 numbers an hour dial into a server and let it dial 120 numbers an hour. Triple your results.
 
Another technique is to use Monday and Tuesday as marketing days. Some people don't like the thought of having to cold call every single day so spend 7 straight hours on the phone Monday.

This type of approach makes so much sense to me, that I tried it for myself. Maybe I don't have the mental toughness for the approach, but I quickly came to hate going to work. I burn out after two hours of calls. It's meeting people that gets me excited. I take the approach that two hours each morning will guarantee my income for the entire year. It's like working out, a little bit each day produces amazing results. The key is consistency. If you will make 10 hours (or whatever number you see fit) of calls on Monday and Tuesday, every week, then more power to you.
 
Well you hit on the real reason for a lot of failure in this business. Like you the excitement for me is either meeting people or going over plans/rates and doing presentations.

The problem is that's only 10% of this job. If it takes 1 hour to go over plans and log in an app then even at app per day is 5 hour a week. If it's 2 hours to go over plans and take an app and you did an app a day it's 10 hour a week.

The other 80% to 90% of the time is generating leads or calling prospects back. And regardless of how you generate leads it's mainly phone work.

I'm not a huge phone guy and most of us aren't. I simply have to pick it up and call. The other problem is agents are no result-driven but driven by the amount of hours they work.

So for example, an agent might say "I'm gonna make 2 hours of calls today." The better way to think is "I'm going to generate 10 leads today and I'll be on the phone until I do."

It's easy to piss your day away in this business if you're unmotivated. 9am turns into 10:45 which turns into 1:30 which turns into 3pm.

I'm sure my mind works very similarly to a lot of other agents here - which is waking up and creating your "top 10 excuse list" of the day as to why you can't generate leads.

The good news for me is when I actually get going I get in a mode - then once I'm in a mode I get competitive.

I also think accountability is important in this business. Team up with other agents and compare days - compare results. I have a nice little network of agent friends and we'll call each other, and if necessary bust on each other if results aren't being generated.

Then I have my wife, who really doesn't care too much about what I do with my day, but when the bills come in the money better be there to pay 'em. If not it's "so what the hell do you do all day?"

Another help for cold calling is treat yourself. We all have those little things we live (like Stone Cold Creamery!) which I don't allow myself to have unless goals I set are achieved.

My wife will keep my honest. So if in the morning I set a goal to generate 10 new leads then she wants to see 'em that night if I want to hit Stone Cold.
 
Well you hit on the real reason for a lot of failure in this business. Like you the excitement for me is either meeting people or going over plans/rates and doing presentations.

I couldn't agree more. That's why you have to work your plan backwards. I find that two hours of phoning per day will fill my schedule if I ask for referrals and walk into nearby businesses after meetings. I understand the results driven mentality, but for me, calling on the phone is still a battle to force myself to do it, and adding on more pressure doesn't get me any more excited. I have kept good track of my numbers and I know that if I reach X number of dials per day (60 for me), the numbers will work out. To each his own.
 
Excellent post. I've always worked it backwards and it's been my savior and demise.

I simply know exactly how many leads I need to generate to make "X" amount - and it's a decent amount.

Where I struggle it to break out of the rut and really kick it into gear to make "XXX" amount.

What really pisses me off about myself is once I'm in the mode of lead generating I have fun. Because of that it simply stuns me that each morning I start from scratch - but that's probably no different than a performer who works each day and gets nervous before each act.

My issue this year isn't making money. I've made money since Oct of 2003. My issue is I've fallen into a huge rut and need to break out of it. My dumb ass know exactly how hard I need to work to make my "X" amount that I need and after I hit that I find it extremely hard to push myself to the next level.

I'm big on positive motivation and competition. The lack of competition as an independent really hurts me. When I was selling cars and home improvements I always wanted to be at the top of the board.

While at UGA is was embarrassing to report your number on Friday if they sucked and fun to report a great week.

There's none of that. I wrote an app today and have one in the hopper for tomorrow. I told my wife about the app today and she just wanted to know what I wanted for dinner.
 
I'm big on positive motivation and competition. The lack of competition as an independent really hurts me. When I was selling cars and home improvements I always wanted to be at the top of the board.

I also thrive on competition. I liken it to going to the gym. I hate running on the treadmill and have to force myself to do it (it doesn't always work). On the other hand, I love playing in the men's basketball league once a week. I get a better workout than the treadmill, enjoy it far more, and can't wait for the next game. The difference is competition.

This can be a lonely business. Sure we are meeting with people or talking on the phone all day (or at least we should be), however, it's still not the same as having co-workers who can identify with the same daily struggles and victories. I've tried to motivate myself many ways:

1. Competing with my own numbers to advance them. Sometimes this works in the short term.

2. Picking out something that I want and using it as motivation to do my daily activity. That doesn't work as well for me.

3. Telling my girlfriend my goals for the day and having her keep me accountable.

I have yet to find a way to get the same competitive thrill as an independent as I would working for a captive company or an athletic contest. I think this would be the holy grail for me.
 
I'm big on positive motivation and competition. The lack of competition as an independent really hurts me. When I was selling cars and home improvements I always wanted to be at the top of the board.

I also thrive on competition. I liken it to going to the gym. I hate running on the treadmill and have to force myself to do it (it doesn't always work). On the other hand, I love playing in the men's basketball league once a week. I get a better workout than the treadmill, enjoy it far more, and can't wait for the next game. The difference is competition.

This can be a lonely business. Sure we are meeting with people or talking on the phone all day (or at least we should be), however, it's still not the same as having co-workers who can identify with the same daily struggles and victories. I've tried to motivate myself many ways:

1. Competing with my own numbers to advance them. Sometimes this works in the short term.

2. Picking out something that I want and using it as motivation to do my daily activity. That doesn't work as well for me.

3. Telling my girlfriend my goals for the day and having her keep me accountable.

I have yet to find a way to get the same competitive thrill as an independent as I would working for a captive company or an athletic contest. I think this would be the holy grail for me.

If you ever want to paintball let me know.
 
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