Cold calling script with veteran angle?

[TIMOTHY SEBASTIAN]

Tim -- first and foremost, thank you for your service! Although I'm licensed to help consumers in both health & life insurance decisions, it is not my main focus. My current practice is working primarily with businesses and business owners. We help their businesses to be more profitable, and we do it on our dollar. It's a very unique value proposition that we have. Oh, we do help them with insurance stuff as well. Yes, business owners need insurance too!

Your script is pretty good, but with "somarco" suggested tweaks it becomes very engaging and unique. Insurance is a commodity market so selling on price is not going to get you very far. Being that you are a veteran, did you know that you come with a very high tax credit ($9,600) for any prospective employer out there who might hire you if you were to look for a 9-5 job?

I already have a 9-5 job. Actually it's more like a 3:30am-10am job.

 

[TIMOTHY SEBASTIAN]

Yeah, that certainly makes sense but follow that line of thought to one of its logical conclusions.

If someone is going to slam down the phone once they hear the word "insurance" but doesn't solely because you say you are a veteran, do you want to waste your time on that call in hopes that they might actually change their mind and become interested in insurance or would it be better to take the slammed phone, save the time, and get to the next call which might be someone interested in actually saving money and not just being polite because you're a veteran?

What I am thinking is if i open the phone call with my angle then someone who would not otherwise listen will listen. I assume that people who engage in the conversation will have the same close ratio regardless of why they actually engage in the conversation. I am now thinking more along the lines of this as a script:

Hi prospect? My name is Tim and I run a veteran owned small business that services your county. I'm looking for people who would rather use a veteran for services they are receiving from other sources. I only have a few quick questions for you, and you would really help me out by talking with me. Do you have like two minutes?

Or do you guys think it's better to put the insurance thing in the opening? Like:

Hi prospect? My name is Tim and I run a veteran owned small business that services your county. I'm looking for people who would rather use a veteran for services they are receiving from other sources. I can probably save you and your family a few hundred dollars a year on your Medicare supplements, it doesn't take much time, do you have like two minutes to speak with me?

 

[TIMOTHY SEBASTIAN]

Do a search for "affinity fraud". While it's primarily for religious association, it can apply to anything.

You need to explain what you DO, not what you SELL.

Are you saying that people will be turned off to this idea because they are aware of affinity fraud? Veteran business owners are encouraged to promote the fact that they're veteran business owners by the government as far as I'm aware. They even have special small business development centers called the vboc to help them.

 

[DHK]

I'm saying that if the only reason you think people will listen to you is because you're a veteran... you need to fix and change your offering and scripting.

 

[somarco]

Women love men in uniform!

 

[somarco]

Not selling a medicare supplement to a guy with VA health insurance anyway

Well you did say "senior healthcare" in your OP.

Not all Vet's have Tricare or use the VA facilities. I have quite a few Veterans, most of my male clients ARE Vet's, but most don't use the VA.

And ALL I offer is Medicare supplement . . . . which is considered "senior healthcare"

 

[TIMOTHY SEBASTIAN]

Well you did say "senior healthcare" in your OP.

Not all Vet's have Tricare or use the VA facilities. I have quite a few Veterans, most of my male clients ARE Vet's, but most don't use the VA.

And ALL I offer is Medicare supplement . . . . which is considered "senior healthcare"

My VA healthcare is $0 copay $0 deductible. I don't know why anyone would want any other kind of health insurance unless they just didn't know about it. Is there a VA health insurance plan that's worse than a medicare supplement? I know I have to drive like two hours for certain healthcare services but they pay me travel if I have to go there. Is that why they refuse VA healthcare?

 

[somarco]

I guess my clients are pretty stupid by your standards.

You still did not explain your "senior healthcare" product. Not that I care, just noticed you dodged the question.

 

[TIMOTHY SEBASTIAN]

I guess my clients are pretty stupid by your standards.

I don't know. I've read bad stuff about va healthcare but you know how reading stuff online is. Where I'm from I can get appointments fast and I think that's most of it is wait times. I was also a combat mos which automatically qualifies me for certain things through them. If there was like an army engineer or something living in Topeka, Kansas I have no idea what their quality of healthcare would be. Just so it's free it wouldn't do anyone much good if they were to die from what ails them before they could get seen by a doctor. My ex-wife ran into that problem at Fort Bragg when I was in the army when she had an infection. She didn't die but she needed antibiotics pretty bad by the time she got to a doctor. I was just saying the local area I'll be working it would be almost impossible to get a client on a med supp that qualifies for VA medical care because it's not as much hot garbage as it is in places where they're reporting wait times like they are.

 

[rousemark]

I would and do gladly support any veteran business owners, but when people use their veteran status as a selling point it really annoys me. That's just me personally though, it might work great in your script.

As far as your script goes, you might think about putting the emphasis on the prospect instead of yourself. You start off talking about yourself and not what you can do for the prospect.



If I get a call that starts out with that here is what I think:

This guy is new he needs help with his business.
If he needs help with his business it might be because he isn't very good.
If he isn't good, I don't want him anywhere near my insurance and money.
On top of all of that, I have to answer questions to help him out??

Maybe try something like this:



If they say "yes", then you can casually mention how you're a veteran. Maybe something like:



Also, I've cold called in the past but not for insurance so these suggestions might not be good.

I agree.. I would be instantly turned off by the "veteran owned business" angle even though I am a vet (who did nothing of importance) just as I would be if a person called and said they had started a "Christian owned business (even though I am also a Christian.)... I will go out of my way to patronize both but hate it when they seemed to be hawking it..