Cold Door Knocking - Help with My Approach, Please.

[Glad2bHere]

Just a very quick word of "thanks" to all of you for doing a great service to the OP----and to me. I'm a newbie---an "old" newbie--- who is starting a second career and has chosen the Insurance Field. You would have thought that the Door-Knocking 101 info you folks have just provided would have been shared with me by my F I District Manager in their much-touted Reserve Agent Tng. I believe I just got more useable info for advancing my efforts in the last two pages than in the last 8 weeks of "Boot Camp".

I wish there were something I could bring to the table but the last time I had a Producer Lic. + Series 6 and Series 7 was 1993. As you can surmise, I'm pretty much starting over again. Ergo, right now the best I can do is thank you, most sincerely, for doing what you are doing.

Best Wishes,

Bruce

 

[ActingBoss]

Lots of good stuff in there. The ID badge is a must, otherwise they may be home and think you're at their door to convert them to your religion.


/

" always call people by their first name- its more personal, some have said it's disrespectful.. I disagree-"


its crude.......in a polite society you ask before you call someone by their first name.....its coarse, tacky, smacks of Kirby vaccuum cleaner-types, and helps you not one whit.
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I'm a newbie in the field; been doing it for about 8 weeks and I'm really having a tough time. I primarily sell final expense, but am able to sell med sups as well. The company I work for handles lead generation mailers for us. We just have to buy the leads and run them. We do home visits only -- no calling first. Some agents do VERY well with this system -- I, however, am struggling. In the 8 weeks I've been selling, I've only sold 10 policies and I'm barely making ends meet.

So -- instead of continuing with the paid leads and debiting myself into bankruptcy, I'm looking for some free ways to prospect. Considering doing some cold door knocking. I've been reading this forum for a couple weeks and have found it to be a FANTASTIC resource for information.

After reading several threads on the topic from start to finish, I've come up with this spiel for leading off at the door. Let me know if it's too wordy, not catchy enough, etc, and any improvements that could be made to my approach. This is for cold door knocking in a specific neighborhood. No lead cards will be used, so I need it to be a good attention getter.

"Hi. My name is Robert Schember with First Financial Insurance Group. I'm a local life insurance agent and I'm just trying to introduce myself to the community. We've actually found that most people are overpaying for their life insurance benefits, especially if it was purchased within the last 5 years or purchased through the mail. Do you have just a few moments so I can introduce myself better and show you how I may be able to help you fix your current coverage?"

A [yes] answer would get me in the door where I could continue my presentation, offer a review, pet the cat, praise the children, comment on the cleanliness of the house ('Wow, there's hardly any cockroaches at all!'), present options for purchase, and hopefully close the sale.

A [no] answer would lead me to say...
"I'd love to set an appointment with you then when you do have some time available to discuss how I could protect your family with the right type of insurance. Would Wednesday at 1pm or Thursday at 4pm work best for you?" --> Appointment set.

Another no at that point and I would be on my way to the next house...

Also, I'm feeling pretty reluctant about walking the neighborhood and knocking randomly on strangers doors. I'm sure I'll be able to suck up my fear and do it, but are there any pro tips, other than 'just do it and it gets easier', to help a newbie overcome the reluctance?

Regardless of what all these geniuses and purported superstars say here, you're on the right track and what you are doing can yield results, but like anything else in business its just needs to be tweaked a little,thats all.

try this:

Go door knocking in your own neighborhood. This is great Saturday activity. Start around 11:00am and do it straight through until 5:00pm. Go right up to the door and knock on it. When someone answers this is what you do/say:

Hi, my name is Tom and I own ___________ Insurance Agency here in town. Do you currently have a life insurance agent? (wait for them to answer and it doesn't matter if they say yes or no) I would like to apply for the job. (let them say their response) I am taking time to today to meet all of my neighbors, but I want to make an appointment to sit down with you and (if they give you the "I already have life insurance" spiel) give you a free review of your current coverage (if they have no life insurance agent) or show you how you can protect the people you care about with the right type of insurance. This next part is important...get out your notepad and look at it. Then tell them days and times you have available. I am available Tuesday at 6:00pm, Wednesday at 7:00pm or Friday at 5:30pm. Which appointment would you like? Don't let them hem and haw about it and decide for themselves. Then get out your card and write their appointment date and time on it and give it to them. Shake their hand, tell them you will see them soon and LEAVE.

I am telling you. There is no replacement for beating the pavement and getting in front of people. Using this method you will be meeting literally hundreds of new people every week. If you meet 200 people per week and only 1% of them buy something you are writing two apps per week. If you are averaging $500 per app you are now in the $52K per year club. This is if you SUCK and can only get a 1% response. Imagine what 2% could bring? That would make you MDRT in your very first year.

and in reference to your own followups on your mail response leads, try this:

I give them 3 reasons why they filled it out.

Hello Mr. Jones, my name is _______and I’m the local agent with __________ (important----no gaps) and the reason I am here is that you responded to our direct mail campaign and filled out this card and mailed it back to us last week…?.


Mr/Ms. Jones, the company sent me here today because people that go to the trouble of filling out a reply card and mailing it back to us do so for a specific reason…………….maybe they are looking for a way to save money on their funeral costs, or they want to make sure their survivors won’t have to struggle financially when they meet their maker…?, and some send it back to us because they don’t have a final expense plan in place at all……?.just curious….what was on your mind when you sent it back in? (then you know why they are looking to buy, and use that when you close, earlier you said you didn't want to be a burden to your kids, wanted to leave money to your grandchildren, etc)


(they'll usually give you one of the first 3, since you told them why they filled it out. if they don't know, they are definitely tougher to sell, but still if you can save them money, they should be open minded)

the only response i ever get at the door is either come in, or occasionally want some information (which is rare, since they told you one of the 3-4 reasons that you set in their mind).

If they ask for info, I usually quickly fire back with, "I've got info for 50 companies in the car trunk, but most customers would rather have me help them find the best deal. If they still ask for info, I'll ask do you want info from any one company in particular, or would you rather I get a box and leave you all 50 for you to sort through. " and say it with a smile

no ones ever asked for information after that.

also try this:

That is more like an appointment fact finder than a door to door survey. The purpose of a door to door survey is just to engage them quickly and qualify if they are a prospect or not.

I used to door knock for FE sales very successfully.

I would knock on the door. Explain who I am, who I'm with and that I'm out knocking on doors in their neighborhood today to raise community awareness about what we do. Then I would hand them a NICE quality pen with our info on it.

Then you ask "Do you have time to answer a short 3 question survey?" they ALWAYS said yes unless they were a true ass.

1. How long have you lived in the Evansville area?* * They would ramble on about where all they have lived. Didn't really matter.

2. Do you own cemetery property?* *Most do. They will tell you all about buying when a parent, child, spouse or sibling died. They bought it years ago when it was real cheap compared to today and that gives you an opportunity to compliment them for planning ahead.

3. How confident are you that you have everything in order that if you died today, your children or spouse would know exactly what to do and have final expense funds available within two or three days of your death?

The third question can be modified for what you are looking for; save taxes, avoid probate, etc.

The whole key to my approach is that YOU are talking to someone in a non-threatening way and basically screening their personality and level of interest in talking to you. What the exact questions are don't really matter as long as it doesn't take but a minute and allows you to size them up, and they to size you up and you either set an appointment or you don't.

I made a fair number of sales doing this. I was very green when I did it. I would sell more today. I invented this who approach and script and my upline at the time didn't believe in it. Talked me out of doing it even though it worked. I told you I was green.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
That is more like an appointment fact finder than a door to door survey. The purpose of a door to door survey is just to engage them quickly and qualify if they are a prospect or not.

I used to door knock for FE sales very successfully.

I would knock on the door. Explain who I am, who I'm with and that I'm out knocking on doors in their neighborhood today to raise community awareness about what we do. Then I would hand them a NICE quality pen with our info on it.

Then you ask "Do you have time to answer a short 3 question survey?" they ALWAYS said yes unless they were a true ass.

1. How long have you lived in the Evansville area?* * They would ramble on about where all they have lived. Didn't really matter.

2. Do you own cemetery property?* *Most do. They will tell you all about buying when a parent, child, spouse or sibling died. They bought it years ago when it was real cheap compared to today and that gives you an opportunity to compliment them for planning ahead.

3. How confident are you that you have everything in order that if you died today, your children or spouse would know exactly what to do and have final expense funds available within two or three days of your death?

The third question can be modified for what you are looking for; save taxes, avoid probate, etc.

The whole key to my approach is that YOU are talking to someone in a non-threatening way and basically screening their personality and level of interest in talking to you. What the exact questions are don't really matter as long as it doesn't take but a minute and allows you to size them up, and they to size you up and you either set an appointment or you don't.

I made a fair number of sales doing this. I was very green when I did it. I would sell more today. I invented this who approach and script and my upline at the time didn't believe in it. Talked me out of doing it even though it worked. I told you I was green.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I'll continue on a bit about what I see as the flaws with your survey. First it's too long.

But right off the bat you are going to bring their guard up and make them defend their position.

Do you own life insurance? Yeah, Bub. I got plenty. What's it to ya?* It's too obvious from the very first question that you are going to try to sell them life insurance. You're not uncovering a need, you are pitching a sale (in their mind.)

Compare that to my first question. How long have you lived in this area? What is that selling? Where is this going? People like to talk about where they lived and why they are here and who else lives here near them. I've had people talk 15 minutes on that question and not come up for air.

2nd question. Do you own cemetery property?* *Who asks that? Why is that important?* It's a non threatening question for most people. It tells you whether they are a planner or not. It tells you whether they plan to live here the rest of their life. It tells you whether they need to be shipped somewhere when they die which is MORE of a reason to plan the details as well as the expense. And it gets them mentally thinking that they will die someday which we are all in denial of most days.

3rd question is the one to figure out if they recognize a problem. You are a problem solver standing on their porch, not a life insurance pitchman.

I'm sure my approach can be improved on. But I think it's a good start.

I hope it helps.

------------------------------------



lastly, you can probably go to your own lead vendor and purchase the list of folks on your last mail drop who didnt respond and then approach them,


OR


just spread out geographically from the 10 sales you have and use a similar spiel........

either way, more contacts with folks will work door to door, if you are tough enough to do it, and the good news is the days are getting longer and you'll be able to have more contacts

Best wishes.

 

[TPAAgent]

its crude.......in a polite society you ask before you call someone by their first name.....its coarse, tacky, smacks of Kirby vaccuum cleaner-types, and helps you not one whit.

You're a confused individual- I been calling people by their first name since the late 90's running MP's... I buildt a 4000 sq ft house calling people by their first name

 

[Glad2bHere]

Anyone who follows Carnegie will tell you that using a first name is more engaging but I have never gotten the idea that this means introducing oneself using a first name.

As far as "qualifying" or "pre-qualifying" a door-to-door campaign I'm not quite sure how someone would do that. I began my own d2d campaign in ever-increasing increments from my home-office. I will knock on about 90 or so houses of which about half actually answer the door. Of those, about half will interact with me in some meaningful way. The other half pretty much can't wait to get the door shut.

By comparison I do telephone calls with a list of x-dates in about 50 calls per session. Of these I might get 5 to answer their phones and might have a meaningful exchange with ONE of those.

No real point....just tossing in a couple of cents....

Best Wishes,

Bruce

 

[nfl72]

I suggest you go to work for a company that pays 80% or higher who can get you good leads and then just work the system. You will learn more about selling FE by watching 2 twenty minute seminars online than the whole week you spent in class at First Financial. Ernie is a good salesman. He has to be to get people to work for the peanuts he pays.

Cold calling will wear most men down. You can make more money in less time working good leads. Either telemarketed or mailers will do just fine.

The majority of people working for First Financial are going broke. Just look at the jalopies in their parking lot at your mandatory meetings on Monday and Tuesday. You spend most of the day driving around trying to catch people at home. You will drive to the same house 3 or 4 times and when you do catch them at home they are pissed off because your trying to sell them something. Their leads are just plain bogus. When you do sell them many will cancel when they come out of the either. Why do you suppose Ernie and Jimmy never want to talk about chargebacks?

And why do you suppose they want you to sell Motorists when they have Foresters. Foresters is about 15 to 20% percent cheaper than Motorists and is much easier to sell. CAn you say KICKBACKS!!!

They usually run about 30 agents on the books and all but 3 or 4 are living at the poverty level.

Call John at PHR and double your pay while working good quality leads. No more sitting in boring sales meetings when you could be out making money.

Or hook up with Efes or Securis. You will double your money and get decent residuals in the future. At First Financial you get none.

Agents 4 life is based out of the Detroit area as well. Give Dan Keil a call.

You have many much better alternatives in your area if you want to sell FE.

Go back and read what JDeasy says about selling FE. He makes more money in 2 days than anybody at First Financial does in two weeks. Learn from people that are sucessful not barely getting by.

The top 5 agents at First Financial could double their money and work less hours if they would just get a better pay plan.

Work Smarter not Harder.

 

[Newby]

" always call people by their first name- its more personal, some have said it's disrespectful.. I disagree-"


its crude.......in a polite society you ask before you call someone by their first name.....its coarse, tacky, smacks of Kirby vaccuum cleaner-types, and helps you not one whit.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -



Regardless of what all these geniuses and purported superstars say here, you're on the right track and what you are doing can yield results, but like anything else in busi
Aness its just needs to be tweaked a little,thats all.

try this:

Go door knocking in your own neighborhood. This is great Saturday activity. Start around 11:00am and do it straight through until 5:00pm. Go right up to the door and knock on it. When someone answers this is what you do/say:

Hi, my name is Tom and I own ___________ Insurance Agency here in town. Do you currently have a life insurance agent? (wait for them to answer and it doesn't matter if they say yes or no) I would like to apply for the job. (let them say their response) I am taking time to today to meet all of my neighbors, but I want to make an appointment to sit down with you and (if they give you the "I already have life insurance" spiel) give you a free review of your current coverage (if they have no life insurance agent) or show you how you can protect the people you care about with the right type of insurance. This next part is important...get out your notepad and look at it. Then tell them days and times you have available. I am available Tuesday at 6:00pm, Wednesday at 7:00pm or Friday at 5:30pm. Which appointment would you like? Don't let them hem and haw about it and decide for themselves. Then get out your card and write their appointment date and time on it and give it to them. Shake their hand, tell them you will see them soon and LEAVE.

I am telling you. There is no replacement for beating the pavement and getting in front of people. Using this method you will be meeting literally hundreds of new people every week. If you meet 200 people per week and only 1% of them buy something you are writing two apps per week. If you are averaging $500 per app you are now in the $52K per year club. This is if you SUCK and can only get a 1% response. Imagine what 2% could bring? That would make you MDRT in your very first year.

and in reference to your own followups on your mail response leads, try this:

I give them 3 reasons why they filled it out.

Hello Mr. Jones, my name is _______and I’m the local agent with __________ (important----no gaps) and the reason I am here is that you responded to our direct mail campaign and filled out this card and mailed it back to us last week…?.


Mr/Ms. Jones, the company sent me here today because people that go to the trouble of filling out a reply card and mailing it back to us do so for a specific reason…………….maybe they are looking for a way to save money on their funeral costs, or they want to make sure their survivors won’t have to struggle financially when they meet their maker…?, and some send it back to us because they don’t have a final expense plan in place at all……?.just curious….what was on your mind when you sent it back in? (then you know why they are looking to buy, and use that when you close, earlier you said you didn't want to be a burden to your kids, wanted to leave money to your grandchildren, etc)


(they'll usually give you one of the first 3, since you told them why they filled it out. if they don't know, they are definitely tougher to sell, but still if you can save them money, they should be open minded)

the only response i ever get at the door is either come in, or occasionally want some information (which is rare, since they told you one of the 3-4 reasons that you set in their mind).

If they ask for info, I usually quickly fire back with, "I've got info for 50 companies in the car trunk, but most customers would rather have me help them find the best deal. If they still ask for info, I'll ask do you want info from any one company in particular, or would you rather I get a box and leave you all 50 for you to sort through. " and say it with a smile

no ones ever asked for information after that.

also try this:

That is more like an appointment fact finder than a door to door survey. The purpose of a door to door survey is just to engage them quickly and qualify if they are a prospect or not.

I used to door knock for FE sales very successfully.

I would knock on the door. Explain who I am, who I'm with and that I'm out knocking on doors in their neighborhood today to raise community awareness about what we do. Then I would hand them a NICE quality pen with our info on it.

Then you ask "Do you have time to answer a short 3 question survey?" they ALWAYS said yes unless they were a true ass.

1. How long have you lived in the Evansville area?* * They would ramble on about where all they have lived. Didn't really matter.

2. Do you own cemetery property?* *Most do. They will tell you all about buying when a parent, child, spouse or sibling died. They bought it years ago when it was real cheap compared to today and that gives you an opportunity to compliment them for planning ahead.

3. How confident are you that you have everything in order that if you died today, your children or spouse would know exactly what to do and have final expense funds available within two or three days of your death?

The third question can be modified for what you are looking for; save taxes, avoid probate, etc.

The whole key to my approach is that YOU are talking to someone in a non-threatening way and basically screening their personality and level of interest in talking to you. What the exact questions are don't really matter as long as it doesn't take but a minute and allows you to size them up, and they to size you up and you either set an appointment or you don't.

I made a fair number of sales doing this. I was very green when I did it. I would sell more today. I invented this who approach and script and my upline at the time didn't believe in it. Talked me out of doing it even though it worked. I told you I was green.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
That is more like an appointment fact finder than a door to door survey. The purpose of a door to door survey is just to engage them quickly and qualify if they are a prospect or not.

I used to door knock for FE sales very successfully.

I would knock on the door. Explain who I am, who I'm with and that I'm out knocking on doors in their neighborhood today to raise community awareness about what we do. Then I would hand them a NICE quality pen with our info on it.

Then you ask "Do you have time to answer a short 3 question survey?" they ALWAYS said yes unless they were a true ass.

1. How long have you lived in the Evansville area?* * They would ramble on about where all they have lived. Didn't really matter.

2. Do you own cemetery property?* *Most do. They will tell you all about buying when a parent, child, spouse or sibling died. They bought it years ago when it was real cheap compared to today and that gives you an opportunity to compliment them for planning ahead.

3. How confident are you that you have everything in order that if you died today, your children or spouse would know exactly what to do and have final expense funds available within two or three days of your death?

The third question can be modified for what you are looking for; save taxes, avoid probate, etc.

The whole key to my approach is that YOU are talking to someone in a non-threatening way and basically screening their personality and level of interest in talking to you. What the exact questions are don't really matter as long as it doesn't take but a minute and allows you to size them up, and they to size you up and you either set an appointment or you don't.

I made a fair number of sales doing this. I was very green when I did it. I would sell more today. I invented this who approach and script and my upline at the time didn't believe in it. Talked me out of doing it even though it worked. I told you I was green.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I'll continue on a bit about what I see as the flaws with your survey. First it's too long.

But right off the bat you are going to bring their guard up and make them defend their position.

Do you own life insurance? Yeah, Bub. I got plenty. What's it to ya?* It's too obvious from the very first question that you are going to try to sell them life insurance. You're not uncovering a need, you are pitching a sale (in their mind.)

Compare that to my first question. How long have you lived in this area? What is that selling? Where is this going? People like to talk about where they lived and why they are here and who else lives here near them. I've had people talk 15 minutes on that question and not come up for air.

2nd question. Do you own cemetery property?* *Who asks that? Why is that important?* It's a non threatening question for most people. It tells you whether they are a planner or not. It tells you whether they plan to live here the rest of their life. It tells you whether they need to be shipped somewhere when they die which is MORE of a reason to plan the details as well as the expense. And it gets them mentally thinking that they will die someday which we are all in denial of most days.

3rd question is the one to figure out if they recognize a problem. You are a problem solver standing on their porch, not a life insurance pitchman.

I'm sure my approach can be improved on. But I think it's a good start.

I hope it helps.

------------------------------------



lastly, you can probably go to your own lead vendor and purchase the list of folks on your last mail drop who didnt respond and then approach them,


OR


just spread out geographically from the 10 sales you have and use a similar spiel........

either way, more contacts with folks will work door to door, if you are tough enough to do it, and the good news is the days are getting longer and you'll be able to have more contacts

Best wishes.

Acting Bossy I have to give you kudos on finally writing a good post. Parts of that were genius! Just pure genius!

I especially like the part where you ask the 3 questions like "How long have you lived in the EVANSVILLE area?"

I have to hand it to you...you are usually crude and arrogant and full of foul odors...but you certainly know how to write original material using only the cut and paste method.

We DO need more LH inventory in the Evansville area so I'm glad you're focused on it.

 

[ActingBoss]

You're a confused individual- I been calling people by their first name since the late 90's running MP's... I buildt a 4000 sq ft house calling people by their first name

You're boorish, and if you've built anything (which I doubt) then you did it in spite of using first names without gaining permission to do so.

Everybody here is an All-Star, everybody is a hero, everybody's loaded, and all of you have houses with 4000 squares.......its laughable, and only the most foolish among us would beleve all the chest-buffing of the slack-jawed moiuth-breathing crowd.

Either way, no one gives a damn how many squares your silly house has.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Acting Bossy I have to give you kudos on finally writing a good post. Parts of that were genius! Just pure genius!

I especially like the part where you ask the 3 questions like "How long have you lived in the EVANSVILLE area?"

I have to hand it to you...you are usually crude and arrogant and full of foul odors...but you certainly know how to write original material using only the cut and paste method.

We DO need more LH inventory in the Evansville area so I'm glad you're focused on it.

Indeed, nearly all of that is cut and paste from others' posts, one of the exceedingly rare times there has actually been something of value posted here.

You'll notice none of if comes from you.


.

 

[Zydo]

Indeed, nearly all of that is cut and paste from others' posts, one of the exceedingly rare times there has actually been something of value posted here.

You'll notice none of if comes from you.

I would suppose that is because you are too busy sending your little boys to the showers at Penn State, indeed blocking their exits as they run screaming from a certain former linebacker coach.
.

Too funny......you cut and pasted Newby's post and then claim none of it came from him.....

You don't even realize what they hell you are doing......too funny.

 

[Newby]

You're boorish, and if you've built anything (which I doubt) then you did it in spite of using first names without gaining permission to do so.

Everybody here is an All-Star, everybody is a hero, everybody's loaded, and all of you have houses with 4000 squares.......its laughable, and only the most foolish among us would beleve all the chest-buffing of the slack-jawed moiuth-breathing crowd.

Either way, no one gives a damn how many squares your silly house has.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -



Indeed, nearly all of that is cut and paste from others' posts, one of the exceedingly rare times there has actually been something of value posted here.

You'll notice none of if comes from you.

You are a scream! And a true role model for LH agents everywhere.

 

[ActingBoss]

Too funny......you cut and pasted Newby's post and then claim none of it came from him.....

You don't even realize what they hell you are doing......too funny.

If some of it does come from him, I'll stand corrected on that score.........it is good stuff.........I dont use it but its good stuff.

Doesnt change the fact he's a slack-jawed sissy.