Cold Doors 2020 - Discussion Thread

I do not know why folks with questions think the best way to get answers is to PM me. If you have a question about anything I posted ask it publicly in the forum. I will answer it here, whereas I will not in a PM. Also, my answer is likely not the only answer and someone else on the forum may have an even better answer and then we both could then learn something valuable.

PM's serve a purpose. But asking me about dialers, data lists, scripts, lead sources, lead types, product choices, carriers, etc. belong out in the open and in the forum.

And if it doesn't fit your agenda you can always block them.
 
So I am now #3 on the annuity production list, but I have dropped to #20 on the Life commissions list.

My first 1300 mailers went out last Thursday and I got my first one back about an hour ago. The plan is to knock the responders and non-reponders.

Here is a nice feature that Kramer Direct provides (similar to the one available thorugh MS Powermail for FE leads). The red flag is the responder, and the black flags those who received the mailer but not yet responded.leads.JPG

MSPowermail definitely has a better mapping feature, but this serves its purpose.

Monday I will start knocking this targeted list. Weather looks like it will be in the mid to high 60's, which is perfect knocking weather.

Definitely not on pace for Top of the Table. But I have a good chancing of making MDRT by the end of April. The summer is going to make or break my year. I am wondering how the coronavirus scare might affect folks at the door. It hasn't been an issue yet, but in the county south of me they shut down a school district today.
 
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Wait - you send out your own mailers?

Rushing off to google .... how do I send out my own MP mailers

Kramer Direct, Main Street PowerMail, Lead Concepts, Plum Marketing, Lead Connections are all mail houses that offer various direct mail pieces that you can choose to mail to prospects in your area. I am sure at least one of them offers a MP piece.

In my opinion, it is important to have access to the entire list, and also you must get a seed card mailed to you that you can laminate and then use to cold knock the names on your list who received the mailer but did not respond. Depending upon the mailer I use a script such as the following:

"Hi Mrs. Jones, I'm David and I'm a senior benefits coordinator here in Lehigh County with ABC Financial. This is not a sales call, and I'll be brief."

"I'm here about that little, pink, card ... you received it in the mail a week or so ago ... about the recent government changes ... to your benefits, Mrs Jones ... and how they will affect your social security income ... and how important it is for you to know ... how to protect your retirement savings ... from the Internal Revenue Service, the banks, and the Wall Street brokers."

"It looks just like this: (I here hand her the laminated card and continue) We didn't get yours back, Mrs. Jones, and I was visiting just now with Jane Smith on Minesite Rd right around the corner. She and your other neighbors whom I have visited have found this information to be extremely interesting ... and I believe you will as well! I'd like to share it with you also if I may. May I?" (W. Clement Stone close for appointment). - The ellipses are brief pauses ... I found I was talking too fast at times and the message, which is meant to "sell" them on letting me in to go over the information, was not getting through. The italicized words and phrases are emphasized.


You'll have to write your script to fit what you are trying to accomplish. My process has evolved a lot over the first nine weeks of the year and I have put an incredible amount of work into developing and honing a prospecting and qualifying process that works for me.

For example, my first meeting now is rapport and qualifying, and almost never involves much fact finding, much less a sales presentation. I truly do just want the opportunity to go over the FREE information with them. That free information is found in a 30 page booklet I wrote called "How to Maximize Your Social Security Income and Minimize Your Health Care Costs and Tax Bill During Retirement."

I have this booklet printed in full color and bound using a comb binder with a nice, heavy mil clear front cover and a nice thick, textured dark navy blue back cover - real professional looking, imo. My agency pays for all paper and printing, and I pay for the binding materials. My cost is 36 cents per booklet.

It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to go through the contents of the booklet with them, including offering them some Freebies such as the Free accidental death life insurance policy through United American and a Free presciption drug card from the county. These prescription cards are printed and provided to me for free from the county and actually says "Lehigh County Prescription Discount Card" on them.

I also let them know about PACENET and show them the brochure with the new income limits for qualifying right on the cover, and I ask them very casually if they would qualify based on the income limits "as determined here by the state?" If they say yes, and they want to apply, I fill the application out and I will submit it for them. Whether they qualify or not, I nonetheless got some important info without appearing to be prying.

The purpose of all that is it builds a lot of credibility and quickly builds trust ("hey, not only has he not tried to sell us anything but he is providing a ton of value and he is offering us all kinds of Free stuff - I wonder if Bernie Sanders sent him!?")

The last part of the booklet is a little "two-minute retirement income planning and asset protection" lesson. It is designed to be interactive and to engage them, and it is their response to those two minutes that determines for me if I have a prospect or not.

If so, I explain how we work and I set a fact find appointment in the office. If they are not a prospect for retirement income planning and asset protection, I then give them a Final Expense tri-fold that I wrote which uses a version of the famous three questions, and if there is a need, I'm giving a final expense presentation lol (that is the only time a sales presentation will occur at that first meeting).

Finally, if they do not let me in to present the booklet and go over it with them, and if they do not schedule an appointment to do so, I have a little tri-fold pamphlet provided by the lead company as a .pdf that I have printed and I leave with them entitled "New Government Changes and Benefits for Seniors," along with my biz card stapled to it. This gives me a last chance to "cross them off my list" (I have the door knock list printed and on my clip board) and I verify their contact info, and try to get an email address, permission to contact etc. Permission to contact and an email address is a lead. Otherwise I put them on my do not contact list and they will only see me again if they call me or they receive the card in the future and mail it back.

I paid around $700 to mail 1306 pieces to one zip code using a demographic that will get me in front of folks who will be retiring in the next 5 years or have already been retired for just a few years. I expect to get back 23 cards or less based on what the mail house tells me is their average return in my state for that particular card.

I'll also be mailing another 1700 cards to an adjoining zip code next month. Since I will be prospecting the entire list and not just those who mail the card back in, these two lists should keep me busy throughout the summer and into the fall.

I'm actually excited that daylight savings is here so I can use the extra daylight to my advantage

Me too! I plan to play golf early, and then do office work, phone calls, follow up on pending cases, and watch the stock market melt up and down in the AM, and then I hit the doors at noon and knock 'til dark!

I block out ten hour long meeting times for fact finds/presentations each week. That is my goal: 10 in-office meetings, either fact finding or closing appointments, each week. If I don't have a client meeting during a time blocked out for such a meeting, and it is after 12 noon and daylight is still shining, I'll be on the doors trying to find someone to meet with me.

All of my leads are within 15 minutes or less of my office and home, and the local muni is halfway between my home and my office.

Life is good.
 
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