Desparately Seeking Advice: Intimated by Old Leads

[newindc]

Greetings All,

I am very new to the insurance industry (mortgage protection/life insurance) and I really want to make it as my career. There are many things I love about the industry, but there is one thing that I hate--calling old leads. I have heard many say that a lead is a lead is a lead. I have heard other agents say it is a mental thing, etc. For some reason I am having a problem getting past the fact that the leads that I am calling have not only already been called before but they are three months to a year old. The reason that I have the old leads is because my upline, to help me build a reserve to pay for fresh leads, is only giving me leads that have either never been reached or were called by never followed through on their appointment.

I guess the other problem is that when I call they either don't remember, hang up, or tell me they are no longer interested. I know this can happen with fresh leads but it seems worse when they are old but then again, maybe it is all in my head.

Is there any way that I can move pass the intimidation? Are there any suggestions as to how I can get the prospects attention as opposed to using a script that sounds like they just sent in the lead card yesterday? Please, any advice would be greatly and humbly appreciated.

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

Silly idea...but think of a material item that you really want (Plasma TV, new car, Somarco's little black book). Keep that in your mind as you are calling. Each call gets you closer to getting that special something you want.

Yes, I know. Silly. But I actually still do that every now and then.

 

[Delta76]

If your sitting with leads in your hand and too scared to call them, send them to me, seriously. Or just call them and be conversational. I find that when I'm scared to make the calls, its usually because I don't have enough leads being processed through my system and I view each lead as important to my bottom line. To fix this, get more leads. Also, realize most people you speak with are going to tell you "no", so what, move on.

If it were me I would call and say something like this:

"Mr. Prospect, this is Delta giving you a call with ABC Co. Does my name sound familiar?

I'm holding onto a card with your name right now and I have no idea how old it is. It talks about protecting your morgage if something were to happen to you. Does that make sense? Is that still a concern?"

If yes you have a prospect, if no, then let them go or ask about another area you work in. Don't overthink it, people will respond in kind if your conversational and polite with them.

 

[theinuranceguy]

Silly idea...but think of a material item that you really want (Plasma TV, new car, Somarco's little black book). Keep that in your mind as you are calling. Each call gets you closer to getting that special something you want.

Yes, I know. Silly. But I actually still do that every now and then.

You must of learned that from your Bankers Days....

It works well, I have an entire cork board to keep my focused...

 

[CHUMPS FROM OXFORD]

I like the cork board idea. But I never worked for Bankers.

 

[TimLett]

Greetings All,

I am very new to the insurance industry (mortgage protection/life insurance) and I really want to make it as my career. There are many things I love about the industry, but there is one thing that I hate--calling old leads. I have heard many say that a lead is a lead is a lead. I have heard other agents say it is a mental thing, etc. For some reason I am having a problem getting past the fact that the leads that I am calling have not only already been called before but they are three months to a year old. The reason that I have the old leads is because my upline, to help me build a reserve to pay for fresh leads, is only giving me leads that have either never been reached or were called by never followed through on their appointment.

I guess the other problem is that when I call they either don't remember, hang up, or tell me they are no longer interested. I know this can happen with fresh leads but it seems worse when they are old but then again, maybe it is all in my head.

Is there any way that I can move pass the intimidation? Are there any suggestions as to how I can get the prospects attention as opposed to using a script that sounds like they just sent in the lead card yesterday? Please, any advice would be greatly and humbly appreciated.

No offense intended to the original poster, but sounds like a new NAA agent to me.

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

Here's a true story...

Many suns and moons ago when I started raw in the business with Prudential, like many insurance companies, they suggested you go after new mortgages...because there was a "need".

There was a 20+ year veteran agent in our office named John A. He had been the top agent out of 40+ agents in the office for ten years runnin'.

I asked him if I could buy him a beer someday, and discuss the business a little, and we made a date for later that week.

As we were quenching our thrist one hot afternoon, I asked him what his "secret" was that had kept him on top for ten years straight. He replied, "Oh, that's easy. I figured out if I was going to be successful, I had to do the opposite of what Pru says to do..."

"People with a new mortgage have very little disposable income. There's new drapes, weedwackers and whatnot to buy. Ever move into a new house?"

"I figured out that it's not people with a new mortgage, but people who just paid off a mortgage that would be in a position to do something. I go down to the courthouse, find out who has paid off their mortgage, and make an appointment."

"When I get there, I present a plan where they put a half of their old mortgage payment into an insurance policy, and they can blow the other half how they wish, but a few years down the road they'll have something to show for it."

Think about it.

 

[newindc]

Thank you for your quick responses! Just in time for tonight. No, not with NAA, but I was for about a month. Did alright because that first month involved signing family and friends. However, after I had some transportation issues that involved me losing access to my car for about a week, I realized NAA was not for me. Not because I had time to think but because I was called a loser for not overcoming my obstacle. To old for the name calling stuff, you know? I know, I am still conditioned to use upline--have to move beyond that. BTW - Please let me be clear, I have no problems with NAA and I do not want to start a war. I definitely don't want to lose sight of the original question posted. Please keep the advice coming. It's just that for that particular manager, we were not meant to be together.

 

[Delta76]

Bottom line, if they are giving you the "leads" (whether or not they really are), I would call them with an approach like the one I wrote above. However, as an attempt to help, what are you doing for marketing and prospecting right now? How has it worked?

 

[HomeService]

One of the problems is "mortgage protection". If you sell life insurance, and were to get old life insurance leads, and worked them like I do, you would not be scared at all, you would be clammering to get there as fast as possible.

One issue here is, and we've known this for years, people really do not ask for life insurance in a lead form. So, these companies call it mortgage protection, and just give you names of people who just bought a house or refi, then expect you to either create a need or get around the need by being deceptive somehow. That's why you are scared.

My leads are either referrals or people whom I have walked up to on the street and asked if they need life insurance. They say, "yes", I get with them later, and sell them. They wanted it. I'm not scared. You are going about it all wrong if you are scared. If you had real life leads , old or new, you would have no need to be scared. The only thing to be scared of would be that somebody else wrote them first, scared you did not get there fast enough.