Facebook Messaging Question

[Rycyeroc]

Good morning all! I am brand new to this forum and excited to be able to learn from some more tenured agents in the field. I just hit my 6 month mark in the industry and I am hitting a major slump! My focus is on life insurance/fixed annuities and I recently obtained my Series 6 to do mutual funds/variable annuities as well. I get a lot of people adding me on Facebook every day (as I'm sure we all do) and most of them live locally with a ton of mutual friends. I have started trying to engage these people as a "cold call" essentially but it has not been fruitful yet. Has anyone had success with a script of some sort for Facebook messaging? I would love to hear any insight you all have. Thanks so much!!

 

[DHK]

Wait a minute... you have a Series 6, and you want to engage in private digital messaging efforts with your "Facebook friends"?

1) Check with your compliance.

2) Each message would depend on your actual RELATIONSHIP with them, so make it personal.

3) Show that you're not "directly marketing" them, but happened to think about them as you are meeting with others. Let me explain: If you're busy and you're meeting with people now, then you're meeting with people with different situations. If a situation REMINDS you of someone you know, that's what you reference in your message.

"Hey ____! I was just meeting with this other family, and their situation reminded me of you and (spouse). I don't know if you 'really' know what I do, but I'd like to take you to dinner and catch up... and take a few minutes to explain what I do. I owe it to you to just make sure you know. I promise you that if you're not interested, it's okay... AND we get to have a tax-deductible dinner anyway. How does Thursday night sound?"

You treat the people you know DIFFERENTLY than a 'cold call'. Otherwise, they'll feel that you're "marketing" or trying to "sell" them.

Otherwise, you have THIS happen:
http://www.insurance-forums.net/for...s-sell-life-insurance-t81361.html#post1089228

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The other thing to do is set up a separate Facebook business page and invite all your Facebook friends to 'like'. Then you can post (approved) posts on there and keep business separate from your personal page.

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Here's the article in the link that was referenced:

Connect, build rapport, offer your help
By Sandy Schussel

“I don’t want to cold call,” said Robert, a financial advisor in Michigan with whom I’ve been working. “But I don’t know how to fill my time.”

We were discussing Robert’s second career, which he has told me that he loves, but for which he just hasn’t been finding enough clients.

“Let’s start with the people you already know,” I advised.

“Well, I know a lot of people who could use my help, but I haven’t spoken to some of them in years,” Robert exclaimed. “And a lot of the ones I’m closer to are avoiding me now because I think I came across as too high pressure when I started, and it really turned them off.”

“That’s two different groups,” I told him. “The second one is going to take some time to rework, so let’s look first at the ones you haven’t yet spoken with.”

“Well, they taught us to just call them up and offer to sit down with them,” Robert offered. “But I’m not comfortable with that. How would I be able to convince them that I care about them if I called them up out of the blue after five years to ask for an appointment?” he asked.

An easy way to ask someone you haven’t had contact with in a long time if he or she might be interested in working with you is just to tell him or her that you wanted to reach out to everyone you knew, adding, "and that included you."

Rather than making a dozen calls to total strangers like a lot of advisors do, I decided I’d prefer to call people I actually have some connection with who might be ready - or have already started - to invest for their futures, and who might want some professional help.

"You were one of the people I thought of. Would you be open to discussing your situation with me for a couple of minutes?"

But this approach was way too “salesy” for Robert, so we discussed the approach that I actually prefer. It’s much slower, but I feel that it’s also much more effective.

Connect. Think about where your relationship is with someone. Could you call him? Could you email her? Could you connect with him or her on Facebook or LinkedIn? Then, start to move the relationship forward to the point where you can meet - for coffee or to see their businesses, or whatever.

Build rapport. Once you’ve connected and have started to engage, you will come to know your old contact better, and he or she will come to know you again. Inevitably, the discussion will turn to what you do for a living.

Offer your help. Once what you do is out in the open, there are many simple ways to suggest that you’d like to offer your services. Here’s one of the simplest: "So, that’s the work I’m doing, and I really enjoy it. Have you ever worked with anyone who does what I do?"

Whatever service you provide, once you have spread the word and continued the dialogue, don't forget to offer it up for help.

 

[Rycyeroc]

Thanks so much for your response DHK. I appreciate the insight as I'm still learning the ropes. I did read through everything in your link and I know it will help my thought process moving forward. I guess I'm just at a tough point 6 months in where I'm in a bit of a slump and I need to pull out of it somehow. Any advice is appreciated by anyone!

 

[DHK]

You're in a natural slump if/when you don't know how to market yourself after your initial 'project 200'.

You will need to do what your agency won't train you how to do - set appointments with people who don't know you and you don't (yet) know them.

This thread will be a good start for you:
http://www.insurance-forums.net/for...g-forum/d2d-l-h-annuities-tracker-t88391.html

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I know I'm biased, but I think this thread should be helpful for you too:
http://www.insurance-forums.net/for...nsurance/guidance-new-life-agents-t29999.html

 

[Rycyeroc]

DHK, I'm still reading through all of the forums/links you've suggested. Great info so thank you very much! While i'm sifting through all of this, I'm hoping you have some advice on using community events to prospect. I am scheduled to have a booth at two major events in the next two weeks and hoping to get some best practices of what works best and what to avoid from these. In previous events I have at times collected a lot of prospects that all ended up being dead ends. I appreciate all the help!

 

[DHK]

I think this link has some of the best ideas regarding booths. I never had much luck with them for myself in the past, but I never used these ideas before either. Scroll down more than half way down the page for Paul Mallett's ideas.

https://www.insuranceproshop.com/NL/07-05-16.html

 

[Matthew King]

Just wanted to say welcome to the Forum and DHK has loaded you with great information!