"I havent had time to look at them yet"

[Golddoor]

When you quote a lead how many times and how often do you follow up with them until getting the app? I have dozens of quotes out and I follow up each week, but a lot of them keep telling me "oh I havent had time to look at them yet. When I do I will call you". Would you call them back if they dont call within a specific time period? If not what do you say to them when they say this?

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

99% of my leads after I've sent the info they haven't haven't looked at it. Almost every personal I actually put into underwriting has never looked at what I sent. Wouldn't matter if they did - it's like reading Latin to most clients.

1) Get the lead and call. If you get ahold of them do the pre-qual then set an established time to call back to review their options:

"Ok, now that I have what you're looking for I'm going to send you some plans and quotes to review. Do me a favor and give me a time when I can call you tomorrow when you'll have about 15 minutes so we can go over your options."

2) Call back at the set time. If you get blown off again that's not good news. In this case I want a time to call back later that same day. If I cannot get them to review the quote with me that day they're off my list.

Client: "Oh, I know I told you to call me at 11am but I can't talk now."

Me: "That's no problem. Is it better if I call you back in an hour?"

Client: "Ummm, I think today's pretty busy."

That's over. Done. Stick a fork in it.

Do not allow people to put you off and put you off. You're looking for interested people. Interested people will set an appointment with you and honor it. Don't waste time with the rest.

 

[Frank Stastny]

John,

Do you ever set an appointment and actually go see the prospect? I get the same thing when a prospect asks for something in the mail to "read". (Very few of my prospects or clients have computers or if they do they don't use them very often.)

When I agree to send them information I always try to schedule an appointment at the same time after they have had a chance to "study on it for a while". I have found, like you, they never "have the time to look it over" it is usually a ploy to get me off the phone.

If they won't agree to an appointment either at the time I first talk to them when I call them second time to make sure they have received the information then, as you say, I "stick a fork in it".

Working in the senior market may be more difficult than working that way with non-seniors.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

I deal with individual health and sign up clients by phone. It's a three step sign-up process:

1) Call lead and qualify. Set phone appointment to go over rates/plans.

2) Call at the appointed time. Take them to my website and review plans and rates for the appropriate carrier. After I go over their options I tell them review the rates and plan details and give me a time to call back and we can select and plan and apply: "What's a good time tomorrow when we can select a plan and I can do an application online?"

3) This seperates the men from the boys. They know I'm calling to do the app. Half answer and we do an app, half have a huge sticky by their phone:

"REMINDER - DON'T ANSWER PHONE AT 11AM. AGENT CALLING TO SIGN ME UP."

 

[Golddoor]

I deal with individual health and sign up clients by phone. It's a three step sign-up process:

1) Call lead and qualify. Set phone appointment to go over rates/plans.

2) Call at the appointed time. Take them to my website and review plans and rates for the appropriate carrier. After I go over their options I tell them review the rates and plan details and give me a time to call back and we can select and plan and apply: "What's a good time tomorrow when we can select a plan and I can do an application online?"

3) This seperates the men from the boys. They know I'm calling to do the app. Half answer and we do an app, half have a huge sticky by their phone:

"REMINDER - DON'T ANSWER PHONE AT 11AM. AGENT CALLING TO SIGN ME UP."

Ok thanks John. I guess Im not pre qualifying enough it sounds like.
Time to change my strategy!!

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

You're not doing anything wrong. Interested people are interested and they convey they're interested.

With rare exception the clients I sign up are chatty. We actually have a conversation.

Just look at yourself - how do you act? Say you're paying $250 a month for car insurance and it's not that big of a deal to you. Would you look at some quotes? Sure. But when you get around to it.

Now say the $250 is really a strain. It's crushing your budget. Now you really want to review the quotes and talk turkey.

You cannot establish any sense of urgency unless it's already there. Client with current plans don't see any need to rush. Clients without plans who do see a need to rush can't qualify.

I also don't work well with "stoic" people. I'm animated when I'm on the phone and looking for other upbeat people. If I sense the client is bothered that I called I can't dump 'em quick enough.

 

[Bob_The_Insurance_Guy]

John,

Truer words were never spoken.

I do exactly what you do. There are too many people who want what we have to offer, right away.

Send tire-kickers to the internet sites. You want someone who respects what you do, and your time. People don't respect someone they can push around.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Great post. You are sending a very bad message when you allow clients to put you off and put you off. You're gonna call twice a day for days and come across like some psycho girlfriend? What message does it convey when you're on their caller ID 5 times?

I call and leave a very nice message followed up with an email. I will indeed call back once more at a different time of day. Then I'm done.

When someone sets a specific time for me to call back to either go over the quotes or sign up and they don't answer I leave a nice message with an email. No reply? I've been dumped. Forget it and move on.

 

[Alsky]

I deal with individual health and sign up clients by phone. It's a three step sign-up process:

1) Call lead and qualify. Set phone appointment to go over rates/plans.

2) Call at the appointed time. Take them to my website and review plans and rates for the appropriate carrier. After I go over their options I tell them review the rates and plan details and give me a time to call back and we can select and plan and apply: "What's a good time tomorrow when we can select a plan and I can do an application online?"

3) This seperates the men from the boys. They know I'm calling to do the app. Half answer and we do an app, half have a huge sticky by their phone:

"REMINDER - DON'T ANSWER PHONE AT 11AM. AGENT CALLING TO SIGN ME UP."

John, do you have a set of qualifying questions you ask with every call and do you have a copy of the questions you ask that you can provide us?

Do you send them an email after the first call with a link to your assurant web?

In addition, I had 2 leads today wanting group insurance quotes... I ended up making an appointment with one (5 employees total and 4 with no coverage at all) of them and a time to call back the other. Do you persue group ins requests?

Al

 

[Cenla Agent]

You're not doing anything wrong. Interested people are interested and they convey they're interested.

With rare exception the clients I sign up are chatty. We actually have a conversation.

Just look at yourself - how do you act? Say you're paying $250 a month for car insurance and it's not that big of a deal to you. Would you look at some quotes? Sure. But when you get around to it.

Now say the $250 is really a strain. It's crushing your budget. Now you really want to review the quotes and talk turkey.

You cannot establish any sense of urgency unless it's already there. Client with current plans don't see any need to rush. Clients without plans who do see a need to rush can't qualify.

I also don't work well with "stoic" people. I'm animated when I'm on the phone and looking for other upbeat people. If I sense the client is bothered that I called I can't dump 'em quick enough.

Not being able to establish urgency unless it's already there is basically accurate no matter what market you are working. It's the same for the Sr. Market. If the prospect already has a plan, the majority of the time they are not that interested in going with something cheaper unless their current plan is really stretching their budget.