Im Thinking of Starting My Own Company Eventually. Am I on the Right Track?

[5starfinancialhealth]

Ive been doing quite alot of research, and I feel as if I am experienced enough to run a team of 4-5 solid agents. From what I have gathered here is what im thinking

For a dialer I have my eyes on Mojo
For a lead manager I have been looking at leads 360
For Lead's I was thinking 30+ day old web leads and 25% new web leads
For carrier's I was looking at GR,Cigna, Assurant, and American general.

I truly believe I am able to get a 10% conversion ratio off web leads over the long haul. If the lead is worked right it is POSSIBLE.

Any suggestions on web lead vendors, and any suggestions on verification systems? any suggestion's on phone service providers?

 

[Josh]

-I'm sure the health folks are going to come along and help a bit, but 1/10 sounds more than a little high for a conversion ratio.
-Mojo is in my opinion a little overpriced when you can get SalesDialers.com for $99/month (promo code AML) and be able to dial out four lines at a time instead of three and get drip e-mail marketing (probably more important with this type of insurance than some others).
-When you say you feel as if you're experienced enough to run a team of 4-5 solid agents, how long have you bseen selling health insurance? Managing a team is part product knowledge and part sales leadership. Once upon a time I applied for a job as a manager and my then manager sat me down and had a chat with me. The short version of that conversation is he asked me what I thought would make a good manager and I more or less said excellent product knowledge and the reality is that after having years of experience as a sales manager I think that's important, but actually only one component of a very complicated job description. If you don't know how to manage and lead a team, you could have great products, a great system, and great product knowledge, yet still manage to lose your shirt/not make much money.
-One thing that has hurt a lot of agencies is that they have been at the mercy of lead vendors. One of the ways folks combat that is by generating their own. Frank Stastny exclusively teaches people to cold call for their Medicare leads and it's a system that works very well. The health folks that generate their own leads typically have more stable and sustainable growth than those that are relying on internet leads. A lot of agents have success cold calling small businesses for individual and small group plans and find that it is tough to cold call, but it's tough to beat the ROI. The script I have on FreeTelemarketing Scripts.com has pulled up to three qualified leads per hour.
-With phones I'm a huge fan of vitelity, but that's certainly not for everyone. It's tricky to use, but it's completely cloud based (since everyone is using that term) which is handy.

Hope that helped!

 

[5starfinancialhealth]

Hey Josh, Thanks for taking the time to reply, I will check into the other dialer your mentioned with the promo code, I wanna cut cost as best as I can.

Ive been doing it about 18 months so far(not long) But ive been around a few different agencies, And feel I have what it takes to get people motivated to want to be successful for themselves.

My motto as a manager would be ''dont do it because its required by your job, but do it because you genuinely want to have success, and if that's what you want I will supply you with all the tools to get there''
Ive always believed its more of will power than sales skill. Like Vince Lombardi said, the person who has heart will always beat the person with skill simply because they want it more and are willing to go the extra mile to reach there goal.

As far as cold calling, I couldn't agree more with your point( im a little excited to try cold calling) as lead cost does eat up ROI

 

[Josh]

As far as cold calling, I couldn't agree more with your point( im a little excited to try cold calling) as lead cost does eat up ROI

It's way easier to listen to someone tell you to eat dirt and die if you paid pennies for it instead of $10-$15. If you are excited to be cold calling you should check out the FreeTelemarketingScripts.com site I have up, if for no reason other than to get 50 free cold leads to call. Tough to beat free

 

[5starfinancialhealth]

yeah, I think free is as good as it gets LOL

 

[HomeService]

You better have some serious money saved up- to fall back on.

 

[Pangaea]

It's way easier to listen to someone tell you to eat dirt and die if you paid pennies for it instead of $10-$15. If you are excited to be cold calling you should check out the FreeTelemarketingScripts.com site I have up, if for no reason other than to get 50 free cold leads to call. Tough to beat free

I'm still waiting on my free leads.

 

[eharriett]

Agree with Josh about being at the mercy of the lead vendors. We almost went out of business because our leads were turned off from our supplier a few years ago when we were accused of doing something it didn't even occur to us to do. It took us three years of trial and error but we finally have a very viable lead program going now and it is all in-house generated.

Here's two contradictory pieces of advice if you're going to start your own company:
1. Remember you must always have something going on. No activity means no new money and if you're running a company, it not only hurts you, but the people working with and for you.
2. It is about more than the money. Your agents will be more than money-making machines, and your clients will be more than just commissions.

Contradictory, I know, but if you can find a way to make your company's mission statement fall within those two guidelines, you'll be okay.

 

[Josh]

I'm still waiting on my free leads.

Sure you are. I told you what you could do and you said no thanks. Just shoot me an e-mail.

 

[Pangaea]

Sure you are. I told you what you could do and you said no thanks. Just shoot me an e-mail.

Ohh... You mean for the call center? Yeah, that's going to be launching around AEP.

This would be me buying from you for personal production until then.