Opening Statement Advice...

JP Savage

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I'm hoping to start doing business cold calling in the AM and possible P &C in the afternoon. Although I admit I seem to find something wrong with every idea I have on how to start off the call. This really is driving me nuts.

Any suggestions on how you start the conversation?
 
You need an attention getter....


Ma'am, what are you wearing right now?
 
Spend a few hours reading through this cold calling forum. Start all the way at the beginning. You're bound to find some great ideas that will suit you.
 
I'm hoping to start doing business cold calling in the AM and possible P &C in the afternoon. Although I admit I seem to find something wrong with every idea I have on how to start off the call. This really is driving me nuts.

Any suggestions on how you start the conversation?

What products are you selling?
 
I would suggest you not start with, "Hi Betty, my name is Frank, how you doing today".

You are asking a question you don't know the answer to. Using only your first name and saying "how you doing today" throws up a huge red flag, in my opinion, that it is a telemarketing call.

I start by saying, "Hi Mrs. Smith, my name is Frank Stastny". At that point she doesn't have a clue who I am or why I'm calling. For all she knows I might be calling to tell her she just won Publishers Clearing House $10,000,000.

It doesn't flag it as a telemarketing call.
 
There are many approaches to cold calling, but business calling vs residential calling can be very different. When you say P&C, do you mean personal lines?
 
Yes personal lines in the morning and business in the afternoon. I've never really had a lot of success with cold calling but it's time for a change.
 
There are some fairly common mistakes folks make that shoot themselves in the foot. Unfortunately, most agents all individually make the same mistakes and then get frustrated and move on.

I'm in the process of putting together a website that offers telemarketing scripts and advice and it should be done by the week. If you'd like to get on the phone sometime I can give you some more specific advice, but here are some general pointers.

Be direct: Pick a specific audience you're trying to get too. Many insurance agents (and salespeople for that matter) telemarket and try to "wing it" because that's typically what comes natural. While that's perfectly understandable and even respectable, it helps to have a clearly defined value you're offering. I.e., "I'm calling you today because I'm helping businesses save money on their insurance, would you like to find out how much I can save you?" It's fantastically direct and you know right up front what to expect. They are either going to say "I'm so glad you called" or "eat dirt and die", and in either case you know what your next steps are and you've established clear expectations. As you experience more success you'll likely find that you can go a little off from that as you're better able to read the folks you're talking to, but what will end up happening if you aren't that direct is you have a pile of conversations that say "Hi, my name is JP and I'm calling from a local insurance agent and we consult with businesses to help them......" and it just runs on too long. It's not clearly definable and in an effort to try to capture as much potential from each prospective client, what you've actually done is create a situation where you're muddying the waters too reach your goal. I'm not saying that you specifically have used that approach, but many agents do and without much success.

Pick a single value proposition: I sort of touched on this just above, but what happens if you don't have a simple "I'm calling to help businesses save money on their health insurance" and you make it too vague, what ends up happening is it doesn't hit them where they have enough pain to act. While many of us realize we're better off going to the dentist for checkups on a regular basis, we usually only end up going to the dentist when it really hurts. Similarly, people generally aren't going to respond to a "would you like a free evaluation of your insurance" because you're not hitting them anywhere it hurts, but if you specifically make points like "we've found most businesses are overpaying for their workers compensation insurance because...", that helps open the door for folks because you're addressing a specific need. Once you've called through a list with a specific need, you can always call through it on another need, but it's generally best to focus on one at a time.

Use "specifics": Instead of saying "I'm calling you because I'm helping people save money on their insurance" (specifically addressing the personal lines here), call using a script stating a "specific" amount. "I'm calling you today because I'm helping people like you save hundreds of dollars on their health insurance." Stick with annual amounts (or even multi-year amounts if you feel comfortable with it) instead of monthly amounts, simply because $20/month doesn't sound like much, but when you say you can save me hundreds of dollars a year (which is basically the same thing), it's much more convincing and most prospects will fill the same way.

Is that helpful? If you want to e-mail me your script, [email protected], I can offer a review of it and give you some suggestions on things you might want to change or try if you would like.
 
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