PhoneBroadcasting Systems Outlawed Sept. 09?

[Alsky]

I was watching this program the other day shortly after the fantastic emergency landing in the Hudson made by the pilot of the plane that was in trouble.

They also referred as an example about the nightclub fire in RI a few years ago.

The study was pretty amazing... in an emergency situation, 10% of the people panic... 80% of the people Freeze... and only 10% of the people react accordingly, take a leadership role and save lives...

 

[360]

Amen John!

 

[Mark]

Truth be told about half of the agents are trying nothing at all and wondering why they can't make a living selling insurance. Everything that they think about trying, they come up with 50 reasons why not to do it. There is not one idea that I can come up with, that I can't think of 1 reason not to try it or do it. It is very easy to attack any lead company or any idea and come up with a million reason why something won't work.

You have the agents that try cold calling for an hour and give up. You have the agents that put out 100 door hangers and get no results and quit and trash the other 9900 door hangers. You have agents that buy a couple leads and then give up. Some agents are afraid to try anything.

I think you need to do a little bit of everything. I've never been afraid to try any idea or system. If it works, it works, and if it don't then I won't try it again for a while. Some of the most stupidest ideas have made me the most money. I do things all the time that agents tell me that would never work, and when I do them and make a lot of money, I want to laugh at the agent that does not do it.

You could talk about the 151a new law that will take affect in 2010 and say why do that market. You could say that Obama is going to stop Health Insurance. You could come up with a million reasons to be afraid of something. But if you do, you will never make it in this business. Some agents just want a reason why they are sitting home on the sofa all day long and not making any sales.

This is a large garden. The trick is to keep planting as many different kind of seeds as you can. Some things will not grow. You have to test the seeds out and see what will grow. I could sit here and say I'm not going to plant anything because this soil does not look right. Maybe the other farmer told me that nothing will come up in this soil. Truth might be the other farmer didn't know what they were doing.

I find it funny that 90 percent of most post are talking about what does not work, and only 10 percent talk about what does work. A lot of ideas, systems or company that you think don't work, really do work. But you will never know unless you try it. I've never been afraid of failure or to try something. That is why I'm successful.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Guest]

... marrying into money works best.Rick

And divorcing for money trumps them all...

 

[Alsky]

...may need some of that "stimulus money" after that..

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

I get the calls all day "I don't know if I should pursue health insurance now with Obama in office." My reply? "I think you're right - better sit this one out."

One of my first bosses when I was in training to be a manager told me "never hire anyone if they say "I'll try to do my best" during an interview.

Successful people don't try - they do.

 

[arnguy]

And divorcing for money trumps them all...

I tried that but got into a custody battle. I wanted to give her back to her parents, but they refused to take her back!

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

Back early on in my sales career we went BtoB selling an array of products - company was Wholesale Warehousing - then changed to DS Max.

I was in LA as a co-owner and the "infamous" Danny Rowe made an appearance - VP and legitimate millionaire from getting into the biz as an auto mechanic.

He showed up at the end of a meeting when a newbie was ripped into the managers since he had been out all day and not sold a single item. It was the territory, item, pricing, etc...everything sucked.

Danny made him a deal - $1,000 bet. The bet was that the guy goes right back out with Danny by his side, back to the exact same territory, has to stick to the scripted pitch and if he sells anything he gets $1,000.

They came back - guy sold a piece of merch in the first 10 minutes. Danny gave him $1,000 then fired him.

 

[djs]

I agree that you shouldn't be afraid to try different marketing schemes, but the one thing I've found out is you want some form of control over that marketing scheme, or it's doomed for failure.

I was told direct mail was terrible, I do pretty decent with it, but I learned how to focus it correctly. I was told telemarketing was a waste of time in my area, but I learned how to harness a targeted market to telemarket to (and hired someone to do it). I was told internet leads all suck, but I learned a way to get the leads that worked well for me.

I have yet to figure out a way to get 'press 1' leads to work for me. I'm sure somebody has luck with them, but I don't get any of these for insurance sales, so I assume they aren't that successful in this business. I get them for car warranties, mortgages, power washing my driveway, whatever, but not for selling me insurance. It's either a hole that I could fill by doing it, or something that doesn't work.

I tried it. I invested a few hundred dollars, but my own machine, made thousands of calls, nothing... okay, I had a few press 1. Not one sale from it. Started looking into why, never did figure it out. Now, realize at this point, continuing only cost me the cost of 2 phone lines, and I was making a 100 calls an hour (50 per phone line), and I still stopped it. Absolutely no ROI on it.

Oh yeah, turns out most carriers don't allow it either. Not sure they would do anything, but they all seem to have some fine print about it not being an acceptable marketing practice. I foiund that out after the fact, and most didn't seem to care about it, to the extent one of the ones that I later found out didn't permit it is the one that gave me the script to use on it.

Sorry, when I find something that bombs, I won't tell others to go for it. I agree that you shouldn't rule things out just 'because', but if people with more money and resources than me can't make it work, I'm not sure it's something I want to pursue.

Dan

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

These boards and advice can be greatly beneficial but watch where your info coming from.

You can post "has anyone used XYZ leads" and get a "yes, they they are horrible, avoid them" reply.

But what does that mean? It's not quantified.