Project 200 Question

[JimmehBone]

how does it take 6 months to acquire a new client?? if im supposed to make 7,500 in 6 months to stay hired im gunna have to find alot of new clients, not to many friends my age need want or have the means for insurance.

 

[maksim]

How old are you 18? (not trying to be negative)

People in the 20's need to start saving. They have DI needs. Any getting married? starting families? Life insurance, 529 plans.

If you are only making $7,500 in 6 months, how are you going to survive? Your goal should be $7,500 monthly.

Anyone with a job can scrap up $50 or $100 for a DI premium. Most are even less once you factor in group plans. Most people pay more for their cell phone monthly.

Don't focus on the result, focus on the daily activity that is required.

How many friends you got on facebook? Linked in? In your cell phone?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I must apologies, I did not really answer your question.

6 months... how...

the chance of you cold calling someone day 1, schedule them for next week, they come in, agree, you do fact finder, presentation, decision, underwriting, policy delivery in under a few months... is quite low.

Your natural market is what will feed you in the short term.

Cold calling... figure 3 months to close business. Networking, seminars... take time to plan, to setup, 6 months.

Referrals? a year out.

(sorry mods for merged posts) =)

 

[nyc2phi]

$7500 in 6 months as a licensed trained agent, or starting from scratch. If you have to get licensed and trained and still hit $7500 i'd say that would be tough.

If you have you licensing done, I would say its definitely attainable. hit the phones from 8-8 and set as many appointments as possible. call business owners & corporate employees in their cube during normal business hours and reach out to single family homes after hours.

And yes in the meantime try to set appointments with your warm market and let them know what you do now

 

[DHK]

I must apologies, I did not really answer your question.

6 months... how...

the chance of you cold calling someone day 1, schedule them for next week, they come in, agree, you do fact finder, presentation, decision, underwriting, policy delivery in under a few months... is quite low.

Your natural market is what will feed you in the short term.

Cold calling... figure 3 months to close business. Networking, seminars... take time to plan, to setup, 6 months.

Referrals? a year out.

(sorry mods for merged posts) =)

I must apologize... because with those time limits, it proves that you don't know what you're doing.

The longest time period in successful advisor methods should be the time it takes to get that 1st appointment. Why? Because at that point you're still at the 'mercy' of their schedule - especially with your warm market. Hopefully you are scheduling these out within the next 1-2 weeks.

My appointments serve a dual purpose with my warm market.

1) I show the process I use with everybody to help them plan for their financial future.

2) Through that process, and asking proper questions, I will garner more trust so that I can ask for and receive referrals.

Rinse and repeat.

If you're calling with a product approach, then that's the reason why it's taking 3 months on cold-calling and 1 year on referrals. Who wants to sit down with a product salesman?

If you can develop a strong personality, good questioning skills and work on a referral basis, you can literally explode your business within 30 days if you know how to do it right.

BTW, the market of people willing and able to come to your office is MUCH lower than the market of people willing to let you come to their home or office. Go see the people!

 

[BenS]

You know who complains about approaching Friends, Family and natural market? Failed advisors.

This is a load of crap. I can't stand the thought of having to approach my friends to hit them up for insurance. Oh and if you think this doesn't make your friends uncomfortable, then think again. There is nothing wrong with your friends knowing what you do, but I would rather them approach you when they are ready. Good thing I focus on the senior market so I don't need to worry about that.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

There is a logic here employed by "managers" that's as old as the sales industry:

Only sell what you believe in

Since you're now selling this, you must believe in it

If you believe in it, then you must believe everyone must have it

And if everyone must have it, you're doing them a disservice by not pitching it to them

And if you don't pitch it to everyone you know, then you don't believe in what you're selling and should quit

The other failed logic is your market constantly expands and expands as you sign up your friends and family and get more and more referrals. This is easily exposed as a lie when you talk to your "manager" as ask how many appointments they have for themselves this week based on their "HUGE" referral network.

 

[DHK]

There is a logic here employed by "managers" that's as old as the sales industry:

Only sell what you believe in

Since you're now selling this, you must believe in it

If you believe in it, then you must believe everyone must have it

And if everyone must have it, you're doing them a disservice by not pitching it to them

And if you don't pitch it to everyone you know, then you don't believe in what you're selling and should quit

The other failed logic is your market constantly expands and expands as you sign up your friends and family and get more and more referrals. This is easily exposed as a lie when you talk to your "manager" as ask how many appointments they have for themselves this week based on their "HUGE" referral network.

X2.

The fact is, and I know this in my own life, is that if you don't feel comfortable approaching family and friends... to let them decide if they need your services... then you don't know what you're doing. You don't know how to position yourself with power, authority and influence to help them get emotionally involved in your process.

That feeling of insecurity will feed into the fact that you don't want to expose that fact to the people you know. Therefore, you will only want to work with people you DON'T know. And, in addition, you won't be able to ask for and receive referrals.

 

[JimmehBone]

How old are you 18? (not trying to be negative)

People in the 20's need to start saving. They have DI needs. Any getting married? starting families? Life insurance, 529 plans.

If you are only making $7,500 in 6 months, how are you going to survive? Your goal should be $7,500 monthly.

Anyone with a job can scrap up $50 or $100 for a DI premium. Most are even less once you factor in group plans. Most people pay more for their cell phone monthly.

Don't focus on the result, focus on the daily activity that is required.

How many friends you got on facebook? Linked in? In your cell phone?

I just turned 21. Very few are getting married and I plan on talking to them. No one is really starting families yet. I just moved back in with my parents and will be working a 2nd job that already supports my bills. So 7,500 is enough to survive, actually it'd all be banked. That being said, this is the minimum I have to hit to survive, it's in now way my goal. I like that advice about focusing on daily activity. I'm going to implement that, have a nice structured day going for me, starting with a workout at the gym at corporate park lol. I have 800 friends on facebook, but alot of that is from highschool and partying. I don't talk to 90% of them. I don't have linked in... and my damn phones software stopped working and I lost my 462 contacts about 7 months ago and am only up to 92 again. :-/ Anyways, I don't have much of a warm market at all. I'm gunna have to do alot of cold calls. I been researching Ben Feldman, hoping to run some of his routine. Specially with the small business market.

and to nyc, I am not licensed or trained. I take my test on sunday. I'm not currently employed (company waiting on license). And my first month of "working" more so training doesn't count towards that 6 months.

 

[BenS]

X2.

The fact is, and I know this in my own life, is that if you don't feel comfortable approaching family and friends... to let them decide if they need your services... then you don't know what you're doing. You don't know how to position yourself with power, authority and influence to help them get emotionally involved in your process.

That feeling of insecurity will feed into the fact that you don't want to expose that fact to the people you know. Therefore, you will only want to work with people you DON'T know. And, in addition, you won't be able to ask for and receive referrals.

There are plenty of successful people in this business that would disagree with this.

 

[DHK]

Name one.

Name one who said that as soon as you know what you are doing to position yourself with power, authority and influence, that you should NOT offer your services to the people you know.

I'm telling you: I've posted many times in the cold-calling portion of the forum. I'm pretty good. But let me give you some additional information: the reason I didn't go to family and friends, was because I felt that I would be positioning myself as though I was begging. You cannot be powerful, influential and authoritative to help others to make good decisions when you feel like you're begging.

If that's the way you feel about your services (begging), then stick to cold-calling 100%. They won't know the difference.