Prospecting for Medd Supps

[Josh]

I think Frank was referring to Med Supps, not life insurance.

Rick

I believe you're right, but I don't think it matters whether it's Med supps, life insurance, or any other product. Cold calling works great for Frank and many others and all the power to them, but anyone looking to grow their business quickly or recruit agents needs to find additional ways to generate leads. On any given day I'll have up to 20 telemarketers dialing for me and my agents and that makes life easier on everyone involved. Could just about any of my agents do a better job on the phone then the telemarketers? Absolutely, but they'd rather spend their time in the field talking to people interested in what they're offering than spend half their time on the phone trying to find people to talk to. I'm not saying that my model is the best fit for every agent, but buying leads is not always a waste of time or money.

 

[bourbonlegend]

ways of gettings leads that don't involve spending most of our time on the phone cold calling

On any given day I'll have up to 20 telemarketers dialing for me and my agents and that makes life easier on everyone involved. Could just about any of my agents do a better job on the phone then the telemarketers?

Sounds to me like you need to teach your agents how to work the referrals a little harder.

 

[Josh]

Sounds to me like you need to teach your agents how to work the referrals a little harder.

I really doubt that I need to teach them much of anything. They go out and work the 25-30 leads/week I provide them, write good business, and do it consistently. When they get referrals it's great, but I'd rather have my agents focused on writing business then finding people to talk to. Using telemarketers helps them stay focused on writing business and helps me make sure that we're consistently writing business.

 

[timsip]

I really doubt that I need to teach them much of anything. They go out and work the 25-30 leads/week I provide them, write good business, and do it consistently. When they get referrals it's great, but I'd rather have my agents focused on writing business then finding people to talk to. Using telemarketers helps them stay focused on writing business and helps me make sure that we're consistently writing business.

You boast the writing of the business, but what about the maintenance of the business. Referrals are, in most people's eyes, more valuable than telemarketed leads that are hot. When you sit down at a referrals table, there really isn't any selling involved. They are also much, much cheaper!

 

[Josh]

You boast the writing of the business, but what about the maintenance of the business. Referrals are, in most people's eyes, more valuable than telemarketed leads that are hot. When you sit down at a referrals table, there really isn't any selling involved. They are also much, much cheaper!

I don't know that I boast about it, but it's a system that is working for me. There is no question that referrals are probably the best lead an agent can get, but most agents can't generate enough referrals to survive on. I'm sure we'll all agree that Frank Stastny does a wonderful job selling Medicare supps, but even in as long as he's been doing it and as good of a job as he does, he still needs to spend time on the phone finding people to talk to in order to keep generating as much new business as he'd like.

 

[Tom Highway]

The bold part is the conondrum that agents like me are frustrated with. The mail program I used gave me a decent return and got me a higher volume of "leads" once the BRC card came back in, but I still had to call that peron (cold), introduce myself, and warm the prospect up to the point where they at least remembered sending in the card, if I could get them on the phone.

And sending out a large enough number of BRC cards to get 20+ appointments a week is going to cost you a good bit.

I don't expect anyone on either side of the fence to be swayed or moved to the other side, but Frank's suggestion to skip the middle man, call from a list of people who you'll try to find timing and chemistry with, and only set appointments where you have a higher likelihood of writing business is a good one.

The thing that everybody agrees on is that in order to succeed, anyone in this industry must keep a good enough volume of prospects to generate enough sales to make a profit.

I believe you're right, but I don't think it matters whether it's Med supps, life insurance, or any other product. Cold calling works great for Frank and many others and all the power to them, but anyone looking to grow their business quickly or recruit agents needs to find additional ways to generate leads. On any given day I'll have up to 20 telemarketers dialing for me and my agents and that makes life easier on everyone involved. Could just about any of my agents do a better job on the phone then the telemarketers? Absolutely, but they'd rather spend their time in the field talking to people interested in what they're offering than spend half their time on the phone trying to find people to talk to. I'm not saying that my model is the best fit for every agent, but buying leads is not always a waste of time or money.

 

[theinsuranceman]

When it comes to Final Expense you are ALWAYS better off working leads because 100% of your time can be spent closing. I've tried cold calling door to door and cold calling dial to dial and hands down you can make more $$$ working leads. Most agents don't know how to work a lead, they think a lead is a lay down. You can even pay someone $10/hr. to dial for you (even though they may not be as good as you are at dialing), and still make more $$ than if you have to dial yourself and then go close. (Isn't your time worth MUCH MORE than $10/hr.?) There's no way I could write $5k in a week if I have to prospect as well as sell. But I can write $5k in one week working leads. Remember I am only speaking of my experience for Final Expense.

 

[jerry176]

I agree with Tom, if you can avoid paying for "leads" do so, and do your own calling, and find other ways to market.
I spent a small fortune, and the results were not what I expected.

I believe I was not successful, because I thought the leads were my holy grail to riches...Was I wrong. I am not new to calling to make an appointment, since my previous position, was calling business to business in New York City for 10 years.

I am new to Franks system, and I imagine it will take a week or so, to where I am sounding coversational to the person on the other end.

2 months before I spoke with Frank Stastny, I sent out 1000 mailers, and it was about 8 weeks later I received 10 leads from the mailer for med supp campaign. So far half the people do not remember filling out any card, and they didn't need my services. Live & learn.....SO in my opinion, do your own marketing.

 

[VaDwayne]

When it comes to Final Expense you are ALWAYS better off working leads because 100% of your time can be spent closing. I've tried cold calling door to door and cold calling dial to dial and hands down you can make more $$$ working leads. Most agents don't know how to work a lead, they think a lead is a lay down. You can even pay someone $10/hr. to dial for you (even though they may not be as good as you are at dialing), and still make more $$ than if you have to dial yourself and then go close. (Isn't your time worth MUCH MORE than $10/hr.?) There's no way I could write $5k in a week if I have to prospect as well as sell. But I can write $5k in one week working leads. Remember I am only speaking of my experience for Final Expense.

How much do you net from the 5000 after you subtract the cost of the leads?

 

[Daytona_Guy]

Is it possible for an agent to call seniors and sell them medd supps? I would get the list from sales genie and use a dialer.

I'd say, too, that Sales Genie is too expensive.. try this:

Order your list of local seniors here: Click here to order online.

Use: Customize a List using demographic filters
​

Under Telephone Options select: Provide only records with phone numbers (100% phone numbers)
Age:Select 68-77
Estimated Household Income: Select $20,000 and up

The phone numbers provided by USData are already scrubbed against the DNC list.

1) Get a list (see above)
2) Use a great script (thank you, Frank!)
3) Write the Medicare Supplement policy based on price/value
4) Cross-Sell into Final Expense, LTC, etc
5) Follow-up with an automated referral gathering and client appreciation system
​