Prospecting Whats Working for You?

[mr_furly]

Many successful agents don't say either-or. When new, you MUST do whatever it takes to gain traction. Cold calling is an alternative, and vastly better than inaction. The phase two goal is a client base that becomes its own source of leads through up-sell, cross-sell and referral.

Clearly one of the great positives of a career in insurance is the ability to earn long-term trust relationships that require diligent, caring service... vs. getting up every morning to face the same old challenge of new prospecting and pitching.

ahhh...gotcha.
it was more of a long term statement.

I just got my license...and am starting to talk to a few agencies.

So I know im going to have to pick up that phone a lot in the beginning.

 

[InsureTexasNow]

You can't grow door knocking.

Not a great response. Ask any Edward Jones advisor if door knocking works. I will ad,d it is easier in a smaller community where people are not afraid to open the door.

 

[Alston]

Door knocking is a terrible way to get business.

I would NEVER do it today.

Unless...

I didn't have a better way to prospect. Fortunately I have better ways now.

I've only door knocked two days in my 31 year career. I hated every second of it.

But back in the era when beepers were status symbols ("Dude, you got a green beeper!? A green beeper! That's the mother freakin' bomb! I gotta get me one. I've never seen one that wasn't black before.... But I aint copying you. Imma get a blue one."), I did my share of prospecting by phone.

I hated that almost as much...

But at that point I didn't have a better way to prospect.

When I made hundreds of cold phone calls a week, people were just starting to get answering machines. Caller ID hadn't been invented. A DNC (actually "D&C") was a medical procedure. So I don't think telemarketing is as viable an option in 2017.

If I were starting out today and I had enough money I'd read a few marketing books then I would use direct mail to drive people to the phone and/or Internet marketing to drive people to my website. I'd use the phone, email and postal mail to move people along the sales funnel. I wouldn't buy leads.

If I didn't have enough capital, I would consider door knocking. I'd hate it but it would motivate me to create a big enough client base, a big enough marketing budget and the requisite marketing savvy to allow me to put door knocking in my rear view mirror as soon as possible.

Whatever method I used to prospect, I would stay in contact with my prospects by phone, email and/or postal mail (and maybe texting*) until they proved that they were no longer prospects. I would stay in touch with my clients and former clients until they moved, died or accused me of being a stalker.

*My marketing coach lives in the Houston area and wants to see if automated texts will help my business. So I'll have a Texan testing texting on my behalf soon. Say that three times fast.

 

[lukifer]

I've considered texting; however, FTC is pretty clear on where they stand on spam texting. I'm not really wanting to be on the hook for $11k/ offense.. What's your marketing coach's avenue around that?

 

[Alston]

I've considered texting; however, FTC is pretty clear on where they stand on spam texting. I'm not really wanting to be on the hook for $11k/ offense.. What's your marketing coach's avenue around that?

I may have some of the details wrong. I'll have to triple check with her before I try this.

She originally suggested this to market MA during AEP. I knew that it would cause problems unless I had PTC, so we moved on to another topic without her going in depth.

If I remember correctly she said that there is a loophole that allows you to essentially send a voice mail message as an attachment to a text message. I think it is kind of like avatar calls vs. robocalls. The loophole will probably be closed eventually.

Her brother is an attorney and she has done this for other clients, some of whom are attorneys also. So while I'm not confident that I've got all the details right in this post, I'm sure something similar to what I've described can be done unless there has been a recent change to the law.

 

[todd02]

In order to text b2c you have to have Written Opt-In. There are about to be a ton of class action lawsuits against companies like zipwhip and touchpoints. You get dragged into a lawsuit it's $500 or $1500 PER TEXT sent. They think they can get away with this conversational Texting. Nope, don't text unless they send you an Opt-in text first. I know some agents who if caught will probably get fined 100-500K

With the statement I made about growing from door knocking. You can grow probably to 1000 policies. Then as your carriers rates increase and retention decreases you'll max out. Phone is always the way to go for a volume business like insurance. I built my agency on face to face until I hit 2k in policies. Realized that wasn't going to work when I was writing as many as I was losing. Now we are at 4K policies and 5 mm in premium. Growing by 20-30% a year and our retention dropped to 81%. I'm in Texas though where we are seeing on average 20-30% rate increases on home and auto. Sucks.

 

[thomasm]

You can't grow door knocking.

But you can grow by hiring someone to do it for you. A Farmers agent is writing 50 apps a month off my "door knocked" leads.

 

[Alston]

I guess I won't give my friend the Texan a texting testing task. Tsk.

I can't stop myself!

What if she were upset that day? OMG the thought of a testy Texan tasked to test texting is taxing.

#TheodorGeisel

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[todd02]

But you can grow by hiring someone to do it for you. A Farmers agent is writing 50 apps a month off my "door knocked" leads.

You sell door knocking leads to a farmers agent? Where, how much? Enlighten me.

 

[lukifer]

If I remember correctly she said that there is a loophole that allows you to essentially send a voice mail message as an attachment to a text message. I think it is kind of like avatar calls vs. robocalls. The loophole will probably be closed eventually.

Ringless voice mail drops. Yeah, there is a loophole with that.

Done it. ROI sucks for leads, but good for soft touches with prospects.