Pushing a Sale

[NEWMANINSURANCE]

When I see people like this I ask about the family. Kids, grand children, etc... If they are reasonable I usually come out with something.
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I've seen what happens when an agent thinks he should walk out of EVERY house with a deal. You end up with a senior that just put their last $6000 into a 15 year annuity. Bankers

and prudential

 

[Frank Stastny]

We have professional "mailerbackers" here in Michigan

I've discovered that seniors nation wide are professional "card filler outers". If the card implies that they may get something for "free" they will fill out the card and carry it to the mail box.

I can almost guarantee that the majority of they will have forgotten why they filled it out or even that they filled it out before it hits the bottom of the mail box. Those are not "warm" leads yet some agents continue to spend thousands of dollars each year thinking that the "lead" was sent in by someone who was really interested in making a purchase. At least I have found that to be true with Med Supp "leads".

In my experience it is every bit as much of a cold call as if they were calling out of the phone book.

 

[jdeasy]

I tell everyone on our training calls and other agents that I talk to privately the same thing when they ask what my secret is.

There really are no secrets, but if I have one for selling FE to the FE market, it's knowing the market.

Most agents dabble in FE and do not have a clue about the FE market. These folks are not single premium buyers, they are not annuity buyers and they are not preneed buyers.

The people sending in the reply cards are world class procrastinators. They did not get to be 65 to 85 years ols and not have their funerals taken care of because they have been good planners and/or good with their money.

Now, will occasionally the exception fill out a reply card? Yes, but it's still occasional.

The very first thing I do when I walk into any home is find out why they mailed the card in. I tell that we find there is one of 3 reasons and I go over those. If they cannot tell me why the card was sent in I do not give a presentation in that home. I thank them for theor time, give them my card and leave.

Sometimes I do discover that they are really good prospects for preneed. I don't do preneed, so I refer them to Newby. He is an expert in that field and I am not.

You cannot really "sell" anything in the FE market. You can fill a need and want. But, you cannot do that unless there is a need/want there in the first place.

There is a phase I heard Travis Tubbs say once, "if you chase two rabbits both will go away".

 

[WinoBlues]

Sounds like a big part is not getting leads in the areas the OP talked about. Otherwise the week is a bust.

I tell everyone on our training calls and other agents that I talk to privately the same thing when they ask what my secret is.

There really are no secrets, but if I have one for selling FE to the FE market, it's knowing the market.

Most agents dabble in FE and do not have a clue about the FE market. These folks are not single premium buyers, they are not annuity buyers and they are not preneed buyers.

The people sending in the reply cards are world class procrastinators. They did not get to be 65 to 85 years ols and not have their funerals taken care of because they have been good planners and/or good with their money.

Now, will occasionally the exception fill out a reply card? Yes, but it's still occasional.

The very first thing I do when I walk into any home is find out why they mailed the card in. I tell that we find there is one of 3 reasons and I go over those. If they cannot tell me why the card was sent in I do not give a presentation in that home. I thank them for theor time, give them my card and leave.

Sometimes I do discover that they are really good prospects for preneed. I don't do preneed, so I refer them to Newby. He is an expert in that field and I am not.

You cannot really "sell" anything in the FE market. You can fill a need and want. But, you cannot do that unless there is a need/want there in the first place.

There is a phase I heard Travis Tubbs say once, "if you chase two rabbits both will go away".

 

[xrac]

I tell everyone on our training calls and other agents that I talk to privately the same thing when they ask what my secret is.

There really are no secrets, but if I have one for selling FE to the FE market, it's knowing the market.

Most agents dabble in FE and do not have a clue about the FE market. These folks are not single premium buyers, they are not annuity buyers and they are not preneed buyers.

The people sending in the reply cards are world class procrastinators. They did not get to be 65 to 85 years ols and not have their funerals taken care of because they have been good planners and/or good with their money.

Now, will occasionally the exception fill out a reply card? Yes, but it's still occasional.

The very first thing I do when I walk into any home is find out why they mailed the card in. I tell that we find there is one of 3 reasons and I go over those. If they cannot tell me why the card was sent in I do not give a presentation in that home. I thank them for theor time, give them my card and leave.

Sometimes I do discover that they are really good prospects for preneed. I don't do preneed, so I refer them to Newby. He is an expert in that field and I am not.

You cannot really "sell" anything in the FE market. You can fill a need and want. But, you cannot do that unless there is a need/want there in the first place.

There is a phase I heard Travis Tubbs say once, "if you chase two rabbits both will go away".

JD what are the three reasons people fill them out? My guess would be bored or lonely, getting something for free, wanting a final expense policy. How close did I get?

 

[0b1kanobee]

JD what are the three reasons people fill them out? My guess would be bored or lonely, getting something for free, wanting a final expense policy. How close did I get?

Ha! I was wondering the same thing. 1) They are looking for life insurance coverage 2) They were looking for additional life insurance coverage 3) They wanted to get quotes (just guessing)

JD........do you ask if you can go inside? Like after you are at the door and they haven't invited you in, do you make attempts to ask if you can go inside the home? How aggressive are you at trying to get inside the home? I keep hearing that is important.

I'm taking this intensive sales training course on making me a more effective closer and they keep stressing that I need to get in the house. It's like a course for becoming a "sales Bulldog". I'm really excited because I'm not really a Bulldog in sales but I'm clearly on my way now with my training.

 

[Todd King]

I tell everyone on our training calls and other agents that I talk to privately the same thing when they ask what my secret is.

There really are no secrets, but if I have one for selling FE to the FE market, it's knowing the market.

Most agents dabble in FE and do not have a clue about the FE market. These folks are not single premium buyers, they are not annuity buyers and they are not preneed buyers.

The people sending in the reply cards are world class procrastinators. They did not get to be 65 to 85 years ols and not have their funerals taken care of because they have been good planners and/or good with their money.

Now, will occasionally the exception fill out a reply card? Yes, but it's still occasional.

The very first thing I do when I walk into any home is find out why they mailed the card in. I tell that we find there is one of 3 reasons and I go over those. If they cannot tell me why the card was sent in I do not give a presentation in that home. I thank them for theor time, give them my card and leave.

Sometimes I do discover that they are really good prospects for preneed. I don't do preneed, so I refer them to Newby. He is an expert in that field and I am not.

You cannot really "sell" anything in the FE market. You can fill a need and want. But, you cannot do that unless there is a need/want there in the first place.

There is a phase I heard Travis Tubbs say once, "if you chase two rabbits both will go away".

Some of them are more SPWL buyers than most agents will ever find out. Most agents have no clue how to look for the possibility of a SPWL and the clients surely don't know enough to ask. You'll only find this if you look for it and know what to look for.

 

[jdeasy]

JD what are the three reasons people fill them out? My guess would be bored or lonely, getting something for free, wanting a final expense policy. How close did I get?

Number 1 reason we get these back is because you don't have anything in place to take care of your funeral, burial and or other expenses. 60% nod their head there and I stop and move on with a warmup and presentation.

Number 2 reason we get these cards back is because you have a little bit in place now and don't it's enough, need to supplement it and didn't know how to do that. Or, even to possibly save money on what you have? 30% nod their head at that one and I stop and move on with a warmup and presentation.

Number 3 is that you have all that taken care of, but you want to leave some money to family, church or charity. About 5% nod their head on that one. I stop and ask which of those was the interest and then move to a warmup and presentation.

If I have to ask what the reason was after going over all that I sometimes get the other 5% to say something. If it's crickets and they say it was none of them and they really can't comeup with a reason for me to stay, I give them my card and leave.

I do not do a warmup nor a presentation to uninterested people.

I do the 4 questions presentation after a decent warmup. I get very few objections at the end of my presentation. That's not because my warmup and presentation is so great, {even though it is}, it's really because I only present to interested people.

I usually leave, but sometimes I still test my methods. I was working a county last week that I had not worked in two years. I didn't have extra leads or old leads for that area to doorknock in cases where I left a house early. My next to the last appointment on the day was 10 miles from my last and the last one ouldn't be home until after 5. The next to the last stop was not interested. I couldn't get her to bite on any of the 3 reasons or to supply one on her own. I would normally not do a presentation in that case, but not having anything else to do and over an hour to kill I did one anyway. At the end she had to "think about it". I couldn't get her over it. Of course I knew that from the beginning when she wasn't interested. She had told me, "I thought they were going to just mail me something". I wanted to say, yes I understand that, so why the hell didn't you tell me that on the phone yesterday when we sat this appointment and I wouldn't even be here on this miserable rainy day and I have UK game on waiting for me at home.

I didn't say any of that, but that's what went through my mind. She was 78 years old and nice.

I generally weed out the nitwits by setting my own appointments. The EFES leads say it's about final expense life insurance on the top line. When I call to sit the appointments I tell them I'm calling about that request for information on our "final expense life insurance". Others tell me to not say that because I will lose some. They are right, I do lose some on the phone because I say that. I want them to know why I'm coming. If they didn't know it was about life insurance I don't want to go meet with them.

Since it's been told to them twice that it's about life insurance I don't get many that are still confused when I get there. Does happen though. Those are the homes that I am in and out of in 10 minutes or less.

 

[0b1kanobee]

JD........do you ask if you can go inside? Like after you are at the door and they haven't invited you in, do you make attempts to ask if you can go inside the home? How aggressive are you at trying to get inside the home? I keep hearing that is important.

 

[jdeasy]

Some of them are more SPWL buyers than most agents will ever find out. Most agents have no clue how to look for the possibility of a SPWL and the clients surely don't know enough to ask. You'll only find this if you look for it and know what to look for.

Nope, not on the people sending in reply cards. More than half the people I see are getting extra help for their part D and/or Part B premium.

If you specialize in FE you will not find many SPWL buyers in that market. It's rare to even find med sup buyers. I do over 300 FE apps per year. I only do about 20 med sup apps per year. Half of those are from referral from my FE clients instead of them being able to buy themselves.

It's also going to comeback to what demographic you are mailing.If mailing higher incomes you might find more buyers. The returns go down because most people that can do SPWL or preneed policies have an agent. The typical FE reply person does not have an agent.

That goes back to what travis said, "if you chase two rabbits you will lose them both".
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JD........do you ask if you can go inside? Like after you are at the door and they haven't invited you in, do you make attempts to ask if you can go inside the home? How aggressive are you at trying to get inside the home? I keep hearing that is important.

I just go right in. Never had a problem with. I don't doorknock as a rule. My appointments are set and they are expecting me. I've had a time or tow in nice weather where the folks said "why don't we just sit out here on the front porch if you don't mind". I don't mind doing business on the front porch.

I'm clean cut, dressed nice and have ID. I come from a family of cops and every says I look like a cop, too. Maybe that's why I've never had a problem?