I sure hope you were not spotted taking the sales course, "Leads for Insurance Dummies 101." By looking at the stack of internet produced shared leads, it sure looks that way. Do you know where your leads came from, honestly? Did you forget to take your brain pill? All you know is that you are going to compete with other salesperson to sell the same prospective client.
Wrong! An insurance salesperson proves he can sell, yet has four major barriers to overcome. ONLY very successful sales makers resolve all of these blockers.
1.Insurance salespeople and insurance salesperson recruiters are just plain CHEAP.
The roadmap leading your journey to riches does not provide any free gas or free prospects. Cheap leads run the gamut from telephone directors to association membership lists to acquiring the least costly prospect leads. These "prospect leads" are usually internet shared leads.
The less you are willing to pay to reaching prospects interested in your insurance products the longer and riskier the road to success becomes. Rationalize why internet shared leads are losers. The company selling an internet shared leads, makes outlandish profits on each one. You are misled into believing the prospect information is given to 6 other agents, when the figure is usually 12. And who knows if the prospect is a true insurance prospect? You only spent $10.00 to get the prospect but the lead company netted $120.00
2. You EGO is making your head swell.
Facing 11 other competitors you truly believe your selling skills will outshine all competition. A stubborn, inflated ego blocks out reality. The internet shared lead company makes no guarantee this client is going to purchase from any insurance salesperson. If your prospect has already chosen to buy, can you swallow your pride do?
If you ever watched baseball, observe the catcher give the pitcher a sign. The sign suggests to the pitcher which pitch to deliver. The catcher's sign often gets shook off with a nod of the head by the pitcher. Now the catcher has lost his chance of having his pitch delivered. Your sales presentation if not heard first, is likely to never be presented. Should your prospect already decide to buy from a competitor, don't bother to deliver your pitch. Face it you lost this one! Trying to undo a sale that was just recently made by another agent is a sign of desperation. Stop, look, and listen.
Calculate what your odds were. The internet company provided a shared lead in which existed a 33% chance the prospect would buy. Since it is a shared lead, multiply the chance (one to three), by the total agents in the game to pitch the prospect. For a seller like you, one in 3 sales likelihood evolves to one in thirty six. To your cheap mentality it translates to paying $120 per chance. That means a 33& closing ratio accumulate costs of $360 dollars per sale. Acting cheap just cost you a bundle.
3. BELIEVING the internet lead company.
The sales lead company takes no oath to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. Do you Still think most people are honest? Do you think your auto mechanic charges you his price for parts or the retail price? Profit is the name of their game and your game too. Are you the first to enter the field with a prospect before anyone else does, even with a shared lead?
Once the first competitor has delivers his pitch, your prospect may already hit on the offer. You are no longer playing on a level surface. Each insurance agent ahead of you further tilts the odds against you. Saving your best pitch for last, will almost certainly bounce off the prospect with little effect. Even if you are first to deliver your insurance presentation and it is perfect, yet no sale, do you still believe in the profit motivated lead company? Easily they can take an "exclusive lead" prospect that would not buy, and recycle it into a shared lead.
4. SALES do not equal the sum of leads plus presentations.
Let's face it, insurance salespeople remain dirt cheap, even when knowing profitable ways exist. You can hide your cheapness behind busy work. Seeing busy work keeps sales managers off you back.
Are you too bewildered to understand the difference between a suspect and prospect? Everyone can be a suspect.Only those with the willingness and ability to purchase your offering are prospects. They are the leads you should be pursuing? Do you have the knowledge to provide a meaningful presentation leading to a sale? Is your prospect willing and able to purchase this insurance from you. You receive a tip that a local business is looking for a health plan. No problem. You call a dozen insurance marketers asking for a quote on a nine person group. How can you make the sale, when what you were offering was a planet away from your client's needs. You were way out of your league.
Face the music; you didn't take the time to determine if your prospect for a group plan was a genuine prospect worth pursuing. Where did you get off the train. The ability to sell one insurance product, can produce zero effect trying to sell another. You even skipped all the needed fact finding to give yourself a chance. To put it bluntly, this was a loser lead. You could give 30 presentations a week. However should none of these be true leads of fresh prospects. The only fresh item will be the horse manure you are standing in. What about going back to cheap internet shared leads?
Maybe none of this article sunk in. It seems you have an ego that can't be shattered, but your future is already shattering. Either you profit, or others profit off you.
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Don Yerke is the sales adviser and article writer for Agents Insurance Marketing, a firm he founded over 25 years ago. The firm's website is
http://www.agentsinsurancemarketing.com In it you will find agent and marketing tips, charts, research, advice, and articles. If you enjoy articles telling it like it is, you located the place. Insurance marketers and agents have greatly benefited from Don's articles.
