Commercial Insurance Cold Calling?

Question

long story short.. i need help. I'm a new commercial producer, I dont like cold calling but I'm not afraid of it either. I've bought a handful of books and have searched online. I'm doing something wrong. My boss and everyone else in the office, well the only advice they'll give is "law of large numbers." I know there is a better way but havent found it yet. Does anyone have any advice, experience "scripting" to share? Thanks!

Answer 1

Unfortunately, commercial insurance is a very competitive market.  And with any sales type position, it is a numbers based game.

Although I do have a couple of suggestions.

1.  Make sure you are building relationships with independant financial planners, commericial lenders and even tax preparers/accountants.  This falls into the realm of working smarter rather than harder.  It's easier to have these people provide some names of individuals that you can call, because it's not difficult to sell a commerical policy.  What is difficult is having someone to sell too.

2  Try stopping into 3 or 4 new business per day.  What I used to do when I was an outside sales person is take a different way to and from work every week.  This allowed me to pass some potential businesses along the way.  And I have found more success in showing up in person rather than calling them like everyone else is.  It sort of sets you apart.

3. Join orgainizations within your area.  The more organizations that you belong to again, the quicker your spreading your name out there.  What you are looking for is just to get in front of people.

4.  Work your current customer base for referrals.  Even better, try to see if these people would furnish a short hand written letter that you provide to these potential clients.  It always helps to have someone in your corner.

Above all, make sure you break the numbers down so it doesn't seem so overwhelming.

Daily goals example:

1. You will make X amount of dials per day. (when I started in financial planning it was about 440.

2. You will make X amount of contacts per day. (a contact would be whenever I could speak with someone, regardless of the outcome.)

3. You will set X amounts of appointments. (I believe that 10 would be a good number to shoot for.)

Now, if you cannot achieve these daily goals with just cold calling.  Then you'll need to incorporate other methods like I discribed above.  In terms of a script.  Just make sure that you are getting a "money saving and service", point across in each and every call.

Let me know if you have additional questions, I'd love to try and help.

Answer 2

Wow two people actually posted legit answers instead of trying to get you to do some crazy scheme.

You might like to read this article we did on cold calling. I could ramble on and on about this subject but you just have to roll your sleeves up and get busy.

http://nbizmag.com/magarticles/coldcalli...

Look into joining your local BOMA. Your company should foot the bill for this because it is rather pricey. Get to know the members they are exact your clientel.

Answer 3

If the primary sales tactic is cold calling is the product you are selling any good?  Put yourself in the position of the business owner and say, what will this insurance do for me?  You should have specific examples for each.  Your approach should always have the interests of the person you're selling to as the top priority.

Answer 4

Firstly, I wouldn't script.  When you cold call you're not trying to sell, you are trying to gauge if there is potential interest.  Introduce yourself, say in a sentence what you're offering and then give them the chance to say they are interested or not.

Second, the key is to stick with it.  I sell million dollar software packages and cold call. You find 25 nos for every maybe, but you just have to take it in stride.  If it were easy, everyone would do it.  Again, look at it as you're not selling,  you're simply introducing yourself and seeing if they are potentially interested.

Thirdly, be sincere and follow up on on any potential prospect.  If they say to call in a month, call in a month. If they say send info, send info and then follow up.

Fourth, keep looking at resources. There is no one bible -- take the best of what you see.  Some great resources and newsletters for cold calling: millerheiman.com, salesguy.org, bdmnews.com.  For example, I recently purchased the book "The Best Prospecting" times from Sales Guy.org and that actually made a difference for me.  I also really like 25 Habits of Successful Sales people -- it helps remind me of the basics.  

Stay with it and good luck.