Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Getting ready for the next phase

I'm getting the money together for the next phase of my plans which will entail 100% local marketing. I will obviously keep the telemarketed leads as long as they come in but if the past is a predictor of the future I have a few months with my marketers before they flake. It certainly beats having them for a few weeks before they flake on the old 1099 system. When and if my marketers quit I will not replace them.

To be honest, I am burt to the crisp on bugging people. It's not in my nature to pester people and a source of anxiety when I make my calls. The good obviously outweighs the bad and helping people is absoutely worth "bothering" people for 20 seconds on the phone. At least I let people off the hook quickly.

My original theory was there's enough local people interested in changing their health insurance situation to make a great living. I still believe that. All the local State Farm, Allstate and Nationwide offices can't be wrong. I'm friends now with a local agency owner who I met through my chamber. About 90% of his clients come to his office just from his local presence and referrals although he admitted it took years to accomplish that. I have the time - ain't going anywhere.

I will be doing a lot of events after the new year. Basically, if an event allows me to rent table/booth space then I'm there. This is the kind of stuff I truely enjoy anyway. I am not too well set up to sit in my office making calls. It's unbelievable boring to me. I'm a "out and about guy" which is why I did a lot of B to B and why I'm back to meeting most of my clients.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Geez, John. Sounds like you are ready to bail on the marketer program. If they quit, now you won't even replace them?

Just last week this was THE plan that works like no other. You were ready to implement Gary's system, hire a scrubber and scale the system to new heights.

This isn't encouraging to us wanna-bes. What happened to the scrubber idea (so you don't burn out pestering people?)

info@marylandquotes.com said...

You have to remember my goals which are due by the beginning of the next year - to establish a local agency which will be ad based.

I will not fire any of my marketers and if they choose to stay with me 3 years I'll be happy to have 'em. I simply won't replace them after the new year if they quit.

I've always made it clear since day one on my blog that I'm burt "pestering" people and feel there's enough local business to sustain me. However, it's expensive to advertise and expensive to sponsor events. Telemarketing is a means to an end.