1 hired

Another decent check coming. Heck, it wasn't all that long ago when I was working security for $12/hr. so I still greatly appreciate making this kind of money. It's a short list of jobs you can work - especially from home - and make six figures. Still, I need a grand a week over this to accomplish my goals. Stay tuned.

I hired one girl yesterday - she sounds fantastic, really needs the money and is partially disabled. I touched on this before a while back but if I'm going to spend my hard-earned money on leads I'd like it to go to people who deserve it and people where the money makes a difference in their lives. I really have no motivation to make the owners of Netquote, InsureMe or HometownQuotes richer then they already are.

Alright, off to my son's soccer game.

Lots of resumes

So far I've received over 20 resumes from the workforce exchange. Not too shabby, but I'm running court records and workers comp searches on all of 'em. I've spoken to around 8 applicants today and it seems like there will be a few gems in there.

Honestly, I'm not overly thrilled to hire telemarketers again. It's a pain in the ass. I've been doing just fine generating my own local business but there's no doubt that I need at least an extra grand a week to launch my plans so I need to suck it up.

If you're hiring telemarketers, you will go through many of them before you find good ones. Some will be lazy - only make 20 or so dials per hour then gripe that they're not getting leads. Others are overly-aggressive and generate junk. They'll take info from secretaries, you'll follow up with the owner who doesn't know what's going on and doesn't want you calling.

That all being said, you can cut down on the BS with a signed agreement and some rules:

1) The person you spoke with must by the person requesting the quotes. Under no circumstances can a secretary request quotes on the owner's behalf.

2) The prospect must agree that an agent will be following up with them. If the prospect does not want an agent to follow up that will not count as a qualified lead.

3) All leads must have an email address for follow-ups. If someone is unwilling to give you their email then it's not a lead.

4) All prospects must understand that the quotes are for individual/family plans - not group plans.

I would not suggest having marketers attempt to qualify. I can put deals together where a marketer wouldn't stand a chance. The only think I want marketers doing is simply getting enough interest generated where they want information and an agent to follow up.

I also pay hourly and the pay goes up with the more leads they generate. If you want to pay more or give bonuses then tie them to the number of leads. This way, they have incentive to dial more numbers per hour. They still have to adhere to the definition of a lead in order to get paid so it's not like they can throw junk at you.

I would stay away from giving bonuses based on closing deals. First of all, that could be construed as commission sharing, which is likely illegal in your state if they're non-licensed. Secondly, you now have to report to them every week as to how many deals you closed. To be frank, it's none of their business how many sales I get.

Getting creative

Ok, I've been assessing the stale mate; making enough money to live, not making the extra amount needed to accomplish my goals. Obviously I need more leads. Without more leads I can dream all I want about a store-front location and a local ad campaign.

I only like working exclusive leads from small biz owners. That's telemarketing. I've done well with telemarked leads for over a year now. I pay $12/hr, they generate 3 leads per hour for $4 per lead. Most are junk so I close about 1 out of 20. Fine - it costs me $80 to get a client.

Now we hit the real problem - volume. If I make $2,000 in a week my time is worth $50 a hour. Paying a marketer is $12/hr so calling 2 or 3 hours per day is not the best plan. I'd also need no less than 60 leads a week to pump up my production. At 3 leads an hour that's 20 hours a week. I do not have 20 hours a week to make calls.

Back to hiring and past problems. Telemarketers don't work. Most don't work at all - you hire and train them and they never call. Others will make 20 or so calls per hour (which is pathetic) then tell you they get zero to one lead. Good ones pound out leads for a while, then evaporate.

I will never hire a telemarketing company. A lead is a name and a number - period. All I'm looking for is owners with enough interest to at least want information. Having marketers attempt to qualify prospects is a mistake and doesn't work. I'm not gonna pay $15 per lead for junk when I can get junk for $4 a lead.

So I had an idea - enroll in the Maryland Workforce Exchange. Employers get to list a postion for no cost and most applicants are welfare, disabled, unemployed (receiving benefits) or are on some state program.

I'd like people who need and appreciate the money. For the right person at-home telemarketing for $12/hr is a dream come true. I'd imagine it would be fantastic for someone who's disabled. If I hire a qualified person I'd also receive a work opportunity tax credit.

A lot of my former good telemarketers simply didn't need the money. They were at-home moms with working husbands. It was spare cash for them and after making calls got a tad boring they quit. I'd rather offer the job to people who really need the money. I don't have a downside here - if someone doesn't work they don't get paid.

Let's see how this plays out. By the way, this will be in addition to continuing with my Assurant LEGS lead program, local chamber events and everything else I'm doing.

Let's talk about my shared lead program

This lead program I'm in is through Assurant called LEGS. I receive shared leads in real time and the leads are managed through my agent site. I can sell any company I want and it's $8 a pop but when I sell Assurant they give me free leads. So as long as I'm always selling a portion of Assurant basically the leads are free.

Since I abhor shared leads so much and my income is from local small biz owners I only called each lead twice - once with a message, one other time and shot out one email. That's it - never contacted them again. If someone really dug in they probably would have squeezed out a few more.

So here are my stats - 102 leads received, 4 closed for Assurant. I also did some state deals - really don't want to count those.

Now - we have two camps. One camp would say that's fine - 1 out of 25 and I'm making a profit. Even if I paid for them at $8 a pop X 102 = $816 and I probably averaged $650 commish X 4 deals = $2,600 - $816 = $1,784.

Then there's my camp and hopefully this post accentuates the problem most agents have with shared leads - volume. I like to close 4 to 6 deals per week - 4 minimum. That means I'd need 100 leads a week.

Raise your hand if you're getting 100 leads a week. Ok - now we know why most agents can't make a great living on these things - you need an insane amount per week. And even if you got 100 a week you're still only netting $1,700 or so after expenses and with $800 a week in expenses most agents don't have the cash to pay for 100 leads a week for 4 to 6 weeks before steady commissions start coming in.

Heaven forbid you're going as-earned. 4 to 5 deals a week off shared leads? Ok, $800 a week in lead costs X 6 months = ....well you only need around 20K. And now we start to see why we have such an incredibally high failure rate on shared leads.

Most agents I know are lucky to get 20 a week. I don't know many getting 30 or 40 but even if you are that's still only 1 to 3 deals per week - after leads expenses = squat. That's also assuming a 100% placement - which most agents don't have.

Summary? They are not bad as a small supplement to other marketing activities. In fact, I have a 54 lead credit so as long as I keep selling and they keep giving me free leads then why sould I cancel the program. Just note that those 4 deals and 100 leads are spread out over a 5 week period of time. So unless I think I can live off 4 deals in 5 weeks I'd better have some other lead sources.

Ok, I screwed off today

I guess it's "do as I say not as I do." What I did today is the kiss of death to most people who try to work from home. My wife wanted me to come with her to get her watch - which was at the jewelry repair place at the mall. Then of course, we had to eat lunch. On the way home we might as well stop off at some food stores, blah blah blah.

Another shining example of how much more effective I'd be in a physical location with other agents around. Oh well, back hard at it tomorrow.

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Pick a system that suits your style

More and more emails and again, most with the same common theme; new agents trying to figure out what to do. What you're going to find is you simply need to choose a method of lead generation that fits your personality and something you'll actually do.

There is no wrong system. The wrong system is the system that doesn't make you money. The wrong system is a system you don't enjoy therefore don't do leaving you sitting in your house all day talking about how everything will change...."tomorrow." There is no tomorrow in this business - only today. This "I'll pick up the phone tomorrow" mentality is just a stall tactic.

Ways to get prospects:
*Buy share leads
*Pick up the phone and telemarket small biz owners
*Hire a telemarketer
*Go business to business
*Get local; network groups, chamber of commerce, ads, seminars, etc...

The bottom line is especially when you're new at least 70% of your day should be lead generation activities and you need at least 10 new contacts to call each day. If you're calling any lead, be it shared or telemarketed closing percentages are around 1 out of 20.

So if you're only working 20 leads a week you'll have between zero to 1 deal. If you're new there should not be a time during your day, unless you're on an appointment, when you're not employing one of those five things listed above to get leads.

When to pull the plug?
*Shared leads - you don't have any money - can't buy leads, or you already bought leads and they don't work for you
*Telemarket - You get nervous just thinking about telemarketing. Every time you tell yourself you'll do it, it never actually happens
*Hire a telemarketer - see above; no money or you simply don't want to deal with hiring and managing a telemarketer
*Going B to B - your area is too small or you would never just walk into a business cold
*Get local - no money for ads, really don't want to join social groups
*No passion - no desire to sell health insurance. If your brother-in-law offered you $800 a week base to sell alarm systems you'd start tomorrow. You'd sell health "part-time."

Ok, so you're basically not going to generate prospects yet somehow you'll get business through osmosis. This is when it's time to keep it real - the Sunday paper comes out in 5 days. Don't torture yourself or your family.

Chamber starts paying off

I got my 1st client today from the chamber of commerce. He owns a flooring and tile store about 15 minutes from me. This was not gonna be attempted on the phone since he has four other people there who were also interested. I had an 8:30am appointment with the owner then the employees at 9:30.

So I signed him up - he's pending since he's on meds. At 9:30 I spoke to his employees - one of which is his girlfriend so I signed her up and that went instant active. She was amazed when we printed off her insurance cards right in the store.

One other employee worked in the warehouse part-time but has a 6 year old - no coverage. He doesn't make enough to get himself covered but his daughter qualifies for free coverage through MCHIP since he makes less than 250% of FPL. I printed out the MCHIP app and obviously he was thrilled to find out his daughter can get free coverage.

Another employee is on her husband's plan, however $160 a week is taken out of his weekly check and it's killing them. That's $640 a month and he said her husband doesn't make much, but she has COPD and smokes. Turns out after she called her husband, he gets free coverage - it's adding the family the triggers the $640 a month rate.

She can get the state plan for $220, the daughter can get her own plan for around $80 and the husband is left primary on his group for no cost. That's a $340 a month savings! She was stunned and literally said "Where in the hell around you supposed to find out about this bullshit!" lol. She's a trip - had everyone laughing. Of course, no one finds out about stuff like this.

One small hurdle is when the husband can drop his wife and daughter from his plan. He's checking with his benefits department today. Referrals? Everyone wanted a ton of cards - the wife on group coverage said her brother's in the same boat - paying $600+ for family coverage so she gave me his number.

Of course, I could have just signed the husband up over the phone. Then erase this entire post after the owner's one app. Not to say I don't sign people up over the phone, but know when it's time to see people.

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