A great past week

I had one of the best weeks since I've been in the biz. No - not pay-wise but just attitude. I closed both of my appointments yesterday - both in-person and although I've already known it all along I'm simply more positive and enjoy it much better when I meet with my clients. It's not right, it's not wrong, it's me. It's what I enjoy doing. All of my leads are local, all of my appt's are local, they know I'm coming to write an app, they're already qualified, and I confirm all appointments. I do not run 10 to close 5. I run 5 to close 5.

I would never have closed my 1st app't over the phone; family of five - own a real estate appraisal company - got suckered into Mega. The husband's attitude was "fool me once...." It was an hour and a half appointment and I was grilled. 20 minutes there, 1 1/2 hour app't, 20 minutes back. Waste of time? $1,700 commish - I'm happy. Second app't I could have closed on the phone but 10 minutes away, 25 minutes in her house and I had a better time.

Lisa amazed me last week. First of all she's in the process of moving and technically wasn't supposed to start until Nov. 1st, but told me she'd give me what she could this past week. She worked 6.25 hours and got 31 leads for a cost per lead of $2.41. Lord, I could buy her a car and make the payments and I'd never get to a shared lead price of $8 per lead. I have 3 appointments set from those leads and haven't even called Thursday or Friday's leads yet. Yep - she worked yesterday even though I told her not to worry about it because of her kid's doctor appointment.

Next week she's gonna demo Gary's system and I'm expecting fantastic results. I'll let you know how it all goes. Still swamped in resumes which I'm going to get to next week since I want one more marketer.

What a pleasant change

After getting my ass kicked on the workforce exchange idea it's nice to see the tables turn. I've had home-based marketers working for me for over a year but the headaches involved have always very time-consuming.

This is where things like the chamber of commerce have proven to provide intangible benefits - like getting with other owners who have successful programs in place and don't mind sharing - especially if you're not a competitor. A lot of small biz owners employ telemarketing as a way to gain business.

What I have to learn is to start taking advice from people who are where I'd like to be. I'd like to be making $5,000+ a week (net) with a nice close-knit group of employees.

The W2 idea was something I once considered, but figured it would be a huge PITA, expensive and not provide better results. Wrong.

First of all I followed advice to post a real ad - not craigslist. Done. http://www.workbaltimore.com/seeker/posting/view/117661 Already the type of resumes I'm getting is night and day. I have no idea who to call back - most of them are already working telemarketing jobs at a call center - now they see they can do the same from home and have benefits. The last resume I got; 3 years working 4 hrs a day at a call center for a mortgage company. She's currently making $10/hr with health bene's but has a 30 minute commute to work. I'm getting hammered with resumes - 40+ so far.

Lisa, my current marketer told me yesterday she has to take her daughter to the doctor's today but "don't worry, I'll still be able to work my 2 hours." Wow. I actually told her not to worry about it and take the day off. Just the fact that we had that conversation is night and day from the 1099 mentality.

So what's this all cost? When you 1099 them it's costing a lot - high turn-over, lacking candidates to choose from, cannot control their hours, no benefits tying them to the job. The savvy ones know they're responsible for their own taxes and don't want to mess with it. The other ones have no idea they have to file quarterly then file the 1040, schedule C and SE - but it'll be a nice surprise for them come tax time.

So what's this really cost? They're on a 2 week 1099 trial period to make sure they work out before I make them an employee. Worker's comp is a joke - $180 a year. Workers comp rates are based on their pay and type of job.

Withholdings aren't that much. One marketer working 20 hrs a week @ $12hr = $240 gross, $214 net if they're claiming 1 which is $26 in withholding.

So what about the paycheck/stub nightmare? I have a Bank of America biz account and they do it for me. I enter in the hours, BOA does everything else and cranks out the check/stub for me. The IRS forms I have to file are online - relatively easy. Not bad.

Oh well, off to two appointments today.

Another great day for Lisa

Another great day for my telemarketer - 11 leads, 2 hours. I also ended up setting 3 appointments from the 1st batch of leads she gave me.

I've had emails wondering how she's getting so many leads. Simple, she's dialing 55 numbers per hour on average - only waits 5 rings and moves onto the next call, doesn't get wrapped up in conversations with people and doesn't qualify.

I'd have agents disagree with me about qualification - they only want qualified leads. That's fine - you'll just get less. I want an opportunity to talk to anyone who's interested enough to want to see health insurance plans.

There's a theory that if they're not interested enough to give the maketer all their info; health, ages, current plan, etc...they have no interest. Wrong. Very sharp stand-offish owners are not going to cough up that info to a telemarketer. They'll cough it up to me though.

I guarantee you I can do a better job qualifying and warming people up then my marketers. All I'm looking for is interest and that they know I'm calling.

Wow - fantastic system!

Although I don't post on the insurance forum any more I still read it - some valuable gems of info from time to time. I saw the post on the new telemarketing system and called Gary - glad I did. Let's cover this first - I'm not a shill. I get nothing for posting this. I just find this system simply fantastic.

Ok, let's get the right mind set. Say you're buying $8 shared leads and they're working just fine for you. Your lead company calls you and says they'll sell you 100 more leads a month for $4 per lead.

So, what's your reaction? I'd guess it would be "that's great!" But I'd reply "What??? Have you lost your mind - that's $400 per month you're spending!" My point is, for more leads you're gonna spend more money but if your average lead price goes down that's a great deal.

This is the first system I've seen designed for home-based telemarketing. You can use it to make calls yourself or your marketer can use it. Let's go through my marketer's system:

*Pick up the phone, physically dial numbers - about 40 per hour

*Most go to voicemail, a few dead numbers and you speak to around 30%

*Leaving messages is not cost effective - you really need to keep dialing

This system by Marketing Campaign Solutions solves anything negative associated with telemarketing. Gary did a live demo for me this morning and I was stunned.

So what it is? As you see in the screenshot, it's software. You dial into a main number and the system dials three numbers at a time. If it hits a machine it leaves a message you create! Now - while it's leaving a message it also continues to dial. When someone answers it stops calling and you have all the contact info in front of you. There is no delay. When the person says "hello" you already see their name.

So now there's no more physically dialing numbers and you basically spend the entire time on the phone with prospects. It literally triples the number of people you talk to thereby tripling the amount of leads. If you normally get 2, now it's 6. You normally get 4? Now it's 12.

It shows any caller ID you want. For me that's priceless since I have an out of state telemarketers. Now it can show my caller ID. It runs reports - so now I know how many callers were made and how long my marketer was on the system.

Guys....this is a HUGE deal! One of the worst problems when hiring marketers is not knowing exactly how long they're working or how many numbers they dialed. Someone could say "well, not much today - called for 2 hours and got 1 lead." Not with this. With this you run the report: "Ummmm, you logged in for 20 minutes - that's it."

It also solves a HUGE psychological problem which is always having to dial that next number - instead of, for example, getting a snack and a drink. Then you have to "re-psych" yourself to get going again. However, this system gets you in a groove - you simply talk to people the entire hour.

Because of this there will be far less turn-over with telemarketers. I told my top marketer about this today and she wants to know when it starts.

Cost. It's around $55o per month with data or less if you have your own data. Is that expensive? Not if you look at ROI it's not. It's one deal a month and it's paid for. So the question for me was simple; will this get me one extra deal per month?

Let's do the math and see:

Currently:

$12/hr - marketers currently averaging 3 leads per hour

Cost per lead = $4

Number of leads - around 10 a day

I need two girls each working 2 hours a day because physically dialing after 2 hours is a PITA.

With this sytem:

$12/hr - marketer will average 9 leads per hour

Cost per lead - (factoring in the $550) $2.90

Number of leads per day - 36

(Note - on this system I won't need two marketers each calling 2 hrs - I'll have 1 calling 4)

X factor: This is all the message that are left. Anyone who calls back is icing on the cake

So let's figure in the BS factor and say I'd be getting 15 extra leads per day. I close 1 out of 15 so that's an extra 25 deals per month. If I got just 5 extra leads per day that's 5 extra deals per month.

So even at what I'd consider to be the worst case scenario at $800 per deal that's $4,000 extra per month with this system. The reality for me is my pay will more than double, I'll keep marketers around much longer, and it will be extremely easy to re-hire and get new ones off the ground.

If you're not using marketers and making your own calls it's almost a must-have. This turns three hours of calling into one. That is insane. Not only does it keep your attitude up since you're talking to people non-stop but now you actually have time to generate enough leads to make sales and have time to run appointments.

If you can to contact them go here: http://marketingcampaignsolutions.com/Home_Page.html

Telemarketed vs shared - let's do the analysis

I got licensed in Oct of 2003 - four years in the biz. I started buying shared leads in Feb of '04 and ditched them around June of '06 when the quality went in the crapper. Since then I always had one or two marketers generating leads and also did the doorhanger and B to B thing as a supplement. Bottom line is I have good experience with shared leads and good experience with telemarketed.

Let's solve this first - how telemarketed leads can be absolutely horrible:

1) Having the marketer qualify prospects - will result in a very low amount of leads
2) Marketer is lazy, only dials 20 or so number an hour generating very low volume
3) Marketer is simply putting down info of prospects who never requested quotes
4) Marketer is heavy-handed. Prospect says they're happy where they are, marketer persists
5) Marketer is talking to gatekeepers who say "sure, send the info" yet the owner has no clue
6) Marketer is simply not good; has a bad speaking voice, is not upbeat, does not have a great attitude - is not sold on your business nor does she care

All of that can be solved by simply staying on top of the leads. It's not perfect and you'll have bad marketers. When I find one I catch it in a day and they're history.

I had an appointment today, got the deal, didn't get back to start calling Lisa's leads from yesterday until the afternoon, which is late. Everything in blue was me talking to the owner - spoke with 4 out of 12. Set one appointment - they're on Right Start and hate it. All of the other three want me to run rates and I have times to call back. All were pleasant (funny how that works when they're not called by 4 other agents)

4 more answered the phone but they're gatekeepers who told me the owner wasn't in. Got to talk to all the gatekeepers - also nice and went over what kind of health plans - or lack there of - they have. It's simply pleasant to pick up the phone, dial 12 numbers and have 8 answer. That one appointment for Monday is a lay-down - they had no clue as to how the Right Start worked....they just found out. Not impressed. These calls are especially easy since Bowie is the next town over. Calling local is a huge advantage.

Now....onto my shared lead sheet from this Assurant program. Hmmmm......no blue, no green. That would be because I've called all those number and got 100% voicemail - zero, zilch, nodda. I also called every one of them minutes after I got the leads - today I called all of those back. Zero, zilch, nodda. All voicemail. I do not pay for these - as of now they're free. But what kind of business person pays money for people who do not want to, nor have agreed to be called. I will pay for internet leads again as soon as a prominent disclosure is made to people that agents will indeed be calling.

This is not to say I'll never contact any of them. What it does say is they suck. It's like pulling teeth. When you do reach them it's very much conveyed to you that you're the 2nd, 4th, 5th person who's called. You're a pest to them.

My telemarketed script states that I'll be calling to follow up. Prospects then get a chance to say (and do say it) "I'd really rather not have anyone call me." Fine - it's not a lead. How many shared leads do you think you'd get if people knew before they hit submit that you'd be calling. Dunno - about 80% less. Actually, the same amount - just without phone numbers.

Here's the irony; the agents who don't like telemarketing because they think it's "rude" don't mind being more rude by calling people who don't expect to be called and don't want to be called. So you're just as much of a A-hole when you're calling shared leads as cold-calling small biz owners. Do small biz owners really want marketers calling them? Nope. Do people really want 4 agents calling them?

So what's more of an interruption to your day, getting a call from a telemarketer, saying "no thank you" and that's it - or thinking you're gonna see a page of quotes and your phone lights up with 4 agents calling? How would you like to look at toy prices on Amazon then have K-Bee and ToysRus start hounding you?

Oh...but you say you do indeed get a hold of those shared leads who are truly happy you called. Ok, I get a hold of the telemarketed leads who are really happy I called.

So let's break it down:

Knows I'm calling
Shared - no
Telemarketed - yes

All leads are local
Shared - no
Telemarketed - yes

All leads are small biz owners
Shared - no
Telemarketed - yes

How many agents call
Shared - 3 to 5
Telemarketed - 1

Cost per lead
Shared - $6 to 8
Telemarketed $4 (that's my average)

Hassle
Shared - none. Slap down you credit card and the leads start coming
Telemarketed - a lot. You have to hire, manage and re-hire marketers

So it's up to me. I think the hassle of hiring and managing the marketers greatly outweighs dealing with shared leads. I didn't re-hire any marketers when my last good one left and just focused on generating my own business. I put out some ads, joined the chamber and called back old leads.

That has kept me alive for the last 2 or so months. But my old lists have been called, although the chamber gives me business it's sporatic and I no where near have the money available to do the type of advertising I want to do. So for me it's hands down back to having marketers call for me.

Found a great telemarketer!

Sometimes it's better to have an idea and just implement it without talking about theory and post the results. After talking to a lot of people I respect and some chamber of commerce owners I've become friends with I decided to hire telemarketers as W2 employees with benefits. I have had a great return from telemarketed leads but in all honesty dealing with the insane turn-0ver, hiring people who don't work, etc...is just a huge headache. I will never hire a telemarketing company since I need to be in daily direct control over what's going on.

Too many benefits of hiring them as employees to talk about and took this advice from a financial planner in the chamber who has at-home marketers on salary - one's been with him 4 years. As soon as I told him I hired them as independent contractors he laughed - guessed I had horrible turn-over and lacking performance. Bingo. When people don't have to work, then don't.

So I posted an ad over a week ago and immediately the quality of resumes was much better. Now I'm in the drivers seat during the interview process, can control their hours, and psychologically it's night and day. Most people (probably over 95%) simply do not work well on 1099 "work when you want to work" mentality.

So now this is a job for them not unlike getting up and going to work. The hours are set. You can't work the next day? You need to let me know first. They still need to hit minimum lead targets not unlike a group broker on salary who need to sign up a certain amount of lives per month. Yet on salary that broker goes to work and puts in 8 hours a day - something almost no independent agent does.

I also want to create much more of a family atmosphere. I want everyone to feel like they're a part of something. Each day will start off with a conference call and I have profit sharing plan in place so they have a stake in my success. If not, what would drive them to get more leads after the minimum is hit?

Well, I can already see the quality I'm getting. Lisa put in 2 hours day and got 12 leads. She's on 12 per hour so my leads today are $2 a piece! Because of the profit sharing plan she obviously didn't stop at the minimum. She also knew she had to work today - she's getting paid and it's her job. Just a huge shift in mind set. I also hired her out of 12 fantastic qualified resumes I got and she's who I considered to be the best. Plenty of experience, stay-at-home-mom, single with kids in school during the day - fantastic upbeat voice, amazing attitude. I almost never had people like her apply when it was 1099, no benefits.

Shoot me an email if you know where you can get leads for $2 a pop from small biz owners who know I'm calling to follow-up and no leads allowed from gate keepers. When all the dust settles Lisa will be making a lot of money but I guess the question is what's a great telemarketer worth to me.

FREE hit counter and Internet traffic statistics from freestats.com

Do the leads stink or do you stink

There's expression is sales; "there's no bad territory, just bad salesman." Well, maybe. If you've received 20 leads and called all 20 seconds after receiving them, shot out an immediate email and did proper follow up yet can't reach any of them then it's the leads that stink.

That being said, know when it's you and not the leads. I've been in sales for a while and we all know that negative rep where nothing's working for them. In home improvement sales they got all the crappy appointments - everyone had bad credit, no one wanted to buy. In car sales they got all the bad ups, all were flipped in trades, couldn't qualify, and were tire kickers.

The amazing that thing about these whiners is while they make nothing everyone around them is doing just fine. Mysteriously everyone else has the great leads and great prospects. Their lament is "I just need prospects who want to buy!" News flash, if everyone just wanted to buy then the insurance industry wouldn't need you. They'll just license people and pay 'em $12/hr to be order takers.

This doesn't mean you're supposed to close people who have no interest but it does mean you're supposed to close people who do. I've heard "I spoke with 16 people today and none of them were interested." That's highly problematic. What exactly are they not interest in - saving money? Getting an affordable plan? Or....are they not interested in you because you didn't give them anything to be interested about.

A fatal mistake is to talk about plans and rates on the 1st call. This is the time where you should be going over what you can do for them and try to relate. I pay for my own family plan and can relate to all of my prospects. What are they all scared of? That's easy - getting scammed. They're scared to trust you and if you don't build trust it's over. If you and your prospect do not get to know each other trying to close deals will be like pulling teeth. You'll make a lot of initial contacts but very few will want to talk to you again.

When you get off the phone do you know the spouse's first name? Kids? Ages of the kids? Do you know what they do for a living? If they run a business, for how long? All of this, by the way, isn't just chatter or "buttering up" - it's useful for recommending the right plan. It makes a difference if their son is 18 or 6 months. It makes a difference if the husband is a roofing contractor or writes computer software. Are they planning on moving? You'd surprised how many times I hear "yes, we're planning on moving next year." I might recommend another company or network.