Phone sales - recording needed

Dealing with yet another client who was lied to on the phone it occurs to me that this needs to be tracked.

The lady I signed up yesterday on Carefirst bought GR over the phone - she told her agent she wanted maternity, agent said it was included. Yeah...except GR doesn't offer maternity in MD. Luckly she's on another plan now however if she had become pregnant it would just become a case of "he said she said" and she'd be ass out.

Then it hits me that almost every time a sales rep calls you the conversation is recorded "for quality assurance." Now I know this would be difficult, but I'd like nothing better than if it was made mandatory by either the DOI or all insurance companies that all phone sales be recorded.

You would have to introduce yourself and state the call is being recorded. If any dispute arises you'd have to produce the recorded conversation or your license would be immediately suspended - kinda like declining to take the breathalizer. Better yet - the insurance company immediately gets the recording after each sale. If a client calls into an insurance company those calls are obviously recorded. When I used to do "tele-app" with Assurant all calls were recorded.

I'm not saying you'd need to record every conversation with the client - only the conversation during the online application process. So say you're talking to a prospect and they say "Ok, let's do it." At that point in time you'd have to say "Ok, I can take care of the application process now and we'll now be recorded for quality assurance."

You would then be required to go over the rate and plan benefits. How many sales would an ethical rep lose? None and in fact some clients would feel an addition layer of safety knowing that what they're being told about the plan is recorded. Unethical agents? The day after recording became mandatory they'd be looking in the classified section.

For what it's worth, I'll be writing a letter recommending this to the NAIC. As online sales increase, and more people get screwed, our entire industry is put in jeopardy. This is gonna be an example where the few bad applies ruin it for everyone else.

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Just unbelievable

1st:

I closed the case from yesterday where she was on GR for $450 and needed maternity - she also complained about the $1,500 deductible - thought it was too high. So I put the wife on Blue Choice today for $277 - HMO with all copays and immediate maternity and her husband and child got Personal Comp for $153. So they didn't save much but she has maternity with and a no deductible plan. Assurant w/maternity was a no-go due to cost.

2nd:

Got 12 leads yesterday and it only took 20 minutes to call 'em. Got one great prospect out of it - owner of a small car dealer. The owner wants quotes and also quotes for three employees. They currently offer nothing and the owner canceled his Blue Cross plan last year when it hit $700 a month. Perfectly healthy family. Please note that out of 12 leads called that was my only possibility. A lot of my day was spent on a referral - closing her tomorrow for GR.

3rd:

30 leads today between Jenn and Lisa! Lisa's finally up and running and gave me 5 1/2 hours of work today. Wow - never in my short 4 years in this biz have I never had consistent leads like this. The result is night and day - I'm am simply getting slammed all day.

It does not take a lot of deals to make money. At an average commish of $800 (cut that in half if you're dealing with singles on internet leads) all I need is 4 deals a week and that's a lot of money.

My goal is what I just got today - 30 leads a day and plan on closing 1 out of 30. Why such a bad percentage? At 30 leads a day I simply won't have time to be on the phone hours a day hunting people down. I'll deal with the people who answer, call the others back one more time then I have to let Constant Contact take care of 'em.

My cost per lead is $4.60. At 30 leads a day, closing 1 out of 30 here it is:

150 leads per week X 4.60 = $690 5 deals per week X $3,500 AV per deal = $17,500 20% average commish = $3,500 Net = $2,810

If I can make $146,000 a year simply by spending 1 out hour each day calling 30 leads I'm all over it. I'm not factoring in cross-selling Fidelity.

Now...remember that math above because I didn't factor in a HUGE change - which is now that Lisa's up and running I'll be having her use Gary's CRM system for telemarketing which will TRIPLE her lead output!

Now - when that happens I have a master plan. If I have Lisa and Jenn using the marketing CRM and getting me 50+ leads a day I'll hire someone to "scrub" the leads. She'd spend the day calling all the leads and separating the interesting from the disinterested. She'd also handle all the emailing.

Leads - the reality

More and more "so what am I doing wrong" emails so I decided to post the results of the 31 calls I made this morning. They were all recent - had not been called before.

So let's go over this so everyone understands that you're not doing anything wrong and it's just about lead volume.

*I made 31 calls in an hour - between 10:10 and 11:10 this morning.

*9 call-backs since the prospect wasn't available, 8 voicemail, 12 dead and two great prospects.

*So out of 31 calls I spoke with 14 people who made the decision. Almost all had group and wanted lower rates and I simply don't mess with group. They got referred out to my buddy. (Yes, I took a stab at working some small group cases myself but found I'm not a masochist.) I have yet to get ahold of the other 17 but this was only the 1st call.

*I enjoy dialing numbers and when least half pick up the phone. It doesn't bother me in the least if they have group and just want some group quotes - that's an easy referral for my buddy.

Now let's talk about qualification and more about why marketers shouldn't do it. They are paid by the hour so what's it to me if I make an hour of calls and find two solid leads. I could easily call 30 leads a day every day since it just takes an hour.

I have a slam dunk in there - biz owner on GR and her "agent" failed to mention her depression would not be covered. He also talked her into a $1,500 deductible - $450/mo. rate she can't handle. So it's easy; lower rate and depression meds covered. Not a problem.

However, she was HORRIBLE when I first called her - very stand-offish and borderline rude. She said "I thought I was supposed to read over some information first." I told her I wanted to make sure the info matched what she was looking for. It took a few minutes for her to warm up and open up to me. If Lisa would have tried to qualify her that would never have been a lead.

The other point is I had 31 leads to call. A lot of agents don't get that in a week - then you're simply sunk. As you can see, I have 2 deals working, but only one immediately. The other, although she has high interest, won't go until after Thanksgiving.

Now if that's all I had to work with all week I'd be baked. Now I'd have to pummel the phones to get ahold of the others (I'll call again, but only 1 more time) and I'd also really have to dig into the other leads who simply weren't interested.

Instead, forget about them - move one. I'll have another batch of leads to call tomorrow and that's why I enjoy this job. I get to work with people who have high interest and not punish the people who don't.

There's no magic bullet. If you don't have the volume of leads it ain't happening. You can read all the sales books you want. If anyone has found a way to turn someone with no interest into a client please email me with your magical words.

Can all this work with profit?

Cost per lead = $4

Close 1 out of 30 = $120 cost per deal

Average commish = $1,000

Net = $880

So 30 leads a day would net $4,400. Even at half that commish - $500 per deal - it would net $2,200.

You can run that same math with internet leads and it also works. However, the twist with shared leads is 30 calls is only 3 to 5 people answering - not half like telemarketed. So now you really need tremedous follow-up and at 30 leads a day you'd be completely lost inside of 2 weeks. High volume really only works well with exclusive leads.

Got paid by Fidelity!

It's been a long time since I've earned a life commission but it feels great. An agent buddy of mine said I should be cross-selling 25% of my health clients. I agree.

I gave life a big push in 2005. Disaster. I find the underwriting process to be insane. Although I got cases through I pulled the plug when I wrote a heath and life app the same day - health got approved, life exam came back with high cholesterol and border-line high blood pressure.

Of course, my client dove into his doctor's office and was put on a med. So the life app was killed and take a shot and what happened to the health app after a claim was filed? Although that might be a rare scenario I'm not chancing that again.

So I'm writing the Fidelity non-med product and telling all my clients that after a year we'll review it. The last case I wrote was $38 a month and they could have got $22 with an exam. They can suck up the $16 for a year.

Not only that, but it's not like I'm hiding anything from my clients. I tell all of 'em "you choose - $38 and no exam or possibly $22 with the exam." If I run into a client who just had a complete physical - already knows HBP and cholesterol numbers and doesn't mind the exam then I'd go for Banner.

A little about my system

First, 12 more leads yesterday which is fantastic. Lisa finally gets her internet hooked up tomorrow which means Jenn and Lisa putting in at least 30 hours a week combined.

Before I get into my system I want everyone to realize that this is something that simply suits me. What you'll find is you won't stick to any system that doesn't fit your personality.

Everyone should be focused on results - not closing ratios, lead sources, online sales vs. in-person, etc...Basically, if it's no broken don't fix it. If you're making great money off shared leads and online sales don't change a thing.

SYSTEM:

STEP 1:
The morning after I get my leads, around 10am I start the calls. At this point I haven't sent any info by email. When they answer I simply introduce myself and tell them I'm about to email them the newest health plans but I want to make sure I'm sending plans they're interested in:

"....I'm about to email you the newest health plans on the market but I'm pretty sure you don't want to look at 50 plans. I know you're busy and I'd rather just send the plans that fit what you're looking for."

This is either going to open up a conversation or:

A: "You really caught me at a bad time. Could you call me back in say, next August?"
B: "Just send me what you have and I'll look over it and get back to you."

In either case, I read the tone of what they say. I can tell when they're actually busy, but still interested and when I'm getting the blow off. If they're disinterested I'll shoot them out an email but mark the lead dead. They got into Constant Contact for monthly follow-ups.

For the people who actually are willing to discuss what they have and what they're looking for, I can't get too much info; current rate, health status, current doctors, etc...Then I leave them with:

"Ok, I'm going to email some plans for you to review but it'll take around a day to get the rates together, then I'll call you tomorrow and let you know if you can save any money."

This gives me time to contact underwriting and find out the scoop on their conditions - very few people have no pre-ex conditions going back 7 to 10 years. In fact, when some 52 year old tell me he doesn't have anything pre-ex, that's when I start digging. A simply question does it "So you've never seen a doctor in the past 7 years?" which elicits "Oh, well I had some chest pains recently so I went in for a stress test but my doctor told me..." - yeah....no shit.

STEP 2:

I call back the next day and let them know the scoop - whether it's them being better off staying put, telling them I can only saving them $50 or so a month, or if I can save them a significant amount of money.

If I can't save them much, I'll just say thank you and if they know anyone looking for coverage just let me know. They'll also get a letter shot out to them with my card. If they were interested enough to give me all their info, their situation could change in the future.

For the people who I can save a decent amount of money:

"Ok, you're paying $680 a month now. I have plans that can save you between $200 to $300 per month depending on what you choose. What I'd like to do is set up a time when I can sit down with you (and your husband if spouse is in the picture) and show you your options.

Just to let you know how this works. There are no fees involved. Once you choose a plan your application simply goes into underwriting, which normally takes a few days. I've also already researched your doctors and they accept all the plans I'll be showing. I need about 30 minutes so what's a good time for us to meet?

A few points:

1) It's important to tell people there's no fees. They have no idea how we're paid and they might think they'll be hit with fees when you meet. If you're doing online sales they might think there are hidden fees if they do an app.

2) I always let people know how long it'll take. I think that's important for both phone and in-person sales. If they think it's gonna take more than an hour that could be a reason for people not picking up the phone for a phone sale or failing to set an in-person meeting. I'm not a "pet the dog" and "Wow!!! What a nice house!" guy. 15 minutes going over plans and rates, 10 minutes for the app and I'm history.

3) I violate a HUGE sales rule by not giving them dates or times to choose from: "I have tomorrow at 1pm or Thursday at 10. Which is better for you?" The reason is I'm looking for level of interest. I just told them that in 30 minutes I can save them at least $200. If they come back with "oh...wow. This week it out. And next week I have to wash my cat. How 'bout the week after that?" Forget it. Next lead.

And that's it. 2 steps. I'm not a big fan of waking up every day and wasting time trying to talk to people who are avoiding me. This is why when I get a hold of a prospect it's either they display interest or they don't. If they're interested by legitimately busy they generally say:

"You caught me at a very bad time but I'd like to talk to you. Can you give me a call back in an hour?" But when they just say "It's a bad time" and leave it like that I'll ask if there's a better time to call back. When it's "I don't know, it's a rough week" then just leave them be.

I also always call and confirm the appointment the day before and also never set appointments more than 1 week out. When I call to confirm I think it's weak to basically say "Hey, just reminding you that I'm coming." Instead, I call to confirm Mapquest directions - which has proven very helpful since a lot of times they give me a quicker way.

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The holiday push

While you'll continue to write business through to the new year you'll definitely have some short weeks coming up. I'm in "push mode" now until the new year. Next week we're obviously gonna lose Thusday and arguably Friday.

Next Month Christmas falls on a Tuesday so you can almost forget about Monday also. People's heads will be back in the game on Thursday but that following Monday is New Year's Eve - then kill Tusday for New Year's day.

The bottom line is beef up the sales. It's also important to close people when you can. This doesn't mean you have to put a ton of pressure on people but it does mean people are going to get very easily distracted by next week and call-back's are gonna get real tough. You'll need to create some sense of urgency of some people won't understand why they just can't wait until January.

If you're looking for legitimate ethical ways to create legitimacy it's rate changes and health. If you qualify for lower rates now then "you're one accident or illness away" from being trapped on your current plan. All rates are suject to change and do in fact change.

So when you're on the phone with an interested and qualifed prospect I'd suggest you make your sales process as quick as possible. The "call me back" people will be near impossible to get ahold of again.

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