Friday, January 18, 2008

CRM installed!

Just got off the phone with Gary's tech support and I'm ready to go! Now, not like I'm the world's biggest fan of making calls but again, in 2008 it's all self-generated leads. After talking to a lot of established agency owners I just don't see a reason for pay for leads. But you also have to do what works for you at the same time.

Although I'm not a fan of making calls I'm also not a fan of B to B. I do it because it works. But I know myself and once I get going I can really get into it. Getting into my car for B to B is 90% of the battle for me. Once I'm at my location my brain shifts to being productive and trying to get as many leads as possible.

Same with telemarketing - 90% of the battle for me is picking up the phone and dialing for first number. I think Gary's auto-dialing system is gonna solve a lot of problems:

  • I don't have the daunting task anymore of manually dialing where I have to always psych myself into making the next call. Now I dial into a server and I'm on auto pilot.
  • It's obviously more effective. I'm used to hand-dialing 50 numbers per hour, speaking to 10 or so owners and generating around 3 leads. Closing 1 out of 15 means 5 hours on the phone but I'm baked after 2 hours. So in the past that's meant 2 1/2 days of calls to get a deal.
  • Now this system will be dialing 120 or so number per hour and my results will more than double. Mentally that gets me more in the game since the outcome is more noticeable
  • I can't leave messages when I hand-dial; total waste of time. But now messages are left while the system continues to dial. That's the "X" factor and I'll find out those results next week.
  • I'm a tracking geek. I love spreadsheets and figuring out ratios. For hand dialing it's a pad of paper and pen. However, this spits out cool reports so I can track everything.
So starting Monday I'll be using this and posting the results. Stay tuned.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

John,
I enjoy your blog. I had Gary's techs install/re-install my CRM. I am still going to hire telemarketers to do my calls. My thinking is if I can just make one more sale a week I can pay for the CRM and the telemarketers.

I agree with you I am also shooting for $1,000,000 this year, did about $800,000 last year. I wrote 5 this week for $25,000 Assurant/GR/BCBS

Anonymous said...

John,

You said earlier that you stopped using telemarketers (ie. Lisa) because you would run out of businesses close to you. Did I read that wrong?

If so, with Gary's system, won't you have the same issue - only sooner?

Rick

info@marylandquotes.com said...

I'd have that issue if it was my sole source of marketing but it's not. I'll be doing many things; BtoB and local events.

In winter local events are few and far between. In the spring however I plan on being out and about a lot so I won't be on the phones as often.

Also, let's not fool ourselves. I not gonna be out B to B when it's freezing and nasty. Just ain't gonna happen.