Using desktop sharing for presentations

As you all know, I do a mix of in-person and online. Most of my sales are online - about 80% and I've used a lot of different methods but the desktop sharing is my favorite.

First of all, I don't believe in going over rates with people who are not yet qualified. It's pointless if they are no where close to be in the right place in time to sign up.

Qualify first. Ascertain the level of interest. Make sure you can help their situation and that they want help.

My line is "what are you looking to change, your rate or your benefits?"

It's an ugly question to ask since 90% of the response is "nothing, I'm happy with what I have." Worse yet is not qualifying people with no current coverage. You might be thrilled to show that family of 4 a $280 rate but it's $280 a month more than they paid last month.

For the uninsured the question is "when did you want coverage to begin?" The answer most of the time is "well, right now I'm just looking."

Fine - none of that bothers me. I'd rather be blown off then stroked along. Tell me now that you're not interested, not after our 4th call. Some agents get ticked when they get bottom-lined on the first call. To me those are the people I don't have to waste time with.

So, now I've ascertained interest and found someone who's bitching about their plan or rate. Now it's info collecting time:

• what carrier do they current have
• what's their current rate
• how often do they see their doctor
• what's the medical history
• height and weight
  

I'm always surprised when agents put the cart before the horse; go off quoting rates and showing plans - then come to find out they're overweight with high cholesterol.

No auto agent can quote true rates without knowing about tickets, accidents and DUI's.

Ok, while I'm asking them the qualification questions I have my browser up and am running quotes. I need to know if I can help.

If I can improve their situation I'll give them a range of quotes since I'm going to eventually compare a few plans. So I'll say:

"Ok, you're currently paying $740. From what I'm looking at you can save between $210 and $280 a month depending on which plan you choose."

I like putting it in terms of savings rather than rates. I think "you can save $260 per month" has more impact then "I can get you $560."

Once they express interest that the savings are good enough to move on my line is:

"...it's your choice. I can either sit down with and go over your options, then you can choose a plan and I can take care of the application or we can do it online which takes about 15 minutes."

Most will say "Online." If they say they'd like to do it online I'll ask if they have 15 minutes now. If not, then I set up a time for an online meeting.

For the meeting, I punch into Zoho and set up the conference - I then send the invite with time to log in. When I call my prospect I just tell them to click on the link and log in.

When desktop sharing is activated I take them to my website's quote page. I already know the carrier I'm gonna recommend so I run quotes while they watch.

There's a "coolness" factor to this since most people don't know desktop sharing exists. It's also engaging for them to see the quotes and plans and you control the presentation.

Instead of telling them to "click on this" and "click on that" I can do side-by-side plan comparisons for them.

After they choose a plan I can start the broker assisted app and they can watch me fill out the application. This really alleviates the boredom clients have to go through as the agent asks them 10 minutes+ worth of information - now my clients get to follow along.

I think it also gives a lot of legitimacy to the billing section since you don't have to just ask for billing info - they see the page and the info you need.

If you haven't tried the live desktop feature - punch into Zoho and try it out.