Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Working 9 to 5

Well, one of my 1st legitimate days where I worked the full day. Very satisfying. I hopped on the dialer at 9:15 today since I knew I need time to do my call-backs and get in 3 hours on the dialer.
I got in just over three....had to go that extra 10 minutes to get my 30th lead. I just couldn't leave it at 28 (the report shows 28 but I got 30.)



I did call-backs from yesterday's leads and I'll go over some things:

  • 2/3rds of people saying "send it" are secretaries. I generated 30 leads today and 12 from owners. Most owners who answer have group and I simply don't deal with group.
  • When I called everyone back from yesterday I came to find it's a waste of time to call the secretaries back. All of them from yesterday just blew me off with "yep, got the fax.....see ya." The same gatekeeper who wouldn't let me pass yesterday obviously are not gonna let me pass today - and a few were a bit miffed I called back today. I won't be calling gatekeepers back anymore.
  • I set three firm appointments today from yesterday's leads....but from the owners I knew I already had interest. As I'm making the calls I run into those owners with natural interest. Those are the rare "I'd love to see what you have - please send it. My rate's blah blah..."
So basically what this is all coming down to is this method is simply a way for me to have an easy time on the phone so I can stay on the phone long enough to find the people with natural interest. Works for me.

Another item to note - enthusiasm. You need it. I was doing well on the dialer for just coming up on 2 hours, then my tone started to drop. I was getting a bit burnt and wanted to ride it out until I hit the 2 hour mark.

Interesting to note that when your tone drops so do the leads. Later today I grabbed another cup of coffee (nice psychological boost) and hopped back on to try a little experiment. I called for about 20 minutes with a pretty flat "lifeless" voice and just read the script. Nothing - nodda. No leads. I could physically feel how uncomfortable people were.

Then I got back into a strong, firm but happy voice and started pounding them out again. Lesson? This is nothing were you can just put in your time. You need to be into it and believe in your script. You need to be upbeat and change the tone of your voice to keep interest.

But again, a solid full day today and I'm already seeing that it's gonna take full days to punch out a deal a day. That's fine and I need to create a habit or working all day.



This is not easy - it's hard. If it was easy the average commish wouldn't be $700 - three a week is six figs and we all know how many agents are making six figs.

Here are some unfortunate facts:
  • Most people are not gonna switch no matter what the rate is. They are "security" people and would rather keep their high rate on the plan they trust.
  • Most people don't qualify for indie plans. They have either too many health conditions or are undergoing some type of treatment.
  • You can't better most people's situations. Although the media falsely reports that there's a health insurance crisis nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is almost everyone is perfectly happy with what they have.
So who are we looking for?
  1. Someone with current coverage
  2. Someone who's unhappy enough with their current plan to switch immediately
  3. Someone who qualifies
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a very very small percentage of your market. That's not meant to be a downer - just a reality check.

I have no problem just busting my ass all day if it results in 5 deals a week. That's a crap load of money. I'm actually very excited.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

John:

Now I'm confused. Are you following up with those who agreed to receive a fax?

Rick

info@marylandquotes.com said...

Not with the gatekeepers. Remember, I ask for the owner and only pitch the gatekeeper when she won't let me through.

From what I've seen, calling the gatekeepers back it a complete waste. I'm calling the owners back.

Brad said...

So if the gatekeeper won't let you through when you follow up the fax the next day you just say, "okay goodbye???"

info@marylandquotes.com said...

Yep. My time and mental energy is best spent with the people who want to use my services - not hunting people down who are trying to avoid me.