Leads are the Secret to Success

Leads are the single greatest tool that an agent with Senior Life Insurance Company can have, especially when it comes to our Leads the Way app. The amount of success an agent will have is contingent upon one key factor that is overlooked constantly: Perception. The perception on how we view leads is a direct correlation to the outcome. Plain and simple, if you have no confidence in a lead then it will be highly unlikely that you will profit enough from it. You cannot live solely off of low hanging fruit.

Confidence does not come from the experience of winning, like most people think.  Confidence comes from knowing you can give your absolute best effort in any given moment. My goal is to help manage your expectations and perception on leads in a way that will give you more confidence in working leads. This is the secret sauce, the magic fairy dust.

First, we must understand the minds of our targeted market and why they respond to ads via the internet, TV commercials, and mailers. Nobody would ever respond to any advertisement unless there is a need and a problem to be solved. NOBODY. This is the first rule and you must believe this 100% without any doubt. 
There are only 3 reasons why someone would request information:
1- The prospect has no life insurance at all.
2- The prospect wants to compliment what they currently have.
3- The prospect would like to save money.

With that being said we must also understand that NOBODY really thinks that they will NOT get a call at all from someone like us (a sales person).  How they act and what they say is a different story.  The reality is that we must not allow what they say and how they act to throw us off. Let’s look at this analogy… When you walk into a shoe store, what normally happens?  You are greeted by a sales clerk and they ask us if they can help us. Our response 90+% of the time is “no thank you, I'm just looking”.  See the point?  We are programmed to say “no.” It has become part of our DNA.  What we must keep in mind is that their responses are just reactions to our approach. What I've also learned is that we must not react but we must respond in a way that makes them feel at ease and relaxed. 

Here are some common responses:
1- I already spoke to someone.
2- I already took care of this. or, I already have insurance. 
3- I’m not interested anymore.
4- I never called, responded to, or filled anything out. 
5- I wanted the information mailed to me. 

The list goes on. You must realize that these are just reactions. Remember in the beginning when I said that NOBODY would respond unless they were interested?  Now, that level of interest is what we must figure out and bring them from whatever percentage they are at to 100% and sold.  People only buy things because they need a problem to be solved or they fall in love with something. No other reason. The problem for us is that if we cannot get past the intro, then we have no chance in finding out what the problem is for us to solve it. Let's stay focused on that introduction and overcoming some of the things we may hear on the front-end so we can do a proper presentation, identify the problem, and then solve it. 

The best way to lower the customers guard is to simply agree with them. Yes, it's that simple. Agreeing with a prospect will get them feeling like you are on their side. At this point in the process, anything you hear is a complaint, this is not the objection yet. We do not want to address these complaints. We need to just agree and move on.  This will fix mostly all of your issues. 

If a prospect says "I’m not interested anymore.”
You can say something like “I understand, Ms Jones. I agree with you and would feel the exact same way if I were in your shoes.  Now, when you called the TV commercial, did you want this information for yourself or a loved one?” 

If a prospect says "I never called, responded to, or filled anything out.” 
You say “I got you, Ms Jones, and I am right there with you, I’m sure you are a busy person and have a lot going on. Now, when you called us up, did you want that information for yourself or a loved one?”

It really is just that simple. You and I both know that they are just doing what you and I do everyday which is blow off sales people because we don't want to be bothered, feel they will waste our time, or we do not want to be bullied or pressured into buying. 

We need to focus on setting the prospect at ease and keeping them relaxed.

Lastly, you must know the math.  Sales is a mathematical equation and you can make as many sales as you would like if you know your numbers.

Let's say you want to make $10,000 in deposits.

$10,000 in deposits is:
$13,333 (75% Advance) in gross 1st year commission income 
$13,333 in AP (Assuming 100% commission)
Roughly 18 sales ($720 AP or $60 a month premium)
Say you have a closing ratio of 40%, you must do 45 presentations
If you sit down with or talk to 40% of your leads you will need 112 leads in total. 

Now you just have to work on getting your ratios better and your profit will rise. All you have to do is plug in your numbers to figure out what you need to do and how many leads you need to work. 


KNOW THE MATH.


I wish you all success.


See you at the top…


Doug Blake
Senior Partner