What makes arranging face-to-face meetings easier?What’s
So Difficult About Selling Life Insurance?
Part 4 of 7 articles By John Lensi, CLU, ChFC, RHU, REBC, CMFC, LLIF Vice President, Sales, Impact Technologies Group. There are a number of ways to get in front of someone to conduct a sales interview. Actually,
when examining the various methods to
contact a prospect or drawing prospects in front of you (i.e.,
seminar), for the most part it boils down to a telephone contact from a
producer (or qualified marketing assistant) to arrange a favorable
meeting. In essence, the prospect must be convinced he or she can
potentially benefit from meeting with a life insurance sales
professional, or the interview does not get arranged.Sticking with the telephone is generally the most often used method to make contact with a prospect, a producer will find their ability to influence a prospect to meet with them is directly linked with the sales lead having TPI. TPI is powerful.Conversions about life insurance (even if the words themselves aren’t spoken) don’t generally excite consumers to want to meet with a producer. Last time I checked, the consumer thought process often went like this - “this person is just trying to sell me something and I’m not sure I need or can afford any more insurance … I’m not interested… in fact I’m all set.” It’s often out of respect for the third party affiliation alone prospects “with TPI” will listen to a producers appeal to meet with them and agree to scheduling a favorable appointment. Without TPI, you are just another pesky “salesperson” in the mind of the prospect. And unfortunately, in the universe of sales people in general, consumers tend to think life insurance sales people are more interested in selling them something for their personal gain (commissions), then for their own personal benefit. The Hourglass Syndrome.What I have coined the “the hourglass syndrome,” deals with time management efficiency and the measurement of a sales persons “prospect contact to appointment secured” ratio being directly linked to having qualified sales lead inventory. This is a powerful concept and often identifies the cause of a financial services producer’s failure in this business.  An ineffective
producer often
struggles as a result of prospect leads
being unqualified. This translates into poor activity ratios and of
course
poor sales results. Often
ineffective producers think their sales are
down because of some other reason. Often, this is not the
case. Good bookkeeping will help you see the truth.To make this point clearer, let’s say a typical newer producer is able to make 15 telephone contacts with their sales leads per hour and is in need of 12 new business sales appointments each week to meet his/her production objectives. If a producer continues to prospect and develop an inventory filled with leads without TPI, their prospect contact to appointment secured ratio may be in the area of 9:1 (I’m probably being generous here). Those producers who control the source of their sales leads and who are cognizant about the influence of TPI, will have a ratio in the area of 3:1.  Actual
results of course vary by producer. The point here is a
producers’ efficiency ratio will always be better if a qualified lead
fuels the sales process. This may sound elementary, but even seasoned
producers fall into the trap of developing poor prospecting habits and
often don’t correlate the real reason why they are in a sales slump.Let’s take a closer look at the 3:1 and 9:1 ratios used above:
The bottom line! Looking at the chart below, Producer “A” on the left below starts with 90 prospects and makes $1000 from all his efforts. Producer “B” below also starts with 90 prospects – all qualified sales leads – and makes $20,000 for his efforts {don’t get hung up on the average case size, it’s the point I’m trying to make that’s important for producers to understand}. Each producer in my example started with 90 ‘prospects’, yet Producer B earned a great deal more in commissions as a result of being more efficient. The difference stemmed from controlling the source of the sales lead inventory to start the sales process. Note that as a result of TPI, all other producer efficiency ratios show improvement – cancellation ratio; closing ratio; average size sale; number of referrals obtained per appointment kept.   Footnote from Ted: The key to success in any business is good accurate record keeping. The reason that most business's fail in the United States is lack of good record keeping. During my first year in the life insurance business, My record keeping identified the military market as my most effecient and productive target market. I then specialized in that target market and eventually became known on that military base as the formost life insurance agent to help young officers. But just like anything else, it takes time and hard work. I would only work referrals. No cold calls. Coming next
week, John will discuss:
The
Presentation and Selling Skills.
Learn
and Earn- Return to our Help
Library for more
articles
like this.Back to the top of this Arranging face-to-face meetings page.Or go to the Financial Planning Software page.
|
