The
real problem for the producer is what I refer to as a fix and
control
issue.
What’s
So Difficult About Selling Life Insurance?
Part 7 of 7
articles
By
John Lensi, CLU, ChFC, RHU, REBC, CMFC, LLIF
Vice
President,
Sales,
Impact Technologies Group.
Let’s
examine in more detail, what we call the
“Fix and
Control” producer issues.
Fixing
the producer’s prospecting problem and controlling their
business submissions is a huge task – although very much
accomplishable. Let’s
examine each of these two issues separately.
 Fixing the prospecting problem can be addressed
in a number of ways,
but I’ve chosen to focus attention on one quality solution, the answer
lying in
the financial professional’s skill to consistently generate quality
referred leads.
Stepping back for a minute, there are three high-level categories to
generate prospect inventory as illustrated below. When you boil it down
and
weigh all the pros and cons of various prospecting methods, there is
one single
prospecting method that far out distances the others in overall
effectiveness for
most producers- qualified referrals.
If it’s so evident that this is what will improve sales force
retention,
loyalty, and productivity, why does this occur? And what should be done
to
solve these producer challenges?
The
Many Ways and Approaches to Prospect Acquisition
Examples:
1.
COMPANY
GENERATED LEADS:
- Orphan policyholders
- Service inquiries
2.
PURCHASED
LEADS:
- Vendor lead lists
- On-line leads
3.
ACQUIRED
LEADS:
- net working
- Referred leads
- Social mobility contacts
- Trade shows
- Seminars
- Lead exchanges
- Employer directory
- Personal observation
- Transition x-dates
- Prospect Inventory
A strong key to producer success is controlling the source of
sales lead inventory. Third party
influence must exist for
a lead to be “qualified”.
Why
prospecting by referrals is the preferred method of choice.
The
benefits of prospecting
through qualified
referrals far out distances most any other prospecting
method.
The
key benefits are these:
- Allows a producer to pre-qualify prospects and
tailor an effective approach to gain a favorable sales appointment;
- Allows a producer to target a particular market
that best matches
the producer’s skill sets;
- Allows
for third party influence which translates to a more
favorablecontact-to-appointment ratio when following up the
lead;
enhanced persistency results when a more qualified prospect buys;
- A better closing ratio results from the
producers’ ability to work
with people who trust their recommendations as a result of TPI and
because
they are able to target market resulting in a leveraging of skill sets;
- More repeat sales are generated as a result of
deeper fact-finding
which occurs as a result of TPI; far less overall time is needed to
develop a new client;
- A continuous chain of prospects materializes;
and
- Larger size sales result from pre-qualified
prospects being
contacted.
If referred leads are so effective, why don’t all producers prospect
this way?
An interesting question and one deserving comment. The MDRT level
producers do referred leads and those who struggle in this business
don’t.
The
reasons struggling producers’ don’t obtain referrals include and consist of the following:
- Some producers aren’t sure how or where to
start the process (training issue);
- Some in the satisfaction of a sale forget or
avoid asking
(confidence issue);
- Some actually don’t believe they deserve
referrals from those whom
they do work for (previous two issues);
- Some feel they may jeopardize their client
relationship (confidence
issue - rarely does this occur);
- Some convince themselves they simply don’t have
enough time to
obtain referrals as they schedule sales appointments close to one
another
(training issue - missing a premier opportunity to get qualified leads);
- some avoid seeking referrals because
prior attempts were
unsuccessful confidence & training issue);
- And lastly,- the king of them all – some feel
they already have
enough
prospects, so there isn’t a need to spend time getting referrals (these
folks usually
have a large inventory of prospects with no TPI and mistakenly think
they have
a ton of qualified sales leads to contact – serious training issue).
We will be providing one more
bonus issue that will discuss:
The
reasons
why consumers do not furnish referrals.
Don't
miss this final article of John's, about insurance prospecting.
About the Author
John Lensi, CLU, ChFC, RHU, REBC, CMFC, LLIF
Charlotte, North Carolina
Learn
and Earn
For more articles like this return to
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insurance help
library.
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