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Everyone Is a Prospect

Written by: Donald F. Pooley

Article Overview: My first year in the life insurance business was hell! I thought my Dad could supply me with leads as he was the Superintendent of Agencies for a large insurance company. So when I started my life insurance career I waited for Dad to phone me with leads.

Everyone Is a Prospect

My first year in the life insurance business was hell! I thought my Dad could supply me with leads as he was the Superintendent of Agencies for a large insurance company. So when I started my life insurance career I waited for Dad to phone me with leads.
Well Dad called, but just to see how I was managing and give me a pep talk. He'd call every day and end every conversation with "Remember everyone is a prospect". The leads never came! Not a single one!
"Everyone is a prospect." What a great deal of help that was! Where were the leads? When he called every evening it was all I could do to not lash out at him for not supporting me with prospects.
One day, I don’t remember why, or what triggered it, but the light when on in my brain, and I began to realize that indeed "everyone is a prospect." If it wasn’t for life insurance perhaps it was for a retirement plan, education savings, estate plan, or any of the many other products we handled.
I had been too wrapped up in my own beefs about my Dad to look correctly at the person I was talking to. They were all very good prospects; I just had to help them see their need. Even if they did not need anything now they could steer me to others who may have a current need for my services. The problem was not the prospects, or the lack of them. Everyone is a prospect; they just don’t know it yet.
When I started to look at everyone as a prospect, things really started to click. In my third year I qualified for membership in the Million Dollar Round Table. My new outlook gave me the confidence to be more assertive in my presentation.
Over the years, I've moved across Canada, retired twice, and returned to this business. I've built a client base from scratch six times. Fortunately, it has never been difficult for me to attract new clients. I learned to look at everyone as a good prospect for what I was selling. My Dad had shown me that "everyone is a prospect" and with that frame of mind I survived, and succeeded again and again in this business.
You can, too. Just remember that "everyone is a prospect."
Peter Baigent, CFP, CLU, CHFC, RFP, is a member of the IAFP and Advocis, living in Kelowna BC, and is the founder/owner of Money Minders Financial Services Inc. & Money Minders Software. Subscribe to Peter's great quarterly newsletter for financial advisors by clicking here.

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Re: Hiring introverts vs. extroverts - [quote="Evan":37xmbjab]It's generally hard to be a good salesperson if you are an introvert.[/quote:37xmbjab] Evan, I was thinking about the same right? Then I was put in charge of training sales teams and found out interesting traits among the successful ones. Often times, the extroverts talk "too much" and kill a sale. They attempt to overcome every objection by giving answers while NOT understanding they are not hearing true objections. When objections are answered but the buyers aren't proceeding for transaction, they're not telling you the real objection. When that happens, there is a psychological shift occurs that the more you appear needy to sell as a salesperon, the less attractive your sales team becomes because people like to be facilitated instead of being sold. So the hybrid of both characteristics will serve best in sales. The tone of your voice, posture, attitude, all work well... and you want to look confident, mature, calm and not attached to the end result of the transaction. It's like saying.... Mr. Prospect, I certainly would love to welcome you as a customer, but even if you don't proceed, it wouldn't be my loss... but saying this through your tone of voice, look on your face and everything else instead of in words. And some extroverts ones have hard time expressing these messages through unspoken communications, seeking approval for their answers to customers objections by speaking too much. Interesting isn't it? Warmest Regards, Takuya
Simple way to avoid Cold Calling - Gary, A chiropractor I work with hates cold calling (me too!) and he uses a technique to warm people up to using his services - it's so simple! In Sales your dealing with 3 pools of people: 1. Strangers 2. Prospects 3. Returning Customers You need to move people from one pool to the next. We'll concentrate on #1 and #2 as it's most relevant to your question. My Clients does the following (you just have to tailor it to your situation - be creative). My Client (we'll call him Bob) Bob leverages his time and resources to only get people that need his offer (pain relief) to put their hand up. Dealing with Strangers can get expensive and they don't like to be told what to do as they have no trust or relationship built with him. So to get Strangers to put their hands up he writes up an offer with a free report on a particular pain relief - let's say lower back pain (note: he can simply just change lower back pain to neck pain and have a new report). and uses multiple marketing vehicles to promote the Free report - magazines, newspaper, forums, postcards, private clinics etc. The only people picking up this information are the very people Bob would like as customers as they have Lower back pain. Bob's Free report ends with him stating his services and includes a Free in-house Consultation with no obligation. You'd be surprised at how easily Bob converts Strangers into Prospects. Note: They become prospects when they ask for the Free Guide and in exchange provide their contact details. This gives Bob unlimited opportunity to contact them for the Free in-house consultation with no obligation to continue using him. At this stage Bob's ability to close the sale lies in his office providing good customer service, Bob's ability to help the prospect and provide value at the free in-house consultation. Notice, he hasn't had to pick up the phone to COLD-CALL his Stranger pool or his Prospect pool. Hope that example helps to increase your prospecting!


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