Selling Insurance in the Land of Opportunity
Selling Insurance in the Land of Opportunity
Well, even though all you can see is gloom and doom you’re missing a gigantic opportunity right here right now all over the globe. This financial meltdown isn’t just impacting the U.S. it’s impacting everyone everywhere in the world. And that’s good news for you if you know how to use it to your advantage.
Some of you are either still cold calling or you’ve returned to cold calling out of desperation. Your bank account is screaming that you need to sell something to somebody YESTERDAY. So you pull out your old script you buy a list of names or you beg your existing clients for a referral and off you go.
The problem is all those calls aren’t producing appointments. You get an occasional appointment out of politeness or respect for the person who referred you, but they aren’t buying and they aren’t giving you much hope they will buy anytime soon. So you’re blowing through a ton of resources you don’t have to produce NOTHING.
Here’s a big secret, if what you’re doing isn’t working…doing a whole lot more of it isn’t going to make it work. What you’re doing isn’t working for very good reason and that reason has little to do with the economic crisis and everything to do with the right way to market yourself.
When you call someone now you say, “Hi, Mr. Jones this is Bob Smith with XYZ Insurance Ted Williams suggested I give you a call.” You opened the conversation with a dead-end. Mr. Jones is thinking so what if you’re Bob Smith I don’t know a Bob Smith. He’s thinking, insurance…I don’t want to talk to you or anyone else about insurance. He’s thinking how can I get rid of you without creating a problem with Ted? So rather than just slamming the receiver down or shouting that you better take his name off your calling list before he reports you he says, “Gosh Bob, I appreciate your call but I just had my insurance reviewed with my existing agent so as soon as I need something I’ll give you a call thanks for calling...(click).”
You got off on the wrong foot and ended your future with Mr. Jones because you don’t know how to market yourself to produce results. If you did you would have opened the conversation exactly where Mr. Jones is. You would have known that Mr. Jones is worried about losing his job. You would have known Mr. Jones is worried he’ll lose everything he has if he doesn’t have a regular paycheck. You would have said something more like this, “Hi, is this Mr. Jones? Great, this is Bob and I’m wondering if you could help me for a minute? Thank you Mr. Jones, I’ve called today because I wanted to see if you’d be open to some ideas for what you can do to financially protect yourself if you should ever lose your job.”
When you open the conversation like this you get Mr. Jones to let down his defenses by asking for help. Then you talk to him about what you already know he’s worried about…losing his job. Plus you only ask if he’s open to some ideas. Rarely will someone say they aren’t open to ideas. Now you’ve opened the door to see if Mr. Jones is a good prospect for you. Plus if there’s a good reason to sit down together Mr. Jones will do so willingly.
Selling Insurance in the Land of Opportunity - To learn more about this author, visit Cheryl A. Clausen's Website.
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Okay, so right now it looks like the land of barren desperation. You get a “no” before you even open your mouth. Your appointment book is empty and if something doesn’t happen soon you’ll have a matching bank account. So what’s this baloney about the land of opportunity?
Well, even though all you can see is gloom and doom you’re missing a gigantic opportunity right here right now all over the globe. This financial meltdown isn’t just impacting the U.S. it’s impacting everyone everywhere in the world. And that’s good news for you if you know how to use it to your advantage.
Some of you are either still cold calling or you’ve returned to cold calling out of desperation. Your bank account is screaming that you need to sell something to somebody YESTERDAY. So you pull out your old script you buy a list of names or you beg your existing clients for a referral and off you go.
The problem is all those calls aren’t producing appointments. You get an occasional appointment out of politeness or respect for the person who referred you, but they aren’t buying and they aren’t giving you much hope they will buy anytime soon. So you’re blowing through a ton of resources you don’t have to produce NOTHING.
Here’s a big secret, if what you’re doing isn’t working…doing a whole lot more of it isn’t going to make it work. What you’re doing isn’t working for very good reason and that reason has little to do with the economic crisis and everything to do with the right way to market yourself.
When you call someone now you say, “Hi, Mr. Jones this is Bob Smith with XYZ Insurance Ted Williams suggested I give you a call.” You opened the conversation with a dead-end. Mr. Jones is thinking so what if you’re Bob Smith I don’t know a Bob Smith. He’s thinking, insurance…I don’t want to talk to you or anyone else about insurance. He’s thinking how can I get rid of you without creating a problem with Ted? So rather than just slamming the receiver down or shouting that you better take his name off your calling list before he reports you he says, “Gosh Bob, I appreciate your call but I just had my insurance reviewed with my existing agent so as soon as I need something I’ll give you a call thanks for calling...(click).”
You got off on the wrong foot and ended your future with Mr. Jones because you don’t know how to market yourself to produce results. If you did you would have opened the conversation exactly where Mr. Jones is. You would have known that Mr. Jones is worried about losing his job. You would have known Mr. Jones is worried he’ll lose everything he has if he doesn’t have a regular paycheck. You would have said something more like this, “Hi, is this Mr. Jones? Great, this is Bob and I’m wondering if you could help me for a minute? Thank you Mr. Jones, I’ve called today because I wanted to see if you’d be open to some ideas for what you can do to financially protect yourself if you should ever lose your job.”
When you open the conversation like this you get Mr. Jones to let down his defenses by asking for help. Then you talk to him about what you already know he’s worried about…losing his job. Plus you only ask if he’s open to some ideas. Rarely will someone say they aren’t open to ideas. Now you’ve opened the door to see if Mr. Jones is a good prospect for you. Plus if there’s a good reason to sit down together Mr. Jones will do so willingly.
Selling Insurance in the Land of Opportunity - To learn more about this author, visit Cheryl A. Clausen's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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