Cold calling, Leads and Prospects

When you start out in any type of insurance, even real estate, or possibly even most positions that require a client base such as hairstylists, caterers etc...you'll have to build your own book of business.  Unless, you are lucky enough to be handed a client book.  If you are one the lucky ones, guard that book and work it. 

Me, I'm not so lucky to be handed a golden book. I get to build mine.  Prospecting is time consuming. Getting leads and referrals area easy.  Turning them in to prospects, not so much. Why is that? Well, if I'm given a list of businesses to call because they could be a potential client is a lead.  I make the call....yes the dreaded cold call... then I have to generate interest and gather information to see if they even qualify, before I even set an appointment.  If they do then, we an set the ball in motion with a face to face meeting to see if they really are good fit. If yes, then we can continue from there.  Unfortunately, not all prospects turn in to clients though. 😒

As I said getting leads are easy.  All the steps after that can be time consuming and draining.  That list of 500 businesses that you were given, half the calls end up being no's.  The ones that say yes may not even qualify or those that do qualify, are not a good fit or don't see the need for your services. I'm told that in the beginning this is a daily thing because if you don't call leads and you don't prospect, you have no business in your pipeline.  When you have nothing for a while, it causes you to wonder if this really is what you want to do. I've been told that with time and experience you will get better.  When  your pipeline is constantly full and your clients are giving you referrals, you can say good bye to your daily task of having to dreaded cold calls and having to qualify them.  

I don't think my friends and family understand how important referrals are to me.  It makes it easier for me to be able to connect when I'm calling someone knowing that we have a mutual friend.  When I ask friends and family for referrals almost always they respond with a positive yes. But in truth, I very seldom receive referrals from friends.  They ramble off people they know and promise to send me contact information but that rarely comes to fruition.  Part of it is that they don't understand my business or what exactly it is that Aflac has to offer.  The other part is that their reputation is on the line too.  I get it, I'm like that too when my recruiters ask me if I know anyone that would be qualified for the positions that they are trying to fill.  I only want to refer the best people that I know.  

I also think friends and family don't prioritize your referral request because is that they don't understand what it is like to be working on 100% commission.  They can rely on getting a paycheck every two weeks while my paychecks are unpredictable.  It might be no money coming in for 6 weeks and then all of a sudden a commission check every other day and then back to nothing for a month.  It really take the meaning of "Living pay check to pay check" to a whole new level.  My W2 friends don't really understand how volatile my income is.  My 1099 people though, they get it.

My personal goal is have 40% of my new clients from referrals by the end of the year. The other 60%, well that's why our Mondays are important to us.  It's what we call Marketing Monday.....other wise known cold call day! Brrrrr.......