Insurance Sales: If You have To Cold Call

Cold calling would never be my first recommendation for success, but there are times when you may have no alternative. So, why not learn how to do it well if you have to do it anyway. There are a few simple things you can do to do it better and have greater success. n nIf you’re fairly new in the industry your sales manager will force you to do it, and if you’ve been in the industry awhile but you’ve never learned how to market yourself you may have to do it. If you’re like 84% of all sales people you have call reluctance. You hate doing it you get poor results and it damages your fragile ego. nnThere are five things you can do to start getting results from the cold calls you have to make until you learn how to market yourself. The first thing you must do it work on your self-confidence. The people you’re calling are neither better than nor less than you, they’re just people just like you who’ve made mistakes and have faults just like you no matter how successful they may be now. nnHave absolute confidence that you have what they want. If you don’t, you’re selling the wrong service. When you call them on the phone or drop in unexpectedly the reason they aren’t excited to hear from you or see you, is that you haven’t done your job and developed a 10 second core marketing message that conveys the emotional impact of getting what they want. n nDon’t call me up to introduce yourself. Please, that’s presuming I want to hear from you or see you and I don’t. Have a clear objective that benefits the person you’re contacting, or don’t make the contact. And they shouldn’t have to connect the dots or fill in any gaps to get that what you’re asking them to do is a real win situation for them. nnBlock time to make your calls and stick to it no matter what. Open up your day planner or electronic planning tool, and block out 1 hour at the same time each and every day to make those calls. When that hour comes make those calls no interruptions or excuses allowed. And if you’re trying to reach executives, professionals, or small business owners call them very early in the morning before anyone else gets to work because they’ll pick up the phone themselves thinking it’s someone they know. nnFinally, develop the habits that will make you succeed at cold calling. Those habits are: self-confidence, a succinct and powerful core marketing message that matches the person you’re contacting, taking action to make those calls every day so you keep your skills sharp, and doing all these things with enough frequency and conviction that they become a habit that leads to increased insurance sales success.nnIt’s really very simple if you’ve gotten yourself in a situation where you think you have to cold call, then the only way to do it well is to be more prepared than you’ve ever been before. Take what you learn from other industries and adapt it to fit yourself. Develop procedures and techniques that work for you and then practice them through the action of making those daily calls. If you’re going to cold call do it every day. If you don’t you’ll procrastinate and talk yourself out of it the days you’re supposed to do it, but if you have to do it every day before you can do anything else it will get done.n