Q: Is prospecting by telephone a good way to attract clients for insurance?
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Larry Prevost of Dale Carnegie Training answers your questions about making a success in the sales field.
FOR SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21
| A: Yes, prospecting by telephone is a way to get clients in any industry. The challenge here is to develop the skills to make it work, and the wisdom to use it appropriately. Some points to remember: 1. A phone call preceded by some type of mailing is more effective than only a mailing or only a phone call. If possible, run a direct mail campaign or email campaign before starting your phone campaign. 2. Don't confuse prospecting with selling. Sometimes when sales reps start out on the phone, they feel that they have to go from introducing themselves to collecting the check all in one call. When prospecting, your goal is to get to the next meeting or the next call, not to collect the check. Keep your prospecting call focused on prospecting. 3. Keep your initial call brief and to the point. Remember that you have no credibility on the initial call. Focus your efforts on getting their attention and generating credibility. 4. Realize that you don't generate credibility by talking about how great you are, how fantastic your product is or how big your company is. You generate credibility by focusing on the prospect's challenges and needs. 5. Combine your telephone prospecting with other methods, including direct mail and web lead generation activities. Activities like direct mail, seminars and online lead generation activities are generalized and broad stroke. Your phone calls and face-to-face activities are more specific and fine stroke. Use your broad-stroke techniques first to qualify and firm up leads and then follow up with your fine-stroke activities. 6. When using the phone, your voice becomes an instrument that you can leverage like your laptop or your cell phone. Join a toastmasters group and spend some time developing your vocal intonation, inflexion and pacing. Paula, remember that your goal is not to generate prospects using the phone, or to generate prospects using the web. Your job is to generate prospects using all of your tools available. Don't become enamored with one particular method. Develop all of your skills to increase your effectiveness and achieve maximum performance. |
—L. P.
Comment on this Q/A:
Sales Tip of the Week
When we approach our clients with a solution, we often think money and cost are the ultimate deciding factors, and consequently, those are the things on which we focus our attention.
We don't stop to think about what's troubling our client and we don't really think about how our product will be a real solution for our clients.
And that can be a big mistake. A simple negotiation for a parking space drove this point home. Follow the saga.
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