Note from the Editor: this article is an editorial.
So this article maybe more of a rant but I have something I need to say. We all need to get over out distaste for prospecting. If I have to hear one more insurance producer say they “don’t have time to prospect” or “those leads aren’t good” or “my personal time is too valuable”, I may just decide to put an agency in their town. The problem is most of us are too soft or too good to do the main part of a salesperson job.
Prospecting and sales are like oreos and milk, they just go together. Now, it may not be the thing you look forward to in the day but funny story you won’t look forward to a bad paycheck either. When you are the busiest is exactly when you need to double down on your prospecting because you will find that your next month will be the slowest without it.
So why do we all think that prospecting is “not for us”? Here are my top reasons:
- We don’t want to do drive-bys or make calls
- We would rather be home at night rather than attending networking events
- We think that only rookies have to prospect
- We don’t have enough confidence in ourselves to tell strangers why to buy insurance from us
- We find it below us to drop by a business and say hello
- There is always some service work that should be done before you get out of your chair
- If you leave to prospect you may miss a big call in lead
- You are very busy aggressively waiting for the phone to ring
- There is little to no sales culture in the agency that is demanding producers to cold call.
Guys and gals, it’s Pathetic with a capital P. When in the world did we think a sales job wouldn’t include prospecting? Do you think prospecting will hurt or help your sales?
So what are you going to do about the lack of prospecting in insurance? We have a plan for new producers that they have to follow to be in our program.
- 1 hour of calls per day no matter what, this is to new prospects not clients
- 1 community event per week
- 1 center of influence meeting per week
- Daily social media post
- No commission if it is monoline without a future x date
- No commission if a new business process is not followed
- 10 business cards given out per week
When your agency or you set personal standards you can win and make more money than you could imagine. But we can’t let apathy set in. If your top salespeople cold called would you? But in agencies the top dogs give up on prospecting and ride the book of business to become non-producing producers. So bottom line don’t be a weenie, be a winner.
About Kelly Donahue-Piro
As a dynamic public speaker and consultant I have spent the last decade focusing on how small business owners can capitalize on opportunities within their reach. With over 5 years experience in the local insurance agent sector I can bring training, marketing and technology to your agency that helps you effective and efficiently grow your agency. My specialties include consulting and coaching on upselling, account rounding, agency culture change, sales scripting, executive level coaching and benchmarking as well as agency retention skills. Contact me today to learn more about how I can help your agency grow!
As a dynamic public speaker and consultant I have spent the last decade focusing on how small business owners can capitalize on opportunities within their reach. With over 5 years experience in the local insurance agent sector I can bring training, marketing and technology to your agency that helps you effective and efficiently grow your agency. My specialties include consulting and coaching on upselling, account rounding, agency culture change, sales scripting, executive level coaching and benchmarking as well as agency retention skills.
Contact me today to learn more about how I can help your agency grow!
