35K!

I had a fantastic week - just over $35K submitted with 7 deals. 3 of those deals were new from telemarketing, 2 were calls from flyers while and 2 were referrals. Only 3 of the 7 were telemarketed deals - the other 4 were people who picked up the phone and called me.

And by the way, this was an unusually high week. If I put in 35K a week every week it would be insane. I average $700,000 a year in volume which is only 13,000+ per week.

It's the 2 referrals I'm impressed with - I'm really trying to build a local name and it's just starting to pull results. Again, my goals have still not changed and I think there's enough people in my locality looking for health insurance to make a great living.

Telemarketing is a means to an end. I do not plan on telemarketing for years and years. It's a tool to use to get into your local market and start getting known.

Advertising without a reputation, as I've already seen, pulls low results. However, over time advertising my agency and website - as people see my name over and over and over pulls more and more and I'm just starting to see that.

I think the final key to all of this is participating in local events. Not only will that generate leads but also really get my name known in the community.

I'm more into having my phone ring then generating web traffic - which is more expensive however higher quality and a much better closing percentage. When you advertise your website "get free quotes" you're advertising for shoppers. I know that from my PPC campaigns.

However, when you're advertising to save money off your current plan you're advertising for buyers. You're also not advertising to people who currently don't have plans.

I switched my "free quotes" flyers and my website to "save money" flyers with my phone number. Web traffic obviously down, phones calls up and closing is up.

Really, my theory is kind of simple:

Put an ad out: "Maryland Health Plans - Get Free Quotes....blah blah blah"

- lacking results. No established name. No established reputation.

However:

Same ads placed every month
Doing all chamber of commerce functions
Mailers to all local small businesses
Showing up at all local events

Now someone sees that ad and it's "Oh, there's all over the place - just saw 'em at the last festival" and they now contact me.

I've been talking to a few agents lately about mailers, why most don't pull and mistakes people make when sending them. Turns out I'm a violator of everything I shouldn't have done with mailers.

I've been talking to one agent who's been pulling 1.5% which beats my typical .05%. He even admits that it's one arm of a local marketing campaign and mailers alone won't sustain an agent's income. Nice to talk to honest people instead of "here's my secret system to making a ton of money without working."

But even at 1.5% return is relatively low ROI:

1,000 mailers X 50 cents = $500
3 cents per record X 1,000 = $30
1.5% return = leads

I really hate to guess the closing out of that - 1 to 2...three would be a gift. I'd need two to make it really worth it.

They key to this of course is dumping profits back into all forms of local marketing so over time I become a recognized name.

There are things I'd like to do but I really don't know if the cost would be justified. I could pay anyone $10/hr to simply plaster businesses with flyers. They'd just leave a flyer but also be required to take a business card. So not only do I know they've actually placed the flyers but I can follow up by email or phone.

The math is impossible though; 50 flyers placed per hour X 4 hours a day is $40 a day or $160 a week with 1,000 flyers placed per week. Return? Again, low - 1% probably or 10 leads. However, $160 for 10 leads is $16 per lead - exclusive and local. These are also "phone ring" leads since my web address is just a small footnote on my flyer. Most web leads are junk.

However, does that beat mailers? 1,000 mailers would be $500+ - this would be $160.

Webinar, my son and Fidelity

Thanks to all who attended the webinar. I think it's really fun to get together and trade ideas and we'll definitely be doing it once per week.

I have to apologize that I was not my usual self - got a call this morning before the webinar from my son's kindergarten teacher that he was acting up today - which we've had issues with off and on throughout the year, and it's starting to get old.

In better news I lost a health deal but sold life! I've made it a goal this year to cross-sell life a lot more and so far it's been working very well.

For one of 10 different reasons I might not get the health deal but I've been pitching everyone on life. Most say "we're set with life" but all I need is a few deals to make it worth my while. Today was on of 'em - $42 premium and $500+ commission. Did the app online and that's that.

Another motivation for me is the upcoming election. I personally do not believe we'll see a "career altering" event in health insurance any time soon. But prove me wrong. If something goes south with health insurance, even if it's years from now I want to be well-honed and ready to go with another insurance product.

2 deals and a trip

I was slammed today - no time spent on the phone. I wrote two deals which took up most of my day - didn't even follow up with the leads I generated yesterday.

I also got my formal notification today that I won the Time Palm Springs trip in May! I'm very excited - 4 years in the insurance biz and this is my 3rd trip.

I absolutely love these trips - so does my wife. Looking very forward to it. The insurance industry really seems to do a great job of making it a real trip and not some kind of "junk" trip.

I won a contest before in another industry and won a trip only to find out airfare and food was on me. All they were picking up was the hotel. Gee, thanks. But the insurance companies pick up airfare, food, lodging and give you spend cash. Now that's a trip.

Tomorrow we're on for the webinar which I'm looking forward to. I'll be shooting out emails tomorrow morning with the link and number to call for all those who responded.

Webinar for Wednesday

We'll have another webinar:

Wednesday the 6th
1 PM EST

Just getting together, trade ideas on marketing, sales, and generally shooting the shit. Anyone who wants to attend needs to email me:

info@marylandquotes.com

And now I bring you truth in advertising

Results for today

My wife's still at work and my son gets off the bus soon so I have to cut today a bit short. I was on the MCS dialer for 90 minutes, got 7 leads. Not too bad. I updated my spreadsheet - just click "February Tracking" on the right.

I use an Excel sheet for detailed info but always import into Google just in case my computer crashes. Just so we can have some fun and track along with me I just put the very basic info.

Last week I said I was playing around with really getting into more qualification on the 1st call. Some people are up for that, other's aren't and the "if it's not broke don't fix it" saying comes into play. I've used a certain system for working my telemarked leads that's been getting me results now for over a year.

Step 1:
Generate the lead - soft touch

"I'm calling because there's a lot of new plans and rates in Maryland for individual health insurance from the top carriers like Blue Cross, United Health care, Time and Aetna. What I'd like to do is send you the information and you can see whether or not you can save some money. Do you have a group plan or your own?"

(ps: don't say "how are you today?" when making cold calls. It does more harm then good.)

I then get their email, I'll ask a few more questions to owners who have time, then end with "I'll follow up with you, probably in a day or two."

Step 2
Call back to qualify
As you follow my sheet you'll see this is the "separate the men from the boys" call. I'll be ascertaining the level of interest, dumping off those with little to no interest and heavy qualification. Set up a firm app't to go over plans and rates.

Step 3
Call or show up for appointment
Either log them into my webinar or show up in person for the presentation.

If it doesn't need to be more complicated then that.

As for a webinar this week - we'll have one and I'll post the day and time either tonight or tomorrow morning.

Tracking with me for February

Showing is better than trying to explain so since we've just started this month I'm going to share a Google spreadsheet. This way you can track the lead and deals. My main leads go on Excel but at the end of each day I'll import then into this sheet and update it.

The spreadsheet is here:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p8HKIagCuSCgDt1YTvtg4DA

Obviously all personal info is gonna be blocked 0ut since I'll be putting detailed comments about each lead.

What you'll be able to see is "X" hours of generating leads = "X" leads which results in "X" deals. For those who have any misconceptions about what it actually takes to put in $700,000+ in volume this will be a splash of water on your face. I'll also be logging in time spent each day generating the leads.

I think a lot of agents think you get a few leads - 20 or so a week and all you really need to work on is your closing skills and pitch. If that's so you're far better than me. It takes a lot of leads and a lot of phone time to me to write a decent amount of business.

What you're going to see is that it's about lead volume. Since I generate my own leads it's a mixture of volume and quality.

Results are in - no office

The overwhelming response to yesterday's post was no store-front office. A lot of emails I got did indeed convince me that over-all it would be a waste of money.

Store-front expenses would be at least $4,000 a month and that would be for a small location including phones, utilities and a secretary.

I'm not sure how many people who walk in - probably few to zero. So if there's little to no walk in traffic then the only benefit of having store-front space would be setting appointments for clients to come in and meet with me. I think those results would be lacking.

If I just want to be around other agents for some atmosphere the best move would be office sharing. The problem with sharing expenses with other agents is being stuck with all the bills if they decided to pull the plug and go back to working from home.

My problem with sitting in my home office all day is about to be solved in the spring by attending local events - which is another gamble but one that I'm ready to take.

I really haven't met any agents who have consistently done trade shows, fairs, and other local events. I know when I was with UGA we did a large trade show at the Baltimore Convention Center and I had a 4 hour shift - got many leads.

I did a health fair sponsored by a local hospital - held in a fire station from 10am to 2pm and maybe a few hundred people where there. I wrote 7 apps spread out over the next month.

I think that fact that those apps were spread out psyched me into thinking that it wasn't effective. Especially since at that time there were no online apps and deals took from between 2 and 3 weeks to underwrite.

So from the day of the health fair to the day the last deal was approved was over 2 months. Also, these events are only as effective as you are. I don't see sitting in a chair behind a table and letting people grab the brochures and giveaways as effective. In fact, that method could result in zero business.

I think the method that works is standing in front of the table and at least handing flyers out to everyone that comes by and engaging the people who are interested.

An obvious down-side to these events is they're mainly on weekends and things like fairs and festivals run all day/all night. So either me or someone else would have to man the table or booth for possibly 12 hours.