Featured Article - When Do You Know If Your Marketing Is Working?

Improve Your Attitude - Cosmic Habit Force - Napoleon Hill

Become Their Trusted Advisor - Generate loads of leads at your next community event!

Coaches Corner - Seal the sale using your client’s imagination!

An Important Message From Jeremy

Dear ~Contact.FirstName~,

The only way you get the most profit out of the majority of your sales leads is to "keep in front of them" every month, until some change in their life pushes them out of the "interested, but not ready" phase, to the "interested, and VERY READY" phase!

It's like one of the worlds best sales trainers, Bill Brooks says:

"People will buy when they're ready to buy...
not when YOU need to make a sale!"

If the above statement is true (and it is), then you have to be there when they're ready to buy!

What's the alternative? If you are not in contact with them, they'll buy from someone else!

How do you stay in front of them? By sending them a monthly newsletter, with great information that makes them see you are the ultimate expert who is there to help them!!!

Are you thinking: It's a lot of work, or I don't have the time to write a newsletter?

We've done it all for you...

We have  FREE Client Newsletters in the Insurance Marketing and Sales Resource Center™!

And we have Personalized Newsletters - Hard copy and E-newsletters!

We also have our Trusted Advisor 'Gold' Support Package - Discounted Newsletters and Membership to the Insurance Marketing and Sales Resource Center.

Don't have the time to send them out... Then consider hiring a high school student to work part-time, at minimum wage. Just one additional sale will pay their salary for months!
 

Yours in success,
Jeremy Nason
 

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Featured Article

When Do You Know If Your Marketing Is Working?

A few days ago I got a call from an advisor, who didn’t get even one response to an invitation he had sent out for his educational workshop. He had sent the invitation to the 300 clients and 200 more prospects, friends and acquaintances on his mailing list, just like he did a year ago, and not one person responded. He was concerned that his educational workshop marketing wasn’t working and wanted to completely change what he was doing. He also thought he’d stop sending out his monthly newsletters, and instead try to set up a new website to attract prospects.

Note: Even though the advisor wasn’t getting the response he ultimately wanted from his educational workshops, he has seen the number and size of his sales increase significantly, over the past year.

As we discussed his situation, he explained that he had offered an educational workshop several times during the past year and had some success. But, now they weren’t working at all. As we talked further I found out that he had completely changed his workshop invitation. He didn’t call any of his best clients and friends to personally invite them to his workshop. He wasn’t doing anything to get referrals. He wasn’t doing anything to become better known as the expert in his niche marketplace. Plus, he had stopped doing many of the things he had done, that worked when he first entered this business five years ago… like being a guest speaker for associations.

During tough economic times, it’s hard to evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

“50% of our marketing works.
We just don’t know which 50%”

When the economy is strong and business is good, it’s much easier to see the cause-and-effect relationship of marketing. You send out an invitation for your educational workshop and the phone rings. You send a newsletter and guess what, the phone rings! You’re interviewed on the radio and everyone you meet for a week says they heard you and thought you were great.

That’s the way cause-and-effect works during good times, but you can’t expect that during challenging times. Today, you could send the invitation that was a proven winner in the past and not get a single call. Does that mean the invitation is no longer effective? Don’t jump to the conclusion that the answer is yes and that you need to develop a new invitation or maybe even stop doing educational workshops altogether.
 

Times like these test our marketing faith. When you don’t get amazing results, it takes faith to hang in there and continue doing what you know is the best thing for growing your business and helping more people. Believe me, it tests all of us. I have days when I wonder.

The good news, for me, is that because of the amount of marketing I’m involved in, I can see what’s happening in a variety of areas. For example, I can get a call from an advisor who just did a mailer that failed miserably and moments later get a call from an advisor who had their best response ever from their mailing.

That’s a luxury most of you don’t have, so when you think you’ve done everything right, but still don’t get any response, it’s only natural to assume your marketing just doesn’t work.

When do you know if your marketing is working?

Some of you won’t like the answer to this question. You will know if it worked after all the marketing activity is over. The length of time it may take to get feedback varies and these days it can be a long time.

For example, if you did a marketing effort today, many people might not react because of the torrential rains that hit the east coast, the increased threat of terrorism or just the troubled economy! These factors could all influence potential clients and cause them to hold back on immediately reacting to your message. It doesn’t mean that your message didn’t work! It may have worked very well, but factors out of your direct control are holding down the response.

"People buy when they are ready to buy,
not when you are ready to sell."

It doesn’t mean the marketing effort failed. Your perfect clients may have seen your message and been moved by it and when the time is right for them, they will respond. The frustrating part of this is their timing, which may not be in sync with your timing. That is why you must constantly stay in front of your neighbors, friends, family, clients and prospects with your monthly newsletter, and articles in the local newspaper or on social media.

One of the best ways to get more measurable data is to do direct-response marketing. That involves creating an offer or some other reason for people to bring themselves to your attention. Direct-response marketing usually involves a coupon, time-sensitive offer or offering a free booklet or report. By getting your perfect prospects to call you to take advantage of your offer, you can track your results.

My final thought on this subject is that most people pull the plug on effective marketing campaigns because they didn’t see the results quickly enough. When I first started our company in 2000, I was convinced that after one week of appearing in the top 10 in search engines I would have a line of people wanting my services. Well, that didn’t happen. As a matter of fact, I was in the top 10 of search engines almost 40 out of 52 weeks. It wasn’t until a year later that I started receiving a lot of orders. It would have been very easy to stop after one week, one month or even six months.

Good things come from consistent, ongoing, never-wavering marketing!

“Remember, you’ll solve your sales problems,
once you solve your prospecting problems.”
 

Lew Nason
Trainer, Coach & Mentor
'The 9 Out Of 10 Guy'

__________________

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How To Become The Most 'Trusted Advisor'
In Your Local Community!

Generate loads of Insurance leads at your next community event!
By Paul M Mallett

I participated in our local spring home & garden show a couple of weekends ago on behalf of our career agency, Postema Insurance & Investments. We’ve done this for a few years now, and each time our results are more impressive. I was really happy with the turnout this year and amazed by the number of solid leads we generated.

After the event, I spent a little time reflecting on the things we’ve learned to help blow the lid off of events like this and generate more quality leads every year. These are not just "give me free stuff and leave me alone" leads either. We had terrific engagement with most of the folks. In fact, I had multiple attendees walk up to me and say, "I’d like to buy life insurance. Can you help me?"

Can you believe that?

I don’t know that I have ever had that happen in the past. Not multiple times in just a couple of hours anyway.

So what did we do to drive such crazy-good results?

I knew our team had planned several clever things, but I had no idea how many until I started compiling this list. Once I saw it, I knew I had to share it.
 

Please note this was an indoor event, so some of these suggestions are specific to that. However, there are still several that apply to outdoor events as well.

• When given the option, choose events that charge admission. The quality of prospects will be infinitely better. Fewer, more qualified prospects is better than an army of bag-fillers just looking for free stuff.

• Choose a booth location just a few spaces from the entrance. Not right at the entrance, but something that is in the main flow of traffic, and just far enough from the gate that the crowd around your booth wont constipate the flow of incoming attendees. Grab them early enough that they’re still fresh and happy to be there.

• A few minutes before the gates open, take a walk around the facility to greet the other exhibitors, including your competition. Be certain to check in with any referral partners that may be in attendance. Let them know you’re there, and tell them you’ll send any good prospects you meet their way. (And do it!)

• This is a big one: Offer games, not giveaways. You have to get a little creative here, but you can do it. This is a game-changer. (Pardon the pun - I couldn’t resist.) Come up with a game that is quick to play and creates instant winners. Don’t just settle for a boring drawing like most exhibitors. Giving people a chance to win instantly is key. Better yet, guarantee they will win something! Your game should require them to provide their contact info for a chance at a few really nice prizes, but a better chance at one of several more modest (and inexpensive) prizes.

• Your prizes are your opportunity to send your agency name and contact info home with your prospects. Items to consider include: personalized books and booklets, key chains, pens, (a branded plastic pizza cutter was one of our most popular prizes!), travel mugs, $1-$10 gift cards to McDonalds, Subway, coffee shop, etc. Our lowest value prize was a candy bar, and the winners loved it! For prizes that don’t have your brand on them, find a way to include your business card.

• Ideally, your game will draw a crowd and make a lot of noise. Not annoyingly loud, but loud enough to draw attention and generate curiosity. One of our referral partners uses a giant carnival wheel she spins for prizes. (She bought it used and it’s awesome!) It makes a distinctive clicking sound that draws people like moths to a light bulb. It’s crazy.

• If your target market is young families, do something to attract children. Bring in the kids and you bring in the parents. Things like giant balloons, a putting green, guessing games and just about any character in a costume will draw the attention of little ones.

• Decorate your space with a theme people will remember, and preferably one that aligns well to your game. Our theme was “Everyone’s a winner with Postema Insurance & Investments.” The booth was decorated with Vegas-style images, props and colors. Again, it caught attention, it was fun, and we received several nice comments from attendees.

• Staff your booth with plenty of helpers, but not so many you can’t move freely. You need enough people to manage the game, collect leads and distribute prizes quickly and efficiently, while still allowing you time and space to mingle and talk business with your visitors. If you run a one-man operation, don’t be afraid to recruit your spouse and older children to help.

• All the activity in your booth may result in a crowd of people blocking your display materials. Invest in a high-quality banner with your name and logo, and position it up high on the back wall of your space where passers-by can still see it above all the commotion.

• If you provide seating for your team, consider using bar stools rather than folding chairs. A bar stool brings you up closer to eye level with your guests. It puts you in a better power position to talk turkey, but it also makes you more approachable.

• Remember you are attending the event to get business, so go out and get it! Be outgoing. Be proactive. Don’t wait for them to come to you. Step outside your space and into the traffic flow to invite people in. When things slowed down in our booth, I stepped out in the aisle, looked people in the eye, and asked, “Hi, would you like to win an instant prize?” More often than not, that’s all it took!

• Finally, if you go through all the work to attract prospects, you must follow up immediately after the event. A call is best, but if that’s not possible, send a professional letter of introduction and include another free gift. Make it something easy to mail and educational, like a free personalized booklet or consumer guide to your product of choice. Giving more and teaching your prospects something they don’t already know builds trust and plants the seeds of reciprocity. Always include a clear, strong call to action as well.

I know a few agents that avoid community events entirely because they see them as a waste of time. I couldn’t disagree more. Like most things, you get out what you put in. Be smart. Plan ahead. Follow the suggestions above, and your time will be far from wasted. You’ll walk away with a nice list of leads you can work for weeks to come.
 

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Coaching Corner

Seal the sale using your client’s imagination!
By Dennis Postema

A DVR is an awesome timesaver, but do something different tonight: Actually watch the commercials and pay close attention.

What do they all have in common? In some way, each one tries to get you to imagine yourself using or owning the product being sold. A car commercial may encourage you to imagine life on the road. Then, a commercial for a cruise tries to evoke scenes of relaxation and sunshine in your mind.

No matter how you look at it, every commercial and every sales pitch uses the customer’s imagination, and there is good reason for it. Seeing yourself living in that new house, driving that new car or wearing that new outfit is part of the psychological buying process. If you cannot envision living a better life because of the product, you won’t buy it.

For instance, I saw a commercial for a $14 mop the other day. A mop is a pretty standard item in most households. Everyone needs one, and everyone has one. However, unless your mop breaks, odds are good you'll keep it for a very long time, and since mops are relatively inexpensive, manufacturers must sell millions just to stay in business.

So, how can they convince you to throw out your perfectly good mop and buy theirs?

​Simple; they make you imagine your life with their mop. They make the job everyone hates look so much easier and quicker with their mop. Heck, if you use theirs, you barely have to work at all, and since it cleans so well you only have to do the dreaded chore half as often as you do now.

Bingo! They piqued your interest, made you desire their better mop, and used your imagination to help seal the deal. Nifty little strategy, isn’t it?

We may be in the business of insurance instead of mops, but it works just the same. How will your client’s life change if they purchase a certain policy? Will they be less stressed knowing their loved ones will have enough money to stay in their home and go to college if the unthinkable happens? Can they retire comfortably without worrying about running out of money because they’re invested in a fixed annuity? Will they have more money to spend on their grandkids because you helped them save on their Medicare Supplement premiums?

Discover where your client’s passion or fear lies, and then use their imagination to seal the sale. This strategy works incredibly well, and if you haven’t used it yet, it’s time you try. You’ll be amazed at how quickly they say, “Yes!”

_____________________

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