|
What’s The Best Way To
Get Started Selling Annuities?
(Or, Increase Your Annuity
Leads, Appointments and Sales?)
Dear ~Contact.FirstName~,
What’s
The Best Way To Get Started Selling Annuities?
That’s the question we’re asked almost every day
by the agents and advisors who want to start
selling annuities. (Or, want to increase their
annuity sales) It’s a simple enough question,
with a very complicated answer!
There are
many great, proven annuity lead generation
systems out there to help you get started in the
annuity marketplace. There are some very good,
reputable marketing companies (FMO, IMO) and
insurance companies that offer annuity sales
systems using Direct Mail, Post Cards, Newspaper
Ads, Social Security Seminars, Free Reports,
Booklets, and the list goes on and on. Or, you
can buy Internet annuity leads, preset annuity
appointments, etc.
The great
part is that by using the above annuity lead
generation systems or purchasing annuity leads
you can have more leads than you’ll ever need.
All it takes is a little or a lot of money.
Many of you
are probably saying to yourself: “Now wait
just a minute, I’ve tried many of the above
methods and the leads we got weren’t any good!”
Now, that is
why we said the question is simple, and the
answer is very complicated!
You’re
right! Most of the insurance agents and
financial advisors who use the above annuity
leads aren’t getting the appointments and
annuity sales results they expected, need and
want. However, for the most part, it isn’t a
problem with the annuity leads.
You may not
want to hear this, but in most cases the annuity
leads are fine. It is just that you weren’t
taught a simple way to turn those leads into
high-quality appointments and then how to close
annuity sales from them.
We can sight
example after example of insurance agents and
financial advisors who have tried annuity
seminars or annuity leads systems from XYZ
Company and had no success with them. And yet,
there are agents and advisors who swear by those
same seminars and lead systems. And, they are
collecting millions of dollars of annuity
premiums every year using those leads.
We can also
sight example, after example, of agents and
advisors who were struggling with their annuity
leads and by making some minor changes to their
approach and their sales interview, they are now
earning $25,000 to $80,000 per month.
Here are two
real life examples of people who made some minor
changes:
Example:
Agent ‘A’ was doing annuity seminars and earning
about $5,000-$7,000 per month after expenses. He
had 35 people at each of his seminars (20 buying
units) and was setting appointments with 25-35%
of the attendees. He was closing 25-35% of the
sales appointments. Generally, he was getting
one or two sales per seminar.
Without
changing how he got people to attend his annuity
seminar, and without changing the actual annuity
seminar PowerPoint presentation, he was able to
increase his appointments to 70-90% of the
attendees, and close 70-90% of those
appointments. In one month he went from earning
$5,000-$7,000 per month after expenses, to
earning $30,000 per month after expenses.
A year later
he was earning $50,000 to $60,000 per month.
“Over the last two weeks I have been holding
seminars. Appointment results from the first in
my series were lower than normal in the past at
just 25% (I normally will get 40% to 60%). After
speaking with you and implementing some of your
tips, my results exploded to 90% for the next
and 75% for the 3rd seminar! I am amazed that
using the same presentation and only asking a
few simple questions could transform my
appointment request ratio so much.”
Example:
Agent ‘B’ was working annuity leads. Generally
he was closing 25% of his annuity sales
appointments. Without changing his leads or his
annuity sales presentation he started closing
70% of his annuity appointments.
“The
first day after reading some of Lew's ideas on
presenting and closing sales, I closed 3 out of
3 appointments. I ended up closing 5 out of 7
appointments for $350,000 for the week (all were
one call closes). I made some slight changes in
my overall approach that produced immediate
results.”
So, what
made the big difference in these two examples?
These agents learned to stop telling prospects
what they should do during the annuity seminar
and sales appointment. Instead they started
helping the prospects to "sell themselves on
what they should do." Consider, if you tell
the prospect something, they may or may not
believe you. Remember, in their eyes you are
just another salesperson trying to make a sale.
If you want to set more appointments from your
leads and sell most of the people you meet with,
then you have to get your prospects to "tell
themselves" why this works, why it's
important, and why they should take action --
now. And, that's about you asking more and
better questions.
For example,
when most financial advisors are talking to
retirees they assume that if the prospect has a
CD, then they are unhappy with the interest rate
they are getting... So they might ask: “Do
you have money in CD’s?” If the client says
yes, then most advisors jump right in and say:
“I can show you how you can get a much better
return.” The advisor then goes on to tell
the prospect about a great new product or idea
they have to make them more money. The prospect
automatically says: “Let me think about it!”
Why?
Because no one likes to be sold!
If you want
to set more appointments and close more sales,
then start helping
prospects to identify their own
problems and then help them to come up
with their own solutions!
Example...
Agent:
“Mr. Prospect, if you don’t mind me asking,
do you have any of your money in CDs?”
Prospect:
“Yes.”
Agent:
“Are you happy with the interest rate you’re
getting?”
Prospect:
“It could be better. But it’s Ok. I like the
safety and guarantees. And I can get at the
money when I need it.”
Agent:
“If you don’t mind me asking, are you using
that money for an income?”
Prospect:
“Yes.”
Agent:
“Are you using any of the principal?”
Prospect:
“Yes!”
Agent:
“How do you feel about that?”
Prospect:
“It’s a problem, we’re afraid we won’t have
enough money.”
(More
discussion and questions about running out of
money)
Agent:
“Does your current income allow you to do
everything you’d like to do?”
Prospect:
“No, it would be better if I had more
income?”
Agent:
“If you had more income what would you like to
do?”
Prospect:
“I like to visit more with my grandchildren.”
Agent:
“If we could come up with a way to get the
income you need, so you can visit you’re
grandchildren, without digging into the
principal and have the same safety and
guarantees as a CD, would that be better for
you? ”
Prospect:
“Can you do that?”
Agent:
“From what I see here I think with you and I
working together we can do it.”
Can you see the
difference? We’ve helped the prospect
to identify their problems and we're working
with the prospect to help them come up with
their own solutions.
Is there any
question that you will have a much better chance
of getting the prospect to move their money to
you... If the prospect is in fact selling
themselves?
Now, are the
two above advisor success stories just flukes?
No! We can
sight over 50 similar results for agents and
advisors we've worked with, just in the past
year. Some saw spectacular results practically
overnight and for others it took 6 months or
more to see the same results. It all depends on
the experience level of the agent or advisor and
how open they are to making changes.
And, of
course there are always a few agents and
advisors who believe they are already great
sales people and don’t believe they need any
help with the questioning techniques. They still
believe all of their problems are the result of
poor quality leads.
By the way, these questioning techniques work
for whatever you are selling… whether you are
selling life insurance, investments, final
expense, mortgage insurance or carpets!
If you want
to quickly increase your appointments and your
sales, then you must get better at asking
questions (and listening).
So how do
you learn this questioning technique? You can
learn by trial and error or you can invest in a
reputable sales trainer. Make sure it is someone
who has actually sold insurance themselves!
Let’s
consider for a moment, most agents are getting
10-20 sales leads per week and only setting 2-4
sales appointments. They are lucky if they close
one sale per week, which is barely covering the
cost of the leads. Is it worth investing a few
dollars, so you can get to can set eight or
more appointments per week from your current
leads and close 5 or 6 sales per week?
It’s up to
you. You can keep searching and wasting your
hard earned money trying to find the ultimate
lead generation system or a company that has the
best leads. Or, you can invest in yourself and
learn to ask better questions to get the most
out of your current leads.
Jeremy & Alex
'The 9 Out Of 10 Guys'
Marketing and Sales Coaches
_____________________
We are here to help you, please drop us a
comment on our blog or
visit our Facebook page! |
.jpg)
