One of our hardworking agents, who we’ll call Max for the sake of privacy, is a one-of-a-kind agent. The kind that sells 10 policies before meeting you for lunch. The kind that closes deals during in-between times. While on vacation.
It’s not often we get to pick the brain of a rockstar agent like this, but Max was graciously willing to give us a glimpse at his work process.
And it turns out that cold calling is Max’s secret weapon.
For Max, cold calling is the only way to reach enough people to hit such a high production goal.
He says, “You can talk to way more people on the phone and actually qualify people over the phone. You don't have to waste time talking to people on employer group plans, Medicare Advantage plans or Medicaid. Yes, you can still help some of these people, but it's not a good use of your time.”
Because Max pre-qualifies people over the phone, he’s able to do more volume in sales. His typical work week consists of 15-20 qualified appointments.
Emphases on qualified.
Max finds out the following information before ever setting a qualified appointment:
Max explains, “This is how you write over $500,000 in new Med Supp premium two years in a row. Not to mention cross-selling around $150,000 in final expense premium.”
Each week is carefully planned to make sure that by the weekend, Max has reached his sales goals for the week.
On Mondays, he sets up 7-10 qualified appointments for Tuesday.
On Wednesday, he sets up 7-10 qualified appointments for Thursday.
Friday is usually an office day.
When Max does the Monday/Wednesday cold calling, he says it takes about 3-5 hours to set those 7-10 qualified appointments.
Since Tuesday and Thursdays are appointment days, Max has to make sure he carefully manages his time to close as many sales as possible.
Appointments are set every hour, with some being every half hour.
Max explains, “No appointment should ever take longer than an hour.”
As of January 2018, Max has about 1,300 clients.
He uses AgencyBloc as his CRM, which helps him manage all of these clients, though he says he could really use an assistant at this point in his career.
AgencyBloc helps Max do annual reviews with his clients, which he does when they have a rate increase.
Max says that he doesn’t spend any time on thank you, Christmas, or holiday cards, which helps to save him time. “I hardly ever lose a client to another agent. The key is always checking your clients premium to make sure they aren't paying too much.”
How does cold calling compare to door knocking?
For Max, cold calling is the way to go. When comparing cold calling to door knocking, Max explains that door knocking can be a great way for new agents to learn how to run appointments and gain some experience. But for him, he knows he couldn’t reach that $500k mark by door knocking.
He says, “The only time I would ever recommend door knocking is if you have down time between appointments or on Saturdays. Spending a whole day door knocking is a waste of a day for experienced agents.”
He continues, “I've done both door knocking and cold calling. I've made plenty of sales off door knocking. I will still door knock if I have down time while running appointments. But if you want to be a superstar agent, then you better learn how to cold call. Plus, who wants to be out door knocking when its really hot, freezing cold, snowing, or raining?”
At the end of the day, Max has found what works for him.