Dear Kally,
I’ve read your article last week on 10 steps to get my business and it makes sense to me in theory but not in my line of work. You see, I’m an insurance agent and the major part of my job is to hunt for potential leads and covert them into sales.
I am only first year into my job and I find it tiring to constantly watching out for opportunities. Even when I meet someone new for the first time, my mind will be churning out “sell him, sell him, sell him!” For the past year, I have squeeze everyone I know into buying policies from me, even digging out childhood friends’ contacts and adding them into my Facebook even though I have lost contact for many years.
This year, truth to be told, I am running out of friends to sell. Would you like to buy from me? (Just kidding)
So my point is that it is truly hard for us outbound salesmen not to push, pester and pursue any hint of potential, otherwise it’s another day wasted for us.
Any good advice?
Thank you,
Kevin T.
Hi Kevin,
Being an insurance agent is not easy, as much as it provides you with the freedom of time, a lot of discipline are required. Unlike housing agents, they tend to have a solid profile of houses to showcase on their website thus drawing in clients, you rely mainly on your efforts in networking.
From the business side of things, I would advice you not to put your status as an insurance agent right into people’s faces. It automatically creates an invisible barrier between you and the people you meet. I’m sure you have been given the advice of going out more and reaching out to network events and mingling around.
Try to be a friend first, an agent second. Meaning be genuinely interested in the person. Ask yourself this when you meet someone new, do you think you can befriend the person for life? Not just simply add the person in your social media to up your number of followers (you can purchase number of followers). Not just socialized for the sake of adding the person into your potential list of buyers. Not seeing the person as another cow you can milk. Moooo…..
Insurance is about having a safety net of savings to cash out in case of emergencies or accidents. It’s about investing extra cash for the future like your retirement funds. To put it plainly, I wouldn’t hand over my money to some cold stranger who doesn’t know me and kept showing me multiple policies for me to pump money in. It became a cash transactions. Successful agents I know will take time to know me as a person, take time to understand my living and spending habits before recommending one suitable policy. Just one! The best that suits my needs. As time grows, my needs will grow too hence I will approach you to grow my profile. Not the other way round.
Good selling is not about hit and run but it’s cultivating long-term strong relationships. Have your customers come to you instead of aggressively attacking them. You’ll just put them off. That is why I chose to stay with my agent among all the other agents out there.
That is just my two cents worth. I hope my perspective will help you to see thing differently from a customer’s point of view.
I wish you all the best.
Thank you for writing to me.
Regards, Kally@MiddleMe.net
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