Cold Calling Accountability Thread

My "Dialing for Dollars" Accountability Journal

***Disclaimer***: Although I don't sell web/tech based stuff like many of you do, I figured sharing my successful experience cold calling and getting business with you would be motivational. Also, knowing my weaknesses, I need the accountability to work through the calls so I can actually make a success of this. I appreciate the free-flow of information, motivation, and positive attitude that's here, and want to participate in my own way.

(Also, if there's a forum dedicated to this, please feel free to direct this thread to it).

***What I Do: I sell burial insurance and Medicare Supplement insurance to folks 50+.

My primary method of marketing has relied upon direct mail with decent success; however, for various reasons, it has become less reliable and more frustrating of a medium to prospect in.

I gave cold calling a "try," meaning I did it for close to 5 hours, gave up, and now realized I quit way too early. I did generate a decent lead out of it - was COMPLETELY nervous about doing the whole thing, but actually quit because I was *bored* -- go figure!

However, after reading through several cold calling success threads in this forum, I've decided to truly commit to cold calling in order to fill my prospect funnel.

***My Plan - I will be targeting 67-78 year olds in search of a handful of Medicare Supplement holders who are fed up with price increases on their insurance and are emotionally motivated to save money (typically $300-$700 a year). So I will be leading with my MedSup product (although if it were possible to lead with both MedSup and life insurance, I would prefer that route).

***Goal For Each Call - Primary is to set an appointment with a pre-qualified client (defined as someone whose health qualifies for the product, who understands around how much they'll save, and I've "trial-closed" on moving forward within the next 30 days). My secondary goal is to build a database of prospects to work down the line when rates go up on their Insurance.

I am using a power dialer (Mojo) that dials 3 lines at a time. Conservatively, I should be able to average 30 people spoken to each hour.

I figure in a 10- to 12-hour time slot, I should be able to *talk* to 250-300 people per day. I plan on doing 2 prospecting days like this and meeting face-to-face with this fine folks 2 or 3 days a week, so my goal is to talk to at least 500 people weekly; more would be nice.

I am loosely modeling the prospecting activity approach based on the "500 Day War" at another forum (The 500 day war (for rookies) | WealthManagement.com) as well as the concepts espoused notable cold callers on this forum to just DO something, as opposed to worrying about whether or not it's perfect.

***My Expectations - My hope is to close 1 person out of every 100, on average AFTER talking to 500 people. Of course, I hope it's better than that, but I'm trying to be realistic. The reason I failed cold calling before is that my expectations were too rigid for a neophyte caller - I expected to close 1 out of 50 contacts. I probably only did about 125-150 before quitting, not nearly enough to establish an accurate expectation OR experience success.

That would net me 5 new clients a week, of which I might be able to cross sell burial insurance to 1, maybe 2, of them, to increase my commission.

***My Script - I'm keeping it very simple. If someone gives me resistance, they're canned. I just want clients who are sick and tired of paying so much money for their Medicare insurance. The script is as follows:

"Hi - Is Mr. or Mrs. Jones in? This is Hank Rearden with Mutual of Omaha; I'm calling because we recently sent you some information about a new, low-cost Medicare Supplement insurance program, as well as some information on burial insurance. Would you like to learn more about how these programs might benefit you?"

If they say "No," canned. They say "Yes," then I ask them what their current situation is like - are they on Medicare (always a yes), what MedSupp they have, what they're paying, how they feel about the price, mention fixed income. Basic fact-finding stuff.

Then I'll pose a question (my trial close), "Mrs. Jones, now that I understand your situation (reiterate her pain points), let me ask you a question, and PLEASE feel free to tell me NO. If you could get the same EXACT coverage, if not BETTER Medicare Insurance coverage, that gives you all the same benefits - see the same doctors, go to same hospitals, etc. - AND you could save $500 a year... this wouldn't be anything you'd be interested in, right?"

No, canned. Yes - qualify on health, then close for the appointment. Anything in between, push hard to clarify, and move quickly to dump them.

From my perspective, if they don't buy the concept (saving money on Medicare insurance while retaining same quality of coverage), there's no reason to pitch them.

A couple of questions:

1) I'd like to lead with both Medicare Supplements and Life Insurance on the opening call. General consensus is to lead with ONLY one product. What do you pros think? I could easily slide in "Life Insurance" into the introduction. I'm just thinking I could generate a little more interest if I mention both without sounding wordy.
2) I'm truly an insurance broker with many contracts - I am appointed with Mutual of Omaha and mention I'm with them because most seniors have heard of this company and have been pounded with their mail for years - there was somewhat of a credibility gap the last time I cold called (who are you with?), so I figure mentioning Mutual of Omaha will bridge that, and reminding them about all the mail they've gotten (and thrown away) should allow them to open up to more of a conversation.
3) Cold-callers - how have you/your team set up blocks of calling? Do you take a break every 50 minutes? How do you pace yourself to reach your contact goal?


First day of cold-calling will be Monday. Goal is a minimum of 250 contacts (people I actually speak to).

In addition to the questions I posed, I'm always open to any and all constructive criticism. Look forward to sharing my success with you.