Too many insurance agents are afraid of picking up the phone to call prospects.
Think of all the tools at your disposal that can help you prospect, set appointments, make sales, and do customer service. What is the first thing that popped in your mind? I’ll bet the majority of you thought of your phone.
And for good reason. This is what “Entrepreneur” said about sales and the phone:
The Internet connects everyone on this planet instantaneously. Social-media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn are being used multiple times a day to catch up on the latest news, find out what your friends are doing, get attention and to market yourself. Yet there exists one device more powerful than all of that when it comes to making and closing sales — the phone.
So, why are so many agents in the insurance industry afraid of the phone? Either they don’t understand the power it has or they suck.
How insurance agents can stop fearing the phone
Stop viewing the phone as your enemy. Instead, view every call as an opportunity to make money. Afraid your prospects don’t want you calling? Sales Force presented a poll that said 92 of customers use their phone before making a purchase.
One change you can make to alter your perspective of the phone is to divide your average commission between your average calls between sales. Then, start attributing that amount to every call made: every call you make is worth X amount of dollars.
But if you’re afraid of picking up the phone because you’re not good at it, you need to fix that.
That change only comes two ways:
- Training every day
- Calling more
Very, very few people are good at things from the jump. Their expertise came from practice and, ultimately, doing.
Therefore, you need to be finding ways every day to learn and work on your phone skills. This can come from reading, role-playing, purchasing courses, or mentorship. If you’re serious about your career and your paycheck, you’ll find a way.
To begin with, you may need to stick with a script and focus on tone and asking questions. Most veterans continue using a script because it is efficient and has effective verbiage.
If you need help with training and mentorship, Cody Askins has lots of training courses and coaching programs for insurance agents.