Customer Commitment - NextWaveMarketingStrategies.com

Have you ever spoken to a sales representative who sounded as if he or she would rather be doing anything in the world than talking to you? If so, I’m willing to bet that person did not get your business. Whether you are cold calling or following up on aged leads, your clients like to feel special. They want you to take time with them, answer their questions, and convince them that you and your company are the best people for the job.

That is why showing a commitment when sales prospecting can turn a “no” into a “yes.” Dictionary.com defines commitment as a promise, pledge, or obligation. It also refers to involvement and engagement in a process. There are several ways you can convey commitment while you are sales prospecting. Here are a few ideas:

Speak in a Warm, Friendly Voice

Smile as you speak into the phone, keep your tone even, and don’t rush to squeeze in all the information you can before the prospect ends the call. Taking deep breaths can keep the pitch of your voice low can make you sound relaxed, which will help calm your prospect as well.

Tell the Prospect Why You Are Calling

For instance, you might say something like, “I represent a new office products supply chain in town. We work with mid-sized businesses like yours to help you get significant discounts and same-day delivery.” If you are targeting this particular prospect for a reason, let him or her know that, too. “I was at the Chamber of Commerce meeting when you said you had a hard time finding cleaning services for your office. I represent ZYX Cleaning Company, and I’m sure we can help you with this issue.”

Give the Prospect a Chance to Talk

Listen carefully to what the prospect says. It’s a good idea to take notes. If the prospect raises an objection, don’t argue. Just say something neutral like, “I hear what you are saying. Tell me more” or “Yes? Go on.” Sometimes the prospect will talk him or herself into buying what you are selling without you ever having to say another word.

Ask for Appointments

Thank the prospect for taking the time to talk to you on the phone and add something like, “I’d really like to meet with you in person to show you some of the first-rate supplies we offer. Would you have time to meet for fifteen minutes or so later this week?” It’s unusual to make a sale on a first phone call, but many prospects who are even halfway interested in your product will agree to short appointments.

Don’t Forget Follow Ups

If you give up on a prospect after a couple of contacts, you could risk losing a profitable sale. Instead, schedule regular follow ups to allow the prospect to get to know you better.

If you treat each contact with enthusiasm and commitment, you’ll soon see an improvement in your sales statistics.

Sales Strategy - Next Wave Marketing Strategies

Sales guru Zig Ziglar once said that the cardinal mistake of selling was trying to close the deal too soon. Instead, he suggested that you allow enough time for trust to develop before you actually make a proposal and deliver your sales message.

Ziglar’s advice is valuable. It can help you tap into the two greatest issues that come up in cold calling: problem solving and opportunities.

Problem Solving

Some leads know very well that they are unhappy with their current products or services. Others may not even be aware that a problem exists. You can help them identify that problem by using non-threatening, open-ended questions.

One question you should ask is, “What do you like about your current provider?” This gives you valuable information about areas that are important to your prospect. For instance, if your prospect replies that the best thing about his current supplier is a fast turnaround time, you will know that any sales plan you develop most guarantee quick service.

Another question that can help identify problems is, “If you could change something about your current provider, what would you change?” Take careful note of this answer as well, because it could form the basis of any proposal you draft.

Stay in close touch with the client who has a problem, and work to build credibility and trust.

Opportunities

Opportunities are rare when you’re cold calling, but when they do come along, they’re sheer gold. An opportunity means finding a prospect who is deeply dissatisfied with his or her current services. It may also mean finding someone who is just dying to try what you have to offer. When you find an opportunity, it’s tempting to rush full speed ahead into your sales message. Try to resist this urge.

A deal that is hastily cobbled together is likely to leave both you and your customer on shaky ground. Instead, ask questions. What, exactly, displeases the prospect about his or her current provider? What would the prospect like you to do differently? What is the prospect most interested in buying?

Once you have answers to these questions, thank the prospect and set up an appointment as soon as possible. Then take all the information back to your team and put together a selection of two or three proposals that seem most suited to the prospect’s needs.

By the time you have your appointment with the prospect, you should be ready to hit the proverbial home run.

If your only focus is on making a sale, you may be seen as insincere by prospects. Instead, make your presentations about discovering the prospects problems and reacting swiftly to opportunities.

Warm Sales Message - Next Wave Marketing Strategies

Is your glass half empty or half full? Do you see the murky gray cloud or the shimmering silver lining? Are you a happy person or a sad person?

You may think that the answers to these questions affect only your personal life, but according to Shawn Achor, CEO of Good Think, Inc. you’re wrong. Achor has spent more than a decade researching the science of happiness and he has discovered several interesting bits of knowledge.

Happiness Is a Choice

This does not ignore our basic brain chemistry. Some of us are pre-programmed to look for the negative first, last, and always. Achor sees happiness as a habit that can be developed, or a weak muscle that can be made strong with daily exercises.

We Have Single-Processor Brains

Our brains tend to believe and act upon what they see first. If the first thing they see is a negative, that impression sticks with them, and we respond as if the entire situation were distasteful. By the same token, a brain that first absorbs the positive won’t have the time or the space to process negative. The happy brain is an open, welcoming brain that can always see the best possible outcome.

Happy Brains and Sales

Achor’s research shows that a happy and engaged corporate culture can increase its productivity by 31%, its accuracy on difficult tasks by 19%, and its sales by a whopping 37%.

An optimistic, cheerful orientation can make tasks like cold calling and slowly working your way through the sales process much easier. Instead of thinking of cold calling as a nuisance, for instance, you might come to view it as an opportunity to help the person you’re contacting and make his or her life better. By the same token, you might view a long sales process as your chance to build a rapport with the potential customer.

But My Company Is Not a Happy Place…

More and more employers are realizing the benefits of enacting policies and trainings that encourage employee happiness. If your employer hasn’t yet jumped on the bandwagon, though, it doesn’t mean that you are doomed to misery. You could find a job at a firm that is more dedicated to teaching employees to look for the good in every situation.

You could also use simple mental exercise techniques to train yourself to be a happier person. This is actually the better of the two options; whether you work for the best boss in the world or the worst, the decision to face each day with happiness and optimism is a personal one.

You can read more information about Shawn Achor’s work and his exercises to help grow your “happy muscle” at http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/19/opinion/happiness-success-achor/index.html

Life Insurance Leads - NextWaveMarketingStrategies.com

A little background about myself before I start.  I’ve been selling life insurance over the phone full time as an independent life insurance agent for over 6 years now.  I’ve been buying aged life insurance leads from Aged Lead Store for the last 14 months and they are consistently turning a much higher ROI than any other lead source.

Other agents ask me what it takes to be successful in working aged life insurance leads.  Here are the 3 key components to achieving success working aged life insurance leads:

1.  Use a Dialer

Selling life insurance over the phone is a contact sport.  The more contacts you make, the more sales you’ll make.  This is especially true with aged life insurance leads.  95% of the people you connect with on the phone aren’t interested.  That’s to be expected and it’s part of working aged data.  It’s that remaining 5% that makes it all worth it.

With a dialer, you more than quadruple your calls and get to that 5% much quicker.

Don’t even think about buying aged life insurance leads if you don’t invest in a dialer.  These run from $90-$150 per month with no long term contracts and unlimited use.

2.  Buy enough leads.

I’ll go out on a limb and say that I’ve written more life insurance premium off of aged leads  than any other agent.

You want to know the crazy part?  I app out an average of .8% of my aged life insurance leads.   That’s right, .8%.  Sounds low doesn’t it?  Sometimes it’s more, sometimes it’s less – but that’s the average.  Even at .8% there are HUGE profits.

That means out of 1,000 leads, I send 8 applications out.  Out of those 8 applications, I’ll get paid on just above 60% of them.  Lets do the math using 1,000 aged leads.

1,000 aged leads 31-85 days old:   $1000
8 applications ($900 average AP): $7200
Place 5 policies: $4500 AP
Avg Commission 90%:  $4050

$4050 commissions earned – $1000 lead cost = Total profit: $3050
I made $3 profit for every $1 I spent and that gets even better in case of bulk discount pricing.

Keep in mind, you can work 2,000-4,000 leads per month EASILY.

I’m sharing this statistic with you to show you WHY it’s important to buy enough leads.  You can’t make a livable income buying 1,000 leads or less (unless you have other marketing in place).  Especially when you factor in that  you’re only receiving 75% of that commission up front, charge backs will happen and it takes on average 8 weeks to receive a commission after you submit an application.

You also need to buy enough leads because of variance.  Sometimes you’ll send out 10+ applications per 1,000 leads and sometimes you’ll send out 3.  So what happens if you buy a batch of 1,000 leads and you only submit 3 applications?  It happens to the best agents – it’s just variance.

That’s the mistake most agents make.  They don’t buy enough leads and hit the low end of variance and chalk it up as a failed effort and move on to the next lead source.

That’s why I recommend buying 2,000 aged leads to start.  Call through the list at least 5 times (with your dialer) and you’ll see the power of working aged life insurance leads.  The real secret is buying in bulk.

Something to keep in mind, after you buy a total of 5,000 leads through Aged Lead Store, your cost per lead goes down from $1 to $.75 (31-85 day old leads).  Now your ROI is even BETTER!

3.  Have a system in place and work it every day.

Agents who have worked aged life insurance leads and failed NEVER created and stuck to a system.  Many think if they called the leads a couple times whenever they felt like it, they should be successful.  That’s not the case.

Before you even start calling aged life insurance leads, develop a “plug and play” system.  Work this system every day and you’ll see great results.

Start with:

• Committing to 3-4 hours a day on the dialer M-F.  If you can’t make a time commitment, then wait until you can.
• Developing a script and don’t stray from it. Say the same things over and over and own it.  I’ve been saying the same thing for over a year.
• Use a CRM to keep in contact with people you’ve spoken with that didn’t buy just yet.   You’ll be speaking with A LOT of people.  Don’t let them slip through the cracks.

Also, I use technology where I submit a one page online life insurance application for over 60 life insurance companies and my processing team takes care of the exam, application and underwriting with no reduction in compensation.  So as soon as I make a sale, I move on to the next one – no follow up needed!  This single handedly freed up 2-3 hours in my day.  Anyone can use it, click here to sign up.

Selling life insurance over the phone with aged leads isn’t for everyone.  It takes a disciplined agent who can commit to 3-4 hours a day on the dialer.  Everything else can be learned.

Bottom Line.  Purchase a dialer seat, buy enough leads and work the same system every day and you’ll write more life insurance than you ever have.

Prospecting Tips - Next Wave Marketing Strategies

It’s Tuesday afternoon when Tom’s boss finds him staring sadly at the telephone on his desk. “I’m supposed to be making follow up calls,” Tom admitted. “I hate doing that. It just makes me feel so…pushy.”

While many people can understand Tom’s sentiments about making follow up calls, the truth is that they are an important part of the sales process and that most customers do not find them annoying or believe that the salesperson who makes them is being “pushy.”

There are several important ways that follow up calls can help your agency turn an on-the-fence prospect to a committed buyer.

1. You get to know the prospect better with each additional contact.

If you came across the prospect while cold calling or responding to Internet-generated insurance leads, you may not have known very much about them when you placed that first call. Each subsequent contact gives you a little more information about their organization’s goals and needs. The more information you have, the more you’ll be able to target your sales pitch to the unique set of circumstances faced by each prospect.

2. Additional contacts can make the prospect feel important and cared about.

This is especially true if your prospects are Internet insurance leads. Research has shown that a quick first contact followed by lead nurturing is the sales process most likely to convert a prospect into a customer, but many companies drop the ball by not providing any follow up. Some don’t even make that initial critical first call. Even if a prospect isn’t ready to buy insurance from you, it’s still nice for him to know that you are interested in his or her issues. When and if the prospect does decide to join a new insurance plan, he or she will naturally think of the one that has been providing follow up all along.

3. Follow up sets you apart from the crowd.

Suppose you opened the paper today and saw that a company you had tried cold calling last week had won a national award for excellence. You can capitalize on this opportunity by sending a hand-written card to your prospect congratulating him and his company, reminding the prospect of your earlier conversation, and asking him or her to keep you in mind for any insurance needs. How many of your competitors do you suppose will go to all that trouble?

If you’re still a little dubious about follow up calls as an integral part of making sales, you might want to invest in some CRM software which can remind you when follow up calls or do and even automatically send follow up letters and emails.

The important thing to remember about following up with prospects is that you’re not being a nuisance; you are monitoring their ongoing needs and offering vital services.

Sales Conferencing Software - Next Wave Marketing Strategies

Gas prices are going up, and security measures at airports are making travel more time-consuming and less convenient. Rather than send your sales staff on expensive road trips to meet customers, it might make more sense for you to use a sales conferencing program which would allow your sales team to engage in real-time online interactions with clients. There are at least four online meeting packages which you may wish to consider.

MegaMeeting

This Internet-based tool is especially designed for marketing purposes. You can use MegaMeeting for a virtual face-to-face interaction with your clients that allows you to address any questions or concerns and to introduce new products or services. MegaMeeting is browser-based, which means your customers don’t have to worry about downloading a program to enable them to interact with you. You can choose service packages that can accommodate anywhere from two participants to more than 100 participants. Prices are available by request.

Go to Meeting

This package is designed for small groups. Among other things, you can use it for qualifying leads, providing online demos and presentations, and reviewing sales agreements. A flat fee gets you an unlimited number of calls each month, with up to 15 participants taking part in each call. Participants can join the call from their computers, iPads, iPhones or Androids. Go to Meeting costs $49/month.

Fuze Meeting

This package uses cloud-based technology to allow participants to share and work together on several different kinds of content including videos. Fuze Meeting offers two levels of services. For $49/month, you can host calls with up to 45 participants. You will pay extra to get a toll free number, but there is no charge for event recording. The $69/month package allows up to 100 participants per call webinars, multi-party video conferencing, and site branding.

InterCall

Intercall allows you to securely share videos and applications to help your customers get the most use out of your products or services. If your sales staff does most of their work in the field, InterCall is especially helpful because it can be initiated from an Android, Blackberry, or iPhone. For $42/month, you can hold unlimited online meetings with a maximum of 20 participants at each meeting. This service does charge extra if you want to record the call.

Sales conferencing technology can save your company money and keep your sales staff in the office. Take a look at the different programs available and select the one that best meets your agency’s needs.

The Gunslinger

The Gunslinger is a hosted predictive dialer that doesn’t require the purchase of any software or equipment. Running on broadband, it leaves your phone lines free for other calls. The predictive dialer can make calls on as many as 35 lines per agent. This means you reach more prospects than ever before and increase your opportunity of making sales. Perhaps best of all, the Gunslinger is easy to use. Training, which is free and readily available, usually only lasts about an hour.

The Sharpshooter

The sharpshooter is a tool that captures Internet leads and places a return call to the prospect within seconds – well within the “golden hour,” or the first hour after a query is received. If the Sharpshooter is unable to reach the prospect by phone, it will automatically send text and email messages inviting the prospect to call you.

The Sharpshooter is an especially useful piece of sales automation, because other technologies that handle Internet leads generally transfer all leads to the sales department after a single attempt at contact. The Sharpshooter retains ownership of the lead until some form of initial contact has been achieved. This removes the burden of follow up from your already busy agents and ensures lead penetration of close to 100%.

The GoldRush

When you sell insurance, there are many steps that must be followed before you can close the deal. If the prospect slips through the cracks at any point in this process, all bets are off and you will have nothing to show for the time you spent nurturing the lead. You can trust GoldRush to manage each step of the process and ensure that leads do not escape you at this critical stage. You can also use GoldRush to generate helpful reports that will allow you to see where leads are in each stage of the sales funnel. These reports will also allow you to see trends like bottlenecks that might indicate problems before they become a customer relations nightmare.

SalesTechnologies.com is so confident that their services will improve your conversion rate that they are offering a free trial to professionals who are serious about building and expanding their agencies. This means you can try the service risk-free while you make sure that it meets the needs of you and your staff. Talk about a can’t lose scenario!

Best of all they are one of the cheapest major dialers out there and likely the best value of them all.
Give them a call today and ask for Bob Dicesare and tell him Troy at Next Wave sent you.

Increase 2012 Sales - NextWaveMarketingStrategies.com

The year 2011, with its uncertain economy, mortgage crises, and credit crunches left many salespeople feeling burned out. “Why should I even try?” they asked. “Nobody’s buying insurance these days.”

But that was 2011, and this is 2012. Start the New Year with a positive attitude as well as several ideas for turning prospects into valued customers.

Overhaul Your Sales Process

A lot of leads never become customers because they somehow slipped through the cracks and received little or no follow-up. Some never even received an initial contact from a member of the sales team. Starting today, find a way to keep track of all of your leads and the contacts you’ve had with them. Some people prefer to do this with pen and paper, others prefer CRM software. Whatever your approach, remember that it usually takes people at least seven contacts before they make a buying decision. Make sure your sales process provides that level of lead nurturing.

Set Action-Oriented Goals

Outcome-oriented goals such as, “I want to increase my sales by ten percent this year,” can be difficult to achieve because, although you can perfect your sales approach, you can’t force a client to buy from you. Instead of focusing on an outcome over which you have only limited control, set action-oriented productivity goals that are under your control. Examples include, “I will make 20 cold calls every day over the next month,” or “I will send emails to new prospects within an hour of receiving the referral.”

Renew Your Motivation

When conversions are slow, it’s easy to lose some of your motivation and enthusiasm. Renew your commitment by thinking about the ways in which the products and services you offer benefit your clients. It may also help to read testimonials of satisfied customers. Getting back in touch with the positive aspects of your job can help your productivity soar.

Know Your Products and Services Inside and Out

Learning about the wide range of products and services available to your customers can help you make a sale. For instance, when a customer complains that a product is out of his or her price range, you can think through the options and offer them a scaled-down package at a more affordable price. Rather than argue with the customers about their reasons for saying no, you can come up with a plan that makes them comfortable saying yes.

Ask for the Sale

This is a step many salespeople leave out because they are uncomfortable or don’t want to appear pushy; however, it’s important for you to take the lead, since your prospect has no idea what the next step in the process should be. There’s nothing wrong with saying something like, “Now that you’ve reviewed our proposal, I’d really like to get you enrolled in this plan as soon as possible. Would you like to start today?”

Like 2011, the year 2012 is bound to have its challenges and setbacks, but if you focus on making your sales process as strong as it can be, you can weather the storms and finish the year feeling proud of what you have accomplished.

That is why it makes sense to use a multi touch sales process. A multi touch sales process involves making contact with a prospect multiple times as well as using multiple methods of communication such as an e-mail campaign, follow up calls, direct mail, text messages, and voicemails. The multi touch process can be effective whether your sales staff is cold calling or warm calling.

Multi Touch Sales Process - Next Wave Marketing Strategies

Stage 1: Intro Call and E-Mail

If you are cold calling, your first contact with a prospect is likely to be a brief phone conversation. If the prospect sounds interested, send him or her a follow up e-mail highlighting the benefits of your insurance plans and providing your contact information so that the prospect can easily reach you with questions. This intro call and e-mail marks the beginning of your sales process.

Stage 2: Follow Up and Nurturing

Over the next several weeks, follow up with the prospect on a scheduled basis. An e-mail campaign is an efficient method of follow up, allowing you to easily send additional information about your programs. When you use e-mail, you can also gauge your prospect’s interest by checking to see whether he or she is opening the emails and clicking on the links provided.

In addition to sending a series of e-mails, you should also make follow up calls, leaving voicemails if necessary. Your goal, of course, is to attempt to engage the prospect directly so you can assess whether or not he or she remains interested in purchasing insurance from your organization.

In many cases, stage 2 ends with a sale.

Stage 3: Final Call and Voicemail

There are times when a prospect is simply not ready to make a purchase or, for whatever reason, does not want to make a purchase from your company. At some point, he or she may ask to be removed from your contact list. Alternatively, you may realize that you are making no progress and decide to move on to other, more promising leads.

Making a courteous final call and voicemail leaves the door open is the prospect becomes ready to buy from you in the future. In your final voicemail, thank the prospect for his or her time and remind the prospect that you and your organization are available to answer questions or to help in any other way.

It’s a hard fact that you won’t convert every lead no matter what sales process you use, but Business Acceleration Strategies found that using the multi touch method can increase a company’s sales by more than 200%. The more chances you give customers to buy from you, the more likely it is they will take you up on one of those chances.

Top Mobile Apps for Sales Teams - NextWaveMarketingStrategies.com

When you send your sales agents out into the field, you want to be sure that they have all the equipment they need to do their jobs. While this kind of technology used to mean hauling a laptop everywhere, much of it is now accessible via smart phone. These five apps can help your agents when they are away from the office.

Touch Base with GoToMeeting

GoToMeeting allows your staff to conduct an entire meeting online or to join a live meeting in progress. State of the art technology allows them to watch presentations and view reports as if they were there…without the added expense of bringing them in from the field. GoToMeeting does not currently work with BlackBerry.

CamCard Lite.

During an evening of networking, business cards are annoyingly easy to misplace. Even if you hang onto them, by the time you get into the office the next morning, you’ve often forgotten why you thought that person was an important contact. CamCard Lite allows you to read cards immediately and save the contact information. It also allows you to group your different contacts in ways that will make it easy for you to follow up with them. The service costs $6.99, but there is a free trial available. It works with all smart phones including Android and BlackBerry.

DocScan

Do you need to get that signed contract to the office right away? Don’t drive miles out of your way. Instead, scan the document and email it to the person who needs it. If you use Googledocs or Dropbox, you can also upload them to these programs. DocScan is available to i-Phone and iPad users only.

Apple’s Keynote

This handy application allows you to bring sales presentations with you on your phone. You can view and edit presentations in both Keynote 09 and MS PowerPoint. When you’re ready to start your speech, simply plug your phone into a projector and HDTV and watch the images appear. As the name suggests, Apple’s Keynote works only with the i-Phone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Customer Relationship Managements Apps

There are many different applications that can help you manage your relationships with customers. Most of them allow you to keep track of client contacts and follow up on leads while in the field. You can also communicate with sales staff in the office who can help you meet the needs of your customer right away.

Whether you have an Android, an i-Phone, or a BlackBerry, there are several applications that you can use to help you keep track of meetings, important documents, potentially valuable contacts, and client information. Use the technology available today to stay a step ahead of your competitors.