Cold calling is making a call, sending email or trying to chat in person to someone who hasn't asked you or given you permission to contact them. This is also called "unsolicited" outreach or "interruption" marketing.
Cold calling is part of the job when you’re a life insurance producer.
Whether you’re a seasoned pro or have a few years under your belt, it’s important to be constantly improving your sales skills.
Grant Cardone and Ken Krogue are two of the biggest names in sales for a reason: They rock the cold call. And they’re sharing tips with hungry life insurance producers like you who want to sell more.
Grant Cardone’s advice
Here’s an overview of Grant Cardone’s best cold-calling tips:
- Attitude. Ninety percent of your success in life is based on your attitude. Every time you talk to a prospect on the phone, make sure your head is in the right space.
- Belief. Don’t believe in what you’re selling? Don’t even hold your own life insurance policy? You’ll be hard-pressed to win prospects over if you don’t believe in your own product.
- Persist. One call is generally not enough to close the deal. Cardone recommends being persistent and calling repeatedly until the prospect is ready to buy.
- Claim. Offer prospects a “monster claim,” which should be a definitive solution to their problems. It should also be something that competitors can’t match and your prospect won’t be able to ignore.
- Gains and losses. It’s normal to be nervous before a sales call. But Cardone advises you to remember that you have everything to gain on that one call – and nothing to lose – so go for it!
- Value. Regardless of the cost of your product, you have to believe in its value and that what you’re offering prospects is ultimately THE best value around. You have to first convince yourself that the value you have to offer is beyond what anyone else can and is worth the extra cost. Then you can convince prospects of that premise, too.
- Respect. Respect goes a long way on a cold call, but it’s easy to lose that respect when you’ve been on the phone all day – and haven’t sold anything. Treat every call like the first and give prospects the respect they deserve.
- Diversify. You shouldn’t depend on one call to do it all. So keep your chin up by diversifying your expectations. You’ll be disappointed and you’re going to be rejected. But one unsuccessful cold call does not a salesman make! You’ll have to be on lots of calls to drive success. So take each one in stride.
Ken Krogue’s cold-calling tips
Ken Krogue’s cold-calling success tips piggyback on Cardone’s savvy advice.
Be sure that:
- Your calls are timely. You should connect with a lead within five minutes of receiving their information.
- Be persistent. The average salesperson will call a lead 1.3 times and then give up. But research shows that you should attempt to call a lead six times to have a 90 percent chance of making a connection.
- Time it right. The best time of day to call a prospect will vary by industry, but you should generally reach out early in the day or at the end of the day.
- Choose your day. There are optimal times of day to call and ideal days of the week to reach out. Krogue recommends avoiding making calls on Tuesdays but Wednesdays and Thursdays are ideal.
- Do your research. If you’re cold-calling professionals at their place of work, don’t be lazy and dial the receptionist. You’ll get better results by looking for their direct-dial number.
Be a life insurance producer who nails cold calls
Cold calling isn’t dead.
It should be part of your sales strategy. And if you do it right, you can really drive results.
Take these tips to heart and implement them as part of your cold-calling process.
Where do you struggle most with cold calling?
