The first few seconds of a sales call are incredibly important, especially when contacting car insurance leads or other valuable leads. During the first few seconds of a call, the prospect will decide whether or not to listen to the pitch and the salesperson will have to establish trust and benefit. This is often a difficult process, especially for inexperienced salespeople, but opening a sales call effectively is ultimately a simple task if the salesperson has a quality list of Internet insurance leads with accurate information.
Many salespeople dread the first few seconds of a call because of the so-called "reveal". In order to convert a lead into a sale, a salesperson needs to first explain why he or she is calling. This is the point where most leads hang up the phone, but salespeople should resist the urge to put off the reveal to avoid this moment. Many car insurance leads respond very well to a quick, straightforward approach that shows a clear benefit. For instance, starting a call with something like, "My name is Alex, and this is a sales call. I can save you 20 percent off of your current car insurance rates," might effectively keep the lead on the phone by quickly establishing the purpose of a call and giving a clear benefit. Some customers respond to this type of approach, and will appreciate that the salesperson did not try to mask the purpose of the call.
Some salespeople use detailed information from their lists of Internet insurance leads to craft their introductions. Many lead lists include information about leads' ages, incomes and other data that talented salespeople can use to craft an individualized approach to each call. The downside of this technique is that it takes some time, but it can effectively convert leads into sales. A salesperson might do some quick calculations to figure out the exact benefit of his product. With insurance leads, this generally means showing the amount of money that the customer can save by switching insurers. The salesperson can lead the call with a number, firmly establishing a benefit for the lead if the lead should decide to continue the call. Needless to say, this approach can cut down on hang-ups and extend a salesperson's average call time significantly.
Regardless of whether the salesperson uses a general or client-specific approach, he or she should establish benefit as early as possible in the call. This drastically improves the chances of a sale and can lead to big improvements in all of the salesperson's metrics. The first few seconds of a call are extremely important, but talented salespeople can use these openings to their advantage.