Calling car insurance leads can be challenging, but it's the most important part of a salesperson's job. Talking to leads can be most of a salesperson's day, but many salespeople fail to improve their techniques over time. This results in wasted leads, time, and money. Here's a look at a few great techniques for talking to leads over the phone.
First of all, develop a strong opening line. This is arguably the most important part of a sales call. Talking to leads will become much easier if you can break the ice; try using a bit of humor and be frank about the fact that you're making a sales call. Saying a simple line like "hello, my name is X and I'm interrupting you to sell you car insurance," may seem a bit up front, but with the right intonation this can be an effective tactic. Insurance leads will often appreciate the honesty, and if you're able to move quickly and smoothly into your pitch, you can keep them on the line long enough to land a sale. This ties in to a second important technique for talking to leads: keeping them on the line. If a lead keeps talking to you, you've got a chance to sell. You'll only lose that opportunity when they hang up, so keep talking and keep the conversation interesting. Offer to call the lead back when the phone call ends.
To fully develop strong sales skills, you should keep notes on every call that you make. If possible, record them. You'll begin selling to more insurance leads if you can spot and eliminate the weaknesses in your calls, and this can be hard to do from practice alone. Keep detailed notes, and refine your approach during every single call. Never make a sales call without a clear plan. Talking to leads requires a lot of finesse, and you'll only develop your skills with hard work and careful monitoring of things like wording, tone, and call length.
Finally, use any information you can get about your leads when talking with them. If your lead supplier provides information on the type of car that the lead drives, combine it with address information to figure a quote early in the call and use this quote to capture the lead's attention. This technique is very effective if you have a good car insurance lead supplier that offers qualified leads, but it can become difficult if you only have a name and a phone number. Pay the extra money to get credible lists of qualified leads, and you'll see a difference in your sales figures.