The Ultimate Guide to Making Dials

Welcome to The Ultimate Guide to Dialing Internet Leads!

If you aren’t seeing results with dialing internet leads, then you’re going to want to delve into this article. Making dials is a tried and true method of creating a pipeline of new clients for your insurance business.

We’re discussing the biggest factors impacting your dials and what you need to do to nail your calls every time.

Dialing Internet Lead Basics

Create a Script

The first basic is to create a script, and stick with it! Do not wing your calls! You want to make sure that you have a documented script, so you can be improving. Having a script will help you maintain control and direction of the conversation.

You should track your objections and your rebuttals. Over time, you can document common objections and the proper response so you can control the flow of the conversation.

Track Dials

The next tip is to track your dials. This will give you data and will let you know where you're succeeding.

It’s important to keep track of how many dials it takes you to reach one decision-maker. How many decision-makers does it take for you to book one appointment? How many appointments does it take for you to make one sale? 

Once you have enough data, outline how many calls you should make in one week. Then add those to your calendar to reach your goals.

This is all a numbers game and this helps you GUARANTEE your success.

25/3/1 Rule

Here at Compass, we have a rule called the 25/3/1 rule. Our agents have made thousands upon thousands of dials, and we have found that the following averages hold true, regardless of tenure and experience. You should also be able to maintain an average of 25 dials to talk to 3 decision makers to book 1 meeting!

If you are not meeting these averages, review your script or find additional training. Compass agents receive this kind of training through their Marketing Director. Learn more about Compass training by clicking HERE.

CALENDAR YOUR DIAL SESSIONS!

Block Out 1-Hour Dial Sessions On Your Calendar

Being purposeful with your time is crucial in this business! Calendaring in your dial sessions helps keep you accountable and consistent.

What it boils down to is this: there are no excuses. It's all about consistency. Block out at least 6-10 one-hour sessions throughout the entire week. If you know your dials averages, you’ll know how many sessions YOU need to schedule to meet your goals.

Periodic Call Blitz

Next, we have what's called a call blitz. What's a call blitz? A call blitz is calling your list and letting the phone ring four times. You're not going to leave a note in your CRM. You're not going to leave a voicemail. You're going to let the phone ring four times, and then you're going to move on. We call this a blitz because it ensures that we're getting through our dial list as fast as possible. Through our experience, we have found that you will book several appointments.

You want to make sure you’re not overdoing it, or using this as an excuse not to work your pipeline to the fullest. Make sure the majority of the time you are leaving a voicemail and letting the number ring more than four times. Doing a call blitz one to two times per month. Saturdays are going to be highly effective.

Does Time of Day Really Make a Difference?

A case study of millions of dials showed that the time of day didn't significantly impact dial success. Calling at 7:00 AM versus calling at 2:00 PM only resulted in a 2.6% difference. While this can definitely add up, the most important aspect of success is consistency and speed to dial.

However, all agents should still be tracking their numbers to see if anything holds true for them individually. Track your dials that are made in the morning from 8-12 pm, in the afternoon from 12-4 pm, or in the evening from 4-8 pm.

Note if there's any better time for you. As you do more and more dials and you have more numbers to draw from, it may indicate when the best time of day is for YOU to be making dials.

You should also track weekend dials if you're doing Saturday dial sessions or call blitzes. Don't lump your numbers together in one data set.

Speed to Dial

The speed to dial is vital. The graph below shows the longer you wait to dial that lead, the less effective your efforts are going to be in setting an appointment.

You want to ensure that whatever lead platform you are using, those leads are being texted to you in real-time, immediately after they’re generated.

Once the lead is generated, stop whatever you’re doing and dial that lead immediately. Call the lead twice on the first day, and subsequent days. Keep someone on your dial list until they tell you to take them off. Persistency is important.

Call Tips

Tone Inflection

It is vital that we have control over our tone inflection. We've all experienced it when we're dealing with a salesperson. Everything sounds normal and they’re building rapport, then they suddenly switch into sales mode. Their entire voice and tone inflection changes. Make sure that that's not you. Talk to your prospect exactly like you would your friend. Use those same tones and that inflection so that you can come off as being confident.

Calm, cool, confident

No one believes in your value, and in the service that you're providing more than yourself. You should have a firm belief system in what you're doing and be passionate about it. If you don't have that firm belief system in the value you are offering someone, consider moving on to a different career, product, or service.

Follow the script!

We talked about the importance of having a script and when you're following the script, don't deviate from it. It's OK to use your own language in certain spots and your own personality. However, the overall flow and the main bullet points must be clear and concise. You cannot deviate from that.

If you sound like a robot, you're going to sound like all the other call centers or other professionals you are competing with. You have to sound genuine and personable even if you have said something 1000 times. It has to sound like you're saying it for the first time to them.

Open Enrollment Hours

During open enrollment, health and Medicare agents should dedicate the hours of 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM to marketing, prospecting, and sales meetings. Don't spend this time doing administrative tasks like processing applications or other things that can be delegated to an assistant, or held off until later that evening or early in the morning. Maintain your focus during these peak hours of open enrollment to marketing, prospecting, and meeting with new clients.

Script Breakdown

Let's talk about basic script structure. If you want to outline your own script, there are some basic rules that you're going to want to follow.

Intro: Start by outlining your intro and stating who you are and why you're calling. You want to get to that immediately, making it as brief as possible. You want to sound genuine and personable.

Probing Question or Statement: Get the prospect talking about themselves and their situation.  Ask a probing question or a statement of value, something the prospect can’t simply answer yes or no to. You want to solicit a response about their unique situation and needs. As they start talking about their needs, you can obtain part of the fact-finding that you’ll need to complete to research their best options. 

Finish Fact Finding: After they've finished telling you about their situation, make sure to fully complete your fact-finding with additional questions.

Examples :

Do they have a spouse?

Do they have dependents?

Does anybody use tobacco?

Are there any doctors in their family that they need to make sure are in their network?

Set Appointment: Once you have completed your fact-finding, close the call with an exact day and time for your next meeting, and then get off the phone.

Get Off The Phone!: Don't talk past the sale! The entire goal of the fact-finding call is to sell the appointment. 

You might be asking yourself, ‘well, if I have the prospect on the phone and they're answering all these fact-finding questions, why do I need to book the appointment for a future time? Why should I not go straight into the sales process?’

That's a great question! 

The main reason is that you're devaluing your services by going directly into the sales process. Before the sales appointment, you're going to research their best options. You need to do the work to find the best health plan with the proper doctors and address their prescription needs. You simply can't do that adequately by rolling straight into the sales process.

You want to do the proper research and then have a professional presentation ready. To be a true advisor, your client should be educated and know what they're getting and why they're getting it.

Make sure that you have a platform for doing this efficiently, like our Compass Presentation Navigator. The CPN allows agents to prepare for the appointment in a short amount of time and be very professional in educating the client on what they're getting and why they're getting it.

Additional Tips:

• Use a Great Lead System- Make sure your lead system notifies you in real-time of new leads. Compass has a platform called the Lead Navigator that does this as well as lets you customize lead orders and lead flow. 
• Use an Effective CRM- Use a good CRM for keeping track of your dials, your notes, and all of the different components involved in building your pipeline.  Knowing who you should be calling and when is key. If you’re using the Compass Presentation Navigator, we have a fantastic dials module that will help you keep track of those things and maximize your time. 
• Use a Good Dialer- Having a good dialer will help speed up the whole process. You want to make sure that you're staying TCP compliant and marking those that should be on the do not call list so that your overall compliance is what it should be.  Being able to ring out to multiple contacts or to speed up the overall dialing process can improve your numbers.
• Know what your exact numbers are - How many dials have you made? How many people have you talked to? How many referrals have you received? How many appointments are booked? How many were bad leads?
• Know Where to Focus- If you're most effective on Wednesdays, make sure you always book a time on your calendar to make dials on Wednesdays. If you don't know where you're most effective or where to focus, then you're going to be all over the place and not maximizing your time.
• Guarantee your Success!- We talked about how you are tracking these and knowing how many dials it takes to talk to one person. How many people does it take me to talk to book one appointment? How many appointments does it take for me to bank one sale?  Once we know these numbers, we can guarantee our success by knowing how many dials it will take to onboard one new client. Know how many sales you can block out on your calendar and guarantee that you will hit your goals 

If you want more information on how to become a successful agent or how to build a successful agency with Health or Medicare, visit careerswithcompass.com.

Thank you for reading and until next time, keep dialing.