It’s an all-too-familiar scenario in the sales world: you sit down at your desk, ready for the day, prepared to make a sale, you halt and think, “Who do I call first?”
Working in Sales is often compared to sports because they are very similar.
In sports, you’re not going to step onto the field and throw the ball as far as you can or tackle someone, or make a gymnastics move without doing a series of warm-ups first.
This is also best practice when working in insurance sales.
In this article, we’ll give you an easy-to-use insurance sales prioritization tactic to warm yourself up to the most important conversations you will have throughout your day.
First, get organized.
Break your unsold prospects into three categories:
Not Contacted – ECRM code NC
Contacted Not Quoted – ECRM code CNQ
Quoted Not Sold – ECRM code QNS
The ECRM code is simply how we name the task. For example:
“NC – SF AT 2” means a non-contacted lead and is our 2nd attempt.
“CNQ – Need spouses DL” would mean we have spoken to the person but still need more info; we have not provided a quote.
“QNS – How did reviewing the policies go?” means we have given the person a quote, and we are following up to close the sale.
Once you have these codes, you can organize your daily tasks by the category code, putting all NC calls together in one list, CNQ calls together in a list, and QNS calls together.
Next, ask yourself which are most important to your success. You’ll save those calls for last when you are most warmed up.
We start with the NC (Not Contacted) list in our office because there is a low possibility of getting in touch with many of them. (Remember, the statistics say it takes reaching out eight times before we get in touch with someone).
By leaving several voicemails, we start to warm up for the day.
After completing the NC calls: take a break. Give yourself time to reset and focus on the next batch of calls in the following category.
CNQ (Contacted Not Quoted) comes next. Now that we have practiced word tracks on the NC calls, we should be warmed up and ready to handle any objections that may come our way. Our goal is to move as many CNQ to QNS (Quoted Not Sold) status as possible.
Again, when done with CNQ, take a break and reset for the most important calls of the day.
Lastly, move to the QNS category. These are the money makers. These are the people you have spoken to, found out what is important to them, provided them with a quote, and need to finish making them comfortable with you, your Agency, and your insuring parent company.
These are the most important calls of the day. By following this process for your insurance sales prioritization, you’ll have warmed up, loosened up, and worked out the kinks.
If you are looking for a productive way to spend an hour each week and gain the invaluable skills you need to handle all types of sales conversations, the Live Practice Sessions by Insurance Agency Optimization are for you. In these sessions, we cover various topics we experience in our everyday work. Participants to the calls are welcome to listen in or demonstrate how they work a call. Our Live Practice Sessions are held every Tuesday at 2:00 PM Eastern time. Get more information, including instructions for signing up.