Good Leads are MADE not Born
Posted April 17, 2007 12:21 by Hoard Client Systems CEO.
About Hoard Client Systems CEO
Hoard Client Systems CEO's affinity for investing and financial matters began more than 20 years ago when he began investing in the stock market through a class in high school. Now, in 2006, he is being looked to for his innovation in altering the efficiency in which financial professionals communicate with clients.
It’s as easy as:
“They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”Great Leads contain the answer to:
- How does your Mother know that you care?
What is the #1 indicator to your Mother that you care? Contact. Contact on her birthday. Contact on the Holidays. Contact out of the blue just to check in with a story or a kind word.
Though we are not selling to our Mothers, Contact is the universal demonstration of caring:
- If you want your girl friend to marry you, you are going to need plenty of contact (Not that kind! The notes, dates and phone call kind)
- If you want an acquaintance to turn into a friend it takes contact
- If you want any type of relationship to occur it takes contact
Great Leads are MADE not Born (good leads are born)
Good leads can be generated by coming up with a catchy headline or a neat idea. A good lead will get people calling you about your nifty idea, they’ll want more information.
Great leads create a relationship with the receiver. They will demonstrate that you care (saying you care is worthless, it must be shown.) That demonstration is in the universal show of caring…contact.
A Great Lead get clients….good leads get people seeking information only.
How do you know if something work? I suggest the “Real Life Test.” Think of a real life situation...put the idea to work in that situation…see if it works.
10:1 Real Life Test—“Straight to the point”--Let’s say you move into an office next to a Property/Casualty agent. The very 1st week he comes over and introduces himself, hands you a card and says he can beat your current coverage.
What would you do? I would politely tell him I already have a guy that I work with, thanks anyways.
“Hi ya neighbor!”—Let’s say instead of coming over to present his business in the first week, this Property/Casualty guy comes over and asks if you need anything.
Then he starts dropping buy every week, just to say hi or talk about the weather, share a joke or ask about your family for a minute or two.
He does this for 3 or 4 months. He has now had 10 friendly conversations with you. You have built a relationship and have become comfortable with each other…
He then says, “Say, I saw you the other day with a boat behind your truck. My company loves boaters! We have a great boat protection program. Would you mind if I gave you a quote on your boat?”
What would you do? I would feel obligated to say yes. Why? Well, first he just simply asking for a quote. He seems up to this point, nice and caring. He has never pushed or bothered me before. Heck, what could it hurt? And maybe I will be able to save some money.
10:1 Ratio WORKS!If you contact your prospects with nice, friendly and NON-FINANCIAL handwritten notes 10 times they know that you are a caring person. (handwritten notes are even more powerful than conversations because of the perceived time it takes to send one.)
Then when you touch them with a helpful, financial (call to action) message, they know you are doing it to be caring, not doing it to sell them something.
How often can you send a selling message? After every 10 NON-FINANCIAL or what I call caring contacts. (Why 10? Because we tried more and less and 10 is the sweet spot)
So what type of leads are you going generate? Those that attract people that want to suck information from you or those that create relationships with your prospects. Choose carefully because your choice will shape your future practice.
Discuss
Comments
623 days ago Bill Rasmussen wrote:
Great article! Had a neighbor just like the guy in your article. Moved in and as we were making nice with the introductions he mentioned he worked for an insurance outfit. I cringed immediately thinking here comes the pitch, but he never did try to sell me. He waited until our kids got a chance to meet, our wives had a chance to swap a few recipes and then one night over the barbaque and a couple of beers he mentioned a new product his company offered. At this point I would have felt guilty not asking him to go into more detail simply because we had created a relationship and I didn't want it to seem like I was brushing him off. He took the right approach with me and it actually helped teach me a lesson. I now knew the approach I needed to take with my clients and prospects to virtually guarantee myself a loyal client and the opportunity to get myself in front of them. It works!
622 days ago William D McFadden wrote:
Sounds like a great approach. What are we talking about in cost. Best Regards Mac McFadden
621 days ago Bob Fromm wrote:
I totally agree with creating that warm relationship between you and your client. It takes all the barriers down when you finally approach about business. Think of the walls we create before we go out and buy new marketing materials. In order for someone sell it to me they have to go through many hurdles. Simply reading these materials and all the dripping that hoard had given me took done many of those walls before they even contacted me top join. Great Job. It sold itself!
629 days ago Larry wrote:
But how do I do this, that's almost one per month? How much would this actually cost? I like the idea of doing this - but have to consider time and money.