Appointment Setting Services

[Natl Sales Director]

I've tried them all and have the best results with a specific direct mail company and exclusive leads by a telemarketer.

[Debunker]

Re National IMO contracts...take your time and talk to at least three different agencies. Don't rush into signing anything, especially from someone with less than 25 posts on a Forum.

I probably have less than 25 myself, but I am not selling anything.

Re Zipsearch, NEGOTIATE price with them. They aren't bad, but not the greatest. If you can knock their offer down by about 20%...it might be worth it. There are worse options.

[tom_ryan]

Originally Posted by Debunker

Re National IMO contracts...take your time and talk to at least three different agencies. Don't rush into signing anything, especially from someone with less than 25 posts on a Forum.

I probably have less than 25 myself, but I am not selling anything.

Re Zipsearch, NEGOTIATE price with them. They aren't bad, but not the greatest. If you can knock their offer down by about 20%...it might be worth it. There are worse options.

Debunker:

While negotiation is always important, price should not be the most heavily weighted decision.

This gets people into trouble. There are MANY companies can beat my pricing; they'll put an agent on the campaign half the time, give appointments of people who are disinterested, and do an overall bad job.

You need to be sure that your center is using agents who understand insurance appointments setting, and that the call center campaign manager understands your business and what's driving your campaign. When this is the case you get quality results, if not you just get cheap call center.

Tom Ryan
866-507-9089
www.professional-lists.com

[Louise]

Originally Posted by Debunker

Re National IMO contracts...take your time and talk to at least three different agencies. Don't rush into signing anything, especially from someone with less than 25 posts on a Forum.

I probably have less than 25 myself, but I am not selling anything.

Re Zipsearch, NEGOTIATE price with them. They aren't bad, but not the greatest. If you can knock their offer down by about 20%...it might be worth it. There are worse options.

I'm not sure how many posts I have on this forum but I am definitely not a fake. I have been communicating off forum with several of the members here and I'm not just here trying to sell something.

I think I have valuable information to share with agents here that doesn't even pertain to appointment setting. I don't just sit here and hawk this post looking for agents to buy my service.
I have been contributing to other posts, as well that have nothing to do with appointment setting services.

I'm not a spammer

Anyway, as I said before, I agree that someone should interview more than one company before making a choice regarding an appointment setter. I would PREFER that they do that. I, myself, am not too keen with people who contract my services only to break the contract because they "think" they found something better price wise... You all know the saying... you get what you pay for however; we live in a world of bargain hunters. It's the crappy part of my job dealing with that but it is what it is. I'm happy with the loyal agents I have who value my services and I, theirs.
I digress...

[JerryLou]

The current reality is that sales appointments are a challenge for anyone, not just insurance. Direct emails, if personalized, are a lot less "spam-ish" and can lead to decent contacts... but you have to be good at it. (I receive cruddy ones all the time!)

[Louise]

Originally Posted by JerryLou

The current reality is that sales appointments are a challenge for anyone, not just insurance. Direct emails, if personalized, are a lot less "spam-ish" and can lead to decent contacts... but you have to be good at it. (I receive cruddy ones all the time!)

I do, too and it's always more of a challenge if you are cold emailing someone... I think I might be able to pull something off but right now I am seeing good results with dealing with referrals from other agents and posting back and forth on forums. Of course; I definitely want to grow my business but there is a time and a place, you know... everything in steps. I wouldn't want to bite off more than I can chew and end up compromising the work we do for our agents we have. I know here I am not going to get a huge wave of people all at once that would force me to have to quickly find more staff and not have time to train them properly... I see the big picture but I don't want to end up losing sight of it.

Yeah, appointments in general suck. People haven't the time nor the money for the things they did a few years back. Recession sucks. I think Warren Buffet has it pegged. We are so far from seeing the light in this one... it's going to get uglier, too.

[choicearizona]

If this were my business I would go to every large life insurance company website and email their agents directly. I have a friend a MetLife and it sounds like it's getting tougher to find appts. Insurers and their compliance issues are making life tougher for those folks.

[Louise]

Thanks for the advice. I had considered doing that but my fear was that they would consider it spam mail and it would sour my reputation with agents. I have to mull over this a little while and think about the pros and cons of it.
It definitely is getting tougher to find appointments! Our economy is really shooting us all in the rear.