In this video, you’ll learn how to turn storytelling into an effective cold-calling script. This is clip from one of our most popular workshops.
Subscribe now for more actionable tips and strategies every week!
Resources:
-
- Connect with me on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andyneary/
-
- Connect with me on Instagram: instagram.com/andy_neary/
Video Transcript:
This transcript was auto-generated. Please excuse any typos or grammatical errors.
In this video, you are going to learn how to take storytelling and turn it into an effective cold calling script. Hi, my name is Andy Neary, founder and CEO of Complete Game Consulting, where we are on a mission to help 25,000 insurance producers sell their first $250,000 of insurance. And in this video, you’re going to learn how to become a better storyteller so you can become an effective cold caller.
Now, before we dive into today’s video, I am going to ask you to go down and hit the subscribe button so you can make sure you get all of our videos when they first pop. But in this specific video, I am sharing a clip from one of our most popular workshops we have ever run. How to Build an effective cold Calling script.
You see, cold calling is something most insurance producers struggle with. Therefore, they avoid it when they pick up the phone. They don’t know what to say. They don’t know when to say it. I know that’s where I was. I was possibly the worst cold caller in the insurance industry 20 years ago. However, when I learned how to use storytelling, how to tell my prospect’s story in cold calls, it made me more effective and I actually enjoyed the process.
So tune in to today’s clip. I hope you enjoy! Get out a pen, a piece of paper. Take a lot of notes. By the time this nine minute video is done, you’re going to have your own effective cold calling script you can go out with and be more effective on the phone. All right. Enjoy. Let’s tune in. Here is what storytelling looks like right here.
Every story has a hero, a character, your prospect who has a goal. But they have come upon a problem that’s keeping them from their goal. Therefore, they need a guide who’s got a plan. Your process that helps them avoid failure and achieve success. This is storytelling. 2000 years old right here. I just ruined every movie you’ll ever watch from here on out, or every book you’ll ever read, because they’re nothing but their own.
They’re nothing but repeating story loops. That’s all they are. Think about every movie, how it starts out in the first ten minutes, the main character’s life looks great in in a matter of minutes, they encumber a big problem. If they made a movie about everything going right all the time, it would be the most boring movie you’ve ever watched.
That’s why we have to constantly encounter problems, because we’ve got to find that guide who’s got the plan to fix. You are the guide to your prospects to help them fix their problem. Now. A very key point right here. If you can see what I’m circling between, the has a problem and needs a guide. This is a very important part of our messaging in the insurance industry.
I think we all need to understand most of your prospects do not know what their problem is today.
Write this down. This is a phrase I want you guys to remember. Prospects will take action when their need for a solution exceeds their desire for comfort.
Prospects will take action when their need for a solution exceeds their desire for comfort. We live in a world insurance specially for my benefit folks. Your prospects often don’t know what their problem is and one of your main jobs. That’s why they’re living in comfort. You think it’s pain because you’re like, how in the world can you do this?
It’s comfort for them. That’s all they know. This is the empathy part, right? The guide has to have empathy. This is all they know. But if you can help them realize that where they are today is discomfort, and you can show them a solution that exceeds their desire for comfort, they will start taking action. But using this story framework guys, is what changed my cold calling forever when I started leveraging this, and I’m about to show you an example of a cold call script, I used to use, I became so much more effective instead of the guy who would pick up the phone without confidence, lacking confidence.
Not quite sure what I’m trying to sell them and the second they threw an objection at me, I was like, okay, sorry. Now, before I show you the script, how we turn all this work into a script, let’s summarize what we’ve just accomplished. Number one, I hope you know who your favorite client is.
Two, I hope you know what they look like and why they are your favorite. I hope you have some clarity on demographically psychographics. Why are these people people? I love working? Three I hope you have clarity on the problem you love solving. I hope there’s something out there that puts fire in your belly.
Or I hope you have a process that you can repeat that consistently creates wins. If you don’t have. If you don’t have a name for it right now, no harm, no foul, but come up with a name. It’s going to help. And I hope you know what your clients futures look like when they work with you. Clarity on those questions gang is going to make you a more effective salesperson.
And I want to go back to something I said at the beginning. When you have confidence in what you sell that process, when you are confident, trust me, you’re going to jump on the call a heck of a lot more confident in your prospects are going to feel that energy. If you don’t like what you sell. It is very hard to win these days because your prospects can feel it.
I’ll give you a real life example. I have clients right now who are dealing with teams that are overworked and understaffed. They’re afraid to sell right now because they don’t want to want to overwhelm their team. If I’m jumping on the phone with that energy, I’m not selling anything. I’m not booking appointments. But when you’re confident what you sell, everything changes.
So that’s that’s a place to start. But now with this story framework, here is an example of what a script might look like that I used to use. So when I had this story framework built out, where everything changed for me now is I was able to jump on the phone and say something like this. I work with CFOs in Milwaukee who are frustrated because they want their health insurance.
They watch their health insurance costs go up every a year, and they feel like they don’t have an answer. Their only solution has been to increase deductibles and premium contributions, which isn’t helping their employees. I have a program called Empowered Health that teaches CFOs how to control their health insurance cost without sacrificing the benefits. If you have 20 minutes, I’d love to show you what your peers are doing to leverage the program to control their costs without having to increase deductibles or premiums.
What did I just do?
This is my prospect story. Yes, I used the word I and my, but I just told the prospect story. Now let me dissect this for you guys for a second. I work with CFOs in Milwaukee. Demographics.
Who are frustrated. Internal problem. Because they watch their health insurance costs go up every year. External problem. And they feel like they don’t have an answer. Internal problem. Their only solution has been to increase deductibles and premium contributions. That’s actually an example of failure. That’s what their life looks like today. I have a program called Empowered Health Process that teaches CFOs how to control their health insurance costs without sacrificing benefits.
That’s part of the process. The plan. If you have 20 minutes, I’d like to show you how your what your peers are doing to leverage the program to control their cost without having to increase deductibles and premiums, result without control costs, without having to increase deductibles or premiums. That’s a successful result. Now notice what I added in there.
I’d like to show you what your peers are doing. that CFO, that HR director might want to know what their peers are doing.
When I started leveraging this script right here, everything changed because I was picking up the phone more confident. Now I had a script that can repeat every time, and I’d get on that phone and I’d get the gatekeeper. She’d say he or she would say, May I ask who’s calling? And I’d say, yes. Andy Neary with Vulcan Bell.
I didn’t try to hide and try to beat around the bush. I get John on the phone. I say, Hey, John, is now a good time to be calling? John is going to say 1 or 2 things one no, that’s okay either. Is there a better time to call or do you mind if I shoot you an email?
Okay. By the way, if I shot him an email, guess what I’m shooting. this right here. But if he said yes, what do you got? Or. Yeah. What’s up? I went right into this right here. Hey, John. I work with CFOs in Milwaukee, and I would just repeat the script. And where this became more effective for me is now, I was telling their story.
I was telling them what’s in it for them. And I became a much more effective cold call. Like I said, guys, I was not a ten out of ten. I wasn’t. There are people who have the gift that they are born with. The gift, the cold call and sell ketchup popsicles to women with white gloves. Not me. This just made me more effective. But I’ll tell you guys, what really made it better is I actually wasn’t afraid to pick up the phone. I kind of enjoyed it.
Business is no longer about who you know. Business is about who knows you. In a noisy industry like we’re in gang, you got to get people to know who you are.