 Happy Tuesday and welcome back to phone phenom every single Tuesday where we come to you to make you better on the phone. I believe that the telephone is the number one sales tool on planet earth and that most people use it incorrectly. So today for all you new agents out there, we're going to talk about the top five mistakes that new insurance agents are making on the phone. If you're watching right now, I would love to know your thoughts below. Okay. So I'd love some comments today during today's show. I'd also love for you to tag an insurance agent that you think is making this mistake. Maybe they're in the cubicle beside you and you've heard them make this mistake. Dude, let's let's remedy that. Tag them and we'll fix it from now on. So the top five mistakes, let's jump in. Okay. So mistake number one is a, that a lot of ages make, you're probably making. I'd love to know if you're making it. And that's a poor greeting where we're unsure of our greeting or greeting changes every time. Or we're not saying the same aggressive, confident, enthusiastic greeting that puts you in control of the call. So most people struggle with the greeting. Most people say we're trained, right? Cause most telemarketers do this. And that's the thing about the, about life in general and business. Just because this is the way you were trained to do something or the way everybody else is doing something, it doesn't mean that's the way you should do it. In fact, generally speaking, what I think about it is if someone is doing something, I tend to think about doing it a different way naturally. I don't know why, but that's just the way I'm wired. Okay. So a poor greeting, for example, is this Betty? Hello, are you Betty? Hey, hello, I'm looking for Betty. Is this the Smith residence? You know, whatever, right? Those do not, those are not confident statements to open up a call. That's a question, right? So instead, instead, hello, Betty, right? Hello, Betty. Also to include in the poor greeting, most agents will say your first and last name from a certain insurance company. Instead, it's too much information, right? So instead of that, a solid greeting that is not a poor greeting is hello, Betty. This is Cody. I'm getting back to you. Okay. That is a strong, aggressive, confident, enthusiastic greeting that you need to be using. Okay. That's the first thing out of the top five mistakes. That's mistake, the first one of the five. And I would say that most of them, I would say that we're going to go from one to five in the order of importance, as in five is probably the most common one, right? And the one you should be doing. Okay. So poor greeting, you can overcome it. I can call Keith and have a poor greeting, but I can also overcome that poor greeting in the call. Okay. So there's other ways, right? But it doesn't get the call started off correctly. And they always say Harvard says you have four seconds to get someone's attention when you make a call. And a poor greeting exhausts that four seconds. So let's stop doing that, number one. Okay. This is phone phenom, in fact, right? Mistake number two, a lack of control. I would say that naturally, most people are not in control when they make phone calls. In fact, the prospect or the customer is typically in control. When it doesn't have to be that way though. Okay. So you need to be in control. Whoever's in control wins, seller be sold. Whoever is in control will get what they want. I believe a sale is made when I believe that I'm going to make the sale more than they do. I also believe that I'm not going to make a sale if the prospect believes in the fact that they're not going to buy more than I do that I'm going to sell them, right? I think the same thing we said on the phone. When I believe that I'm going to get what I want and I believe that I'm in control, there's a better chance of me getting what I want just like you when you're calling someone and most people are not in control. That's the reason you get objections. That's the reason you end up with extremely short phone calls. That's the reason that a customer lies to you. That's all those things typically goes back to the fact that you are not in control, which is mistake number two, a lack of control. So I would encourage you to be in control of your phone calls. That'll remedy a lot of these other mistakes, right? A lot of people make mistakes in the call or they say the wrong thing or they hesitate. They don't know what to say. Just being in control and a controlling presence on the phone will actually alleviate some of the mistakes that you have on the phone if you are in control and being that way. So that's tip number two, lack of control. Number three, out of the top five insurance mistakes that new insurance agents make on the phone, number three is that we provide too much information. I think this is a major problem in the insurance industry and that I also noticed when I was a brand new agent is that insurance agents tend to, they tend to, we tend to vomit as I'm about to do, right? As I'm coughing, right? We tend to vomit. We tend to, we tend to puke on people. We tend to provide too much information. If you give them everything, then guess what? If they ask you how much is it and you tell them. If they ask you this, this, this, this and this and you tell them and you're not trying to sell over the phone, then guess what? They don't need you anymore. If you give them too much information, what's the point of them sitting down with you if they already know what it cost? If they already know what company you're going to put them with? If they already know what the benefits features and everything else about you and your childhood and everything else, what's the point in meeting you so too much information can actually enter you and keep you from getting in front of the individual? Most people fail because they don't get in front of enough people, hence a personation, right? And that comes from the fact that most agents do not get in front of enough people and I think a lot of it is that we provide too much information on the phone. Naturally, we want to just give away information when in reality I want to give as little as I can. And I even believe in this in the sales process, not even just over the phone. I believe that when I provide too much information, they have a less likelihood of making a decision because I'm clouding their brain from actually being able to make a decision and decide. Same thing on the phone. If I provide too much information, there's a less likelihood that they're going to pull the trigger and make a decision. I believe that I want to give them just enough information for them to make a decision, not any more than that. So whatever that is for you, quit giving too much information away. Mistake number four is not barreling through mistakes. I always think of mistakes as like a giant or I'm sorry, objections. I always think of objections or mistakes if you screw up, right? Doesn't matter. You can't think about it. Same thing as an objection. I always think of a mistake as a giant boulder is dropped between me and you. And I got to get to you, okay? You can barrel through it. You can step around it, okay? But if you try to fight it and you try to like push it up the hill, right? It's going to make it a little tougher. So I would say, hey, just act like it isn't there or step around it, okay? So when they give you an objection, most agents believe it. They give validity to it by when someone says I'm busy and you say, well, when's a better time? You are giving validity to that lie because they ain't busy, right? Or everyone's busy. So what's the point in saying it, right? Or they wouldn't answer the phone. So just barrel through, step around, ignore it, and move forward. Be in a state of agreement. Finish with a question. And like we said with tip tip mistake number two, get back in control, okay? So that's what I notice a lot is giving validity or not barreling through or ignoring or moving past an objection. That's a big one. Objections tend to paralyze insurance agents on the phone. They don't know what to do. They don't know what to think. Oh crap, they said they're not interested. Are they really interested? Oh my gosh, these leads are horrible, right? They're supposed to say that. It's human nature. It means the lead, like honestly, what most people don't notice and what most people don't talk about is I like objections. My best clients were the toughest ones to sell. My best clients gave me objections. If they were too easy or they meet with everyone or they didn't give me an objection, it bothers me. It worries me. Oh, crap. I may not keep this client forever because somebody else is going to come in and they're going to go with the next salesperson that isn't near as good as me, but they buy for everybody, so who cares, right? I prefer that they're tough. So view an objection as a little bit of resistance because when they buy they're loyal and that's who you want. So just barrel through it and get them, okay? So mistake number five is I believe that great salespeople, they don't ask someone to do what they want to do. They don't say, are you interested in this? Okay, that's stupid. What great salespeople do is they tell you, okay? You need this. You want this. You can afford this and we need to see if we can get you approved. What's your full legal name? I didn't ask if they wanted to do it, right? This is the best decision. It solves your problems, correct? You need this. You want this. This makes perfect sense. This is what you should do. This is what I recommend. This is what I'm prescribing to solve your problem and that's mistake number five is most insurance agents aren't, they don't tell someone what they should do, okay? They ask them, well, what do you think, right? That's dumb. What do you think makes sense? Does this make sense to you? Are you interested? Do you like this? You know, just tell them what they should do and there's a better chance that they will actually do it if you simply tell them what they should do. So that's the top five to run through them again. Top five mistakes that new insurance agents are making on the phone, okay? Poor greeting, lack of control, too much information, not barreling through objections and not telling someone what they should do. You fix those mistakes and you will be a phone phenom, okay? Have a great rest of your week. Thanks for watching Phone Phenom. Appreciate you tag an agent below that needs to hear this message and which one, I'd love to know really quick, comment below which one of these do you struggle with the most and which one are you going to fix moving forward?