A Real World Story Of How To Improve Your Prospecting

A real-world story of how to improve your prospecting

Pre-need selling is considered by most to be very difficult to do and for that reason not many can even sell pre-arrangements. It’s interesting how we get an image in our mind and it sticks. If I were to ask you what your image was of used car salespeople what would it be?

My guess is it would be very negative.

If I asked you what your perception of Doctors and the medical profession in general what would it be?

I’m guessing your impression of Doctors is way better than used car sales people.

I think one of the biggest mistakes people make when deciding on a career is assuming one profession is easier than another profession. I’ve known of many individuals who went into real estate because they lost a job and thought it would be easy. After a few short months those friends would soon be out of the business griping about how bad the market is or competition or some other excuse.

The reality is a Doctor’s profession is no different than a Pre-Need Seller’s profession. In order for a Doctor to succeed he needs to have patients. In order for a Pre-Need Seller to succeed he needs to have sales. Patients pay Doctors. If a Doctor doesn’t see enough patients he is out of business. If a Pre-Need Seller doesn’t make enough sales he’s out of business.

If I were to ask you what kind of education and experience a Doctor would need to be successful I’d bet you’d say, “lots”. Doctors go through years and years of school followed by testing, followed by internships, followed by a practice. The more specialized a Doctor is the more money he makes. The more general a Doctor’s practice is the less money he’ll make.

It isn’t much different for the Pre-Need seller if he doesn’t make sale he doesn’t make money. The more general (working in-house at a cemetery or funeral home) the less you make as a pre-need seller. The more specialized or niche the more money you make.

Ironically, there are some licenses needed to sell preneed but generally speaking you don’t need much education. But here’s the question. How much education should you have? And, how much of an internship and practice do you need to sell pre-need?

The very best pre-need sellers I’ve ever seen in this business have all trained, mentored with someone, and practiced, practiced, and still practiced.

If you think you can jump into this business and you don’t need to learn how to sell, or how to prospect, or how to close, or how to communicate a presentation, well, you aught to get out of the business right now and save yourself all kinds of trouble.

A good friend of mine who’s had much success selling was telling me a story about how he learned a valuable lesson in the business of selling. He had been in the business of selling pre-arrangements for 3 years and continually was on top of the leader board at the cemetery he worked. Every month he was one, two, or three.

One day, while he was at a special awards weekend his Sales Manager told him about a guy who would be selling at the cemetery very soon. “This guy’s the best pre-need seller I’ve seen in 30 years,” he said to my good friend.

Well, my friend thought. The best he’s seen? What about me? I’ve been at the top of the leader board for several years now.

My friend said to his sales manager, “really?”

“Yes,” said my friend’s sales manager.

A few days later my friend came into the office. He told me it was the third of the month and he decided to take a few extra days off because he was so good and just got back from the awards weekend conference.

There was a board that had all the production for the sales people at the cemetery and much to my friend’s surprise he noticed the new person was already on the leader board on the third day of the month.

So, my friend went to work. But, each day he’d come into the office only to find this new person on the leader board every day. But unlike years gone by my friend wasn’t even close to this guy. My friend was doing what he always done and this guy was beating him badly.

By the end of the first month this new guy had tripled my friend’s production. What made it even more interesting was this new guy had never been in this new town and didn’t know anybody.

How could this be? My friend thought. How could a guy, new to town, be beating me by a factor of 3?

Well, this went on for several months. The new guy would beat my friend by a factor of 3, 4, and even 5. Every month my friend would add to his record production only to be beaten badly by the new guy.

My friend decided if he can’t beat the guy, join the guy. So, he began approaching the new guy about tips on selling more and other advice. The new guy was very helpful and offered advice for my friend.

But, month after month he would beat my friend. After a while my friend would have a goal of selling at least half the business the new guy would do, then a quarter of the business.

Finally, one day, the new guy called my friend and asked him if he would pick him up at the car shop and drop him off so he could prospect while his car was in the shop. My friend agreed because he thought he’d get some real world advice and see this guy in action.

My friend would prospect in middle/lower class neighborhoods but the new guy was in higher dollar neighborhood. It was about 8:30 in the morning my friend picked up the new guy at the mechanic’s shop. My friend asked the new guy when he should pick him up.

The new guy responded, I’ll call you when I’m ready.

It was around nine o’clock that night my friend got the call to pick up the new guy.

Tomorrow I’ll cover the second part of this post and what was learned and how you can take this story and incorporate a few mindset changes to achieve sales success beyond your wildest dreams.

Happy Selling!

David

P.S. More on pre-need sales letters coming real soon. If you are a regular reader or email opt-in I’ll have partial samples for you. If you are a member (purchased something from me; I’ll have the complete samples of newsletters, direct mail, stay-in-touch, follow-up, cash-flow surge. Membership has its privileges.  Click here for more info

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