Speaker 1: 0:00

bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Welcome to brass tactics, those funky actics.

Speaker 2: 0:08

Brass tactics, those funky actics the series where we uncover the truth about insurance marketing. I'm jason feldman, and as always, I'm joined with my partner in crime.

Speaker 3: 0:23

Mr Craig Pritzinger. We're here to shake up the insurance world a little bit, expose some marketing tactics that just don't work for PNC agents. Insurance dudes are on a mission to escape being handcuffed by our agencies.

Speaker 2: 0:38

How? By uncovering the secrets to creating a predictable, consistent and profitable agency sales machine. I am Craig Pretziger, I am Jason Feldman, we are agents, we are insurance students. Dude, this is like the third time that we're doing this. By the way, it sure is We've had some technical difficulties, so we've had to sing the brass tactics, those funky actics, multiple times, and it was hilarious the first time, yeah. But yeah, you're probably going to get sick of that in the future. But anyways, that's right, mr Craig Carrier. Management might tell you to try these strategies, but trust us, they're closer to terrible than terrific. You know, yeah, yeah, but trust us, they're closer to terrible than terrific. You know, yeah, yeah. So let's start with the first tactic on our list cold calling, everybody's favorite thing to do. Your manager might be pushing you to hit the phones and start dialing for dollars, or you might be having your team do this. But let's get real. Is this really effective?

Speaker 3: 1:45

Absolutely not, and that was not in slow motion. In fact, unwanted calls are going to get you less than a 1% contact rate. That's right. Less than a 1% contact rate. Mr Jason, did I stutter? No, no, no, no, right. So plugging that contact rate, which is like one 30th as effective as regular leads, is going to wreck you, and I'm talking from experience. Done it, been there, done that.

Speaker 2: 2:14

Yep, yep, I have to, mr Craig, but why is that? Why is cold calling so ineffective? Do you want to tell them?

Speaker 3: 2:23

No, go for it okay. Well, it all comes down to turnover, mr jason. So we've talked about the insane price tag of turnover before, right with uh, we won't say amy's name, but so it could cost tens of thousands of dollars, um, in just the first month, right, but that, that cost of that turnover. So not only is cold calling ineffective mathematically, but it also going to require a huge amount of effort to even close some of the results that you get.

Speaker 2: 2:52

Yep, yep. Can you break that down for us, mr Craig Can.

Speaker 3: 2:56

I.

Speaker 2: 2:57

I think you shall.

Speaker 3: 2:58

I would be happy to. So let's say you want to get a 2% lead closing result, right? So that's not percentage of quoted, it's just overall. So you buy 1,000, you buy 100, you sell two. So you're like I had to change the math. Too many zeros. So with cold calling you need to make $15,000 a day just to keep up with somebody else who is buying just regular leads and using dial specialist that's insanity 15,000 dials a day. That's like it's incorrect actually Huh, I'm just kidding.

Speaker 2: 3:42

You're stumping me, mr Craig, but that is a ridiculous amount of dials. That's like 38 hour dialing shifts and each shift probably costs around 150 bucks plus other fixed costs. So you might, you know, save on making your salespeople dial, but you're losing in productivity and employee satisfaction.

Speaker 3: 4:06

Right. Yeah, I mean, I never even thought about it like breaking down the numbers and doing it all like this until we started doing it all like this Right. But it's remarkable the shift in how you approach it and you realize what a lose-lose it is to go cheap. So, and that's not even taking into account the fact that the people hate being interrupted by unwanted calls. So even if, even if you're doing it and it were to get results, which it won't, it's just not a good look.

Speaker 2: 4:37

No, it's not. No, it's not only not a good look Like when we used to do this in our agency those cold callers that were in the agency they were separate than the salespeople, but man, the negative talk and the way the negativity went around the office, it was horrible. I never want to be in an office full of cold callers again.

Speaker 3: 5:00

It was awesome. It's just a different caliber of individual that's going to settle for that right.

Speaker 2: 5:06

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 5:08

Unless it's outside right.

Speaker 1: 5:11

If we don't want to do it.

Speaker 2: 5:11

so why do we want to make other people do it? Exactamundo, as Fonzie said, why do we want to make?

Speaker 3: 5:15

other people do it.

Speaker 2: 5:14

It's just not Exactamundo, as Fonzie said. So if cold calling's out, what's the next to terrible tactic on our list?

Speaker 3: 5:22

How about blasting out some generic email newsletters? You know the ones filled with the boring insurance stuff jargon and stock photos with smiling families.

Speaker 2: 5:31

Oh yeah, yeah, I love those. I can feel my eyes glazing over just thinking about them. I mean people, do you think that people actually read those things? Hardly.

Speaker 3: 5:44

Most of them go straight in the trash without even being open. I mean most of the ones that I get, like from some sort of corporate company that's trying to sell me whatever. I mean it's just straight right, it's ignored, it's gone. I mean it may be coming, but I don't see it, and there you know, uh, it can you blame people, right? We're getting how many hundreds of emails every single day?

Speaker 2: 6:11

And then you give them those terrible things. It's. It's so true, right? If you want to make an impact with email marketing, you need to be sending personalized, relevant contact that actually provides value to your list, right? Generic newsletters and carrier BS just doesn't cover it anymore.

Speaker 3: 6:29

Agreed, you need to be speaking directly to your audience's needs. So your market, whoever it is, you need to be speaking to their needs and to their interests and you want to stand out in their inbox. So you got to be creative, um, but then email marketing shouldn't be your only strategy no, no, definitely not as an insurance agent.

Speaker 2: 6:49

That's for which brings us to the final terrible tactic on our list. You ready, the final terrible tactic on our list.

Speaker 1: 7:00

You ready.

Speaker 2: 7:02

Now this is too much of a build out for what this is. Yeah, all right. Relying solely on social media ads right now, social media can be a powerful for insurance agents, but simply throwing money at Facebook, instagram, all that stuff is not the magic bullet right Like it was back. What in 2015, 2016?

Speaker 3: 7:27

Yeah, it's a totally different landscape now. Right, and the problem with relying on social media ads is you're competing Now the big players are in the market. Right, the ad costs have gone way up and it's really tough to actually invest money and get back enough where you can keep your cost per sale down. So it just it doesn't pencil.

Speaker 2: 7:46

Plus, even if your ad does catch someone's eye, there's no guarantee they'll actually click through and convert into a customer, a client right? Yeah, it's a lot tougher, yeah, and with the ever-changing algorithms and ad policies, it can be tough to get your ads in front of the right people. You never even know who you're really getting them from.

Speaker 3: 8:09

Yeah, that's right. So, not to mention the cost, right, it's expensive. Social media ads can quickly eat up your marketing budget. It's really easy to go in there and turn it on, but you got to watch it because it can add up very, very quickly.

Speaker 2: 8:24

So let's break it down. We've established that cold calling, generic newsletters and relying solely on social media ads are not the way to go. Right, but what should new PNC agents do instead, Mr Craig? How can they effectively market their business and attract new clients? Hmm?

Speaker 3: 8:47

You like how I did that, the take your glasses off thing. You look smart, and if you didn't see that, you'd see it on YouTube. Well, that's exactly what we're going to dive into, mr, on the next episode. We've got three count them, trace two, three marketing tactics that actually work and we can't wait to share them with you oh, I love that.

Speaker 2: 9:10

That's right, folks, in our next installment of brass tactics, those funky actics, brass tactics those funky actics I really just did that it's so good do not send this to our uh significant others? Dude. Seriously, if you know our wives, make sure that they do not listen to this, okay.

Speaker 3: 9:38

That was a big setup for a joke. Yeah, if you know our wives.

Speaker 2: 9:42

Okay. We'll be revealing the secrets to effective insurance marketing on those episodes, right? These are the strategies that will help you build your agency, and we like to call it a brand. Build your brand as the agency owner, because that's really what it is Like. That like to call it a brand. Build your brand as the agency owner, because that's really what it is Like. That you're building is a brand Like all this houses under your brand, but also establish trust with your audience and ultimately, grow your business. Yep.

Speaker 3: 10:10

So make sure you tune in the next time. Trust us, you're not going to want to miss it, and in the meantime, we want to hear from you too. What marketing tactics have you tried that just didn't work?

Speaker 2: 10:20

Share your stories and struggles with us over at the group. Yes, and that's the insurance dudes group on Facebook. You can Google it and find it, yeah, yeah. And if you're a new PNC agency owner feeling overwhelmed by all the marketing advice and BS out there, don't worry, we've got your back. Stay tuned for practical, actionable tips that will cut through the noise and help you make a real impact. Or you can just go to the iDudescom for $7. Seven bucks, seven bucks. We have Internet Lead Secrets book and it comes with a checklist of everything you need to know how to dominate with insurance leads.

Speaker 2: 11:03

It's a no-brainer If you can't afford seven bucks, you probably shouldn't be an agency owner Probably not, it's the cost of one lead. Yep, that's it. The cost of one lead will help you close all the leads.

Speaker 3: 11:18

All of them. Well, not all of them. 2% of them, that's right. Before we wrap up, let's recap those key points from today's episode. First, cold calling. It's ineffective, costly, could lead to high turnover rates in your agency. Don't do it I love that.

Speaker 2: 11:36

Will that be transcribed? How does that get transcribed?

Speaker 3: 11:40

we should do just like like caesar yeah and then go. He should have done that in Gladiator.

Speaker 2: 11:47

Second, generic email newsletters are a snooze fest. Boring, horrible thing that nobody wants. No one's going to open them. Your email contact rate's going to go down. You're going to be in the spam folder in no time. Spam Right, the only spam, if you want to make impact with your email marketing, you need to personalize your content, make it look more like a letter and help your people give them the actual value. Okay, yeah.

Speaker 3: 12:17

And third, relying on social media ads is not a sustainable strategy. While social media can be a powerful tool, you need to be more diverse and have a real, good marketing mix to truly succeed and use the things that work.

Speaker 2: 12:33

So there you have it, dudes and dudettes Three marketing tactics that might seem appealing at first glance, you might be dabbling with it, but these are actually closer to terrible than terrific, and I'm going to just keep saying that because I love it, that's one of my favorite, closer to terrible. Closer to terrible than terrific.

Speaker 3: 12:54

Yeah, don't worry, we're not leaving you hanging. In our next episode, we're going to share those three marketing tactics that actually work. We've proven that they work. They work. We've done it, tested and retested.

Speaker 2: 13:07

Sure. So you got to stay tuned right, you do. You got to stay tuned if you want to know the answers to these questions, these burning questions, and they're good, they're good. Are they ever? Until next time they're going to warm you up like a cup of hot chocolate on that nice cold evening in the mountains with the snow amongst the mountain outside the windows Close your eyes and breathe in that pine-filled air.

Speaker 3: 13:35

Can you feel that I can? It's really cool and refreshing and until next time, keep breathing that cool air.

Speaker 2: 13:42

And we'll see you on the next.

Speaker 1: 13:44

Brass Tactics, brass Tactics, brass Tactics, actics, those funky actics.