William Frank sells auto insurance, life insurance, renters policies as well as home insurance and commercial insurance for businesses. He doesn’t sell standard health insurance policies but has partnerships to cover disability insurance and hospital income insurance, which is a product that provides a weekly or monthly payment during a hospital stay.
“My father and grandfather were insurance brokers in Bloomington, Illinois,” he explains. “My dad’s still selling insurance and will be for at least a few more years.”
Even though he’s an agency owner today, Frank started off determined to go a different route than his father and grandfather. He went to law school but didn’t like it. He then went into sales, working mainly in the tech industry for most of his career.
What got him interested in selling insurance for State Farm was the success his friend was having. “I was interested in trying it for myself,” he recalls, “but I thought the process would be way too long until a State Farm recruiter reached out and explained that the process was shorter and easier than I assumed it would be.”
First, Frank got the appropriate licenses for each type of insurance he sells today. He then went through a formal interview process. He was accepted into the State Farm training training program, which was three and a half months long. He then proudly opened the doors to his very own agency on October 1, 2020.
Frank knew he’d need to buy insurance leads to establish his new business, even more so with the coronavirus raging. Buying leads seemed the only viable way to meet new insurance shoppers.
“Until you get your book to a certain size, you need to buy insurance leads,” he says. “There are certain metrics you have to hit so I knew I'd work with at least one or two lead vendors starting out. And that’s just what I’ve done.”
Frank went through a rigorous process of trying out a series of lead vendors before finding the ones that proved to bring in new business. “The results from SmartFinancial have been much better than the others,” he says.
Frank buys life, auto, home and renters leads from SmartFinancial -- and he buys lots of them because he understands that it’s a numbers game. He aims high to achieve his agency’s full potential. He also has six employees, two of them full-time, and he needs to keep them busy. He mainly buys inbound calls, which are also called live transfers or live-transfer calls.
“I started out with data leads,” he explains, “but I don’t have time to do the follow-up process correctly so we’re taking only the calls right now. My entire team is comfortable with the live calls from SmartFinancial, which have really helped us grow the business. These calls have gotten us up and running.”
No one on Frank’s team had experience with inbound calls before they started receiving SmartFinancial’s live transfers, but they’ve been able to perfect their skills in just a few months.
“The more you quote, the better you’ll become,” Frank says. “It also helps that State Farm is a powerful brand. It makes sense for people to work with us.”
5 Golden Tips from William Frank of State Farm Insurance
1. Be there to answer the call and be very friendly. Make the customer comfortable and walk them through the process. See if you’re in the ballpark of what they’re expecting to pay.
2. Have a follow-up process. There are proven steps that you will go over with a dedicated Account Manager. If you follow the steps, you’ll be closing leads.
3. Keep the conversation going. Even though listening is important, you may need to keep the customer engaged.
4. Get through the quote quickly. They want a quote, so don’t drag it out. After giving the quote advise them about the type of policy they looking for.
5. Assume the close. If you’re confident in your product, it goes a long way.
