Realize when you take the time and spend the money to actually mail a pre-approach letter that letter has to produce results greater than the costs associated with the mailing. If it doesn't then continuing to do what doesn't work isn't going to produce different results. No big surprise there yet it amazes me how people will continue to send a letter they already know doesn't work and expect a miracle.



There is an incremental process that has to happen to have a pre-approach letter work for you. The first step in the process is getting your letter openedread. Don't use one of your fancy letter head envelopes when mailing these letters.

If you want your letter to get opened it absolutely has to look like a personal correspondence. The easiest and cheapest way to do that is to use a plain envelope hand addressed and sent using a live stamp. A live stamp is just a postage stamp like you buy at the post office versus any kind of bulk meter postage.

Your reader is standing over the waste basket sorting their mail and deciding what gets put aside to look at, and what gets immediately thrown away. They open yours because they're curious as to who is sending them a letter. You've succeeded in the first step.

When they pull your letter out of the envelope it must still look like a personal message, so again don't use your fancy letter head paper because when you do you immediately trigger their defenses. As they begin to read your letter your first sentence must clearly communicate the value to them in reading your message. They must immediately get that you get what's going on with them.

The reader will not perceive value in an offer from you for a free review or a personal appointment. They're thinking so what. You're a complete stranger they don't know anything about you and they certainly don't see any reason to give you an appointment. That's the wrong offer.

The right offer will provide them with something that does have perceived value for them. Offer them something they do want and tell them the exact actions to get the offer. Then allow them to reach out to you first.

Some will reach out immediately others won't. You need a system to properly follow-up with each person. Your objective when you call the people who reached out to you is to determine if this person is a good potential client for you. Only extend an offer for an appointment to the people highly qualified to work with you who realize there may be a reason to meet with you and learn more.

Look at your current pre-approach letter and match it up against the suggestions in this article. Improve and refine your letter. Then make sure you carefully select who you'll send those letters to.

When you learn how to develop your own highly proprietary list versus throwing money away on lists that will never produce like a well developed list you'll enjoy great results from your letters. You won't throw away precious marketing dollars sending tons of letters that don't produce when you can selectively send small numbers that profitably produce highly qualified leads. Selling insurance doesn't have to be so hard if you'll just stop doing the things that don't work and learn how to do the things that do.