by Cheryl A. Clausen

Identify the trade shows that your best prospects attend and make sure that'll you'll be there and have a clear plan to use this opportunity to increase your insurance sales. You don't have to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars renting a space at the event, in fact that's one of the last things you want to do. You can get numerous great leads without having to rent a booth. Renting a booth actually inhibits your potential for the event because when you have to man a booth you can't mingle and meet with the other vendors. It's no secret that most trade shows are annual events so it's easy for you to plan and prepare for the event. Don't go unless you have your sales strategy developed for increasing your insurance sales success. In most cases the event will be held at a hotel or a convention center connected to a hotel. In addition to walking the trade show you may also want to rent a meeting room during the event and use a pre-event direct mail campaign to invite prospects to visit you and get a special valuable gift. You may also want to host an invitation only cocktail hour at the end of the day just for your best prospects.

When you walk the trade show make sure you meet as many potential prospects as possible. A great way to make sure that happens is to know the names and locations of every vendor at the event. As you meet people be sure to have something of value to offer them. This helps you to make a connection. Have your entire marketing and sales strategy mapped out for the event far enough in advance to have everything prepared for the big event. Proper planning ensures you can get the most value from the time and dollars you invest in the event in terms of the valuable leads with real potential for insurance sales success.

Once you have a plan for how to make the most of the event get there and work your plan for using this sales technique. There may be opportunities for you to help with the even if you contact the people running the event. When you work at the event for a short time period it increases your visibility and helps you to get an opportunity to meet the right people. When you greet attendees you at least get to meet every person coming to the event during the time frame your helping as a greeter.

When vendors are setting up and getting everything in place it's usually a pretty stressful and big job. You may want to volunteer to serve as an extra pair of hands for any vendor needing help. This will get you one-on-one exposure and favorable attention at the same time. If you get this special opportunity you want to be prepared to position yourself in a way that garners interest and attention. That requires a great attention getting core marketing message. If you've gotten their interest and attention the next logical step is to have an offer to give them something they would really want. This next step strengthens your connection and opens the door for future communication.

The reason you're attending the event is to get leads and your offer is the key to the whole lead generation process. Your offer must be something your prospects would really want. Because you know and understand your prospects it should be pretty easy for you to come up with a great offer. Your offer doesn't have to be something tangible. Information that isn't readily available, but really helpful or useful will be sought after. And that allows you to make good connections.

The first step to using this insurance sales idea is getting the attention of the people you want to connect with. Make sure you tread lightly because you aren't paying for a booth and if you think you're going to walk around the trade show and sell the vendors you may get asked to leave. Your plan is to walk the trade show or to invite people to connect with you in your private meeting room. Just like any networking event you just need to meet and greet people and make a friend. If the person you meet seems like a likely prospect then you can mention special offer.

Most people, even the vendors, waste the leads they get at trade shows. The reason this happens is because they don't follow-up or they don't follow-up fast enough. The people you meet at the trade show don't know you so you have a tenuous connection at best. Consequently you need to have a system to follow-up with those leads within 72 hours or they're wasted. Beyond 72 hours any connection you had is probably gone. Include your follow-up plan of attack in your overall insurance sales success plan. Top producers are top producers because they have a plan and they commit to implementing that plan no matter what.

About the Author:

About the author: Cheryl Clausen can help you get unstuck. Use top Sales Techniques get her free ecourse. Use top Sales Coaching look here. Click here to get your own unique version of this article. Internet home business.