Vlad’s Story

In this post, our co-founder Vlad Cherchenko shares how he got started in the insurance industry and how he ultimately developed the famous sales process that has helped thousands of agencies massively grow their business.

It was July 11th, 2014.

I just passed my P&C exam and arrived on my first day at the office where I was starting my new career.

My boss, the agency owner, sat me down and said, “Vlad, I will not buy any leads for you. If you want to be successful in this industry, you have to learn how to write new business without buying leads.”

I was good with that.

He was the expert, and I was not.

“Sure, how do I do that?” I asked.

“You just call old leads. I don’t have a script for you, but you should go ahead and call people and tell them that we gave them a quote a while back and ask if you can requote them.”

He pointed toward my workstation (which had a nice view).

Vlad’s original office view

vlad-original-office-view

Vlad’s first office as a sales producer

My agent continued, “This is your workstation. I’m leaving the country for a few weeks and will have limited service, but you can call our service line if you have any questions.”

I was okay with being left alone.

To say that I was excited would be an understatement. My dream of working with an uncapped income opportunity had finally become a reality.

The only problem was that I had no idea what I was doing.

I was given a list of old leads but no script to follow.

I called a few agents in our area and asked if they had a sales script I could follow—but to my surprise, no one had a written script!

I thought that was odd.

How come no one has a sales script? How do these people sell insurance?

I had more questions than answers about the insurance industry.

I decided to call the old leads that were given to me anyway.

First call – no answer.

Second call – no answer.

Next call:

Hello?

Uh yes… can I speak with John?

Who’s this?

This is Vlad with State Farm insurance. We gave you an insurance quote a while back, and I wanted to see if we could requote your car insurance. Do you have a few minutes to get a quote?

I’m happy with where I’m at. I don’t have time for this. Bye.

The dude hung up on me.

So did the next one.

And the next.

Why are people so rude?

I couldn’t figure out why people would hang up on me when I called them to save them money on their insurance.

A local agent told me that, if I worked more hours and made more calls, I would eventually figure it out.

So I came in before 8am every morning and wouldn’t leave until late. Really late. I’d be calling the entire day.

But I couldn’t get any traction.

It got so bad that I considered getting a second job. I was going to work a graveyard shift at Fedex to supplement my income.

I decided not to do that because I wanted to make insurance my ONE THING. Thank God I did.

All I wanted was a blueprint, a SCRIPT that could persuade someone to buy insurance from me.

After making over 15,000 cold-calls, through trial and error, I developed a sales script that worked for me.

It worked like magic.

I could call an old lead (someone who wasn’t shopping for insurance) and get them to switch their insurance to me—in ONE CALL.

On my 6th month as a sales producer, I wrote 100 policies in one month.

3 months later, I wrote 152 policies in one month. As a single producer.

I started writing over 150 policies a month because I had a killer sales script and an effective referral process.

After a few months, I started getting calls from other agency owners asking me if they could send their producers to our agency to watch me sell—and they would pay me for my time.

Producers would come to my office, watch me sell, come back to their office, implement my sales process—and would write considerably more new business!

With every agent or producer, my goal was simple: Learn my sales script word-for-word, apply it, and reconnect in 30 days to see what results they experienced.

Even I was surprised by the results.

Every agency started writing more premium, NOT by buying more leads, NOT by hiring more people—by following my script, the 6-Step Script To A One Call Close!

Over the following few months, I traveled across the nation hosting more workshops teaching agents my sales process.

I was so confident that my sales process would help them write more business immediately after coming back from my in-person sales training event that I offered a money-back guarantee.

I’d always say, “If you don’t feel like the training was worth 10X your investment, I’ll give you your money back!”

No one ever asked for their money back.

In fact, most people said I should have charged $5k (or more) per agency to attend.

Here’s what agents have said after a workshop:

“One of my producers went from selling $15,000 to $45,000 in monthly premium.”

— Paul

“My team participated in several trainings, but this one has been the most clear and direct way of communicating with a client.”

— Rani

Since hosting my first workshop and teaching the 6-Step Script To A One-Call Close (which works for old leads, new leads, referrals, and cross-selling to your existing clients), I’ve helped thousands of agencies implement this sales process in their agency.

Agents and sales producers write more premium immediately after coming back from my in-person sales training workshop.

They realize that selling more insurance is about clarity and persuasion.

The main technique is keeping things simple. Simple is persuasive.

The 6-Step Script To A One-Call Close is simple and persuasive.

It works.

If you want to learn the 6-Step Script To A One-Call Close at an in-person event that I’ll be hosting in a city near you, then register for this event today right here.

Seating for this sales training workshop is very LIMITED.

It’s first come, first served.

To learn more about this event you can visit this page.