Knowing When to Dismiss Business Sales Leads: Overcoming the China Egg Syndrome

The concept of the China Egg Syndrome has a fascinating beginning. Most people have no idea what a porcelain egg really is. The story goes back to the early 1960’s. A life/health insurance coach had one on his desk. Usually it’s a nice decorative item, an egg-shaped piece of colored glass or porcelain set in a small gilt metal stand. Perhaps you have seen one. This particular piece was used as an agent training exhibit. Here is the meaning.

Most agents, whether new or veteran, have a problem. And, if they don’t solve this particular problem, they are likely to go out of business. It’s that easy. As any successful practitioner of salesmanship will agree, one must be on an endless drive to find, develop, and close leads. The search for people and companies that are receptive to our products and services is continuous. In the insurance business, that means using all sources and methods to gain access to those who might be receptive to what we have to offer. Then we must make them buy the political solutions we offer.

One would think that finding clues is important but not crucial. Let me disabuse that whole notion. It is the life blood of the sale; insurance is no exception. Closing leads to produce business and commissions is the penultimate step in the process. The final step is service and preservation. The main aspect is therefore to develop a constant and fresh flow of good prospects; which everyone knows is the hard part.

Now we come to the subject of this comment. In poker parlance, it means knowing when to keep them and knowing when to fold. In insurance sales terms, it means knowing when to continue to develop the lead (sit down and nurture that egg, please) until it turns into a sale. It means knowing how and when to recognize that one is sitting on a sales floor, (an egg) one that is never going to hatch, a porcelain egg. Don’t think this is easy. It is not. And retaining and spending time, energy, effort, calls, forwards, additional contacts, and interviews, and worrying about well-developed leads, work-in-progress, that we’ve really become attached to because we’ve put so much effort into them. , is the bane of too many successful business salespeople. At some point, we must part with this porcelain egg. It’s almost like saying goodbye to an old friend, an old lethal friend.

The way out of this puzzle is to turn the problem into a process. It requires organization and discipline. Here is one way to do it. Once the lead sheets are turned into product/service proposal folders, and after the first one is closed, we begin the search to determine if the proposed solutions are eggs that will hatch or are porcelain eggs. From here things get interesting. From here the sales begin. From here the most creative excuses begin. From here, more often than not, potential buyers start to thin out (hard to locate, no return phone calls, no response to voicemails, emails, faxes, follow-up letters). All seasoned advisory agents have experienced them; therefore, there is no need to burden readers with any.

The direct process is three prompts (follow-up) and you’re done. I know this is hard, but it’s the lifesaver. Obviously, it makes common sense to retain some in a suspense file for future tracking. When one shows up a few months later, you may want to try again. I say do it. There’s something about finding a folder 8 months later that makes it look fresh. And sometimes, the porcelain egg turns into a real one and hatches. In some cases, you might even get a call! It has happened to all of us.

I even have a FINAL resting place for a few of my very select porcelain eggs in the back office morgue file. You know, just in case? When this process is complete and most of the porcelain eggs have been discarded, you will find that you have served yourself better by serving yourself well and in a disciplined manner. The process from initial closure to final discard can take a few days, weeks, or at most a month. That’s with breaths between follow-ups and all. You know you’re doing it right when you notice you’re not accumulating big files from thick folders that get more numerous and older! I have known agents who have kept these track files for so long that the prospects have died! Keep them moving.

You know you’re doing it right when you’re constantly taking in new leads, working them (HARD), and dismissing most of them aggressively, using the “one, two, three tries and you’re out” procedure. all in a fairly short time. It is a judgment call. And by keeping a suspense file, you still retain the chance to pull out a sale from time to time. Turnover is the name of the game. It’s quite liberating. Time to move on. Here are two final thoughts. 1. Our only stock in trading is time and skill. 2. Eggs from China are nothing more than a waste of time, something like sinks, which have to be disposed of in a reasonable, quick but orderly way. Good sale, everyone.