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Bob Petrocelli
NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY
If someone says, ‘I’m not interested now; give me a call in six months,’ I make sure to call in six months.”
Veteran insurance broker Bob Petrocelli built his business the old-fashioned way: He earned it, one cold call at a time. Upon joining New York Life as a 24-year-old newbie in 1979, Petrocelli picked up the phonebook and started dialing—or dropping in on—any business that seemed successful. “I would walk right in and ask to speak to the owner,” recalls Petrocelli, who grew up in Larchmont and now lives in Rye. “It wasn’t easy, but I was doggedly determined.”
Fast-forward to today and Petrocelli counts thousands of clients—both individual policy-holders and large corporations—across Westchester and throughout the nation. He was named 2011-2012 Council Vice President for achieving the second-highest sales among all of New York Life’s 12,500 insurance agents. Petrocelli has also been selected for New York Life’s Chairman’s Cabinet (reserved for the company’s top 50 agents) four times in the last five years, and has been included numerous times in Top of the Table—a distinction reserved for the top 1 percent of all insurance brokers as measured by industry organization Million Dollar Round Table.
Along the way, Petrocelli has picked up some valuable cold-calling tips: Try business owners early in the morning (“At 7 am, they will prob- ably pick up the phone, but, by 9, they are already working, having their third heart attack of the day”); always offer a well-defined pitch (“Hi, I’m Bob. We have a special program that is tailor-made for newspaper man- agers and will fully take advantage of the benefits from the new ‘XYZ Tax Act’”); and always give prospects a choice between yes and yes (“I’ll be
Jeff Griffin ADP
While the Girl Scouts are better known for their sales prowess (Thin Mints, anyone?), the Boy Scouts motto of “Be Prepared” can go a long way toward closing a sale. That’s certainly been the case for Jeff Griffin, a district manager with the Strategic Products Division of payroll and HR solutions provider Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP). “Preparation is key to being able to go to a prospective client and talk intelligently about their organization and how [your product] can help,” says Griffin, who targets major accounts in Westchester and
parts of Connecticut.
When prospecting, Griffin spends time researching companies to see what type
of buyer profile they fall into, and if they’ve experienced any so-called trigger events (such as company growth, moving to or adding new offices, or debuting new prod- ucts or services) that are likely to make them more interested in ADP’s offerings.
Social media sites like Twitter and LinkedIn can be great sources of information for trigger events, advises Griffin, who is ranked in the top 20 percent of ADP’s sales organization, and is sixth in the nation for his specific product segment. “If prospects are Tweeting about events that are triggers for us, it can be very helpful,” says Griffin, who notes that. LinkedIn, too, can be helpful when you are “one connection away from someone.You can reach out to your connection and ask for a ‘warm’ introduction.”
Once he has his foot in the door, Griffin turns to a “teaching and tailoring”strategy that has helped him make the ADP President’s Club—for employees who hit at least 115 percent of their sales quota—four times in his six years with the company. “I spend a lot of time on sales calls teaching for differentiation—making a clear distinction between us and their incumbent provider or other firms they are considering,” says Griffin. He says you also “have to tailor your pitch specific to the organization.” recent
If prospects are tweeting about events that are triggers for us, it can be very helpful.
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