This is a success story managers should print, blow up and post on the door of the conference room. It's a great motivator for salespeople and a super idea generator for your next sales meeting. Greg Tramontin has been in the insurance business since 1982 the same year he became a fan of radio advertising. In 2009 Tramontin started Go Auto Low Cost Car Insurance. 2 years later he's up to 41 locations fully deployed in the state of Louisiana with visions of opening in Pennsylvania, Tennessee or North Carolina. He's averaging about 5 to 6 new store openings per month and he is not afraid to admit radio has played a major role in his growth over the past two years. And we let Tramontin tell his story about how radio advertising turned him from a fan of the yellow pages to a lifelong user of radio.
"I go back to 1982 and this is kind of an interesting story. I actually worked for the Yellow Pages for 5 years prior to getting into this business. When I got into the insurance business, I didn?t go work for somebody first and one day decide to open my own business. I opened my own business from day one with absolutely no experience. I was 28 years old and I sold my house. I had about $30,000 in equity, which I took to open up the business in Lafayette, Louisiana."
"After working at the Yellow Pages for 5 years I decided to purchase the largest ad available in the phone book, especially for the category of auto insurance. I opened in October of 1982, just with Yellow Page advertising. The phone was ringing and I would get 3,4, or 5 calls a day. The first day I sold a policy, the next two days I wouldn?t sell any. Then I would sell 2 on a Friday. It was kind of going like that. I had about $2,500 left of from my original $30,000 capital base and a radio rep from KSMB came in the door. She came in to talk to me about radio. I said I really don?t have much money. So we put together a little two or three week October schedule. She helped me put together the ad, nothing fancy, which started on Monday."
"That following Monday, now remember I told you I was going through 5 calls a day, I got 48 calls and sold 7 policies. From that point on, radio became a staple of our marketing campaign. We used television to build image and the brand. We used radio to reinforce that message with frequency. They work hand in hand. I've subscribed for years to TAPSCAN, Arbitron, and Nielsen. We don?t go through an advertising agency, we buy ourselves."
"If we get 100 calls, we can sell 45 of them which is a hot percentage. We are just trying to reach thousands of people, frequently, with a good message, and get them to pick up the phone and call or go to our website. We go into a new market with a budget and end up buying probably 8-10 deep. Our demographic, it used to be 18-49, but we have moved it to 21-54. That is mainly because what we do is not like selling a bunch of shoes where the worst thing that can happen is maybe the shoe falls apart and they want their money back. When you sell auto insurance, we have to pay the claims. You have to be very selective. It?s matching risk to pricing. You have to match that pretty accurately. Teenagers, we know, are very difficult. We try to skip them altogether. We now go from 21 to 54, adults. We buy Urban. We buy Country, Adult Contemporary, Classic Rock. Our reach is probably approaching 80-85%. Heavy, heavy frequency."
There is much more from Greg Tramontin in the August 22nd issue of Radio Ink magazine. In that issue, he touches on how he also uses Google AdWords in his marketing campaign, his view on radio salespeople and his advice on how salespeople can better adress the needs of the client. You are not going to want to miss out on this great success story.
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We would like to Thank 2011 Radio Wayne Award Nominee Jennifer Luquette of Citadel in Lafayette for suggesting we speak to Greg.
Have a local client success story? We'd like to hear about it. Contact me at edryan@radioink.com
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