ASK THE
ADVANCED SALES DOCTOR Q:
I have been in the business for more than 10 years, having had great success at first. But I hit a plateau about three years ago and can’t seem to get past it, no matter what I try. Any suggestions?
Rx:
This happens to most producers—especially if you’re using one of the traditional sales approaches. Today’s consumer is harder to reach, harder to sell and they see the so-called “relationship selling” approach as manipulative and self-serving. To succeed with that approach, you need to compensate for its shortcomings with “personality power.” You need to offset its ineffective sales psychology or contrived language using your intuition, persistence and sustained drive. Your unique set of aptitudes and personality make-up will, however, set a natural limit to what extent you’ll be able to compensate. Most agents will reach this limit sometime in their career and often makes them lose confidence in their ability to control outcomes and so they simply settle for the status quo. But it seems like you haven’t lost all motivation to succeed to a greater extent, so your answer is to find a more up-to-date sales approach with the right tools to sell in today’s changed market.
Q: Rx:
I strongly believe in whole life insurance but my prospects appear to think I recommend it to boost my commission. How do you counter this kind of thinking? The media seems to derive a perverse pleasure from bashing the insurance industry and agents. The value of permanent insurance isn’t hard to understand—so its attacks aren’t based on rational reasoning, but on an agenda that targets the whole industry. Media can, nonetheless, make your prospect question your motive so the best strategy is not fighting this at the point of sale. But if your prospect bought into these claims, don’t continue pressing for the whole life sale. Simply say: “What you’re about to decide is to protect yourself and your family and it does not matter how you do it, as long as that protection will be there for you if and when you or your family should need it. For now, term will
After more than 30 years of coaching and studying insurance professionals and the insurance sales process, Hungarian-born clinical psychologist Dr. Csaba Sziklai (pronounced Cha-ba Sick-lie) has become known throughout the life insurance industry as “The Advocate’s Advocate.” As the author of the “Advocacy System,” Dr. Sziklai has been asked to speak at numerous insurance industry events and has conducted hundreds of sessions for many of America’s top life insurance companies. 54
InsuranceNewsNet Magazine
March 2012
accomplish that. Whichever you buy, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that your decision was an act of love and responsibility.” Once your prospect becomes a client, your relationship with them will change—they’ll acquire a psychological need to trust you. Then, within six months or so, you can approach them to convert their term policy to permanent insurance. But this time, you’ll be selling to a different buying motive. You might open your discussion with saying something like this: “Six months ago you decided to protect yourself and your family with insurance, which was a responsible decision you can be proud of. Now, however, I’d like to explain how you can keep this protection, but in a way that is more to your advantage.”
Q: Rx:
I have heard all kinds of recommended answers to the question: “How do you get paid?” But what do you suggest? When you meet with a prospect, they’ll automatically judge you and your motivation for coming to them— which is usually biased by the prevailing stereotype of insurance agents. Your prospect probably doesn’t see a pressing need for insurance and will assume you just want to make a sale to get the commission. You have a narrow window to correct this first impression and establish that you have their best interests in mind. People don’t ask a doctor how they get paid because it’s inherent that they represent their interest. When you meet with your prospect for the first time, you need to establish that same expectation. But when someone asks, just stay calm and say: “I assume you’re talking about monetary compensation? Well, I receive the commission that is standard in the industry from the company that issues the insurance. But my biggest reward is in knowing that I make a difference in people’s lives by helping them secure their financial futures.”
Need a prescription for success? Send your sales psychology questions to:
SalesDoctor@innfeedback.com