Closing Secret #1… 'No One Likes To Be Told What To Do!'
One of the main reasons why so many agents and advisors struggle with closing life insurance sales is they tend to lecture and tell prospects what they should do. Once the agent or advisor finds (or thinks they’ve found a problem the prospect has), they’ll immediately try to provide the prospect with their solution to the prospect’s problem. Doesn’t a salesperson telling a prospect what they should do create an automatic response from that prospect… of immediate resistance?
Think about it. Do you like to be told you have a problem? Do you like to be told what you should do? Don’t you automatically fight the idea? Aren’t you immediately skeptical? Wouldn’t you rather identify your own problems and come up with your own solutions?
For example, when most agents and advisors are talking to a family they’ll ask; “Do you have life insurance to pay off the mortgage if something were to happen to you.” If the prospect doesn’t have any mortgage insurance, then the agent or advisor immediately tells the prospect about a great new affordable product that will pay off the mortgage if the prospect dies, or about a great plan to pay off the mortgage early if the prospect lives. The prospect automatically says; “Let me think about it!”
Why? Because no one likes to be told what to do! No one likes to be sold. But, people do like to buy, if it’s their idea.
“People buy based on emotions and
then justify their decision based on logic.”
The Top Life Insurance Produces have learned how to close more and much larger life insurance sales by helping their prospects identify and truly understand their problems. Then they help the prospect to come up with their own solutions.
These top producers know that… “People buy based on emotions and then justify their decision based on logic.” They’ve learned to ask questions, and have a real conversation to help prospects to ‘want to take action’ to solve their problems. So the prospect practically sells themself.
Here’s a quick simple example…
Agent: “If I may ask, do you currently have a mortgage on your home?”
Prospect: “Yes, I Do.”
Agent: “And, if I may ask, do you have insurance to pay off your home, for your family, if something were to happen to you?”
Prospect: “No I Don’t.”
Agent: “How do you feel about that?”
Prospect: “I never thought about it.”
Agent: “Well, if something were to happen to you, and your family lost your income, what would happen? What would they do?”
Prospect: “I guess they would have to sell the house and move in our parents.”
Agent: “Is that what you want them to have to do?”
Prospect: “No, but unfortunately I can’t do anything right now. I just can’t afford it.”
Agent: “I understand. None of has any extra money. But, do you feel it’s important to have the home paid-off for your family if you weren’t there tomorrow?”
Prospect: “Yes, I do.”
Agent: “Well, if I could show you how to get the insurance you need to protect your family, without taking any additional money out of your pocket and sacrificing your life style, would you like to know how?”
Prospect: “Yes, I would.”
Can you see the difference? We’ve helped the prospect to identify and understand their problem and become emotionally involved. Now that the prospect understands and agrees they want to solve the problem, we can work with the prospect to help them come up with their own solutions. Isn’t the prospect in fact selling themselves?
Remember, no one likes to be sold! If you learn to ask questions to help the prospect to identify and understand their own problems, and then help them find their own solutions, you’ll close more sales… And, in many cases it’ll be a much larger sale.
Closing Secret #2… ‘Help Your Prospects To Get What They Need and Want!’
That brings us to the second reason why so many agents and advisors struggle with closing life insurance sales. People just don’t have any ‘extra’ money!
“Well, if I could show you how to get the insurance you need to protect your family, without taking any additional money out of your pocket and sacrificing your life style, would you like to know how?”
Are you interested? Would you like to know more?
How much easier would it be to close the sale, if you could show your prospects how to get what they need to protect their family, without them spending any additional money and/or changing their current lifestyle?
Think about it. What’s the biggest obstacle to you selling life insurance? Isn’t it; “I just can’t afford the premiums right now?”
When prospects give you the “I can’t afford it.” objection, do you now apply pressure to try and persuade them it’s worth the sacrifice? Do you try three or four of the 100s of closing techniques you’ve learned, until you get three or more No’s?
Does applying pressure, or using those closing techniques, generally result in you making the sale?
Isn’t our job as sales people, to help people to recognize they have a problem and then get them to agree they want to solve the problem? Unfortunately, that’s where most agents and advisers stop.
"You Must Help Your Prospects To Find The Money"
Closing Secret #3… If you want to close more sales for life insurance, then you must go a step further and help your prospects to ‘FIND THE MONEY!’
In most cases, you can help them ‘find the money’ by reviewing their current situation (doing a thorough fact-find) and then helping them to make some smart money management decisions. (reposition their spending)
Here are just a few ideas on how you can help your prospects:
Can they reduce the premiums on their existing insurance policies?
Do they have low deductibles on their health, auto or homeowners insurance? Can they increase their deductibles to free up some money?
Do they have an opportunity to receive a discount on their auto, homeowners and liability policies by putting them with the same company?
Do they qualify for health insurance through their employer at a reduced cost?
Do they have a Critical Illness policy, DI policy, or Long Term Care Insurance policy with long-term benefits? Example: Having a "to age 65" benefit period on their DI policy is fine, but if it prevents them from getting the life insurance they need to protect their family, is the long-term benefit on these policies really necessary? What is the higher priority?
Do they have expensive, low priority riders on the above policies? Could you free up money by removing these riders?
Do they have cash value polices that can be paid-up with dividends?
Can you recommend a lower priced, quality company for their current insurance? Make sure it's truly in your prospects best interests.
Are they funding a retirement plan?
Are they putting money into a Roth IRA? If they need more life insurance to protect their family, couldn't they use a cash value policy for their retirement savings instead of a Roth IRA? Doesn't cash value life insurance build tax-deferred and generate tax-free income just like the Roth IRA?
Are they putting more money into a 401k, than is matched by their company? Or, are they are using a traditional IRA, SEP, etc… Again, if they need more life insurance to protect their family couldn't they instead use some of the money they are putting away for retirement to fund a cash value policy?
Can you help them to reduce or eliminate their debt?
Do they have multiple credit cards and charge accounts with large balances and high interest rates? Could they consolidate all that debt onto one credit card with a lower interest rate and reduce their total payments?
Do they have cash value in their life insurance policy they could use to pay off their debts or a car loan? Aren't they better off borrowing from themselves and paying themselves back, instead of paying someone else the interest? They can become their own bank as in the ‘Infinite Banking’ system. (Note: they must pay themselves back with interest.) (Note: in some cases you can borrow from a 401k to pay off debt and then pay it back over 5 years.)
Do they have untapped equity in their home that they can use to reduce or eliminate their debts? Or, could they refinance their mortgage for a lower monthly payment to free up income? Mortgage interest is tax deductible. So, they save on income taxes, while reducing or eliminating their debt. That’s the idea behind the ‘Missed Fortune’ concept.
These are just some of the creative ways you can help your prospect to ‘find the money.’
By asking questions to get your prospects emotionally involved, so they want to take action, and then using these ‘find the money’ techniques you'll close more sales. And, you’ll close significantly larger sales. By using these ‘questioning’ and ‘find the money’ techniques you can double or triple your life insurance sales in the next 60 days.
Here’s a success story we received from a Northwestern Adviser a few weeks ago…
"Lew, I just wanted to take a moment and thank you for recommending the mortgage protection tool kit. It has definitely helped me increase my average case size from $600 annual premium to well over $2,000 annual premium per case. Also, prior to purchasing the tool kit, I was spending over $2,000 per month on leads. I am proud to say that I have not purchased a single lead in over two months and my production is still climbing. What a life changer. I cannot thank you enough. You are truly making a difference."
Starting today, help middle income families to spend, save, invest, insure and plan wisely for the future, to achieve financial independence, so you become the most recognized, trusted, respected and sought after financial professional in your local community.
5 REASONS WHY YOU MUST ADVERTISE
Image: brizzle born and bred via Flickr
Sending email is free, creating a Facebook page is free, Twitter outreach is free, cold-calling is free, publicity is free, referrals are free, and advertising costs money.
So why is it that even with all of these wonderfully low cost and free ways to promote your business I contend that you must make advertising one of your core lead generation tactics? (Actually one could argue if anything is free, but the items listed above don’t come with a direct cost.)
Advertising is in fact one of the marketing tactics that comes with an invoice. You must write a check to run ads or send direct mail, often before seeing any results. In my experience people shy away from advertising, not because of the cost, because they don’t know how to get results and they don’t understand the long-term residual effects. Think about it, if you knew that for every $100 you spent you could produce $200, you would get out your check book and spend away, right?
To get results from advertising today you must
- Be laser focused on a specific ideal client
- Create awareness for valuable content with a call to action
- Measure leads and conversion fanatically
But, that’s a topic for another post, today I want to first get the leverage to help you understand why you must add advertising to mix and then we can start to talk about how.
When done effectively advertising is an essential part of mix because:
Advertising is the only medium you can control – if you want your message to hit on the day a product launches or event is about to happen, this is the only vehicle you control completely.
Advertising allows you to target ideal customers only – when you match a very personal message to a very select audience you get far greater connection.
Advertising creates awareness for your content – The force that drives a great deal of conversion and trust building these days is educational content – ebooks, seminars and blog posts – advertising is a great way to help get that content found and consumed once you’ve gone to the effort to produce it.
Advertising adds credibility to your message – Don’t ask me why this is exactly, but every time I run advertising people comment that business must be going well. The perception that you can afford advertising is often enough to sell and resell prospects and customers alike and makes it easier to get attention for your entire message.
Advertising amplifies everything else you’re doing – When you are using advertising to create awareness for your content you automatically create more awareness for everything you are doing. Journalists find companies that advertise, referral sources remember companies that advertise, people fan and follow and friend from ads, and employees can point to well-placed ads as a source of pride in place they work.
