Selling Health Insurance – Cash & Life Riders: Article 17 in Randy’s Closing Insurance Sales series.
Hi everybody.
For those of you I have not met,
My name is Randy Mc Arthur.
People believe that which they choose to believe -
And they want what they want -
Not what they need -
Try though you may -
With everything you say -
You’re going to need a formula -
To get them to sway -
It’s human nature you see -
For me to focus on me -
And to reject what you say -
Because I know the best way -
Don’t try to tell me what to do -
Why the heck should I listen to you?
You’re only here for my money -
That ain’t at all funny -
To get me to buy -
I do believe – you would lie -
You are a sales person you see -
By definition – You couldn’t care less about me…
One of the things I mentioned in my previous articles is my sales process that is a receipe designed to lead the customer to a close by his own choice. The process works because it eliminates concerns before they become objections mainly through the use of appropriate questions.
One of the first things you hear when you start selling insurance is ”don’t sell insurance, present a value proposition.” Then nobody explains how to do it or even specifically what they mean. I choose to believe the reason they don’t teach you how to do it is they don’t know how to either. No one ever showed them a formula that gives you a way to first, determine what each individual customer has chosen to believe is valuable without you having to re-invent the wheel every single time.
I don’t know about you, but that’s way too much work for me. Now, lets look at the 5 step process with respect to creating a value proposition as defined by individuals that you have not met yet who value different things. How’s that for a description of the customer base? By the way, most of these people need a little help choosing what’s valuable. That’s why it works.
When you do your meet and greet your only goal is to make the customer comfortable. He has to stop thinking of you as a salesperson just trying to take his cash and start seeing you as a human being that is going to at least try to help him. DO NOT mention product during this step even if you are asked a specific question.
For Example:
If you were asked “What does the insurance cover?” you could respond; Well that depends, have you given any thought to the value of what you are trying to protect? He’ll more than likely pause and say something to the effect of “What do you mean?” or “Well no, I haven’t looked at it that way!”
He has just set you up to move seamlessly to step 2, the Discovery stage of the presentation. During discovery you should be able to ask questions that are more specific than the questions you asked in the meet and greet. His answers here will tell you how to close the deal. He will speak in terms of his family and expenses among other things if you ask the right questions.
Discovery is the stage in which you point out that health insurance is just a defensive investment designed to reduce his total financial exposure by changing a horrific unknown expense to measurable known cost. If he gets it, he won’t be quite as skeptical as he was in the beginning and he’ll be more receptive to your point of view to his benefit.
.
For Example:
Now that you know that his son who is a senior in high school is going to be the first one in the family to ever go to college and he’s prouder of that than the business he started 30 years ago from nothing, you know that a cash payout rider should be attached to his policy to protect his son’s opportunity to go to college. It is what he values and he has provided you with the chance to move to the third stage of the presentation in a natural conversational style.
The third stage is the Qualification stage. Without interrogating him, find out why he needs your services now. (Remember, the question is never “why” it is always “why NOW” if you want to close the deal. Just make sure that you convert his values into general ideas in this stage.
For Example:
He values his son’s opportunity to be the first college graduate in the family above everything else. You would say something like “Are you aware that we have products that will protect your son’s college education?”
Now, by asking that question you can move to the 4th stage of the presentation; the Feature – Benefit – Tie down stage in the same natural conversational style that you have already established. Here you are going to convert general ideas of protection into specific features with specific financial benefits and apply them to the unique individual customer you are dealing with.
For Example:
General Idea: We have products that could pay cash directly to spend on anything. The check is made out to you.
Feature – Benefit – Tie Down:
Feature: We have a $50,000 critical illness rider that pays $50,000 to the insured upon diagnosis of a critical illness and you can add guaranteed life insurance to this health plan also.
Benefit: Our great health insurance is going to cover the medical bills so you will be able to use th $50,000 for all your other bills including your son’s tuition.
Tie-Down: If something were to happen to you, your son is still going to be the first college graduate in your family. You have improved his quality of life for all of his life.
All that is left to do now is to ask for the business. Step 5 is an Assumptive Close. If you executed the first four steps adequately, YOU WILL CLOSE DEALS and closing will be the easiest part of the process because through the use of appropriate questions, you created an environment in which your customer was able to tell you what he valued, feel that he was in control of the transaction, make his own decision and buy a product instead of being sold a product. Just start doing the application.
Don’t stop unless you are stopped by the customer. He’ll probably stop you a couple of times with a couple of stalls. Now would be a good time for you to read my article
Closing A Health Deal by Choice
It sheds a little light on the difference between stalls and objections. After you have addressed his stall and re-stated what HE said he wanted, just start doing the application again. If I get to start an application again, I Close at Over 90%.
Remember, its not you that makes the customer stall, it is his inherent human nature to stall before purchasing anything. Think about what you say to a retail clerk when you go to buy a shirt. I bet you say the same thing that I do when asked “May I help you?” My response is always “I’m just looking.” Well I’m never just looking. I don’t really care for shopping and I wear only one type of shirt, that, I would go and get myself. So if I’m in the store, I’m not just looking. I could actually use some help. But I still say “I’m just looking.”
Point is the “Think About It” stall is really a buying signal.
Your customer can’t come up with anything else to say. In my opinion, that means an agent did a pretty good job. He has held the customer’s attention at least an hour has satisfied his customer’s doubts and fears.
Please give my process a try. It has helped a lot of sales people in many different industries. Then, if you will, please give me some feedback and I’ll help you. I don’t mind sharing some more example questions if that’s what you need.
If I can help you in any way just give me a call at (919)781-2018 or email me at randymcarthur@ymail.com . My personal mission is to; first, only and always do the right thing to help people insure that, through their own choices, they are making the best decisions they can make to guarantee their success in everything they do. I look forward to hearing from you. Good luck in your endeavors and God bless you.
Thanks
Randy Mc Arthur
Thanks for stopping by my insurance leads blog.
Cheers,
Mac