so i started reading some articles about
different tips on insurance and sales
and over the phone
and i came across a pretty good one from
blog or blogspot
that's titled 15 science-backed tips
for making better sales calls now i will
give it to them they have some of the
best hooks and that's one of the reasons
i like reading their information
but then they go into opinions and not
science
fact things so we're going to dive into
it a little bit more in depth and i'll
give you what has been successful for me
someone that has written several million
dollars worth of personal alliance
insurance they start this article off
with the first piece which is starting
the call off with a bang
it really makes sense this is actually a
really good piece because you do want to
start the phone call off
when they say bang that sounds kind of
like an aggressive tone
but it's the opposite it's being
welcoming hello how are you oh my
goodness it's good to talk to you
oh how have you been even if you've
never talked to them so you kind of
create some
quick rapport with the person because
this is phone sales
and you're just starting to talk with
somebody the second piece is just common
knowledge they talk about
going over and not bad mouthing or
bashing other companies
and their processes there is a time to
do that
so there are places where you can but
what i recommend is don't
now even though there's spots and
there's tons of stuff where you can
kind of pin that customer to pin their
company in a corner to just get them to
want to leave
you don't want them to buy out of not
wanting to be angry at one company
because you're just going to filter that
into your company
and so there are ways to let the
customer decide that they're upset with
their company
and we need to have them come up with
those talk paths
not you so how do you do that how do you
get the customer to be frustrated with
their company well usually they are
because they called around because of
usually an experience if you follow any
of the podcasts in the industry and any
of the articles and whatnot or if you're
just starting to watch this channel
which is going to give you that
information
first of all subscribe below thank you
like the like the
thumbs up there smash it for the
algorithm whatever the topic that they
constantly talk about
is when a customer is upset it's because
of
usually a claim so it's like 70 some odd
percent
of all of the reasons customers leave
it's not price
price isn't really the main factor i
think actually they say 11
of the people leave a company is because
of price now if you're constantly
getting that rebuttal
that is the type of client that you may
not want to deal with in the first place
so you might have to rethink some of
your marketing or some of your tactics
or strategies
so that you're not always doing that i
get it almost every phone call that our
reps go through and i've done in the
past
has been around price but once you start
to learn how to do what we call
value-based selling
and you realize the pain points that
they really have
whether it's a claim or they had a
coverage that they thought they had and
it was different they didn't have enough
coverage
or just the person was rude to them
there's a lot of reasons that customers
leave
price is a piece of it it's what can tip
that
scale into your favor or against you
but it also has a lot to do with the
relationship and the talking paths that
you have with the person that's on the
phone as well
the third piece that they talk about is
giving labels and that's pretty
vague what they end up talking at the
bottom of this article is the official
labels
for example they say uh you know you're
my best customer you're such a great
person i think you're a really good fit
and i didn't do a whole lot of this but
i do know that when you do do it if
you're comfortable doing it
you will find that people do open up a
little bit more i've had several times
where i've had a talk path with someone
and i'll explain to them why things are
higher why things are different
but then i'll also explain that we want
their business i'll give you a really
good example
hey joe you know i understand that the
price is quite a bit higher
i know that you didn't want you wanted
zero dollar deductible on the glass
and we only have a hundred i get that
part but to be honest with you
you're a really good fit for us i
otherwise i wouldn't be going through
the rest of this quote just to give you
the information
i think that because you're you know in
your because of where you're at
the type of policy that you're looking
for i've got several companies that are
going to be a really good fit for you
so let's go ahead let me try to at least
get you some options and then you can
let me know what your thoughts are at
the end of the day what you're doing is
you're
you're telling them either something
they like or don't like it's
holding them in one arm punching them
with the other right so
you're comforting and aggressive you
can't tell them what they don't get what
that in turn
ends up being is that you have to find
ways to let them know
that you want to stay connected set the
agenda and stay in control
yeah it makes sense i train to this a
lot i just tell customers or
employees that it's a timeline and
there's a talk path
you need to one set the expectation of
what you're going to do through that
talk path
it's about a 10 to 15 minute call
sometimes 5
sometimes 30. it really just depends on
the needs and how
the customer wants to talk about those
but that talk path
goes up and down for example you're
going to have a lot of memories come up
if you're asking questions
about things that trigger thoughts that
they've had in the past
oh my gosh i had a road claim and this
was this and then it goes off and then
you've got to pull them back down
let's get back on topic and find ways to
do that now i'm not going to get very
specific with those pieces today
because that'll be something that's part
of a larger video
or even a training piece so once again
if you're interested in finding more of
those specifics
don't forget to subscribe part number
six they said emphasize wisely
that's a given you really want to know
what words to emphasize
you don't want to talk about excitement
about a claim or something that's
negative
and you don't want to underplay
something that's powerful and that's
where
i get a lot of customers a lot of people
that i train is that they have
monotone voices or they don't get
excited for any reason
and part of its posture so if you're
going to lay back like this
and talk on the phone you've got a
headset and yeah yeah
yeah how excited is that customer to
talk to you what's the experience that
you're giving them
if you're right right here ready to go i
know you want to plan your cell phone
you want to do a game while you're
waiting for a phone call
or if you're trying to drum up business
you're used to hearing the phone ring
in ring and ring and ring and nobody's
picking up
the last three guys told you to go screw
yourself and hung up on you
one person says they don't live here or
they're not alive anymore whatever the
case is
you've had a rough time and you're going
to fall in these slumps
but you've got to be ready because you
don't want to miss the opportunity
for the person that does need your help
and wants to work with you
number seven simplifying options
completely agree with this
you just need to make it simple one of
the ways that i've helped some of my
trainees when they're going through
licensing
is i find ways to make the coverages
relatable
so with us we typically say coverage for
you coverage for other people and
coverage for your vehicle we break it
down into three parts
and then we go into specifics on what
those parts are
number eight they talk about adopting
smart product positioning
and that's just the way you talk so when
you're talking to customers when you're
explaining prices
and you're giving that quote price out
you don't want to make it
sound or you want to try to stay around
a certain premium
for example if you find out that they
pay 1200
how much does it sound if you say that's
11.50
versus 1022. now i know you can't
control the prices but sometimes there's
companies that you can tweak
and find better fits where that 1022
sounds
several hundred dollars away even though
it's not even 200
or even 150 more versus that you're
talking about a basic difference between
one price to the next
you can do that with all sorts of things
so it's kind of like a mental game that
you're playing in your head is like okay
what does this customer respond best to
as far as the prices and premiums now i
know this channel has a lot of customers
on here so if you're watching this far
thank you i hope you get some good
advice out of this the other part is
the agents shouldn't be using these as
scamming points these should be
talking points you would be so shocked
how many times i saved somebody
800 to a thousand dollars that had no
intention of switching and at the end of
the whole
call they're like okay thanks and then
they just hang up
and you call it back and they don't
answer and i'd love it if you are the
same to let me know below
is we're indecisive we don't trust what
we
see and sometimes that it's too good to
be true and we see coverages and we hear
them
and we're talking about them but once
they're said and there's a certain price
point where it's
too cheap then we get worried like what
am i missing what's going to happen am i
going to lose my house if this happens
if this claim goes through are they
actually going to pay
so we've got all these questions pops up
positioning
is more so used for the customer
that kind of helps them feel the
difference when you don't want to sound
too low
and it sounds crazy but you sometimes
don't where you're going to jump right
into different additions that they can
add to their policy
but at the end of the day you know
they're probably going to go with the
cheaper one
but it helps you position so that you
don't sound like you're trying to rip
them off even though they're getting
better the same coverage
it's hard for a customer to understand
that there's profiles
and each profile is a good fit for
specific companies
and a lot of the times they're with the
wrong company
so if you put them with the right
company they're going to save 800 and
900
which is what we typically do on average
when customers switch number nine
get emotional i don't really do that a
whole lot i'm
i'm more of the quick go through uh i do
connect somewhat
uh if you're gonna cry i'm not gonna cry
with you it's just part of my nature
uh actually it's funny because i had an
employee that said you know i'm gonna
put on my my girl tears and i'm like oh
i live with seven girls so good luck
with that one
i'm gonna tell you to pick up your you
know big girl pants and just keep going
so there is a lot of emotion that you
can put into it that does lead back
to that part where you have the right
words that you're saying
you know you're empowering them but it's
also understanding what pers
people are feeling you don't have to
necessarily be a hundred percent
in motion with them but you can at least
either agree to disagree or agree with
what they're talking about
but you need to voice back that you
understand their
pain points and what they're talking
about oh okay i get it like when you had
a claim
your dog didn't make it that's got to be
really sad i
i definitely don't want you to go
through that again do you have a new dog
oh you do okay well let's make sure that
we get some sort of pet coverage for
this
fortunately you can't take the you know
the loss back
but at least you can financially be put
back to where you were
from this whole fiasco so that's where
this article kind of branched off a
little bit where they talk about using
that emotion
and they're explaining that that's a
piece that customers really need
to to kind of move forward and they're
like oh if you can hit those emotions
that you can gain them as a customer and
i think it's the opposite
where if you can at least acknowledge
the emotions
but go in the right direction i think
that alone is good enough
number 11 is the empowering customers
very very good you want them to make the
decision we talked about this earlier i
think on number four or five where you
leave it in their court to decide what's
best for them when you're explaining
coverages or you're explaining what the
policy is about
and you really want them to buy it but
you can't just
out front go into it you need to one you
do need to ask if they're going to
purchase it
but you need to find them to understand
the fit
that's that value-based selling if they
don't see value in it
or there's not a big enough savings then
they're not going to typically move
forward
they're just going to ignore what you're
going through that's one of the reasons
i've been so successful
is because i've grown in the sales
industry before insurance i was selling
pretty much my whole life
what i found was that when you find that
need
but more so when you can have that
become their idea
you just need to explain things in the
way that they get it
and they understand it and once they
pick up that realization that oh my
goodness i've been missing this this
whole time
then they typically want to make a move
sooner rather than later
number 12 there's a time for everything
this one is
falls back and it instantly brings up a
training that i watched on youtube from
grant cardone where he's teaching a new
sales rep how to make a phone call
and he goes into a very powerful piece
where he talks about what are you trying
to do on this phone call
and at the time the guy was trying to
set appointment
for a time to talk and so he's pitching
the coverages and he's pitching the
companies pitching all this information
when he doesn't really have their
interest it's just like being a kid and
you want to get your parents attention
you don't just jump into the
conversation you need to get their
attention
first so you need to one make sure
you've got the attention
and two make sure that you know what
you're looking for
on that specific call am i trying to set
up a meeting so should i go into
coverages no
hey i want to see if you're interested
in this because i have blah blah blah
blah blah
new rates better area whatever the case
is
and so oh yeah i would be interested
great when do you have time
to talk about it right now let's do it
or
uh five o'clock great i'll set up a time
for five number 13 is called
served hot not cold and that one doesn't
make sense to me they talk about cold
collins dying which
i can see that there's robot dialers and
now there's dialers that catch robots
and make fake
answering machines i love them but
there's also now
a lot of call centers so what leads have
turned quickly into
is not just buying a lead it's buying a
lead
that is live and it's expensive but
it can in turn grow your business faster
simply because you have a live person on
the phone right now
and if that's the case and if you're
really good at doing those pitches
i would say that's a great route to go
if you're not honed in
on your talk path you haven't gotten
your script created you don't have a
foundation
that's the part that i'm working with as
far as teaching you guys
is having that foundation if you're not
prepared for that you shouldn't be
buying those leads
you also will struggle with cold calling
it's kind of having that thick skin as
we call it
because you're going to have a third a
third and a third a third that don't
answer a third to answer and tell you to
screw off
and a third of them are going to be
interested and out of that
third you're going to have a third of
those that may buy
depending on your conversion rate so if
you're getting a three to five percent
conversion rate
on cold lists and things like that or
web leads
and all of those purchasing systems
you're actually not doing
horrible but you will notice that
articles and all these companies talk
about doing some research
figuring out the people well when you're
in personal lines it doesn't really
pertain to you directly because they're
talking about
talking to key planners and businesses
and companies and corporations where you
get a large volume
here we're talking about individual
people that want a home and auto
umbrella policy it's finding those
people and getting the right advertising
pieces that get them in the door
word of mouth is always the best getting
referrals from a mortgage broker
is always great you're going to get a 70
conversion rate on those
versus your three to five percent
conversion on those
the trouble is you've got to connect
with them and that takes time
it's building a relationship with
multiple people
and a lot of that relationship is you
sharing leads or sharing information
trying to get them everybody to share
with each other well there's just not
enough of them for you
to share out and at the end of the day
you gotta have
some sort of program or some sort of
design
where if you're going to market yourself
or if you're going to purchase leads and
whatnot that you're going down the right
path
now this is going to be a specific video
that i do and i'm actually going to
train a little bit further on this
but i wanted to kind of at least touch
base on that one
i don't agree that the cold calling is
dead i think that
the right person cold calling is great
if you're not good at the cold calling
part it will not work for you
observe record and predict i don't know
what they're talking about i read the
article
i can tell you what my piece is on it so
they talk about listening and that's 100
true you should be listening more than
talking
when it comes to coverages when it comes
to wants
and needs when you're collecting the
data they don't care what you talk about
you can go fast you can go slow
you can try to build rapport there i
personally like to just fly through it
hey i'm going to go through a bunch of
questions i know you probably don't want
to answer any of these because you did
it seven other times with seven other
companies
depending on the lead that you're
talking to right so that's one type
that's i'm buying a lead
when it's the mortgage broker at that 70
conversion rate i'm going to take my
time with that person because they are
not shopping around
they haven't called seven other
companies to find the best rate they
called probably one which is their
current one
or they didn't call any and you're the
first contact so i've got a lot more
time and investment in that
simply because it's there there's a
reason to invest the time into that
not that people don't need it over here
everybody wants it the better deal
everybody wants the better company
but do they deserve your time for it at
the end of the day
if you spend an hour with somebody
that's not really shopping
i think it's best spent either finding
other people to talk to
or working on one that's a little bit
more in-depth that's
likely to convert higher the other
downfall of doing it that way when
you're talking to
more of a purchase lead type is when you
sell them fast
that loses a little bit of that loyalty
because at the end of the day unless
they file a claim
that's where you're going to shine the
most that doesn't mean that they're bad
clients
it's just the process that you're taking
them through is figuring out which ones
even in this bucket versus this bucket
there are times when i spend a half hour
to an hour talking to somebody
here it really just depends on the needs
and the ability or wanting to move
forward or learning that information
where i spend most of my time and that
already answers number 15 which is the
selling is about you
it's knowing where you're going to focus
your time on whether it's marketing
whether it's talking to customers
whether it's buying leads
at the end of the day know the fit that
you want
if it's a square peg don't try to put it
in a round circle
that means customers aren't always a
good fit for you
and you need to know that up front now
when they are
is letting them understand that you want
them as much as they want to purchase a
policy from you
so there's a mutual connection there's a
purchase
agreement that they're having that's not
only that part it's called retention
if they're not connected with you in
some way or feel that you're going to
have them in your best interest
then keeping them in your company and on
your books is
far few and far between because it's
harder you need to have something where
you are paying attention and it's the
only way to keep customers long term
is to make sure that you constantly know
what they're looking for
and what they need knowing what their
communication is like
what do they want to have in the future
do they want a phone call from you
every year to talk about things or do
they want just a text message hey is
everything good
at the end of the day you need to plan
on what is going to make you move
forward
but not change who you are because if
you're just being a fake person to sell
insurance or to make a policy or make an
income
it's not going to work you can try maybe
there's an outlier somewhere where
somebody's going to make that work
but i can almost promise you everyone
that i've seen come in this industry
and just drive through it and hate it
and dig through it i've seen them get
far
i've seen people get 800 000 books of
business
even close to a million but at the end
of the day they ended up leaving
it's just not a fit and it just ends up
being a bad experience for everybody
so there you have it i do understand now
why the article says
selling is a science because it
technically is a science part
once you've been doing it for long
enough like i've been doing it then you
start to realize like what's the steps
that i have to take
to make my business where i want it to
be i hope this was helpful
definitely let me know in the comments
below which one of these do you think
you struggle with the most
what are the things that you're going to
do today that you can change
in that that's going to help propel your
business forward
if you have other questions i'd love to
answer them put them in the comments
below
i'm mark with think insurance i will see
you in the next one