The Changing World of Insurance Selling
In the world of the internet 60% of all surfers are consumers looking for the cheapest, most reliable version of what they need. That means out of 1 million surfers 600,000 are looking to purchase something-or browsing for products. That is a great number. In the next 5-10 years it is estimated that 80% of all businesses will be online.
With numbers like that we should be devising a way to reach these consumers not only for our benefit but theirs as well. The current techniques of cold calling are going greatly on the nerves of the average consumer. They are reporting that the average family receives 3-4 sales calls per week. At these rates and the rates of complaints by the time the number of online businesses rises cold calling will not exist.
The job of insurance salesmen is to change the way we view cold calling in insurance selling. Instead of pushing the sale on the prospect, we should be determining whether or not our product or service will benefit the prospects. Finding out what the prospects problem is and helping them resolve them.
Common mistakes are:
1. Cold Calling Scripts: The prospect can see you coming when you use the cold calling script. They know that you are a salesmen and that will increase the sales pressure. Striking up a natural conversation with the prospect will help them become more open to your conversation. Two-way conversations in cold calling will allow the prospect to see another side of salesmen.
2. Over Enthusiasm: I can’t stress enough that this is a big red-flag in the eyes of your prospects. They know you are a “salesmen” from the word “Hello”. A natural voice and appropriate enthusiasm will help the prospect become excited about the product/service.
3. Pushing Sales: In our sales training classes they taught us that every “No” can be turned into a “Yes”. This tactic will merely add stress to the caller. Causing them to say “Yes” simply to get you off the phone. This will lead to “ghost sales” or “Chasing the decision maker” some things we clearly are trying to avoid.
Learning to show the prospects we are here for them and sincerely want to help them will change the view of prospects. Changing our view will also change our stress level dramatically. Learn to cold call with the new mind-set and you too will be stress free while cold calling.
Until next time,
Keep calling and keep it conversational…
