As we discussed in the previous two articles, if you want to… Make Your Life Insurance Sales Career… ‘Recession Proof’ you must become adept at, and focused on, helping people to solve their immediate financial problems… And, you must have a marketing program that is attracting the ‘Right’ prospects to you! The final, and most critical step is getting ‘9 out of 10’ of those prospects to take action, right now, on your recommendations. And, it’s a lot easier than you think.
You can have the best ideas in the world on how to really help people! You can have a great marketing campaign to attract the right people to you! But, you’ll still struggle if you can’t get a high percentage of those people to take immediate action.
How To Sell ‘9 Out Of 10 Prospects’ You Meet With!
Unfortunately, one of the least taught and least practiced sales skills today, is the ability to conduct a good, thorough fact-finding interview. A good, thorough fact-find is much more than asking some simple questions to identify a few pertinent facts and concerns, so that you can make a quick sale. It’s asking the tough emotional questions to guide your prospect to self-discovery of their own financial concerns and problems. It’s helping your prospect to get emotionally involved in the entire sales process. It’s helping them feel the real pain of their current situation, so they want to do something about it, right now, to alleviate that pain.
Consider, people don’t always do or buy what they need. Logically, we may know we need to lose weight, quit smoking, save for retirement or pay off our credit cards. But, do we do it? NO! We put it off until we have no other choice, because it’s causing us unbearable pain. Only when the pain becomes too great to live with, will we decide to do something about it.
That’s why a good, thorough fact-finding, is so critical to your success. And, it goes far beyond just asking questions to guide your prospect to self-discovery of their own financial concerns. It’s being genuinely engaged in asking - and listening beyond a sale motive - to take the conversation, and the relationship, to another place. You become their partner in solving their problems, because you cared enough to ask questions beyond the obvious. You cared enough to ask, and did not assume that financial security means the same for everyone. You cared enough to ask what's r-e-a-l-l-y important to them. Rather than do what everybody does - push product, price and investment returns. A good, thorough fact-finding interview helps you build rapport and trust, which enables you to close more sales, close larger sales, generate repeat sales and gather referrals, even in a struggling economy!
You must conduct a good, thorough fact-find with everyone you meet with. And, it doesn’t matter how, or why you get an appointment. The appointment could be for something as simple as discussing mortgage insurance, Medicare supplements, or final expense policies. Or, maybe they agreed to meet with you after they’ve attended one of your seminars. No matter why they agreed to see you… you must conduct a good, thorough fact-finding interview, if you want to sell 9 out of 10 people you meet with.
How Do You Make The Transition To The Fact-Finding Interview?
You’re in their home, or they’ve come to your office, and they’re expecting you to discuss and give them a quote for mortgage insurance, Medicare supplements, health insurance, final expense policies or whatever. How do you make a smooth transition to the fact-finding interview?
You start by asking something like… “Before we get started, is there anything in particular you wanted to talk about?”
They’ll say something like… “I thought you were here to talk about _____ and give me a quote?”
No matter what they say, you’ll say… “Yes, I came fully prepared to talk about ____. But, if I may, I’d like to explain a little bit about how I do business, because I work a little differently from the other people you may talk to”
“First you can put your check book away, because I’m not going to ask you to buy anything today!” Is that Ok?”
“What I’d like to do is ask you some questions, so I can fully understand your situation and I can tailor a plan to meet your exact needs! Does that make sense?”
“Good then let’s get started?”
Now you’ve asked permission to ask them questions, and you are in the fact-finding interview. From here you ask questions to gather the pertinent facts and then use the Who, What Where, When, How and Why questions to get your prospects to talk about their feelings, concerns and problems.
“People Buy Based On Their Emotions…
And Then Justify Their Decision Based On Logic”
The Typical Questions…
“If you don’t mind me asking…”
“Have you thought about when you’d like to retire?”
“How much money are you currently putting away for retirement?”
“How much have you already saved for retirement… etc?”
The Emotional Questions…
“How much income will you need in retirement?”
“How did you come up with that figure?”
“How much money would you need to have saved in order to generate that income?”
“What would you like to be able to do in retirement?”
“Where would you like to go?”
“When would you like to go?” “Who would you like to see?”
“Why is that important to you?”
“How do you feel about what you’ve saved so far?”
“Has anyone taken the time to figure our exactly how much you’ll need to retire?” “What would you like to see happen?”
“How does that make you feel?”
“Would you like to know how much income you’ll need for retirement?”
“Would you like to know how much money you’ll need to have to generate that income?”
“When you retire, what’s more important the amount of money you’ve accumulated or the amount of money you get to spend?”
“Do you think social security will be there when you retire?”
“Even if it’s there, do you think it will provide as much for retirees as it provides today?”
“If Social Security isn’t there what will happen?”
“How do you feel about that?”
Your prospect says: “I’ll never retire!”…
Advisor: “Why do you say that?”
“Is that how you really feel?”
“Is that because you feel you’ll never save enough for retirement?”
“If I could show you how to have the retirement you want without sacrificing your current life style would you like to know how?”
Summary
The ability to conduct a good, thorough fact-finding interview is what enables the Top Life Insurance Producers to consistently earn $250,000, $500,000 or more each year. It’s why they are able to… Sell ‘9 Out Of 10 Prospects’ They Meet With! It’s why they consistently close larger sales, and consistently generate more repeat business. It’s why they are able to work with fewer prospects. And, it’s why they get more referrals and spend less time and money prospecting!
Is fact-finding easy? No! Is it more work? Yes!
Can you learn how to conduct a good, thorough fact-finding interview? Yes!
Yours in Success,
Lew Nason
The Nine Out Of Ten Guy
Trainer, Coach and Mentor…
by: Lewis Nason
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