The Mantra of Successful Selling Insurance Products
Successful selling is the essence of marketing. It revolves around the needs and interest of the seller. Infact, selling starts with the seller. Selling as an occupation is something that leaves most people terror-stricken. Yet selling is such an integral part of running any business that good sales people are in great demand. Believe me, there’s no end to learning in the sales game. Everyday offers an opportunity to learn something new and every sales person has a new story to add to the repertoire of techniques that we use to make a sale. With self- confidence, cheerfulness, a positive attitude and a desire to succeed, the sales agent goes out and helps people while making a good living for him. Successful selling stats, if you start your sales call with a positive belief that you are going to succeed, the chances are that you will. This kind of self-confidence comes from the belief that your product will help your client that he needs it and therefore, you are going to sell it to him. The fact is, the ability to sell a hairbrush to a bald man is the secret of successful selling. It is actually possible to do this by creative selling.
Creative selling is basically awakening clients to their own need of, or desire for something. The fact is selling is not mystical process. It’s a predictable logical, step- by- step process like a production line. When we put in the right component parts. We get the correct end- product. When we put in fewer component parts than necessary, we get an inferior end product. There is no mystery about salesmanship. Our results come from our action, not from our understanding. It’s said that knowledge without action serves no one This is never truer than in sales. Pick up your pen and start now to create your targets and your self-management system charts. Success is in your hands.
Today selling has become a challenging profession. There has been a significant change in its role from being a simple order taker to tat of a maker or consultant to the buyers. Modern sales person understands that they are the major link in the total marketing strategy for the company. If a company wants to maximize the effectiveness of its marketing programme, the personal selling efforts must be effectively integrated with the other elements of the marketing mix.
Why Selling Financial Services is Different
Financial Services are different from other products because of their special characteristics:
■ Abstract – Banking and financial products cannot be touched
■ Complex – Products like derivatives, documentary credits, or loan facilities require detailed explanation to corporate or institutional clients
■ Lengthy decision-process – Banking and financial products are not bought lightly, or on impulse, and so they need to be sold in a special way.
The seven steps to successful selling financial products are:
- Plan your success
- Product and service knowledge
- Discover the buying motives
- Overcome objections and turn them to your advantage
- Presentations and closings
- Action – provoking systems
- Self- motivation
- Set overall goal
- Break the goal into daily work segments
- Carryout these daily segments
- Gain prospective customer
- Spend time on critical activities
- Create self management system charts
- Organize work systems
- How many prospects will I need to see in order to make one sales?
- How many sales do I want?
- How many prospects do I need in order to reach my total sales target?
- How many activities do I need to do to generate one prospect?
- Telephone calls ________________________________
- Direct mail letters ______________________________
- Exhibitions or Seminars__________________________
- Advertisements________________________________
- Cold Calling __________________________________
- Other _______________________________________
Measure your results
Measuring result is important part and parcel of selling process. What ever your goal, start now by measuring your targets and breaking them into daily targets and tasks. Remember that today is your day of preparation and your success later will mainly depend on your plan and your dedication t your plan. Two aspects on this, which are most critical measure, are: *Number of sales visits (target and actual), *Number of sales (target and actual). If you are really determined to succeed, you can also use the following: Self-management system- The number of telephone calls you make for appointments (target and actual)
- The number of direct mail letter you send (target and actual)
- The number of referral leads you get from customers before and after the sales (target and actual)
- Any other methods you use for finding prospective customers
- What would you be expecting from a supplier
- What benefit would you be hoping for?
- What one thing could we offer to convince you to change suppliers?
- Never assume you know the customers need and motives
- Identify all individuals who influence the purchase decision
- Interview to uncover needs and motives
- Get their logical and psychological motives
- Go away and think
- Express the product or service benefits that match the customers needs and motives
- Goal setting
- Reaching a particular milestone
- Doing a mundane task consistently
- Cold calling
- Getting appointments
- Morale boost
- Confidence building
- People
- Staying positive
- Eliminating doldrums
- Daring to be different
- Overcoming roadblocks
- Moving speedily towards your goal
- Listen to your thoughts
- Concentrate on correcting your mistakes
- Hang on to the positive
- Release the negative
- Don’t Argue with a client
- Don’t Cut Your Client Short
- Don’t lecture while Making a Sales Pitch
- Don’t Put Yourself Down
- Don’t Put Your Competitors Down
- Don’t Allow Your Competitors to Put You Down
- Decide where you want to go
- Keep your goal in view
- Look at carefully to see what you do not have but need to reach your cherish goal. Among the things that are considered for a successful insurance sales person are:
- Good grooming/Dressing sense
- Positive attitude
- Ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of people
- Persistence and perseverance
- Sound ethics
- Organizational ability
- Acclimatization ability
- Ability to adapt to situations
- No matter what your area of work, one of the most important things would be to collect as much information as you can on the subject, and continue to learn as you go along
- Self – development
- Better relationships
- Greater social skills
- Better physical health personality
- All-rounder personality
- Faith, in yourself, it is said faith can move mountain
About the Author
Dr.Ashish Barua MA,MBA(Finance),PhD(Economics),DLitt(Economics) Former Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Rural Management Assistant Professor & Member Insurance Research Board National Law University, Jodhpur, India
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