1. Use a fact-finder to learn about the prospect’s situation and ask the right questions
2. Explain the prospect the features and benefits of your product that fit their circumstances
3. Add an element of urgency (e.g. the insurance premium increases if you wait)
4. Close the sale

When you understand what’s wrong with the above approach, you’ll see the easy changes you can make for a significant increase in sales results.

Use a fact-finder
The fact-finder provided to you by a financial services firm is off the mark. It probes for facts about the prospect’s life such as the ages of their children. Once you learn that they have a child that is eight years old, you’re supposed to talk about your college funding products and services. But your prospect may have no interest in this for several reasons:

• Maybe the grandparent will fund college
• Maybe he does not think his child will go to college
• Maybe he’s not concerned and figures his child will get aid or attend an     affordable community college

Where fact-finders fall short is that they don’t inquire about the prospects desires. The prospect’s need is irrelevant as nobody buys what they need; they buy what they desire. Let these words never leave your lips again “I ask questions to determine prospects’ needs.”  Repeat three time to yourself,  “What the prospect needs is irrelevant, the prospects buys what they WANT.”

So if you’re probing to determine if the prospect will buy your college-funding solution, the question you really want to ask is, “How to you feel about funding your child’s education? Does the potential cost of $200,000+ worry you?” If there is no worry, then don’t pitch college funding products and services. (Note—if you think that your prospect should be worried, there is a way to educate them but it’s not by telling them the facts about college affordability. We will cover client education in another post.

Here’s the point—the fact-finders you use uncover logical needs but everyone buys emotionally.  So you need an emotional fact-finder. Start asking questions about how people feel and what they desire.

Explain the features and benefits of your product
The only feature or benefit of your product that counts are the ones your client cares about. Soon, I will purchase a new car. There are only two things I care about:

1) I want a car that gets high gas mileage because I don’t want to poison the air for your grandchildren and I don’t want to send any money to oil-producing countries that breed terrorists.
2) I need to carry a lot of stuff when I shop a Lowes

Everything else about the car is irrelevant—it does not need to look cool, be a status symbol or have a powerful engine—all of the things that car sales people want to tell me about.  All they need to do is ask me what’s important to me and tell me only that, nothing more.

Just as important is when the benefits of your product occur. People are not interested in future benefits but that’s mostly what you discuss (the death benefit, the payoff during retirement, the payoff when illness occurs, etc). People care about the payoff today, not what they get in 30 years. In other words, people buy because:

1) They feel better right now if they get the item
2) They feel smarter
3) They feel more responsible

People buy because it makes them feel good to do so, they get an immediate payoff. If you sell the immediate payoff rather than the future payoff, you close more sales and prospects won’t procrastinate because they like to feel good now.

Add an element of urgency
This typically makes the prospect feel pressured, not motivated. You need to address the prospect’s “caveman” gene, their biological mechanism to procrastinate. In fact, you can tell the prospect about the caveman gene when you see them hesitate.

We evolved from cavemen and we were programmed to stay in our cave for safety. To leave the cave risked getting eaten by lions and tigers and bears. So we stayed in the cave until we were compelled to leave—to avoid starvation. We quickly left the cave, killed our food, and scurried back. We are programmed only to take action if we are very uncomfortable. Our brain still thinks that if we take any action, it’s dangerous so it continually tells us to do nothing unless we are starving or experiencing great discomfort. So your brain feed you the constant message to maintain the status quo where you are safe (stay in the cave where you are safe).  Make no changes (i.e. don’t buy anything).
Given that your caveman gene has operated all of your life, do you think this has caused you to miss opportunities? Do you agree that this (product or service) makes logical sense and you hesitate but really don’t know why? That’s the caveman gene running your life. Would you like to do what’s right rather then continue to succumb to a motivation that no longer applies because there are no lions, tigers or bears to harm you?

Change these elements of your presentation and have much more success:

• Stop asking situational questions (what are the ages of your children) and ask emotional questions (are you worried about the funding for your child to go to a  good school?)
• Sell the current payoff and not some future financial benefit
• Don’t attempt to create urgency but rather undermine the prospect’s natural reaction to procrastinate

For an example of how to ask appropriate questions, visit this Brokerville blog. Good selling.

Learn more about insurance prospecting

Her’s what we have learned at Brokerville. In selling yourself and your financial products and services, know that we live in a culture where people form an instant impression of you.  And that instant impression is the difference between sales success and sales failure.   Investors and insurance buyers love to form opinions with almost none of the facts.  Just listen to any economic prognosticator on television or your clients’ opinions about the economy to see what I mean regarding people dismissing the facts.

This instant prejudgment forces you to make your best first impression in the first seconds of contact, whether it be in person, in writing or on the phone.  Let me give you some specific examples:

When sending direct mail, do all of your envelopes get opened?  I doubt it because you allow the recipient to prejudge the contents without opening the envelope.  You have a return name on the envelope and you may also have a printed message on the outside of the envelope.  So if your company name is ABC Insurance, the prospect immediately knows that inside is an insurance pitch and they don’t open the envelope. You have a meter stamp and maybe a bar code or carrier route sort indicator.  All of these scream “JUNK MAIL.”  You will never get to communicate your message because the envelope gets tossed in the trash, unopened.  You have allowed people to prejudge you because you have made a poor first impression.  Brokerville Marketing Tip: mail items to strangers in a plain business envelope with a first class stamp, no messages, no bar codes, no return name and with the recipient’s address laser printed on the envelope or through a window envelope.  It’s impossible to prejudge the contents of a blank envelope and the recipient must open it.

The item in the envelope must have a super-compelling headline and it must be the first thing the recipient sees when they pull the information from the envelope.  The first thing that the prospect sees must answer their most important question, “what’s in it for me.”  If the first item the recipient sees does not grab their interest in seconds, you’re toast. Brokerville Marketing TIP: include a big compelling headline and fold the page so that the headline is the first item seen when opening the envelope flap.  Make sure that headline answers their most important question.

When sending information requested by a prospect or to a referral, include your picture and biography.  (I have my picture at the bottom of every letter I send to the right of my signature). Remember that you are a stranger to the prospect and people are conditioned to scared, or at least wary, of strangers.  By including your picture and biography, they get to know you.  When you call, your prospect feels like they know you because they know how you look.  Brokerville Marketing Tip: find the best commercial photographer in town as a good picture can open the door to win new clients.

Brian Tracy, well known motivational educator says, “the reason image is so important is because people are primarily visual and they form their first impression of you by the way you look on the outside.  If they do not like what they see on the outside, they very seldom take the time to probe any deeper.  In any field of sales and marketing where the impression you make on others is important to your success, it is absolutely essential that you look the part that is consistent with the financial product or service you wish to sell.”

What the previous paragraph means is that your dress, your hairstyle and other items of appearance are not for your liking. If you want to make a lot of money, these elements better be for your prospects’ liking. Your best sales tactic is a great first impression. Since Americans prefer someone who is clean-cut you better shave the facial hair, get rid of the ponytail and buy a quality suit.

As to your biography, DO NOT write a “me” biography.  A “me” biography is where you talk about yourself “I graduated from ABC College…”, “I am a Certified Fund Specialist,” etc.  Brokerville Marketing Tip: Write it in the third person and before mentioning your position or credentials, have three to four sentences about what you can do for them:

“John Doe has assisted over 800 Pennsylvania investors grow their retirement income up to 50% and reduce taxes up to 80%.  In some cases, investors have used John’s advice to eliminate taxes on social security income and eliminate estate taxes.  You may have seen his informative articles on ways to reduce stock market risks in the Philadelphia Inquirer.”

Only after you have established why you are valuable, do you mention where you went to school and your credentials.  Potential clients are interested in “what can you do for me?” before they want to hear anything about you.  And when you do talk about yourself, keep all sales language out of the biography.  That means you do not say “John is a registered rep with ABC securities” (unless your broker dealer requires it).  Not only do 90% of investors not know what a registered rep is, the other 10% of the people know that you just want to sell something.  Sure, everyone knows you’re in business to make a living, but never push any sales language in their face in a biography.

And obey some common courtesies so that people do not prejudge you negatively:

1.    On your first telephone contact, do not interrupt prospects.  It’s a problem that some of my hard-driving East Coast friends have.
2.    Do not close to an appointment without identifying their motivation so that you can offer a potential benefit.  When you try to close for a meeting and the prospect’s desires have not been isolated, you will appear pushy.
3.    When mailing, do not take a 4-panel letter-sized brochure and stuff it into a business envelope.  Use a 9 x 12 envelope so that the brochure can lay flat and the mailing looks professional.

Focus on those first seconds of communicating with the prospect to gain your opportunity to present who you are and what you can do.  If you fail in the first seconds, you may not get a chance to go forward.

http://www.broker-ville.com

 

If you are in financial sales as a financial adviser or insurance agent selling to seniors, these facts are essential to your best marketing efforts.

22% of Americans 65 and older use the Internet

At first, this statistic may seem like a negative factor because it means that 78% of seniors don’t use the Internet.  But what if the 22% who use the Internet are the wealthier seniors? That’s exactly the case as you can see from the table below:

Income	All seniors	Internet Seniors
Under $30,000	63%	24%
$30,000-50000	21	33
$50,000-75000	8	19
$75,000+	8	25
Education
Less than High School	29	4
High School Graduate	34	21
Some College	20	30
College Graduate or more	16	46

Some financial advisors incorrectly assume that the Internet is not a good tool for marketing to seniors but this could not be further than the truth.  The Internet separates the poor seniors (not on the Internet) and leaves the wealthy ones easy to target market with electronic marketing.

Internet Usage is Growing Faster Among Seniors

There is a burgeoning group of Americans who are slightly younger than retirees and who are vastly more attached to the online world. As of February 2004, 62% of Americans age 50-58 years-old and 46% of Americans age 59-68 have Internet access.

By contrast, just 17% of Americans age 69 and older have access.  Obviously, as each year passes, the number of people who enter the age 65+ group who have Internet access and are frequent users increases rapidly. Consider that the percent of seniors who go online has jumped by 47% between 2000 and 2004.

Health and Medical Information is Most Popular Search Topic/Financial Usage also High

If you sell any type of medical coverage or long term care products or services, email and Internet marketing can be a goldmine for you.  Of course, it’s essential that you have a web site so that seniors can find you.

Use of the Internet for financial reasons is also significant and equals usage by the general population.  Wired seniors are essentially equal to younger users when it comes to researching financial information, such as stock quotes or mortgage interest rates. Forty-one percent of wired seniors have done this type of research, compared to 44% of all users. Fifteen percent of wired seniors buy or sell stocks, mutual funds, or bonds online, compared to 13% of the general Internet population.

While 47% of all seniors are married, a whopping 74% of Internet-using seniors are married.

Meaning—they probably had two incomes while working and have higher savings and net worth. They have two pensions and two IRAs.  They buy two LTC policies.  They potentially get 2 inheritances form their parents.  Married people create more business for a financial advisor.

Any financial services professional that is not embracing email, maintaining a web site, and failing to use an electronic newsletter will lose significant senior business to those that do.

Resources:

Senior Newsletter

Senior Leads

http://www.broker-ville.org