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Improve Closing Techniques - Next Wave Marketing Strategies

As anyone who works in sales understands, selling is more of an art than a science. Sometimes closing a deal means forgetting what the textbook says and relying on your own instincts about a prospect you have become familiar with.

Based on his years of sales experience, guru Zig Ziglar offers beginning salespeople the following pieces of advice.

1. Turn Cold Calling into Warm Calling

Cold calling means you know nothing about the person on the other end of the line, and he or she knows nothing about you. Warm calling means that you have done your research and are familiar with the company to which you are reaching out. If possible, arrange for a business person that both you and your prospect respect to arrange for a casual introduction. Warm calling makes it much easier to get through the bureaucratic red tape.

2. Build Trust, Credibility, and Integrity

If your prospect has doubts about your integrity or simply doesn’t believe what you are saying, no amount of talking, persuading, and negotiating will convince him or her to close the deal. If you have taken a misstep and lost the prospect’s trust, you have probably lost all hope of a sale, at least until the trust can be rebuilt.

3. Listen First

Many salespeople are so thrilled to get prospects on the phone that they launch into an “elevator speech” about the virtues of their products or services. Zig Ziglar suggests that instead of rushing to be the first to speak, the consummate salesperson takes the time to be the first to listen. Find out what the prospects are and take some time to think about how your agency can help solve your prospect’s problems and make his or her life easier.

4. Don’t Try to Close Too Early

Attempting to close on a deal too early is a natural mistake in the sales-driven world of insurance, but Ziglar warns that attempting to close without getting a clear understanding of the prospect’s needs is a breach of trust. Suddenly the prospect feels like he or she is just a golden ring to be grabbed rather than a living, breathing person who needs the help of your agency.

5. Prepare a Proposal Unique to the Prospect

After you’ve listened and thought about what the prospect has to say, craft a unique proposal that addresses your products needs and concerns. Then – and only then – is it wise to move in for the closing and to ask your prospect to give you a clear “yes” or a clear “no.”

If you would like to hear more of Zig Ziglar’s unique ideas, you can listen to his podcast at http://zigziglar.libsyn.com/webpage/2012/02/24. It should be required course material for everyone who hopes to make a living in sales.

Social Media Boost Sales - Next Wave Marketing Strategies

You already know social media is great for swapping pictures with old friends and keeping up with family members, but it is also a very powerful marketing tool that, if used properly, can bring customers to you and keep them loyal to your agency. Here are some ideas you might try to make the most of the social network.

1. Spread the Word about Your Agency

Most people would rather buy insurance from someone they know and trust rather than from a total stranger. Make your prospects feel like they know you by creating accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. Of course, your agency should also have its own web page. As your name crops up on one forum after another, even prospects who have never spoken to one of your sales agents may begin to feel connected to your company, and that’s exactly what you want.

2. Participate in Social Forums

Just having an account on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ doesn’t necessarily mean prospects will just stumble across your information. You need to be an active participant in social media, posting or Tweeting several times each week. Some of your posts can be direct advertisements, but the rest should be service announcements, such as passing on information about a new law that affects insurance customers, or responses to other people’s posts. The more prospects you can engage online, the greater your chances of making a sale.

3. Respond Promptly to Questions and Comments

If a prospect reaches out to you by writing on your Facebook wall or sending you a message via LinkedIn or Twitter, respond promptly and suggest ways that your agency might be able to help. Prospects who get useful information after reaching out to you to engage online will trust your agency and will be more likely to think about you the next time they need to solve a thorny insurance problem.

4. Keep an Eye on Your Reputation

Social media monitoring is a critical part of launching a social network campaign. It involves going to each of the social media websites and looking for any mention of your agency’s name. If you come across a complimentary comment, thank the person who left it. If possible, offer a small token of your gratitude such as a free ebook or insurance report.

Social media monitoring is also useful because it allows you to catch negative comments about your agency and address them before they go viral. Contact the person who made the comment and work to give him or her a better experience with your agency.

It’s important that your sales agents realize that engaging in online social networks is an important part of their work, much like cold calling or following up with purchased leads. Emphasize that being a strong online presence can help increase your insurance sales.

Simplifying Cold Calls - NextWaveMarketingStrategies.com

Cold calling can make even the most experienced salesperson shudder. It’s hard to contact a stranger and convince him or her to buy your product or services. You may feel as if you’re being intrusive, or that your phone calls are a nuisance. Worse, if you’re nervous, your uncertainty might come across to your prospect which does not improve your chances of making a sale.

If you’re anxious about cold calling your leads, you may be making it more difficult than it really is. Your initial call isn’t meant to close a sale. All you have to do is make the right person aware of how your company could be of assistance to him or her and to agree to further contact. These simple tips can help.

Research Your Leads

When you are prospecting leads, make sure to get as much information as you can. Even something like a shared interest in pre-Civil War history or having attended the same graduate school can be used to catch the lead’s attention and make you stand out in his or her mind.

Using First Names

Although it may seem counter-intuitive, using first names actually gets you further than referring to the lead as “Mr. Doe” or “Ms. Smith.” For one thing, when you refer to a lead by his or her last name only, you are broadcasting the fact that you are a stranger. Some executives don’t even return phone calls for “Mr./Ms.” They figure that anyone who has something truly valuable to offer them would at least know their first name.

What Can You Do for Them?

Many sales agents make the mistake of beginning a cold call by reeling off a list of their company’s awards and services. The person on the other end of the phone, however, doesn’t really care about all that. He or she is asking just one question. “What’s in it for me?” If you can identify a problem the lead is having and put your company forward as the solution, your battle is at least half won.

Get to a Small Yes

Asking for a sale on your initial call is as presumptuous as proposing marriage on a first date. Instead, get your prospect to agree to the next logical step, such as agreeing to look over a proposal or allowing you to make a personal visit. If the prospect appears interested, you might also ask some questions used for qualifying leads to make sure that he or she is actually a candidate for what you’re offering.

Don’t Give Up

Unless your prospect tells you not to call again, keep in phone contact with him or her. For instance, if you read something complimentary about your prospect in the local newspaper, call to offer congratulations, or just check in every few months to see if you can be of assistance.

If you absolutely hate cold calling now, you probably won’t ever get to the point where you love doing it. You can, however, easily get to the point where making those cold calls no longer feels quite so intimidating.

Selling is a little like that, too. If your only contact with a sales prospect is a bi-monthly phone call when you tell whoever will listen to you about your company’s newest offering after which you drop a couple of brochures in the mail, and disappear for another two weeks, the prospect is unlikely to reach out to you in times of need. You haven’t bothered to build a relationship, so there is no reason for the prospect to come to you.

Why Relationships Matter

Suppose you were facing a difficult problem in your own life. Would you talk to the guy in the apartment down the hall whom you nod to absent-mindedly every day, or would you go to a trusted friend and confidante? Most people would choose the friend every time. After all, your friend knows you. He or she knows what you want from life and what makes you tick. Knowing this valuable information allows your friend to provide a solution that is tailor-made for you, instead of meaningless platitudes.

As you build relationships with your prospects, you will learn about their company’s values, mission statement, and goals, triumphs and problems. This knowledge will help you step in at the right moment with the right product.

Building a Relationship

You’ve probably been through all sorts of classes and seminars to teach you how to make a strong sales presentation, how to counter a prospect’s objections, and how to follow up with phone calls, letters, and emails, but have you ever been to a training event that focused on listening skills?

The best way to build a relationship is not by talking. It is by listening. The next time you call a prospect, try saying something like, “I’d really like to get to know you better so I can understand the issues you’re facing and offer any help I can. Are there any insurance issues that have been troubling you?”

Then wait quietly for the answer. It may be a long time in coming. Chances are, no insurance agent has ever asked the prospect that kind of question before. But when the answer does come, you can bet it will contain valuable information that will improve your chances of making a sale – if not today, then down the road.

Continue to build your relationship by making your phone calls about your prospect’s needs rather than your own. Like the movie said, “If you build it, he will come.”

That is why it makes sense to use a multi touch sales process. A multi touch sales process involves making contact with a prospect multiple times as well as using multiple methods of communication such as an e-mail campaign, follow up calls, direct mail, text messages, and voicemails. The multi touch process can be effective whether your sales staff is cold calling or warm calling.

Multi Touch Sales Process - Next Wave Marketing Strategies

Stage 1: Intro Call and E-Mail

If you are cold calling, your first contact with a prospect is likely to be a brief phone conversation. If the prospect sounds interested, send him or her a follow up e-mail highlighting the benefits of your insurance plans and providing your contact information so that the prospect can easily reach you with questions. This intro call and e-mail marks the beginning of your sales process.

Stage 2: Follow Up and Nurturing

Over the next several weeks, follow up with the prospect on a scheduled basis. An e-mail campaign is an efficient method of follow up, allowing you to easily send additional information about your programs. When you use e-mail, you can also gauge your prospect’s interest by checking to see whether he or she is opening the emails and clicking on the links provided.

In addition to sending a series of e-mails, you should also make follow up calls, leaving voicemails if necessary. Your goal, of course, is to attempt to engage the prospect directly so you can assess whether or not he or she remains interested in purchasing insurance from your organization.

In many cases, stage 2 ends with a sale.

Stage 3: Final Call and Voicemail

There are times when a prospect is simply not ready to make a purchase or, for whatever reason, does not want to make a purchase from your company. At some point, he or she may ask to be removed from your contact list. Alternatively, you may realize that you are making no progress and decide to move on to other, more promising leads.

Making a courteous final call and voicemail leaves the door open is the prospect becomes ready to buy from you in the future. In your final voicemail, thank the prospect for his or her time and remind the prospect that you and your organization are available to answer questions or to help in any other way.

It’s a hard fact that you won’t convert every lead no matter what sales process you use, but Business Acceleration Strategies found that using the multi touch method can increase a company’s sales by more than 200%. The more chances you give customers to buy from you, the more likely it is they will take you up on one of those chances.

Most consumers, even those who wouldn’t fit the traditional branding of “tree hugger” have become more aware of the environment these days.  Of course, at the end of the day this is to the betterment of our planet and our quality of life, but the fact remains that it’s adversely affected the automotive industry to some degree.

While gas-chugging SUVs were popular back in the heady years of the late 90s and early 2000s, increased environmental awareness coupled with the rising prices at the gas pump has correspondingly increased the desire for gas conservation.

Subsequently, the desire for smaller, more gas efficient cars has skyrocketed over the last decade.  In addition to this desire, there has also been considerable development in the hybrid auto market to satiate the demand for more eco-friendly cars.  As you may already be aware, a hybrid car is one that runs off of both electricity and gasoline, thus being more ecologically friendly while also saving gasoline.  These cars tend to be more expensive than the traditional oil-burning models, though, and many consumers feel excluded from the hybrid market because of this.

The good news for insurance salesmen is that you can help individuals who are thinking about purchasing hybrids but are unsure about footing the cost by alerting potential hybrid customers of insurance discounts that come with purchasing hybrid cars.  This is because many companies have determined that those who buy hybrids are less likely to have accidents and file claims.

Not only that, but the popularity of hybrid cars is expected to rise.  J.D. Power and associates have estimated that 5.2 million hybrid – and battery powered electric – cars will be on the road by 2020.  As of 2010, hybrid cars account for nearly 2.2% of total market share.

In addition to benefits given to automobile owners who decide to go green, agents who sell home insurance should be aware that there are also insurance discounts given to home and business owners who decide to go eco-friendly.  There are lots of cuts available for those who decide to get energy-efficient upgrades to homes and businesses.  One reason for this is the increasing concern that climate change may have on the world and companies want to reward individuals who take steps toward lessening their individual carbon footprint on the planet.

So if you’ve got a client on your hands who is considering going green but is worried about the corresponding costs associated with doing so, be sure to make them aware of the insurance discounts that could help them waylay those costs.  Going green is good for everybody – the insurance agent, the buyer, and also the planet!

Given the current political climate surrounding the matter, health insurance is all the buzz in both the insurance agencies and the Senate floor.  Most people are unhappy with the current state of their health insurance, and hundreds of thousands of Americans are completely uninsured.  What makes it even worse is that even basic health insurance polices can be prohibitively expensive for people who don’t have jobs that provide appropriate benefits.

The high level of unemployment in the United States also contributes to the large portion of the public that is operating either with inadequate health insurance or none at all.

With this on the mind, many clients simply give up on health insurance altogether.  As a insurance agent, your job is both to sell insurance and help clients get the insurance they need at a price they can afford.  Many people write off health insurance as a luxury, instead preferring to put their money into automotive or home insurance.  While auto and home insurance are also necessities, it may help you while working with clients to remind them that health insurance could potentially save their lives and the lives of those that they love.

People with health insurance are much more likely to go see a doctor or a dentist if there are any problems with their health.  It’s an oft-quoted cliché, but it really is true that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  Going to see physicians regularly helps in determining if any problems are starting to occur with an individuals’ health and can put that person back on the path to wellness before a small problem becomes something much more expensive and hazardous to the health.

In contrast, people who do not have health insurance often live with worsening problems until it overwhelms them and they end up in the emergency room.  Having an affordable health insurance plan can assist in keeping people in good shape and out from under the doctor’s scalpel.

Additionally, statistics by the American Cancer Society show that the prevalence of insurance has a lot to do with whether or not a person dies of prostate cancer or not.  Those that have insurance are more likely to go in and get screenings, and thus appropriate medical action can be taken if problems are detected.  Those without insurance are much more likely not to realize that there is a problem before it is too late.

With this in mind, try to find your uninsured clients health insurance packages that cover them at a fair cost and will get them the preventative care they need in order to ensure that they live long and healthy lives.

It’s no secret that the economy is in terrible shape these days.  Many people are either unemployed or underemployed, and are looking for ways to make ends meet.  One of the more unscrupulous ways that people have decided to find money to pay bills is by engaging in acts of fraud.

Insurance fraud in particular has become a big problem in recent years, since many people consider it a way to get money without stealing. Of course, insurance fraud is a form of theft, but since it lacks the traditional guise of physically taking something that belongs to another person, many people don’t see it that way.

And, as such, people have been taking fraudulent measures with insurance in order to make a quick buck in these hard times.  One of the most popular ways to commit insurance fraud actually comes at the behest of small businesses.  If you happen to have insurance clients who own small businesses, you should discuss the following with them and be sure they’re aware if somebody is trying to hit them with a fraudulent claim.

The fraudulent claim that’s gained a lot of popularity in recent years is slip and fall claims.  This is one of the most basic forms of insurance fraud – essentially, an individual manages to injure themselves somehow on the property of the small business and files a claim in order to extract insurance money from the business owner.  Many small businesses, in their haste to avoid legal battles, choose to hand out payments to people who file slip and fall claims rather than perform due diligence against fraud.

While it may seem “simpler” to many small business owners who have an angry client on their hands to simply pay out insurance money, remind your small business owner clients that this is not a good idea.  Fraudulent slip and fall payments only make the overall insurance premiums higher, so they’ll reap it the next time there’s an insurance hike.

If you think that the rise in slip and fall fraudulent claiming sounds more like hearsay than anything else, there’s a considerable amount of evidence behind it – the National Insurance Crime Bureau has noted that slip and fall claims have risen as much as 57 percent over the last two years.  In addition, the first half of 2010 saw 997 questionable slip and fall claims alone.

So, in order to gain a reputation as a reliable insurance agent, you should definitely speak with your clients about the likelihood of fraud and what kind of diligence measures should be taken in order to lessen the amount of fraud payment.  Nobody wants to pay more on their insurance – insurance should be used as a means only when it’s necessary for the client, not for when somebody decides it would be a quick way to make a dollar!

If you are a home insurance agent, you may be interested in recent studies that show that many customers are less satisfied with their home insurance than they were in years prior.

According to a study conducted by J.D. Power and Associates, customer satisfaction with home insurance agencies is at a five year low.  The number one cause?  Customers are displeased with service interactions and unhappy with the policy offerings that home insurance agents and companies have on the table.

To look at the numbers, the average customer satisfaction rate with home insurance companies received a 750 on a scale of 1,000 point scale, which indicates a decline of 23 points from 2009.  Satisfaction with home insurance companies and agencies has actually fallen over four of the last five years, with 2009 being the sole exception to the trend.

The holders of home insurance are already hyper sensitive to changes in the system due to the dismal state of the economy, and what’s worse, most of them don’t understand the changes that are occurring in the system.  According to the study, nearly fifty percent of customers don’t understand the kind of home insurance coverage they have on their home and what kind they need.  Additionally, many customers have expected the premiums they pay on their home insurance to decline, as the prices of homes have declined since 2008.

What makes the situation worse is the automotive insurance industry.  Most people who have home insurance also deal with insuring their cars, at the automotive insurance industry has made great strides over the past few years with advertising and offering discounts to their customers.  Home insurance, in comparison, has done very little to reach out to the customer base, and lots of clients are confused as to why this is the case.

What agents should take out of this is that the customers who are best pleased with their home insurance are the ones who bundle home insurance together with car insurance.  Customers who carry all of their insurance though one company are also more likely to receive discounts and better benefits alongside their insurance packages.  Keep in mind that Generation Y is starting to buy homes in greater numbers, so the likelihood of package insurance is higher.  Make your home buying automobile-owning customers aware of these discounts available, and you’re more likely to have pleased customers.

It’s also worth your while as an agent to suggest that your clients to keep an inventory of valuable home items – such as entertainment systems – in order to smooth the claims process.  Doing everything you can to ensure that your customers are at their ease throughout the insurance process will do a lot toward bolstering customer satisfaction no matter what kind of insurance you work with.