One of the biggest errors financial salespeople make is to presume logic dictates a client's decision-making process. On the contrary, especially among higher-premium cases, what often matters most is packaging.
At the end of the day, knowing and understanding the buyer's thought process and personal value system is the smartest way to approach your next big case. Anecdotes and analogies speak to some; others prefer hard numbers with diagrams and a flow chart. Before every sales pitch, spend some time thinking about what communication style will resonate with your prospect.
It's all in the details
Sometimes a seemingly insignificant detail determines whether you win new business or go home. When stakes are high, buying decisions may not have anything to do with you, your product offering or your value proposition. Instead, the decision might be determined by your client's history.
Let's look at two specific instances where psychology was the determining factor in making or breaking a five-figure premium sale. In the first example, the agent fails to pitch in a way that's relevant and interesting to the prospect. In the second, the opposite is true.
Case 1: The self-made entrepreneur
Mr. X is a 51 year-old, unmarried male. He's the owner of a construction company in Florida and is interested in employing cash value life insurance and its inherent civil litigation protection aspects after reading a SmartMoney magazine article. By nature, he's a renegade entrepreneur, trained to thoroughly investigate every new proposition that comes his way.
Mr. X contacts his business banker for an introduction to a local insurance specialist. At their first meeting, the insurance specialist asks questions about loads, fees and mortality rates. Worse, the conversation gets off on the wrong foot by opening with a sixteen-page insurance illustration.
This is a clear case of information overload and it doesn't mesh with the client's untrusting nature, which stems from a notoriously unforgiving profession (construction project bidding). The insurance agent shows a clear lack of understanding of his prospect's background personally and professionally. Thirty minutes later, a disenchanted Mr. X refuses to answer underwriting questions and hear an explanation of the mechanics involved in life insurance policy design. The meeting is terminated and X is never heard from again.
