Thought this would be a good topic. After I get a rapport with my prospects I always ask what their largest concerns are. We take a lot for granted as agents and falsely assume our clients understand the process. Here are main concerns bought up by my prospects that they would have never voiced had I not asked:
1) "I really don't want to take a physical." You'd be surprised by the number of your prospects who assume they need to take a physical. If this isn't addressed you could be losing a deal over nothing.
2) "I know underwriting takes months." Another misconception by some people is underwriting takes forever.
3) "I really don't want to apply and get declined." Even perfectly healthy people are very apprehensive about applying for coverage.
4) "I don't want to switch doctors." One of the 1st things I do with any prospect is run a network search. "Let's make sure your doctors take the plan" alleviates a lot of concern.
5) "You're gonna sign me up, then drop off the face of the planet like my last agent." It's important to go over your services. I send E-newsletters to all my my clients and go over my newsletter with my prospects. When they know I'll be in monthly contact with them fears about getting "slammed" are gone.
6) "I know there's a hidden fee in here somewhere." MANY clients are greatly confused about how we're compensated. If they think there's a fee coming that could be a major reason for no returned calls. I always go over the fact that I'm compensated by the carriers, never by my clients directly.
The bottom line is if you're not addressing these items with your clients you're likely losing a lot of deals.
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Last edited by healthagent : 08-29-2007 at 10:01 AM.
Thought this would be a good topic. After I get a rapport with my prospects I always ask what their largest concerns are. We take a lot for granted as agents and falsely assume our clients understand the process. Here are main concerns bought up by my prospects that they would have never voiced had I not asked:
1) "I really don't want to take a physical." You'd be surprised by the number of your prospects who assume they need to take a physical. If this isn't addressed you could be losing a deal over nothing.
2) "I know underwriting takes months." Another misconception by some people is underwriting takes forever.
3) "I really don't want to apply and get declined." Even perfectly healthy people are very apprehensive about applying for coverage.
4) "I don't want to switch doctors." One of the 1st things I do with any prospect is run a network search. "Let's make sure your doctors take the plan" alleviates a lot of concern.
5) "You're gonna sign me up, then drop off the face of the planet like my last agent." It's important to go over your services. I send E-newsletters to all my my clients and go over my newsletter with my prospects. When they know I'll be in monthly contact with them fears about getting "slammed" are gone.
6) "I know there's a hidden fee in here somewhere." MANY clients are greatly confused about how we're compensated. If they think there's a fee coming that could be a major reason for no returned calls. I always go over the fact that I'm compensated by the carriers, never by my clients directly.
The bottom line is if you're not addressing these items with your clients you're likely losing a lot of deals.
I appreciate you sharing your knowledge. We all have learned from experience that we need to ask questions and listen more than we need to sell them. The first mistake new agents make is trying to wow them with product. Uncovering needs and hot buttons and eliminating misconceptions first is a great idea, thanks.
What a great thread! I never thought of asking them what are their concerns? And yet they all have something.
You know, some of this information in this forum should be culled and printed. It would be tedious to research some of these gems, but so cool to have a book with the information available.
If you've even had one of those prospects where you had a great conversation, could really save them money and they never answered the phone again go review 1 through 6. It's one of those.
You need rapport first because you can ask about their concerns, but once you have a relationship its' easy to ask "So what kind of concerns do you have about switching carriers?" People might think that's opening up a can of worms and could kill the deal. That's not the case.
Most sales people who lack self-confidence are scared to let clients talk. They are mistakenly taught that they have to control the conversation which they construe as making sure the client says as little as possible. Mistake. You should be steering the conversation, not dominating it.
Wow, outstanding post. We need to be putting these fears to rest early in our conversations with prospects. And I'll bet most of us are not.
Thanks John. I am printing this for future reference.
It is a good post and I think it is important for people to ASK the client directly or indirectly what the objection is.
When I train new agents I usually ask them "what was the objection?" and of course a new agent says "I don't know she didn't want to buy"...
The actual objection doesn't bother me these days because I have a solution for most objections - what bothers me is ending a session without the objection.
Never assume an objection you would be surprised!!!
Often times I forget to reinforce the actual need or reason behind the prospects search for insurance. This is such a basic principle but with referrals, and incoming leads it is so easy to assume that they need it now and you dont need to ask why. I find that when i take the time to establish the need and set a time frame for meeting it the whole cycle goes much better.
Addressing hidden objections
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