Nothing happens until somebody sells something. To make sales happen, IMMS.com Key Sales Consultant Randy Schwantz has created a comprehensive series of 43 Producer Success Lessons. Used singly or in combination, these powerful tools can help your producers build their skills - and grow their sales.
Take a look at this exchange:
Salesperson: Have you ever worked with a personal insurance specialist?
Risk Manager: Yes, I did once.
Salesperson: Were you happy with the results?
Risk Manager: For the most part. I really thought he could’ve gotten better rates. I was a little embarrassed that one of the executives found lower rates than this guy offered just by calling another agent on the phone.
Salesperson: So you were embarrassed by him? Any other problems?
Risk Manager: Well, I sure don’t want to have to mess with the exec’s personal insurance myself.
Salesperson: Was that part of the deal with the other guy?
Risk Manager: No, it just sort of happened. Really annoying.
Salesperson: Which was worse, getting embarrassed or doing the personal insurance?
Risk Manager: Oh, the personal insurance. I really hate that stuff. Filling out claims forms, checking coverage.
Salesperson: Well, I’ll be sure not to embarrass you. Is there anything you want from me badly enough to warrant a little personal involvement on your part?
Risk Manager: Like what?
Salesperson: Oh, like special pricing for the execs or monthly reporting — you know, other services.
Risk Manager: No. I just want to be sure you’ll handle the personal coverage. I really hate that stuff.
Did you see what happened? The salesperson blew right through one of the toughest objections Risk Managers raise without even slowing down. How in the world did that happen? The technique is called values elicitation, and it involves uncovering a person’s highest or most important values. In this case, the Risk Manager valued less involvement with personal insurance more highly than avoiding embarrassment. So the salesperson didn’t bother with the embarrassment objection. It’s irrelevant if they can deliver less involvement. The Risk Manager revealed that.
Values AND FILTERS
You’re equipped with five senses, each of which is tuned to various levels of sensitivity. Your brain processes the information it gets through these five channels, producing an internal representation of the external world. Each of us has a slightly different internal representation of the world based on how our brain processes information. That’s why three eyewitnesses to an automobile accident can have very different recollections of the experience.
Your brain has learned over time to filter out sensory input that’s irrelevant or not useful. For example, people who live next to a highway don’t notice the sound of the cars at night. Your brain’s filtering system consists of values and beliefs reinforced by years of experience and practice. So using your beliefs and values, your brain ignores certain sensory inputs, and arranges and decodes others to produce a consistent picture of the world around you.
For example, if when you were a child your parents told you dogs are dangerous and one bit you, and when you were older you read articles about dogs that turned on their owners, you’d probably think the dog bounding toward you was about to attack. Your friend standing next to you might recall a beloved childhood pet and quickly drop to one knee to play with the dog. The same chain of events, different experiences. Your values and beliefs (filters) are different from your friend’s.
Why tell you all this? Because the key to super productivity in selling is to always present your solution as a reinforcement of the prospect’s highest values. If you know the values the prospect will use to filter the information (sensory input) you’re presenting, you can tailor your presentation to match the prospect’s view of the world. By doing that, you can adapt the benefits of your service to the prospect’s understanding of what’s important.
To discover a prospect’s most important values relative to your product or service, you need to go through the process of values elicitation.
VALUES ELICITATION
It may sound complex, but values elicitation is nothing more than asking a series of focused questions designed to get you past a prospect’s lower-level values and beliefs to learn the higher-level ones. Imagine climbing a staircase, with the prospect’s values arranged by importance from the bottom step upward and your successful presentation at the top. You have to move past each level until you reach the top of the stairs. Then you’re ready to present your solution. Here are the steps and the questions to ask:
"What’s important to you about this?"
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Ask this when the prospect brings up a concern or objection. The object is to find out what’s behind the concern. If the prospect names price, you need to learn why that’s an issue. Blindly explaining that your coverage is worth more than another company’s may not be a sufficient answer. That’s why everything expounded by the books and tapes on "overcoming objections" don’t work. You see, prospects usually bring up their less-important issues first — not their deepest concerns (highest values).
- "Suppose I couldn’t get you (whatever they named when you asked the first question). Is there anything I can offer that’s worth that?" You’re looking for a higher value, something more valuable than X.
Your question will get one of two responses: There may be nothing that’s worth forgoing X. Fine, we’re at the top of the staircase — base your presentation on X. On the other hand, the prospect may say Y is worth giving up X. Super — you’ve climbed one step. Keep asking until you find a value so important that nothing is worth forgoing it.
You may have to go through the process three or four times, but the final value is the only one that’s important. All the others are irrelevant. Completely focus your presentation on the highest value, and it will be a sure winner.
AN EXAMPLE
Salesperson: What’s important to you regarding your insurance?
Executive: It’s got to be inexpensive.
Salesperson: What’s important to you about price?
Executive: There are so many companies out there — you have to be competitive.
Salesperson: Suppose my price isn’t the lowest — is there anything you want so much you’d pay a higher price?
Executive: You’d have to have darn good service.
Salesperson: We do have excellent service. Why is that important?
Executive: Our current insurer never answers the phone — it’s one of those voice-mail things. I never get to talk to a real person. It’s very frustrating.
Salesperson: Hmm. We have real people, that’s for sure. Once in a while, though, the voice-mail system may pick up. Suppose that happened — what can I do that would make a few bouts with voice mail worth it?
Executive: I have to feel that my business is important. Voice mail and slow service make me feel like a peon, and I don’t like that.
Salesperson: So feeling like a valued customer is very important?
Executive: Do that, and you’ve got me for life.
Salesperson: Let me show you how our executive coverage works.
In this example, two of the toughest objections to buying insurance — price and service — were raised, and the salesperson ignored them. These objections are irrelevant as long as you focus on the executive’s need to feel important and special. Their filters made them believe one should do business solely with companies that think the customer is important. When the current company’s producer comes to make a presentation based on low prices and great service, they won’t even be in the ball park and will probably wonder how you managed to get the account. You’ll know the answer: Appeal to the prospect’s highest values.
EXERCISE:
Create a role play like the example above to uncover the highest values of a Commercial producer. Work your way up the staircase past the usual objections. Vary the questions so they don’t sound canned. Then practice this technique, using the role plays in this lesson and the one you create. Using values elicitation puts your presentation on target and your selling career on the fast track.