Sales 101 teaches that people buy on emotion and then justify their decision with logic. Yet, I would probably win a bet with you that most of your presentation is logic driven. 

Today is a good day to eliminate "logic" as the foundation of your presentation. 

Touch your prospects’ hearts, and their minds will follow – moving you closer to the sale. Here are a few examples of how to trigger prospects; emotional buttons:

• Lurking Liability

"Sam, our job is to work with our clients to keep attorneys from discovering and exploiting ‘lurking liability’ in their businesses. For example, when our client, Sam Spade, owner of Sam's chain of Mystery Restaurants faced a nasty liability lawsuit, here’s how we worked with him and his team to protect his assets.” (Describe what you did and the result). We can do the same for you.

• CLOSED!

“Harry, no business owner wants a CLOSED sign over their door. 

“When you get a call at 4:20 in the morning, telling you that your building is on fire, one of the first persons you’d want to contact is your insurance agent.  We can work with you, your CPA, and attorney to do an appraisal of the value of your building and its contents, potential loss of income, and so forth, so that your insurance company can write a check that will keep your business in business. Our job is to keep CLOSED from happening to you.”

• Your check or the insurance company's check? 

"Sam, what would happen if your driver loses control of a loaded truck that jumps the curb into a building and injures four people? You and I would want to make sure that your insurance company, rather than you, picks up the tab for attorney fees, hospital and medical provider bills for the victims, contractors who repair the building, lost income for the building’s tenants – and possibly more.

“Above all, you and I want to make sure that attorneys can't get at your personal assets and any of your business assets in a liability lawsuit. Let's meet with your in-house and outside financial team to play some "what ifs." Make sense? 

“Harry, just like Swiss cheese, (bring cheese and crackers to snack on as you go through this presentation) insurance has holes in it. When you or your business suffers an accident or disaster, you need to know what your insurance company will – and won’t – cover. Let’s take a few minutes to identify any potential gaps in your current coverage and see how we can close them. Does this work for you? (Sell by exclusion, rather than inclusion). “

The idea is to stop focusing on coverage and amounts (which will be the ultimate result).

Encourage prospects to give you complete information on their business, provide access to their financial records, put you at the top of the list when they make changes to their operations, and introduce you to their other trusted advisers (by the way, working with these advisers will help you garner effective introductions to new prospects – their clients).

Remember, your primary goal is to make sure that the insurance companies write their checks for the amounts that your clients expect them to write! 

I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career/ I've lost almost 300 games/ 26 times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot/ and missed./ I've failed over, and over and over again in my life./ And that is why/ I succeed.

You’re as much a watchdog over your clients’ financial condition as their accountants.

Can you truly do the job with an average agency commission of 8% to 12%?

Let's spend a few minutes determining exactly what you do. What does, or should, your commission cover?

• prospecting and marketing
• making phone calls
• setting appointments
• doing an exposure survey
• gathering data
• preparing specs to submit
• completing applications/supplements
• placing protection
• evaluating insurance company responses
• negotiating with underwriters
• presenting findings
• checking policies and endorsements
• processing policy changes
• handling claims
• completing certificates
• answering client questions
• providing daily service
• preparing specs for renewal and doing a renewal visit or phone call
• sending renewal information to insurance companies
• training  to avoid E&O and be better prepared for client questions
• yadda, yadda yadda.

Now add your agency "value added." (Please consider not using these words.) Discover what each buyer wants - provide it and get paid for your value. This is what makes it valuable, not value added.
 
Here’s a brief example, using a Workers Comp account.  Shouldn't you get paid for this value?

• guaranteeing error and overcharge free program
• validating the experience mod
• training supervisors
• educating employees
• building and helping implement a  return-to- work program
• ...and much, much more 

(This is a shameless ad to encourage you who are not CWCA's to attend the Institute of WorkComp Professionals program): https://bigideas.infusionsoft.com/app/linkClick/30787/01acbcb28405071a/1795693/98a90901952d5aee
Include the multiple coverages you provide. So, how underpaid are you? Simply put: You prevent:
1. a closed sign over the client’s door
2. potential bankruptcy
3. multiple lawsuits
4. government harassing and punishing your clients
5. ...etc. etc., etc.

Your homework: Add all the other services that you provide clients to earn your commission.
How does each client value these additional steps? How much should you charge for them?
 
Add it all up and ask yourself how much money you lost or gave away in 2013 – and earlier.
 
You've heard it many times. A journey starts with a single step. It’s time to start getting paid what you’re worth!

1. Create insurance understanding so that the buyer sells herself.  If she doesn’t understand, she misunderstands –which means that she’ll focus on price. 

2, Prove that you’re not a copycat agency; crush your competition.

3. Command the buyer’s complete attention by tying coverage to images, stories, and testimonials that trigger her mind and imagination.  For emphasis, remain standing during your presentation and use a flip chart.

4, Work with the buyer to find her problems – and solve them.

5. Make the sale.

“Never give up. Never, never, never, never give up.”

 Attributed to Winston Churchill.
(Estimates of how many "nevers" vary)
 
 
One great measure of success is how tenacious you are in staying in touch with prospects.  This is simple – it’s just not easy!
How long should you keep call on a prospect? If you guessed until "one of you dies," congratulations!

Because there are so many potential prospects, why not give up after a certain point and move on?  This is a valid argument – but only for prospects you didn’t really have a chance to get in the first place. If you believe that the prospect is right for you and your agency, don’t give up!

Start keeping score. The first step is to monitor each “touch” closely; did you contact them by e-mail (with their approval), snail mail, phone, etc.  To convince the prospect that you’re serious, you need to show them accurate records of efforts to contact them.
 Do you monitor each touch closely? That’s step number one. Note how you "touched" the prospect this first time: E-mail (with permission), snail mail, phone etc. Only when you possess accurate records will you have a chance to convince the prospect that you’re serious.
Here’s an example:
For three years I had been sending140 prospects a monthly letter, together with a quarterly report tailored to their business.
In one particular case, whenever I tried to follow up with the prospect by phone (whether during the day or after hours), I always ended up in her voice mail. So, I sent her this fax:
           “I want to work with you, Cheryl.

 “During the past three years I’ve mailed you 36 letters with significant information tailored to help you make money and reduce your business costs.

“You have also received 12 bulletins targeted at your industry – construction.
“I’ve left 24 voice mail messages for you. Am I mistaken that we're a good business fit?
“After all these contacts, you might consider me a nuisance. I don’t want to be that. I just want to work with you. Please take a moment and let me know if I should continue to contact you.
“With the permission of these clients, here’s a partial list of contractors we work with. Feel free to call anyone on this lit so you can learn how our agency turns our promises into performance.

“When your business suffers a disaster, I know that you would want someone as persistent as I to make sure the insurance company writes the check you and your employees expect.”

Feel free to vary the wording to what works for you.

The idea is simple. Track your contacts to continue to show them that you care about doing business with them.

If a prospect won’t return your phone calls, fax him or her a “message return slip” that you’ve blown up to 8.5” by 11”. Handwrite your message “Please call (your name and phone number)” Add humor when you don’t receive a call back.
After trying to reach another prospect for a full year, I Fed-Xed an unsolicited, but impressive proposal, with “To be determined” where the figures go. I made sure that the date, three years into the future, was prominent on the cover and on each page. The package also included my usual cover letter, dated three years in advance.

I expected a call. When I got it, I told the prospect, “I need to earn your business. I figure that it will take three years.” It didn’t.

So, what’s the purpose of this blog? Change the rules and make new rules. Be persistent, consistent, and creative – all essential traits of a great producer. You are a great producer, aren’t you?

If you’re truly ready to give up, here's one more try:

Mail the prospect white handkerchief with this wording: "Certainly there are times when one has to ‘raise the white flag of surrender." I feel that this is the right time. I hope the educational material t I sent you has helped drive money in your door or solved a pressing problem. You will continue to receive our monthly bulletin.

“P.S: May I etch my phone number one more time in your memory...555-333-3333?”

However, I, Pres Diamond, hope you never give up and that I can see you give your Churchill  “V for Victory” sign after you turn another prospect into a client.

Try drawing “risk management” on the back of your business card or on a piece of paper. 

Now, ask your team members to draw risk “management.” How many of these drawings will be similar or identical? 

Very few, if any. 

Do you think your prospects will understand “risk management” better when you talk about it or when you draw it? 

Let's revisit the question: '"How many of your drawings are similar or identical?" 

People make decisions by instantly drawing mind pictures of what you say.  If your buyer can’t draw “risk management” in her mind, she can't see it. If she can't see it, she can't understand it – and if she can't understand it, the chances are that she won’t buy it (unless you happen to have the lowest price).

How many times have you heard people say, "I see what you're saying" – compared to how often they say, “I hear what you're saying “?

Who watches TV when the picture goes out?  How many billboards do you see without pictures?

Pictures jump-start the mind. They create understanding. Thirty seconds of showing equals seven single- spaced typewritten pages (3,000 words). 

Pictures tell the story you want to tell. This is the best and possibly the easiest way to sell. Tell stories. Draw pictures. Have fun. Write business.

1. Meet with producers on Friday afternoons to create and review their plans for the following week.  Because most people have high energy in the morning, producers should be using this time to focus on acquiring and retaining clients. 

2. To improve attendees’ concentration, don’t allow chairs, food, or drink in the War Room

3. Change leaders with every meeting. This is a great training tool that gets everyone involved 

4. Make attendance mandatory for producers, marketing staff, account managers, and other team members as needed 

5. The meeting should be no longer than 40 minutes. Be sure that it starts and ends on time –

always – failure to enforce this will spill over into other agency processes, making the meeting useless.  To encourage promptness, have the last person in take minutes; other late-comers should contribute to a “fine pot” for distribution to nonprofit agency activities.

6. Have the leader publish and distribute the agenda, listing each attendee's responsibility three days in advance. The leader can either create the entire agenda or ask agency personnel for input.

7. The agenda should include:

• A sample presentation to a client or prospect that demonstrates coverage, retention, acquisition or marketing.  As a rule, the study should take no more than 40 minutes – the average length of a sales presentation; however, it can go longer if the client asks open-ended questions that might lead to a larger sale.

• An electronic/hardcopy list of each producer's prospects that shows how the lead was obtained, the date of the appointment, and the agenda for the sales call. Producers who have knowledge about the prospect and/or suggestions for closing the sale should share this information.

• Sales results for all producers during the past week (the leader might ask them for more information when posting the agenda).

• Relevant input from account managers. 

• Updated information on insurance companies (markets, etc.).