Gary Remland, President & Owner at Remland Insurance Services, Inc .
You may have heard this quote before, “prior preparation prevents poor performance.” Before you go into a sales call or meeting you need to have the preparation to back up your enthusiasm. If you go into a sales meeting without doing the necessary research, you will not be able to transfer your energy and positive attitude to the prospect.
You need to have the right attitude and state of mind when you are going into a sales call. Think about your sales calls in terms of why does this person want to buy from our agency? Rather than focusing on selling a customer on why you’re the best agency to go with for California home insurance, auto insurance or life insurance figure out their buying motive really is. What are they looking to get out of their coverage, in regards to added benefit or perhaps enhanced security.
Determine how the decisions are reached and what aspect of the decision is the most important. On your next sales call, open with this question, “When I say (fill in the blank with your product) what comes to your mind? This will give you a good indication of some aspect they will factor into making a decision. Example: If they respond, “Sitting on hold for 30 minutes”, customer service is obviously very important in the agency they select. So speak about your excellent and knowledgeable customer service representatives. This is likely a hot button issue for your potential customer.
To help in preparing for sales calls, try to gather as much information as possible regarding if you will be meeting with the decision maker. If applicable, find out why they are reconsidering their current provider and what agency or carrier they used in the past. Many customers will contact your agency after they have had a bad experience with a large carrier. The service aspect of dealing with a large carrier may have caused them to re-evaluate their insurance needs.
In the case that they are taking out additional coverage, work on ways to “round them out.” If you close on one policy, you may have the opportunity to offer bundled policies to pass along a greater savings. This is a great tactic when it comes to prospects that are re-evaluating their current provider.
With this information, form a plan of attack and present it in a compact, direct manner. Remember to keep your tone conversational but stay to the point and focused. If your preparation only carries you so far, fall back on the confidence that you can find the right fit in your policies for their individual needs.




