One key to successful sales in your agency is being able to overcome any objections that are thrown at you. It’s what separates a great salesperson from a mediocre one. What is your team doing to overcome any objections that your customers might have? When contacting a customer there is a chance that you will get the stereotypical response that they are too busy or don’t have the time to talk right now. Other times they’ll tell you that they need to give you a call back or even that they may need to speak with a spouse or business partner in terms of making a decision. There are plenty of objections that your team is going to run into, but are you teaching them how to deal with them properly or are you sitting back and letting your sales take the hit for it?
It’s easy for an agent to simply let a sale go once a customer comes up with an objection to it as there are many calls that will be received where the customer comes up with a reason not to purchase the policy. Both you and your team need to be ready for this and they need to have a way to combat it. One of the most common reasons we hear is that the customer doesn’t understand the value and they’re too busy to be able to think about it. Make sure you are addressing this early on in the sales process rather than waiting for the customer to pitch their objection. Answer their questions before they get a chance to throw in that objection, but make sure you aren’t taking up chunks of their time. Make the explanations brief and concise, and don’t just sell a product, sell the benefits. Let the customer know the features and how it should appeal to them as an individual. If the customer doesn’t know what they’re buying into, then chances are that they aren’t going to stick around after the first minute of the call to find out.
Objections are inevitable in the long run. There’s always that one customer that will throw a reason not to buy at you despite addressing any and all objections early on in the process. Don’t argue the objection at this point. You want to respect the customer’s decision to either buy or not buy. If there is the prospect of other decision makers that they need to consult with first then ask straightforward questions, but don’t go on the defensive with them. An example being if they need to speak with a business partner or a spouse, then an appropriate response would be: “I understand there are other decision makers in the process. Let me ask you a question, when you talk to your business partner/spouse, are you going to suggest that we move forward?” Be sure that you are constantly checking your tone and attitude when presenting these kinds of questions. If a customer feels you are being too prickly or protective then it’s likely they won’t bring up the prospect of buying to their business partner/spouse/decision maker.
Now that you have made the customer aware of the product you are selling, you’ve checked your tone and your attitude and are trying to answer objections early on there is still one thing left to do. Don’t lose your focus! It’s easy to become complacent once you believe that you’ve mastered the techniques that have been taught to you, which means it’s even easier to lose your focus and fall back into old habits. That’s one thing you don’t want to do. Constantly check where you need to improve, because let’s face it, there’s always room for improvement. Don’t let yourself become complacent or fall back into an old routine. Record some of those calls to see what needs to be touched upon. There is no excuse for not taking the first step to make sure that your team is being trained properly in overcoming these objections. Remember that the responsibility falls on the whole team and not just the owner, not just the staff, but on everyone.
We hope that this has helped touch upon some of the important reasons why overcoming objections is so important. If you’re looking for more information then we have dozens of other blogs that you can read! Check out our website and contact us if you have any questions that you’d like to ask. We hope to hear from you soon.
