Are we selling a commodity

by Larry Neilson 31. July 2010 23:15

I hear about fear of insurance being perceived as a commodity. There is an on-going challenge to differentiating yourself from competitors whom prospects know represent the same, or similar insurance programs. While we don’t sell insurance, we have the same problem selling insurance telemarketing and list services to agents and brokers. To some degree we all sell commodities, or at least perceived commodities, either because we REALLY sell commodities, or we don’t take the time to educate our clients on roll in providing them with the service. Are your clients JUST buying insurance, or are they buying your expertise, knowledge and experience. Some companies have a “no demo – no sale” policy to try and prevent sales people from taking short cuts. We don’t have such a policy but we do try to encourage sales people to start at the beginning of the sales process and complete each step thoroughly to make sure the customer understands our unique business proposition and any added value we bring to the table. When a prospective client calls, or walks in there is a tendency to assume the prospect has a higher level of interest and a tendency to skip vital steps in the sales process. By skipping steps such as thorough discovery and a clear presentation of your unique differences matched up to the prospect’s inefficiencies you are reinforcing their perception of your product as a commodity. If you need more, qualified commercial lines leads, check out our new web site www.neilsonmarketing.com

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Comments (3) -

8/1/2010 2:07:01 AM #

Jeff Neilson

Larry I think you're spot on again.  I just spoke with a large agency in Florida with 60 offices who concurred that many sales people are given leads and they tend to sell the low hanging fruit so to speak and very little happens with the warm or cold leads.  A whole lot of revenue is lost to lack of follow up to this group of leads.  And to boot basically there's no accountability in place for most agencies to track why a deal was lost or not sold.   Is the carrier declining the submission due to loss ratios or was the prospect using the new agency for the incumbent to go get a lower rate from a carrier.  A good sales person over comes objections like this during what I call a discovery conversation before presenting a solution.  Much like filling out an acord, but more in-depth about goals, budgets, "what if's" about specific coverage to their business.  Get agreement from the prospect that if our able to present the coverage they asked for and are competitive with the incumbent agency proposal is there any reason they would not choose your agency?  A great tool for a commercial lines producer is Producer Plus which is designed to help agents develop and write more commercial lines business .   It helps streamline processes from lead development through customer support . Provides detailed information about more than 650 types of businesses so the sales person looks like an expert.

Jeff Neilson United States | Reply

10/16/2010 9:50:10 AM #

kosher

Simply, admirable what you have done here. It is pleasing to look you express from the heart and your lucidity on this significant subject matter can be easily looked. Remarkable post and will look forward to your following update.

kosher United States | Reply

3/8/2011 3:01:27 AM #

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If you are start selling products first you need to consider what customers want and if the products have benefits to them, Customers impression and satisfaction are important to develop business. It is also advisable if you have a good source on your products.

freelance translation jobs United States | Reply

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