When it comes to clients' lives, homes, businesses and health, no sales are ordinary. No two families or businesses are alike. Each prospect has his or her own personality and buying style, which often is influenced by life experiences. This translates into a complex sales process that requires a patient, concerned and professional approach.

Much like a physician or an attorney, we have the responsibility to ask the right questions, listen to our client's responses and develop a strategy that solves a problem or cures a pain. The products we sell and the companies we represent must be chosen carefully to ensure the right solution.

This is a serious sale with potentially serious consequences. It's also one of the few situations I know of in which a salesman will walk away from a commission if he can't sell enough of the product. I will never underinsure a client's business or home. Yet we often are compared with used-car salesmen. Can you imagine a used-car salesman walking away because a prospect doesn't want air bags or antilock brakes? Never. A good insurance agent will walk away every time a client or prospect wants him to undervalue or underinsure.

No pain, no gain

People are driven by two basic instincts: the avoidance of pain and the desire for pleasure. The stronger of these two motivators is the avoidance of pain. Pain is behind most decisions to make an insurance change. But because the change itself is painful for most people, they will do anything to avoid change.

When we sell to prospects, we ask them to fire their current agent. For most people, this requires a great deal of intestinal fortitude and must be fueled by a great deal of dissatisfaction. Prospects will make a change only if they view their current situation as painful and see a chance to relieve that pain by doing business with us. Agents and brokers must help prospects realize their pain enough to make difficult choices. This requires selling with emotion.

Use emotion professionally

How do we walk the fine line that separates communicating the need for better coverage and service from using scare tactics to get our point across? We walk that line by using the art of the question.

We use questions to ascertain what our clients have now. We ask their opinion on the importance of service, coverage, relationships and price. We ask them to evaluate their current situation. By starting questions with “I don't suppose…” or “Has there ever been a time…,” we get them to review their experiences. We get prospects to think about their concerns for the future by asking “what if” questions. We use word pictures, as well as our own personal experiences, to describe what could happen without proper representation or adequate coverage. More important, we ask our prospects to list past pains and future concerns in order of importance, and then to place a value on each one of them.

By using this process, we help our prospect re-live past problems with their current insurance program so we may assist them in making a proper fix, and we help them communicate their concerns for the future so we can make plans now to avoid costly and painful problems in the future. Last, we must develop an action plan with our prospect to develop a program that addresses all of their pains and concerns.

It is important for us to maintain our empathy and compassion during this process, which is often painful for a prospect who realizes that he/she has made a poor buying decision, or worse, has lived with it for years. It is not our place to judge. As agents and professionals, we must remember that our actions truly affect people, their families, their businesses, and their futures.

Pretty boring stuff, huh?

Since 1981, David Connolly, ARM, has worked in almost every aspect of the insurance industry, including loss control, risk management, production, agency consulting, and sales niche marketing. Today, he works as a producer and sales manager for Indiana Lumbermens Insurance Co. and is a member of the Dynamics of Selling faculty. For more information on the Dynamics of Selling program, contact The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research at (800) 633-2165 or visit www.TheNationalAlliance.com.