These roadblocks are stalling insurance sales conversations
Along with the positive psychological attributes that are pushing you forward, you may have some negative mental habits that are holding you back.
Many professionals tell themselves that certain days don’t lend themselves to successful sales. The result? A particular day of the week becomes an excuse to take their foot off the pedal.
Insurance sales professionals pride themselves on being good at what they do, and invest a lot of time and energy in staying on top of their professional game. They track industry trends, study behavioral and social psychology, constantly hone objection-handling skills, and devour insights and best practices from our peers and industry leaders — all to smooth the way for the next sale.
While all those things undoubtedly contribute to sales success, some agents and brokers still hit sales roadblocks.
I believe the single biggest thing sales professionals can do to take their business to the next level is examine their own psychology.
Sales fail triggers
A few years ago, when I was looking for ways to improve my health and wellness, I picked up Marshall Goldsmith’s book “Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts – Becoming the Person You Want to Be.” It was an eye-opener. Not only did it help me identify some limiting beliefs that were holding me back personally, it led me to identify common mental blocks that professionally hinder so many sales people.
I call this list of self-sabotaging behaviors “The 7 Sales Fail Triggers.” They’re mental blind spots that keep us from achieving our goals, whether it’s meeting a sales quota or just keeping customer and prospect records up-to-date.
I’ve written before about the full list of mental attitudes that I believe contribute to sales self-sabotage. Here, I want to focus on the top two most common patterns that come up again and again in my conversations with insurance agents and brokers.
The good news is, you can address these mental habits yourselves — without asking your clients to lift a finger — and move the profit needle, every single month.
Sales Fail Trigger No. 1: Today is a special day.
“No one wants to hear from me on a Monday.”
“Sales don’t happen on a Friday.”
“Customers don’t pick up their phones the day after a holiday.”
Sound familiar? Maybe you’ve used the same logic in your business when making sales calls or following up with leads. And there doesn’t seem to be any consensus on what the best day is for selling or prospecting.
Want to know why that is?
Because no day is special.
This is the No. One area where I see sales professionals undermining their own success. They tell themselves that certain days don’t lend themselves to successful sales, that these days are not good times for productive conversations and are otherwise less-than-optimal for bringing in new business.
The result? A particular day of the week becomes an excuse to take their foot off the pedal.
But think about it: Why is one day any better or worse than another? Your prospect is just as likely to have competing priorities, fires to put out, family commitments, meetings or any number of other distractions to deal with on a Monday as they are on a Tuesday or Wednesday. There’s no reason to believe that they’ll be more or less receptive to your sales pitch based on what day you talk to them.
And while you’re hanging back, giving them the “space” you think they need, you’re letting opportunities slip through your fingers. If you believe one day a week is somehow bad for business, you’re passing up 52 days’ (or 400 hours’) worth of potential sales opportunities every year.
If you want to sell more policies and sign up more clients, embrace the fact that in sales, every day is as good as another. Don’t give yourself permission to let up on the work because today falls on a certain spot on the calendar. Every day offers a unique opportunity.
Sales Fail Trigger No. 2: It’s not me, it’s them.
As human beings, we’re really bad at objective self-assessment. We believe we can judge our own behavior without bias, and that we can see others’ actions and motivations just as clearly.
It’s not all that surprising. In a study of more than 800,000 participants, Goldsmith found that 70% of respondents believed they were in the top 10% of their peer group — and 98.5% believed they were in the top half!
In the context of business interactions, this can be deadly for assessing the situation and closing sales. In fact, two things we almost always overestimate in our prospects is (a) how much they like us personally, and (b) how motivated they are (or aren’t) to buy from us.
Anyone who’s missed a quota or failed to meet their quarterly numbers can probably relate. You look back on an opportunity that you thought was a sure thing and end up tracing the failure to one (or both) of these areas.
Then you might project the failure onto the prospect. They “delayed their decision” or “changed their mind”, or your “weren’t the right person to talk to in the first place”. You fail to recognize that you had your own assumptions going in, and never adjusted them. The problem is that when you buy into that belief, you deny yourself the chance to improve your approach or just move on.
So, what do you do?
First, acknowledge that this is a blind spot. Second, look at your CRM system or whatever you’re using to track customers and leads. What does the historic data tell you about the likelihood of your winning new business? Finally, get an outside perspective. Ask a trusted colleague or team leader for their take on the sales situation you’re trying to judge.
These strategies will help you to take your blinders off and re-frame the situation. You’ll determine if you need to work on the relationship, or just shift gears to focus your energy on a more promising opportunity. Either way, you’ll stop spinning your wheels.
Mindset is everything
Ambition, drive and an action-oriented attitude are key to sales success. But it’s important to recognize that along with the positive psychological attributes that are pushing you forward, you may have some negative mental habits that are holding you back.
Tackle these limiting beliefs and you’ll eliminate roadblocks on your sales journey — and clear the way to even greater sales success.
Millie Blackwell (millie@showcaseworkshop.com) is the founder and president of Showcase Workshop, a digital toolkit for insurance agents, brokers and advisors that contains presentation slides, videos, price lists and brochures, replacing old fashioned ring binders and printed collateral. Request a demo at www.showcaseworkshop.com/propertycasualty360.
These opinions are the author’s own.
See also: