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August 24, 2003 at 08:00 PM
Selling Future Benefits May Cost You Sales Today
By
You are committed to making your clients futures better, but if you sell that benefit, you will lose sales. Americans do not relate well to the threat or benefit of future occurrences.
Heres my evidence: Do you know people who smoke cigarettes? They can read the warning on the package and certainly they have heard that smoking leads to lung disease, heart disease and a potentially nasty death. Then why do they still smoke? Because they get pleasure today, right now, and they willingly trade a few seconds of present pleasure for an ugly and early death.
Need more evidence about human behavior? The Center for Disease Control tells us that 61% of Americans are overweight. Ill wager that most of them know that cheesecake is high in fat, and leads to increased weight gain, high cholesterol, potential hardening of the arteries, heart disease, and an uncomfortable early death. Yet our population consumes thousands of tons of cheesecake annually because we readily trade a few minutes of pleasure right now, for a potentially debilitating future.
What does this have to do with selling? When you understand how people behave, you make more sales.
As financial advisors, you sell products that provide a benefit in the future or help avoid a future detriment–but I just proved to you that the future is a weak motivator. Americans want to know “what can you do for me that feels good NOW!”
Is it any wonder that your prospects say, “Ill think about it,” or decline very important insurance coverage? You walk away with no sale thinking that your prospect “just doesnt get it.” No, its you who “just doesnt get it.”
Your prospects are not logical–your prospects are present tense, pain-avoiding, pleasure-seeking homing devices. Show them how they can avoid discomfort or have pleasure today and you have a sale.
This may seem difficult for you because your life insurance, your long term care policy and your health insurance coverage are all for protection of some future occurrence. How can you possibly frame the benefit of these products in the present?
Heres how this works when speaking with a prospect:
“Mr. Smith, are you ever concerned that if something should happen to you, how your family will fare?
“How often do you have that thought?
“How does it make you feel?
