Insightful interview about the art of selling insurance with Marcus Selzer!
Welcome to our podcast series. My name is Philippe Séjalon and in this podcast I had the pleasure to talk with Marcus Selzer about the art of selling insurance!
Sit down – or walk or even run – and listen to this very interesting and pleasant discussion.
Chapters: 00:00 Marcus’ experience 02:35 Finding customers 03:43 Common objections 06:32 B2B vs B2C selling 07:47 How to deal with objections 10:44 Objection handling and Procurement 13:23 Negotiations 14:39 Procurement 15:49 Training 17:28 Motivation 18:51 Advice for beginners
Whether you work in insurance or other industries, there are 4 main personality types of salespeople.
Which one are you and where do you best fit within the sales process?
Imagine if your sales and fashion style were congruent so that you can generate more results. The way you dress has an impact… Learn how to create more trust and credibility by aligning the way you dress with your sales style.
Here are some examples for men’s wear on what to wear to embody more your sales type.
Type 1: The Pitcher
He is very comfortable in “opening doors”. Often enthusiastic, extroverted, demonstrative and confident, he inspires people and is great at pitching ideas and projects.
His clothing style is slightly eccentric and stands out with original accessories or with vivid colors to communicate his enthusiasm and aliveness.
Type 2: The Deal Maker
He closes deals. Charismatic, competitive and driven, he is passionate and quite impatient. He wants to see results.
Mostly mysterious, he mostly wears black or dark colors with a touch of gold or red, symbolising power and decisiveness. He is an « alpha ».
Type 3: The Trusted Advisor
Guided by his internal passion and dedication for improvement, his role is more similar to that of a consultant. He enjoys solving problems in an innovative way, using his logic and analytical skills.
He wears more serious colors such as navy blue and dark grey, representing his wisdom and maturity. Sometimes he adds prints with stripes or checks illustrating structure and order.
Type 4: The Caretaker
Most suited for after-sales, the Caretaker knows his customer very well. He is a very good listener, supportive, helpful, friendly and calm. He is very committed and holds strong values, which makes him a great asset to a team.
The best colors to wear for this profile are pastels, light blue, light pink and cream colors mixed with a comfortable soft, relaxed look. It makes him approachable, safe and friendly.
Have you found your profile? Are you dressing today as the best version of yourself? Would you like to see the same for women’s wear?
If you would like to know more, like or comment this article!
Thanks to our INGAGE Fashion Coach for her inputs. 😉
Recently we had the opportunity to interview Edi Schmid, who, over the last 30 years, has held several top management positions in the insurance industry.
This is one his observations about the challenges of selling insurance : “The biggest competitors are not other companies selling insurance, but people not buying insurance yet.”
What is your own experience with selling insurance?
At INGAGE we are passionate about providing insurance companies with engaging and effective training. To bring you the latest news and trends, we interview some of the world’s experts in the insurance, training, and tech industries.
Of course, you need to know your products when you want to sell them, but first of all, you need to understand the person you want to sell these products to!
This might sound very obvious, but it actually isn’t. How many times have I seen beginner sales people pushing a potential client through a whole list of products and PowerPoint slides before even wondering what the client needs. Does it sound familiar? 😉
There are countless sales courses online, from cheap ones or even “free” ones on Youtube to very expensive ones. They all serve a purpose and probably give some very good tips, techniques and much more.
However, one of the key points to become a good sales person – as far as I’m concerned – is very simple and goes directly to your core values:
TRUST.
A good sales person must create trust. That’s it.
You must do everything you can to deserve your clients’ trust. So, in short: become a “trusted advisor” and you will have a beautiful and highly satisfying sales career!
Oh, and one last thing: selling is about solving people’s problem. Isn’t it a beautiful job? So, go and help people!
In 2018, Gartner predicted that 25% of Customer Service Operations would use VCA. Source: Gartner 2018.
Extract:
Analysts Present Top Predictions for Customer Experience Leaders at the Gartner Customer Experience Summit 2018 in Tokyo, February 19-20
Twenty-five percent of customer service and support operations will integrate virtual customer assistant (VCA) or chatbot technology across engagement channels by 2020, up from less than two percent in 2017, according to Gartner, Inc.
Speaking at the Gartner Customer Experience Summit in Tokyo today, Gene Alvarez, managing vice president at Gartner, said more than half of organizations have already invested in VCAs for customer service, as they realize the advantages of automated self-service, together with the ability to escalate to a human agent in complex situations.
“As more customers engage on digital channels, VCAs are being implemented for handling customer requests on websites, mobile apps, consumer messaging apps and social networks,” Mr. Alvarez said. “This is underpinned by improvements in natural-language processing, machine learning and intent-matching capabilities.”
Organizations report a reduction of up to 70 percent in call, chat and/or email inquiries after implementing a VCA, according to Gartner research. They also report increased customer satisfaction and a 33 percent saving per voice engagement.
The video in the following post shows an interaction between a VCA and a customer. The VCA’s natural way of behaving – in the video – is quite impressive. The company, Voca.ai, has since been bought by Snapchat.
As we see the surge of VCAs, we can wonder about the impact on sales people and how to best train them in this new configuration.
Are you missing out on sales because you get discouraged too fast ⁉️ Many clients raise up to 5 major objections or challenging questions before they buy, studies have shown*. ?
– The problem is that, by the time the client is finally ready to buy, about 91% of all unexperienced salespeople already gave up! ?
– That means it is the 9% of all salespeople that know how to handle client objections that are successful. *These studies were done with new, untrained salespeople. The goal was to analyze their first cold calls, to understand what training they need. People with training will obviously learn to preempt and handle objections and therefore close more deals. ?
1. What do those figures look like in your experience? 2. What do you and your team do to preempt and handle objections?
Alright, I can imagine that this question sounds a bit weird. I’m not saying that I would like to. I’m just asking myself whether I would. That’s all.
In any case, this is an important question for me.
Indeed, whether you are a new recruit in our company or one of our future clients, it’s important for me to be aligned and actually appreciate working together with you!
So, this is the little question I ask myself when I meet you: “Would I like to go on a holiday with you?”. Now you know it! 🙂
Many clients raise up to 5 major objections or challenging questions before they buy, studies have shown*. The problem is that, by the time the client is finally ready to buy, about 91% of all sales people already gave up! That means it is the 9% of all salespeople that know how to handle client objections that are successful.
This is an example from a call center doing many cold calls. What does it look like for you?
More to come in our next blog post…
*The number of objections or challenging questions that clients will raise obviously depends on the the product you are selling, the level to which you understood their needs and the relationship you have with the client.
If you want to know how to create great client relationships and handle objections, check out our Sales Academy!
I am happy to share exciting news with you: our team has successfully launched the latest version of our Sales Academy! ? It is a series of sales courses that empowers people to enjoy selling and do so effectively and ethically.
Thanks to our enthusiastic trainer, Christiane Moeschler, who shares her 18+ years of experience in sales for this exciting and innovative academy!
If you are in sales, you’ve probably learned the best practice and tips on how to be efficient and successful in the selling process.
But are you aware of the things not to do?
Despite all your best efforts, do you still sometimes fail at closing those deals?
Do you sometimes lack confidence or motivation? If that’s the case, then maybe you are doing one of the things listed below.
You speak more than you listen.
If you want to fail in selling, then be sure to speak as much as possible! Don’t ask any questions! Talk more than your prospects or clients. This way you are sure to push on them products that are not relevant and that they don’t need.
You focus on the features of your product, not the benefits.
Let’s imagine you are trying to sell a pen. It has the following features:
part of it is made of gold
it weighs 60 grams
it hast enough ink for 100 hours of writing
…
So, you list all the features. You are very factual and precise. But it doesn’t make your client dream about your product. Hence, he won’t buy it!
Instead, you could paint the following picture for your client:
Your client is enjoying a wonderful holiday, sitting at a beautiful desk in his summer house by the river, writing a best-seller or a love letter with this pen. Can you feel the energy shift? Yes, that’s right.
People don’t buy what they need, they buy what they want!
You abandon too soon.
Did you know that on average a client will raise 5 objections before he buys? But most salespeople abandon after 1 or 2 objections!
It’s not easy to feel comfortable when people express objections but, in the end, the prize goes to the most persistent one!
You have a negative attitude about your products, your company, or yourself.
What prevents most salespeople from being truly successful is their perception and attitude.
Have you ever felt that:
people you call find you annoying
it can be a drag to call your potential prospects
clients keep objecting to you (i.e., “I don’t have time to talk to you”, “I already have a provider”, “You are too expensive” …)
certain days are difficult because you are being rejected a lot
you don’t know your products or your clients well enough
Negative thoughts and lack of confidence are immediately reflected in your body language and tone of voice. Studies show that clients can pick on your lack of confidence and insecurity even on the phone without seeing you!
The result? No sale!
You don’t contact enough leads.
You may have heard the adage saying that selling was a “numbers’ game”. This means that you need to contact many leads to sell to a few. Out of 100 leads, you might only acquire 10 clients…
How many clients have you contacted yesterday? Last week? Last month? … if your answer is “Nearly none”, you are clearly on the right track to fail to sell your product!
On top of this, finding leads is not enough. You need to build a real relationship and trust, educate them about your services and your products. Your leads need to be organized in a sales funnel and “matured” to bring them to the decision to buy from you.
You want to finish what you’ve started!
How much time have you worked to prepare that smart, beautiful, and well-written PowerPoint presentation with 50 slides? Three, four hours, or probably more?!
Now that you finally have that meeting with the client, you deserve to be listened to and to go through the entire PowerPoint presentation you prepared!
Why would you waste all that amazing work just to adapt yourself and answer the clients’ questions? You could drift away from your slides! No way!
Selling is not easy. It demands a whole set of different skills.
Want to kick start your sales career or brush up on your existing knowledge? Would you like to have a comprehensive, yet short and effective methodology that will take you from A to Z of the selling process? Then check out our Sales Academy. We’ve got you covered!
Written by Philippe22 February 2023 
