Break Out of the Box

How frustrating is it to work on a prospect, really put your heart and soul into the client, and then not get the business? How maddening is it to be told, "I really like you, but..." or "I really appreciate your work, but..." or "There just wasn't enough of a price difference for us to make a change"? The most frustrating thing about these examples is that the prospects put you into a box labeled "peddler" or "insurance salesman" or "vendor." In fact, in this instance there are a lot of categories the prospect can use to describe you. Unfortunately, very few of them are flattering.

I recently visited with a close friend of mine, who is 78 and one of the most respected insurance and risk management consultants in Houston. He built a very successful insurance agency over a 40-year period, and then left that agency to became a consultant. When I asked him what was the biggest difference between consulting work and his career as an agent and agency leader, the first word out of his mouth was "respect."

I think we would all admit that our most ideal relationships are ones where our clients view us in the same category as their CPA, banker or attorney. We are a trusted advisor. So how do we get this point across to our prospects?

Let's begin with the fact that our industry causes the very problem we are trying to avoid. As you know (and if you do not believe me, ask any of your clients), approximately 90 days before their expiration date, prospects begin getting besieged by phone calls from insurance peddlers asking, "May I bid your insurance?" or "Are you going out for bids on your insurance this year?" In other words, the prospects receive reinforcement every year that we are in the bid business; that our work product is a commodity and the best program for their company can be determined by putting it out for bids. They learn to equate an insurance agent with a bid.

You see the results of this when you make a call on a prospect and they say, "We are getting bids this year from three agents." We put ourselves in the wrong box when prospects invite us to be one of the bidders, and we agree to do so. We become excited about what a great sales call or cold call we just had. The truth is, this is nothing to get excited about. You just joined the ranks of the peddlers who are in that box.

Here is the truth. If you act like a vendor, you will get treated like a vendor. If you sound like all the other insurance vendors, you will get treated like all the other insurance vendors. If you conduct business like an insurance vendor, you have no reason to expect any different respect than all of the other insurance vendors.

So how do you get out of the box where all of the vendors, peddlers, shiny shoe salesmen, used car dealers and snake oil salesmen live? Follow these steps.

? Sound different

Professional salespeople don't sound like peddlers. We are all about the prospect and client. What are their concerns? What are their issues? What keeps them up at night? How can you and your company make their job easier? You are not there to talk about insurance. You are there to understand what they need and want from their risk management and agent relationship. If you begin with, "Let me tell you about my company," you are off on the wrong foot. You need to be all about them.

If you really want to sound different, try this. When calling someone for an appointment and they offer you the opportunity to bid, say "Mr./Ms. Prospect, I very much appreciate the offer, but quite frankly I really no more need practice bidding than you need practice reading bids. However, I would love to meet with you and see if there is another reason for us to do business together other than just bidding." I will tell you from experience this works. Those who say no were just looking for bidders, anyway. Those who say yes, which in my experience is about 90 percent of the time, are truly interested in meeting for reasons other than price and you have just broken out of the box.

2. Look different

There is a lot of pressure to "dress to the client." If they are casual, you are casual. If they wear a coat and tie, you wear a coat and tie. The correct approach to this issue is to dress to the image you want to have. If you want to be treated as a professional, then look the part. Do not dress to the client, dress one notch above the client. If you were on trial for your life and you were interviewing attorneys and you could not talk to any of them but had to select your attorney based on his appearance, would you go with the unshaven attorney in the jeans and polo shirt, the attorney with the tattoos, scruffy haircut, slacks, button-down shirt and sport coat--or the well-groomed attorney with the nice suit and tie? I am not saying any one of these three people is more learned and skilled than any of the others, but I am saying appearances count.

3. Be different

Are you on time for the appointment? Is your BlackBerry or phone turned off--not on vibrate? When it goes off, do you glance down to see who it is, or do you treat the prospect like he is the most important person to you? Do you spend the time asking him questions, or do you spend your time waiting for your turn to talk? When the prospect makes statements, do you excitedly tell him how you can fix the issue, or do you spend more time asking more questions so you can truly understand how he or she feels about the issue? Do you speak in insurance lingo to impress them, or do you speak their language to better communicate with them? Try this on your next appointment: see how long you can go before you even use the word "insurance." If you are successful in keeping this word from coming out of your mouth (they can say it all they want), then I promise your prospect just had a very unique experience in meeting with you.

Remember, your goal is to break out of the box our prospects put us in. It is a box that is prepared by our competition and industry and that you're automatically stuck into. Your job is to break out, and to do that you have to sound, look and be different than everyone else in that box.