I recently sold my office building–to the first prospect who looked at it. It sold for a fair price, which was much higher than similar properties in the area. In fact, I raised the price above the listing real estate agent's suggestion. In the negotiations, the buyer asked for some minor repairs; I complied with some and denied others. My total investment in repairs to the building was under $1,000.

The buyer is happy. I am happy. The real estate agents are happy. Everyone is, as they say on the popular TV series Duck Dynasty,”Happy, Happy, Happy!”

So what does this have to do with selling insurance? Quite a bit. But the sales people involved and the buyer did not have a clue about what happened. In fact, I asked my agent about the ease of the sale and his response was, “We just got lucky and had the perfect buyer matched to the right property.”

I disagree.

The popular sales model explains the process like this:

1. Get the prospect's attention.
2. Explain or demonstrate the benefits.
3. Create desire by pointing out how the product or service satisfies the needs.
4. Finally, close the sale by asking the prospect to take action.

Most of these events did not happen in this sale. And they don't happen in many sales situations. What did happen that made this sale so easy? Was it just luck?

Billions of dollars have been spent on consumer behavior research. Over the past two decades, social psychologists, behavioral economists, biologists and medical researchers have given us many new tools that reveal how consumers make decisions. Those new insights and tools, which are incorporated into CPIA Insurance Success Seminars, helped make this real estate sale easy. And they can help you close more insurance sales, too.

This new research tells us that people form complicated networks of impressions. These impressions influence the success or failure of any sales process. They are important because they influence the buyer's degree of trust in the seller. Trust is the key element of the sales process.

Consumers are constantly gathering impressions. Usually, these are formed below the conscious level. They are very powerful and can last a lifetime. Were you ever embarrassed by someone as a child? If you recall that situation today as an adult, your face may flush, even though the incident occurred 30–plus years ago.

Neuroscience studies tell us these strong emotions can be cued up and mentally replayed instantly. As a salesperson, you want to present the right cues, so your prospect is comfortable in making a decision. Wrong cues=negative emotions=mistrust=no sale.

In this sale, we skimped on advertising or “getting attention.” But an accurate written description and quality pictures are necessary when selling a tangible product like real estate. Although we skimped on advertising, we focused on quickly building trust and making the buying experience pleasant. That can be difficult in “buyer beware” markets such as real estate and insurance.

 Here is how we targeted and used trust as our primary sales tool:

• We took time to take many photos of the furnished building, inside and out, for a web presentation on a multiple-listing site. The agent developed a quality description to accompany the photos. This is standard sales positioning, but then we went further.
• We removed furniture from the building, but left the conference room with all our business awards and photographs intact. We also left in place the artwork and photos in offices, restrooms, hallways, break room and kitchen. The idea was to establish trust and influence the buyer by showing that our customers and peers trusted us. We wanted the buyer to know we were successful in our profession. That helped establish trust, too. We wanted the buyer to know we were good people, just like themselves, so we left the artwork in place so they could get to know us better.
• We removed our outside signage. This lets the prospect begin to imagine the property as theirs, not ours.
• We gave the prospect complete access to the building at any time, without us or their agent present, so they could explore and see things for themselves. We wanted them to start imagining how their office would look in this new environment. Our demonstration of trust in them was reciprocated by their trust in us. This became an important factor when their inspector claimed the roof was 13 years old. We explained it was less than one year old. We gave them the name and telephone number of the roofer. We later learned they never called the roofer to verify our statements.
• We did little things that let them see our desire for them to be happy with their purchase. For example, I painted one small office and left my tools out, so if they visited they could see my work and smell new paint. They did visit, and were delighted that I had volunteered to paint the little office. My agent told me this wasn't necessary. What do you think?
• When the buyers began asking questions, we provided a notebook that detailed our improvements, and included spread sheets with utility costs. We even told them building and neighborhood shortcomings, so they were aware of any potential problems.

We never overtly pointed out the benefits or how this building would fit their needs. We did not know their needs and did not ask. We left that to their real estate agent. We focused on earning their trust—something we focus on in all of our CPIA classes—and on letting their imagination create the desire for the building. Our real estate agent's job was to help their agent get any information about the building the prospective buyer wanted, even if it seemed ridiculous or was less than flattering.

Our takeaway is this: The latest consumer research tells us consumers form impressions, and those impressions have meaning and value to the consumer. Those meanings and values have more influence on the sale process than any other factor–including price.

What kind of impression does your agency make? What feeling does the prospect get when he/she visits? What kind of impression do you make when you meet a prospect?

Your technical knowledge means nothing. Your super-duper policy means nothing, and your market access means nothing, if you and your agency are not trusted by the prospective buyer.

Trust trumps screaming, “I am different!” Trust triggers pleasant emotions. Trust makes sales–every time.