If You Don't Know Your Products,then Don't Try and Sell Them!

[Mark]

If you don't know your products,then don't try and sell them!


I see agent everyday that don't even read the agent guide or understand the products that they are trying to sell to clients.


It if very important for you to learn the product that you are trying to sell.

Step 1, should be for you to become an expert on your product.

Study the agent guides and learn your products. You will look stupid in front of a client, when they ask you something and you are clueless.

 

[xrac]

Mark, I totally agree with you.

 

[0b1kanobee]

I agree with you but only to a certain extent. I spent the first several months in insurance trying to become an 'expert' and when I finally became an expert, a few things happened.

1) Several of the products I was becoming an 'expert' in changed. For somebody as analytical as myself, I felt I had to become an expert all over again.

2) I was getting discouraged because new agents as well as old agents that I was working with or along with (maybe associated with is better) were making sales and I was not, YET I knew the products better than they did even though I did not consider myself an 'expert' yet.

3) I was running out of money that I saved in order to get into this field and running out fast.

Agents and RR in this business that I consider experts can do this with their eyes closed. They can do it half asleep. They can do it because they have been doing it for quit sometime. However, every successful agent I have meet in this business was never an expert when they first started 'selling'. They just went out and did it. They learned enough (some more than others) to go out and talk to people about what they do.

I have found that a lot of this business is sort of learning as you go. Everyday I learn something new. I learn the most when I am actually prospecting and producing. No doubt what you read in books and from watching webinars is very informative and educational, it can't replace field experience. If you wait until you are an 'expert', you will never get out into the field based on my experience.

As one guy in the business told me once, "it's not how much you know sometimes but how much you care". When I'm out in the field prospecting or reviewing policies and I come about something I don't understand, I have been trained how to not look like I'm incompetent using one sentence and it works every time. This allows me to make a note of it and get back to the prospect on it. Sometimes I can just make a phone call to upline.

You are gonna fall in this business, it is how you get back up that matters. There is always gonna be another agent who can outsell you, outsmart you and has more experience than you. However, you can always care more than the next guy and sometimes that is just enough to earn the business.

So while I'm not disagreeing with you, I would advise new agents especially, to be careful just how far they take being an 'expert' into consideration. If you are a new agent or even a seasoned agent going into another area of insurance, I think the best thing one can do is find a mentor but that can be extremely challenging.

There is a saying, "if you haven't fallen, you haven't been riding". I would advise to become an expert at recovery or getting back up on your horse. Expert or not, in this business you will fall at times.

 

[padthaiforlunch]

Good post. Glad to see you're coming along.

 

[Bob Klee]

0b1kanobee,
Good post. Keep your attitude up like this & you will do well. I don't know what your one sentence is, but it sounds like it might be one I've taught many agents over the years:"That's a great question! I don't know the answer but I'll find out & get back with you." Seems to work like magic almost all the time.

Another good lesson is to learn as much as you can about your competitors products and how they compare to yours. Not to tear them down,[I don't suggest you ever do that] but to point out a positive about your policy theirs does not have. The way I learned to do this early on was when I sold a policy, is to ask your new client for the policy from ABC, not just the declaration page. I collected all my competitors policies over the years this way & it makes it much easier to compete than just on price alone when you know going in you have a better policy/coverages. Feature/Benefit selling

 

[monty_muehlebach]

thank you for the sincere post, I'm a newbie to this forum and this business, i am struggling now, but i got into this business because of situations that have happened in my families lives, i care about people and what happens to them in crisis, this post really lifted me up today, thank you again.

 

[jerry176]

When I'm out in the field prospecting or reviewing policies and I come about something I don't understand, I have been trained how to not look like I'm incompetent using one sentence and it works every time. This allows me to make a note of it and get back to the prospect on it. Sometimes I can just make a phone call to upline.


Is it possible to share that one sentence?

 

[xrac]

"That's a great question! I don't know the answer but I'll find out & get back with you."

 

[Todd King]

"That's a great question! I don't know the answer but I'll find out & get back with you."

X2

If this isn't his one-liner, it should be!

 

[0b1kanobee]

"That's a great question! I don't know the answer but I'll find out & get back with you."

That works, I usually throw in "due to the recent changes/regulations" (of these applications, health insurance, plan documents, plan administrations, IRS, accounting practices, suitability............anything that fits what you don't know.....then say I wouldn't want to give you information that isn't 100% correct.
THEN "let me find out and get back to you"

Sometimes I can find out right on the spot with a phone call or calling the carrier, ect. ect.

Just be confident and try not to act stumped. Sometimes I do get stumped by certain clients and I tell them but those are the types of clients usually trying to stump me so I stroke their ego a little and let them know I just might learn a thing or two by working with them.

XRACS works just like mine I just usually throw in something about 'recent changes' and people can identify with that because stuff is changing all the time for EVERYBODY.