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I was researching another personal project and I found this online article AND a preview of Randy Schwantz's book "How to Get Your Competition FIRED Without Saying Anything Bad About Them". I'm sure both of these will be of help for some of you - particularly P&C agents or anyone else competing on a product that seems to be a commodity.
Use ‘Picture Perfect’ to Compete on Service
USE ‘PICTURE PERFECT' TO COMPETE ON SERVICE
by Randy Schwantz
As selling opportunities increase for Commercial agents and brokers, you'll be facing a chronic occupational hazard: The extremely high client retention rate enjoyed by the people against whom you compete for business. Most of the time, price isn't the issue. Randy Schwantz explains that it takes clear-cut, powerful differentiation based on how you provide service.
With the Commercial Lines market stabilizing for the first time in years, carriers are starting to return to their competitive spirit, and price increases have eased. For the final quarter of 2003, the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers reported that premiums for one-third of all Commercial Property/Casualty accounts held steady or dropped. Even Commercial P/C premium increases have been largely in the 1% to 10% range. As Dennis Walsh, vice president in charge of Marsh, Inc.'s Albany, New York office put it in an interview with The Business Review (Feb. 6, 2004): “I have seen anything from moderate decreases to flat renewals.”
A CLASSIC PROBLEM THAT TRADITIONAL SELLING DOESN'T SOLVE
When you're talking to a prospect who already has a Commercial agent or broker, you can't go on the offensive against your rival. Even if you do offer superior service, you say so directly at your own peril. A direct attack will almost always cause your prospect to push back. They'll be defensive for having hired the incumbent. If you want to make people feel defensive, it's easy; just start questioning the decisions that they've made.
So the problem is: How do you get your prospect to see that they're being under-served by the incumbent without your having to say anything bad about the incumbent? Also, how do you get your prospect to see that you're better without your appearing to be bragging, and thus inviting skepticism?
There's another complication to this problem. Traditional selling assumes that your prospects know where their pain is, that they already see how they're being under-served. My belief is that most of them don't. Many, if not most, Commercial insurance customers have lowered their expectations to the level of service that they're currently receiving. If they've felt any pain about their service, they've pushed it to the backs of their minds where it lies dormant. So, until you activate this pain by showing your prospects the ideal service they could be receiving, you have nothing to sell them.
It's like a guy who thinks that clothes are clothes, and is happy buying off the rack at J.C. Penney. Unless you first motivate him to upgrade his wardrobe, you don't have a chance of luring him into Neiman Marcus.
PICTURE PERFECT
Is it possible to solve this dilemma? Can you phrase a question that (1) blames the incumbent without your criticizing them (2) gets your prospect to feel the pain of being under-served, and (3) positions you as the one to remove that pain?
Yes, you can. It's called a “picture perfect” question — and here's an example:
“I'm curious. When your agent comes out two months before renewal and sits down with you to develop a service timeline so that you'll have a systematic way to find and get rid of your exposures, and to watch your claims and payouts for audit purposes, are you comfortable with how this process works?”
As constructed, your “picture perfect” question overcame all three of the objectives you were hard-pressed to achieve.
First, you brought up the incumbent and drew attention to their lack of service without criticizing or attacking them. You voiced your assumption that the incumbent was already doing a good job. Second, you said something that created pain on the part of your prospect: The realization that they're not currently getting the service you mentioned. You gave yourself something to sell. Finally, because you were the one asking the question, you implied to your prospect that you already provide this service. Instead of boasting, you communicated the point matter-of-factly.
CHALLENGERS, START YOUR ENGINES!
With the Commercial Lines market becoming more competitive, look for an increase in challenger-incumbent selling situations. Your best strategy as a challenger will be to go into your sales calls knowing your competitive advantages over the incumbent. What are the incumbent's areas of service weakness that match up against your own service strengths? Once you've done this research and come up with concrete examples that demonstrate this contrast, you can use the “picture perfect” technique to your advantage.
Randy M. Schwantz has specialized in coaching Commercial insurance producers since 1991. He can be reached at The Wedge Group, 720 FM 407, Argyle, TX 76226, Phone (877) 999-9334, fax (940) 454-4622, e-mail [email protected], or Web site www.thewedge.net. Reproduced, with permission, from the National Underwriter.
How To Get Your Competition FIRED Without Saying Anything Bad About Them by Randy Schwantz (preview):
https://gpreview.kingborn.net/825000/9db976c656384a06a3a31d00c784495e.pdf
Use ‘Picture Perfect’ to Compete on Service
USE ‘PICTURE PERFECT' TO COMPETE ON SERVICE
by Randy Schwantz
As selling opportunities increase for Commercial agents and brokers, you'll be facing a chronic occupational hazard: The extremely high client retention rate enjoyed by the people against whom you compete for business. Most of the time, price isn't the issue. Randy Schwantz explains that it takes clear-cut, powerful differentiation based on how you provide service.
With the Commercial Lines market stabilizing for the first time in years, carriers are starting to return to their competitive spirit, and price increases have eased. For the final quarter of 2003, the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers reported that premiums for one-third of all Commercial Property/Casualty accounts held steady or dropped. Even Commercial P/C premium increases have been largely in the 1% to 10% range. As Dennis Walsh, vice president in charge of Marsh, Inc.'s Albany, New York office put it in an interview with The Business Review (Feb. 6, 2004): “I have seen anything from moderate decreases to flat renewals.”
A CLASSIC PROBLEM THAT TRADITIONAL SELLING DOESN'T SOLVE
When you're talking to a prospect who already has a Commercial agent or broker, you can't go on the offensive against your rival. Even if you do offer superior service, you say so directly at your own peril. A direct attack will almost always cause your prospect to push back. They'll be defensive for having hired the incumbent. If you want to make people feel defensive, it's easy; just start questioning the decisions that they've made.
So the problem is: How do you get your prospect to see that they're being under-served by the incumbent without your having to say anything bad about the incumbent? Also, how do you get your prospect to see that you're better without your appearing to be bragging, and thus inviting skepticism?
There's another complication to this problem. Traditional selling assumes that your prospects know where their pain is, that they already see how they're being under-served. My belief is that most of them don't. Many, if not most, Commercial insurance customers have lowered their expectations to the level of service that they're currently receiving. If they've felt any pain about their service, they've pushed it to the backs of their minds where it lies dormant. So, until you activate this pain by showing your prospects the ideal service they could be receiving, you have nothing to sell them.
It's like a guy who thinks that clothes are clothes, and is happy buying off the rack at J.C. Penney. Unless you first motivate him to upgrade his wardrobe, you don't have a chance of luring him into Neiman Marcus.
PICTURE PERFECT
Is it possible to solve this dilemma? Can you phrase a question that (1) blames the incumbent without your criticizing them (2) gets your prospect to feel the pain of being under-served, and (3) positions you as the one to remove that pain?
Yes, you can. It's called a “picture perfect” question — and here's an example:
“I'm curious. When your agent comes out two months before renewal and sits down with you to develop a service timeline so that you'll have a systematic way to find and get rid of your exposures, and to watch your claims and payouts for audit purposes, are you comfortable with how this process works?”
As constructed, your “picture perfect” question overcame all three of the objectives you were hard-pressed to achieve.
First, you brought up the incumbent and drew attention to their lack of service without criticizing or attacking them. You voiced your assumption that the incumbent was already doing a good job. Second, you said something that created pain on the part of your prospect: The realization that they're not currently getting the service you mentioned. You gave yourself something to sell. Finally, because you were the one asking the question, you implied to your prospect that you already provide this service. Instead of boasting, you communicated the point matter-of-factly.
CHALLENGERS, START YOUR ENGINES!
With the Commercial Lines market becoming more competitive, look for an increase in challenger-incumbent selling situations. Your best strategy as a challenger will be to go into your sales calls knowing your competitive advantages over the incumbent. What are the incumbent's areas of service weakness that match up against your own service strengths? Once you've done this research and come up with concrete examples that demonstrate this contrast, you can use the “picture perfect” technique to your advantage.
Randy M. Schwantz has specialized in coaching Commercial insurance producers since 1991. He can be reached at The Wedge Group, 720 FM 407, Argyle, TX 76226, Phone (877) 999-9334, fax (940) 454-4622, e-mail [email protected], or Web site www.thewedge.net. Reproduced, with permission, from the National Underwriter.
How To Get Your Competition FIRED Without Saying Anything Bad About Them by Randy Schwantz (preview):
https://gpreview.kingborn.net/825000/9db976c656384a06a3a31d00c784495e.pdf
