An important part of a broker’s job is, naturally, to make sales – however, one expert says that approaching your customers from a completely different angle could quickly separate you from your competition.
Broker Profits Vault founder James Veigli says that kicking off your first conversation by talking about the best price is often the default, but that this is the wrong way to go about gaining a potential client’s trust. With this in mind, he developed The Anti-Sales Method – the idea that rather than selling a product, your primary focus should be on identifying your client’s aspirations and goals, and on helping them to achieve them.
“We call this ‘The Anti-Sales Method’ because people don’t like to be sold to,” Veigli explained. “They prefer a consultative prescription-based approach, as opposed to a ‘buy this product’ approach.”
“A big problem is that most brokers sell a product, and they focus on talking to customers about rates, fees and premiums rather than what that person actually wants now and in the future,” he continued.
“If everybody is simply offering products and has access to the same insurers, then there’s no real point of difference. The Trusted Adviser strategy is all about working with customers from a goal-based approach, so we focus the sales process on helping them get what they want and then imbed the product into that, rather than just talking about products from the start.”
Veigli says that this is especially important given the rise of online products, robo-advice and comparison sites, all of which focus on price without providing personalised guidance. He says positioning yourself as that trusted adviser should start at the very beginning from that first phone call, and the questions you ask your client within that initial 10-15 minutes are vital.
“If you think about going into an emergency department in the hospital, the first thing they’ll do is a quick triage of your situation in just a few minutes,” Veigli explained.
“We teach brokers a 10-minute triage process, where the first interaction you have with a new lead quickly positions the adviser as the expert. It flips the table from ‘I’m trying to sell you something’ to ‘I’m assessing whether or not I can help you.’
“The first thing most people do is tell the customer the best price they can get, and that’s not building any value or positioning yourself well – you’ve just commoditised yourself, and an expert doesn’t sell products. It’s all in the delivery, and the kinds of questions you ask and the things you say make all the difference when it comes to getting results.”
“Everyone always thinks it’s all about price, but really most consumers are silently begging to be led and provided advice,” Veigli concluded.
“When you do step up to be a true adviser, people quickly forget about that aspect, because you’re actually taking the time to understand them and add even greater value to their life.”
