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Increase Your Insurance Sales through Questions

By: Cheryl A. Clausen

If you feel awkward asking questions it may be because you aren't asking the right questions in the right order for the right reason. Effective questioning is definitely a skill and the best sales people are masters at. But most sales people ask questions that do little to help them with their sales success. It's a big mistake to ask questions that you could easily know the answer to if you'd just done your homework. Business owners and executives have zero patience for educating you. And when you ask questions that are generally known they view you as inept and you've lost the sale from the start.

Questions that aren't pertinent to the selling conversation are inappropriate. I know you probably ask these questions because you're hoping to increase your rapport, but you are more likely to annoy the prospect than endear yourself with them with these kinds of questions. Your time is valuable and so it theirs and they didn't grant you an appointment so you can waste their time on frivolities.

Don't spend a lot of time on background questions when you should be spending your time on questions that help both you and the prospect to gain clarity about their problem. Even though you may be afraid that the prospect won't want to share the answer to these questions with you get over it and ask them. Because that's exactly why they agreed to talk to you.

A sale happens because the buyer has a perceived problem, and they believe your product or service is the solution to that problem. This is true for all purchases from high end seemingly unnecessary services to commodities. The main difference is that a buyer will purchase a commodity with little if any thought, but they will not purchase an expensive product or service as easily.

A sale won't happen unless both you and the prospect have clarity about the prospect's perceived problem. When you set the appointment the prospect may have agreed to meet with you because they're just in the beginning stages of gathering information to determine if they really want to make this purchase. Whether they're in the information gathering stage or the final selection stage your job is to help them to uncover exactly why they want to make the purchase, and why they want to make the purchase now.

Then your questions need to take the prospect beyond the problem mind set and expand on how your solution would benefit them in ways they may not have thought about. As you do that their motivation to complete the sale increases because this sales technique helps them to become emotionally invested in the purchase while also providing the logical reason for doing so now. But you have one more step you have to take in your questioning process.

Finally you have to help them determine how your solution is really more valuable to them than the money you're asking them for in exchange. As you expanded on how your solution benefits the prospect in ways they hadn't thought about you began uncovering this on at least a qualitative level. Now through your questioning help them to quantitatively determine the value of your solution. As soon as they realize that the value of your solution is less than the money you're asking for, you have a sale.

Article Source: http://www.article-voip.com

Author: Cheryl A. Clausen can help you get where you want to be. Improve your Sales Techniques, get her free analysis. Increase your sales today through Sales Coaching, look here.

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