Sales Exponential

Article by Dan Vinal

To sell insurance effectively, you need to understand both how and why people make decisions to buy insurance.

Which means that it’s critically important to understand purchase decision psychology, and what makes people want to buy.

According to studies of consumer psychology and research into buyer behavior, people are much more concerned about losing something they already have (or expect to have) than about gaining something they want or need.

In other words, people respond much better to a “fear of loss” than they do to a “desire for gain”. So whenever you can, you want to present insurance converage in terms of replacing or preventing a loss.

To sell insurance effectively, you must begin by describing a problem in terms of the potential risk of losing something your prospect already has. But this can get a little “tricky”.

For example: if you are selling “term” life insurance to parents, they have a lifestyle dependent on each other’s income. So it’s the loss of each other’s income, and the lifestyle derived from that income, that motivates your prospects.

But if you’re selling “cash value” life insurance to those same parents, they also have expectations of a financially secure retirement. So it’s the loss of that expectation – the potential risk to a financially secure retirement that motivates them.

To sell life insurance effectively, you simply ask questions that cause your prospect to envision or imagine what their lives would be like WITHOUT that which they value.

A selling strategy based essentially on the “fear of loss” has been proven to psychologically motivate all four personality types. What’s more, it can be used in both personal and business markets, as long as it is done honestly and sincerely.

Of course, you must thoroughly recognize the actual implications of the potential “loss”, so that you can help your prospect “feel the pain” and the fear of losing something they value.

Remember, to sell insurance effectively, it’s NOT about the features and benefits of the product… it’s about the psychology of what motivates people to buy.