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Blog - July 2024

Stop Selling Insurance

Submitted by wcederberg on Fri, 07/19/2024 - 15:50

We deal with a lot of lenders that have a requirement to sell insurance on their lending products. It's a big money maker for the financial institution and there is a lot of pressure to have high insurance penetration numbers. The challenge is that many lenders are "untrained" when it comes to insurance sales. They go into it with a bad attitude that affects their ability to sell. To begin with, they feel like the insurance is overpriced so that affects their ability to talk about the products with any real conviction.

Avoiding Procrastination Objections

Submitted by Dan Leboe on Mon, 07/15/2024 - 19:16

There are many reasons why people procrastinate when buying your products: they might not like the price, they may not think the product you selected will work for them, and/or they might not like you or your company. Rather than tell us exactly what they are thinking these kind-hearted individuals let us down easy with objections like "Let me think about it and I'll get back to you" or "I think I'll keep looking around and I'll let you know".

Coaching the Order Taker

Submitted by wcederberg on Sat, 07/13/2024 - 11:53

What to do about employees that have opportunities to do referrals but they just aren’t. Everyone agrees that an approach that is passive, “do nothing” unless the client asks for it is not only bad for sales, it’s also bad service.

For the coach who is inspecting what they expect, the signs and symptoms of order-taking are easy to spot: They don’t get many referrals, loan file reviews show off-book business with no discussion notes, or we hear conversations that should (but don’t) lead to exploring unmet needs or dissatisfactions with a competitor.

A principle of influence

Submitted by wcederberg on Sat, 07/13/2024 - 11:40

Reciprocity is a universal principle of influence. As a social construct, people feel obliged to give back to others the form of behaviour, gift, or service that they have received first. Friends invite you over to their house for dinner and you feel obligated to return the favour. Someone drops off a small gift to your office at Christmas and you feel the need to run out and get them something.

Incoming Rate / Product Inquiry

Submitted by wcederberg on Wed, 07/10/2024 - 20:17

Companies spend thousands and thousands of dollars in marketing and advertising with one primary objective: to have prospective customers contact them to purchase their products and services. One of the primary ways many consumers do their initial shopping is still by picking up the phone and calling.

Is It Working?

With all of this money being spent, it’s shocking to hear how few branches really have a concrete strategy in place for dealing with the incoming rate inquiry. Most will tell you that they routinely get these calls and despite a lack of tracking, most will tell you that very few of the callers book appointments. With so many financial institutions vying for the same investment dollars, why wouldn't a manager make a more concerted effort to ensure his team knew what to do/say to maximize the number of callers that turn into appointments?