The Best and Worst Sales Questions a CSR Can Ask.

In my book, "The Insurance CSR Sales Master Class Handbook," I delve deeply into what I consider the big five sales skills any CSR should seek to strengthen. In this post I tease apart skill number one: boosting service task sales ask effectiveness, which frankly also applies to producers who seek to upsell and cross-sell.

Mastering how to comfortably, confidently and consistently transition from service task to sales ask without sounding salesy can be a huge revenue and retention driver and it requires just three things:

1. Strengthening the belief that a seamless sales ask after most service tasks is integral to one’s role as a trusted insurance advisor.

2. Internalizing seven words to help you bridge from every appropriate service task to a conversational sales ask.

3. Understanding how focusing on sales outcomes isn’t the way to improve them and which three metrics matter more when it comes to improving your sales success.

Take a guess at what the average ask to task percentage is for CSRs at agencies large and small across the country? What about you?

Nationally, the average is 7%. To make the math easy, let’s round that up to 10%. That means that 90% of all customer interactions end without a sales ask but instead something to the effect of, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” The world’s worst sales question.

Before you fall into the trap of thinking that one’s ask rate should be closer to 100%, let me debunk the myth that every service touch is a sales opportunity. That’s BS.

Certainly, every service touch is a chance to deliver great service and thereby set the stage for a future sale. But it doesn’t actually mean you can upsell or cross-sell right then and there, during that particular service encounter.

That said, I can tell you that the national average ask to task rate for high performing insurance CSRs is nearly 40%, with frequent spikes to 50%. What do you suppose is the average acceptance rate among these high-performers across the country regardless of agency size? It’s 70%. What’s yours?

Don’t freak out at these numbers. I’m sharing them to help you set a realistic bar against which to measure your growth. The only thing you need to do is track three metrics for three to six weeks. If you don’t track these metrics, any answer you give about your ask rate and your close rate will be a guesstimate. It has to be.

If you simply guess at the number of unique customer touches and sales asks that you make, you will always skew the numbers because a) we want to believe the best of ourselves and b) we tend to lump together all of our daily phone and email correspondence with all parties, not just customers and prospects.

There’s only one way to determine your ask to task rate and your close rate. Count. Don’t count the booked revenue but the number of customer conversations, the number of asks you make and the results. Those are the only three metrics you should focus on for a period of three to six weeks. It’s that simple.

Why several weeks? Because one week does not a trend make. Moreover, you might forget a day, you might remember at the end of the day and go back and fill in your tick-sheet from memory, or you might conflate customer service calls with non-customer calls.

It’s a simple exercise, it will take you seconds, you can do it on a single sheet of paper, and it will give some incredible insights. But the most amazing thing is that your ask rate will immediately start to go up simply because you are watching it. And that leads us directly to a bit of universal wisdom:

What we focus on grows!

Whether we are focused on improving our health, strengthening our relationships, or boosting our sales effectiveness, the act of paying attention, by its very nature, will generate improved results. But we need more than good intentions, we need tactics. And for this skill, the tactic is seven words long: “I noticed that… May I ask why?”

Don’t let the simplicity of the words “I noticed that” camouflage the power they possess. Those three words allow you to pivot 180° from your reactive service task to the proactive exploration of adding another layer of protection to your customer’s portfolio, be it a small endorsement or an entirely new policy.

Indeed, the words “I noticed that” are central to your role as an advisor. Isn’t it your job to understand the protection that a consumer has when they call in? They asked you to complete a vehicle change, or answer a coverage or billing question, or send a certificate of insurance. That’s the service task.

If you end the call without any exploration of what you notice is missing, I would say that’s a missed opportunity at best and at worst a dereliction of duty (if you believe it’s your duty to educate customers about appropriate protection).

So what is it you noticed about their coverage? Are their limits low? Are they monoline? Are they missing a piece of coverage that your agency offers such as life insurance, an umbrella, scheduled items, a renter’s policy? Whatever it is, you should be able to see it quickly on your agency management system. If not, then the words, “Give me just a second, Mr. Customer, so I can take a quick look at your account” or something to that effect, provides all the space you need to see what coverage is (or is not) in place.

Next, comes the exciting part, but it also might be slightly anxiety provoking because it may trigger what’s called your negativity bias, a topic I explore in this blog post. After you say what it is that you’ve noticed is missing, you aren’t going to offer a quote, a product, a solution, or an idea.

Instead, I want you to ask the world’s most powerful sales question, “May I ask why?”

You don’t have to use those words verbatim, but you do have to ask an open-ended question that triggers curiosity. You could also say, “Do you mind if I ask you how come… I’m curious about … I wonder why you don’t have this in place” or words to that effect and then be quiet.

Notice the difference between saying, “I notice you don’t have X, Y, Z coverage, could I offer you a quote for that, are you interested in that, or can I recommend that?” versus “I noticed you don’t have X, Y, Z coverage, do you mind if I ask why?”

Does your mind immediately go to any potential negative answers you might get to that question? If so, you’ll love module four of the Insurance CSR Sales Master Class, “How To Handle Objections With The Trial Close Without Sounding Pushy.”

👉 If you’d like some help strengthening these skills, feel free to book some calendar time with me here.

All my best,

Sheldon