Your Unconscious Resistance to Selling.

In a prior blog post I went deep into skill number one of what I call the Big-5 Sales Skills every CSR should seek to master. In essence, the skill comes down to internalizing any variation of just seven words, “I noticed that… May I ask why?”

Here, I round out the discussion with a thought experiment designed to reveal your unconscious resistance to meaningful sales conversations.

Call to mind a frequent customer service scenario that you might have on any given day. Don’t think about an antagonistic or difficult encounter, but something in the mainstream of what you typically do.

Replay in your mind the end of that conversation: You’re wrapping up the service task, you are getting ready to say goodbye and make your notes but instead of asking the world’s worst sales question, “Is there anything else I can help you with?,” which rarely converts, you instead say something to the effect of “While I’ve got your account up, I’m taking a look at a couple of things and I noticed that you are missing something called X, Y, Z. Do you mind if I ask how come you don’t have that in place with us?” And then be silent.

In other words, “I noticed that... May I ask why?”

Enter that ingrained, all too human attribute called the negativity bias. If you allow our hypothetical scenario to play out, your negativity bias already has your customer sounding antagonistic, irritated, or objecting to your question with words like, “I don’t want more insurance, I hate insurance, I already pay too much for insurance, it’s going to be too expensive, I already have that in place with another agent.”

I grant you, it’s possible that you could be met with all manner of objections. Module Four of the Insurance CSR Sales Master Class will help you handle all of those objections. For now, let’s explore what other answers are possible and probable when we say, “May I ask why?”

Remember, you’re not asking everybody. Statistically, we’re talking about 40% of the people you serve. Don’t ask the grouchy, the rude, antagonistic, the hurried, those in crisis or claim or cancellation, or the people who are fully rounded. We’re not asking them. We’re asking everybody else. The probability that this subset of customers is going to respond angrily or negatively to your simple and sincere question “May I ask why?” with some sort of aggressive, insulted, or irritated response is nonexistent. But your negativity bias immediately takes you down that path.

The greater probability is that customers will say, “What does that do? How does that work? Why would I need that? How much would that cost?” Can we handle those questions? In fact, don’t those questions play right into your hands as a professional insurance advisor? Of course they do! You can handle those questions all day long. Those are the kinds of questions you should live for, and your simple, sincere four words, “May I ask why?” will trigger them.

👉 If you’d like to work through any negativity bias that shows up in your sales life, feel free to book some calendar time with me here.

To the championship Coach inside all of us!

Sheldon