Eliminate the Need for Closing Techniques
February 13, 2018 | by the National Care Planning Council
Life Resource Planning embodies a concept we call solution-based planning. The concept is to focus on solving the needs of the client first and product or service sales will logically follow. No products are mentioned as part of this process. The clients' problems are solved before any insurance products or financial services are brought up and only products or services that fit the needs of the client are suggested.
Many of you have been trained in so-called needs analysis sales where presumably a similar concept is used. Needs analysis is product oriented and not client oriented. As a result, most of these needs analysis approaches are phony. They are simply a ploy to sell a particular product whether it fits the client's needs or not. Certainly with our concept you will not always realize a sale. But it's also true that you don't always realize a sale with an approach that appears to be client centered when it is in reality product centered. It has been our experience that focusing first on the client actually results in more business for you over the long run as opposed to trying to find a disingenuous way to sell more product that does not fit the client's needs.
Getting a buying decision based on the principle of what is right for the client requires using a different strategy from traditional closing techniques. Unfortunately, forcing a sale by using typical closing techniques, may result in the purchase being unsuitable and the buyer experiencing remorse.
Solution-based planning eliminates your having to use manipulative closing techniques to persuade people into buying insurance products or financial services that may not fit their needs. Through solution-based planning, your client will pay you a fee to uncover problems the client currently has or will experience in the future and to provide suitable solutions for those problems. You will give the client a number of planning options to choose from and not force him or her to take the option that you think the client should have.
Solutions are not specific insurance products or financial services, but may translate into these. Solutions are concepts, actions and strategies. The client will always take action on one or more of the recommended solutions. If your product or service fits into the solution, it is an extremely easy sale. The client will recognize the benefits of your product or service in the context of finding a solution. You will have to do very little persuading. That is the beauty of this process – the client always buys in! And you feel good by having done the right thing for your clients.
The key to making this approach work is to find clients who fit your particular expertise and your particular products. In other words, your marketing approach will allow you to match up with those people who will benefit from what you do. If you are used to a marketing approach that tries to get you in front of any live being in a hope to make a sale, Life Resource Planning is not for you. If you are interested in an approach that will allow you to rifle in on those individuals who are most likely in need of your expertise or insurance products, we will provide you additional insight into how to make this work.
