Seriously...

Yesterday I wrote about how value-added services were the key to success in the Voluntary Benefits (VB) sales arena. I titled the post: Your Product Sucks – At Sales. 

Two very interesting things happened:

• It was my most read post yet! I think the title intrigued many people. (At least the nearly 1,100 people who read it!
• It prompted more emails asking me questions than I could have imagined. (If you wrote to me and I haven’t replied, I promise you will hear back from me by Friday.)

By far, the number one question I got was, “My company offers a myriad of ‘Value Added’ services. How do I know which one to offer?”

Well, to be honest, I don’t know! Do you know who does have that answer? Your client or prospect!!! Do you want to know the good news? They will tell you! All you have to do is ask!!! In fact, I have found that your chances of getting whatever you want go up dramatically if you just ask. My good friend Mike Mueller says, “They go up by at least 100%!”

Sooooo, my suggestion is this:

• Learn the value-added services your carrier offers.
• Learn why those offerings might appeal to your clients.
• Learn how to position them.
• Learn how to ask the right questions that will uncover your client’s needs.

Having said all that, the ultimate value-added service you can provide for your client is Service!!! I know this may sound basic, but I can’t tell you how many times I have seen agents fight tooth-and-nail, through mountains of excrement, to turn a prospect into a client. To then just ignore them once they land the account. Gentlemen, it’s kind of like when you were dating your wife. Remember how you were uber-polite? Opened her car door? Noticed when she had been to the hair salon? Didn’t fart in front of her? Now that your married, you think she wants to play pull my finger!?!? Are you kidding me?!?!?

A few years ago Aflac commissioned an independent study that surveyed their payroll accounts that had defected. In other words, they wanted to know why a former account had stopped doing business with them. They expected to hear things like, “We changed to a less expensive provider.” Or, “We were confused as to the billing.” Or, “We had a change of ownership and we don’t want to continue.” You know, things outside of their control. Do you know what the number one reason was? Unbelievably it was, “Our agent won’t call us back.” …..It was number one with a bullet! It wasn’t even close!….. Are you freaking kidding me?!?!? How is that possible??? As someone who has made somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000 cold calls (at least), this absolutely kills me! How can you work that hard just to abandon your customer when they need you?

Let me end this post on a positive note. When you get the service equation right, you can hit the ball completely out of the park. Let me tell you about someone who recently went “above and beyond” for his client. James Thresher, one of my sales leaders, made a cold call on a little (6 life) plumbing company. They specialize in new construction plumbing and therefore order sinks by the shipping container-load directly from China. If you saw the movie Captain Phillips you know how big a shipping container is. What you may now know is that a shipping container from China holds exactly 1,800 porcelain sinks. James knows this fact. Because when James met with the owner of this plumbing company, he offered to help unload their next shipping container-full of sinks. James’ only condition was that the business owner would allow him to educate their employees about VB on that same day. That day came last week. James showed up in dress clothes. This made the group laugh. The owner found James a company tee shirt and put James right in the middle of the unloading crew. If you have ever wondered what 1,800 sinks looks like, you are in luck. James texted me this picture.

Once they were done unloading the sinks, James had the opportunity to educate all of the plumbing company’s employees as to the reasons they should own VB. Apparently, they agreed! James wrote right at $6,500 in annualized premium, generated $2,900 in commissions, ruined his dress shoes, protected 6 families against catastrophic events, and made friends for life.
Seriously, how is an agent from another carrier ever going to roll James out of there? The answer is clear, they aren’t!!!

Conclusion: Most salespeople over-promise and under-deliver. If you don’t get dead serious about providing world-class service to your customers, then you are dead!!! (Tweet That)

Question: Do you keep 100% of your commitments to your clients, or just the ones that are convenient for you? (Tweet That Too!)