Andy Neary shows how to win sales proposals by focusing on the prospect's story instead of your agency's capabilities. Spend 90% of prep on understanding their goal and challenge, then present a customized plan and ask if they believe it will work. Skip fancy slides and competing on resources against bigger firms.
Chapters
Hey, Coach Andy here. Alright. Today I am going to help you up level your prospecting proposal so you can win more business.
Today I'm going to dive into three don'ts and three do's to help you make more effective proposals. Make them to the point, make them crystal clear so your prospects understand what it is you can do for them. And you actually incent them to take action with you. Because today I am seeing far too many insurance brokers spend all this time making proposals look fancy, only to go in and not have your prospect hear a word you're saying. And unfortunately, you're spending a lot of time wasting a lot of effort only to have your bank and your paycheck look really small. So I'm going to help you out today. Today I'm going to dive into three don'ts that you need to stop doing if you want to have more effective proposals and three do's that you can start leveraging today to stand out when you're going up against competition to make it all about the prospect so you win more business. All right, let's dive into. Don't. Number one.
Quit spending all your time on the PowerPoint slides. Listen, I know you think if you make your PowerPoint slides fancy, they have all the animations, somehow that's going to attract the attention of your prospect and they're going to want to do business with you. I'm here to tell you that couldn't be farther from the truth. I want you to literally flip the script the next time you have a proposal coming up. Spend the last 10% of preparing for that meeting on your slides. Your slides are only there to back up the communication, the message that's coming out of your mouth. They're not there to be the highlight of the proposal. So ditch the fancy PowerPoint slides. Use them to back up what it is you want to say. Second, don't. It's not about you. Quit making the entirety of the proposal all about your agency. Quit spending all your time trying to trying to rack up the credibility by telling your prospect how great you guys are, how big you are, how many resources you have. They don't care. Yes, at the end, talk about that to create the credibility and the trust. But if you spend all of your time talking about you, they're gonna tune out and you have no chance to win the business. Don't. Number three, quit competing on resources. If you're an independent agent listening in and you have to compete with agencies and firms that have bigger, more employees, more resources, you can't play their game. The second you try to play the capabilities resources game, you're done. You have to flip the script and I'm going to share with you how you can do that in a second because it's making it all about the prospect. Standing out has never been easier, but you just have to put it into action. And if you're a broker representing a big national consulting firm, I'm here to tell you the same thing. If you want to flip the script, if you want to stand out amongst your other big broker competition, quit playing the resources game. Quit telling us how big you are, that you're global and you have all these resources and all these attorneys. Nobody cares. Make it about your prospect and you will stand out. Now let's flip it. What are the do's? What can you start doing today to stand out with your proposals so that even if you're up against three, four other competitors, you still have a great chance to win the business? Alright, let's dive into do number one.
Make it all about them. This is the easiest step I can give you. If you just spent 90% of your proposal talking about the prospect, telling their story, I promise you you're going to win more business. So how do you do that? Easy. You're going to sit down with your proposal and you're going to say, or your prospecting going to say, here's who you are, Mr. And Mrs. Prospect. This is the goal you told us you wanted to achieve. Here's the challenge you told us is keeping you back from achieving that goal. And here's what you said it's causing you to do. Here's the emotion, the pain it is giving you and your company. Is that correct? Yes. All right. Let us show you a customized plan we have crafted to fit into your story that is going to help you overcome this challenge and achieve that goal and arrive at your destination successfully so you can quit avoiding that failure that's holding you back. If you literally fit your plan into that story, I promise you, you're going to win more business. Your prospects going to be listening loud and clear because you're making it all about them. And this is how you rise above the noise of horrible proposals. Do number.
When you get to the point where you show them the plan, the customized plan you have crafted that is going to help them have success and avoid failure, you simply ask them this one question. Do you believe this plan is going to help you arrive at your destination successfully? They're either going to say yes and hey, let's take that next step. And if they say yes and pause.
Now, you're able to get to the root objection. Maybe it's they've been with their broker for 30 years. Maybe it's they're just afraid to make a change right now because hey, it 2020, the world of uncertainty is here. If they give you a no, you know it's done. You're over. But if they give you a yes, you ask for the business. And if they pause, you at least give yourself a chance to answer the real objection, which is still giving you a shot at winning the business. Now the last do this process, this customized plan I'm sharing with you, I'm talking about make it simple, make it clear, and make it easy for your prospect to understand. If you come in with a customized plan that has nine steps of how you're going to dive into the weeds and analyze their data and do this, this, this, this, and this, that's way too much noise. To the prospect, it sounds like way too much work and they're going to be out. They're going to be, no thanks, we're done. That sounds like it's too much. You have to make this customized plan, this process, simple, clear and easy to understand. What are those three or four steps that you're going to implement for that prospect that's going to turn them into an unhappy prospect? That to a raving fan of a client, make it easy. Make it simple. So that's it. If you want to win more business right now with more effective proposals, here's what you do. 1. Make it all about the prospect. Tell their story. Fit your company and your plan into their story. Number two, when you share the story, you share the plan. Ask them if they believe the plan is going to help them achieve their destination. If it's yes, ask for the business. And number three, make that customized plan simple, easy and clear to understand for your prospect. You do all three of those, I promise you, you're going to stand out more often in proposals despite how large your competition is. And you're going to win more business in 2021. So if you have any questions, you know where to find me. Do me a favor, hit that subscribe button too. I've got more great content coming every single week to help you make 2021 the best year you've ever had. And until the next but next time, you know what happens when confidence and clarity collide. Action happens. Go make it happen today.
