Andy Neary says insurance sales fail when you chase prospects who don't share your values. He uses a screening approach called "Do you believe what I believe?" to find aligned clients and avoid wasting time on poor fits.
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Whether you sell health insurance, you sell property casualty insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, I do not care. I bet you you have certain beliefs about what it is you sell. You have certain beliefs about the industry. You're right. In the health insurance industry, it's easy. I believe health insurance costs are too high. I believe consumers don't have good access to health care services. I believe they deserve to get access to health care services at no cost. Right. Those are things I believe.
I believe you should be frustrated that you're watching your costs go up, that your health plans continue to get worse year after year after year.
When you qualify who your ideal prospect is.
You gotta qualify who they are. Psychographically, do they believe what you believe? You see, this is something I stumbled upon years ago. I didn't know it at the time that it was called psychographics, but I was so frustrated trying to sell the prospects who are not a fit for me.
I was trying to sell the prospects who didn't believe what I believed.
And at the end of the day, all that ended up happening was I was frustrated and I wasn't winning business. And if by luck I happened to win one of those, it became one of those clients six months down the road. I wish I had never had anybody feel like they've been there before.
So you have to know who your ideal prospect is. And I'd argue there are some listening in who don't even know who your ideal prospect is. You're saying, come one, come all, we can help all people. All revenue is good. It's not how you build a good business. You need to know who you're the best fit for. Who's the best fit for you get laser clear, laser clear on what that prospect looks like demographically, but more importantly, what does that prospect look like psychographically. What do they believe? How do they think? What do they stand for? Do they believe what you believe? Those are such important factors. In fact, when I was advising, I literally delivered a presentation in my intro meetings that I coined that do you believe what I believe? Presentation. Because I wanted to know very quickly whether or not you, the prospect, believed what I believe. Because if you don't, no harm, no foul, but we're probably not a fit for you.
And it's a great way to make sure I was in front of the right prospects. And if they weren't the right prospects, I didn't waste a lot of time.
