CHAMPION CHAT

Happy Thursday Voluntary Benefit Champions!

Introduction

In the poll I posted on 08/20/2024, I asked if agents used a fact finder when meeting with the business owner or decision maker. The answers were split down the middle. 50% of respondents do use a fact finder, while half do not.

Frankly, I find this to be alarming. This means that roughly half of the voluntary benefit agents out there don't ask questions. These agents simply present an idea they think best suits the business without taking the time to ascertain the needs of the business and it's employees!

Folks, fact finding serves two purposes. First, it is designed to disturb the prospect who happens to be the business owner or decision maker. Typically you know most or all of the answers to the questions you are asking, however most business owners are not thinking about the insurance needs of their employees on a regular basis. Second, fact finding is also for you so that you as the agent can find out what benefits a company offers and where the holes are in that company's benefit program. When I was selling I wanted to disturb that business owner with emotional questions in addition to factual ones.

For me I started with easy factual questions about the company and its current benefit programs. After 4 or 5 easy ones I began to throw in open ended questions designed to begin the process of provoking thought in the mind of the business owner/decision maker. Let's look at what I recommend you ask, the order in which you ask and the manner in which you ask these questions.

Questions

I want to get the business owner answering questions so I ask the following to start with:

1. What is the legal name of the business?
2. How many employees work for your company?
3. How many locations are there within your company?
4. (If the previous question was yes) What states and cities those branches located in?
5. Do you currently provide any benefit programs to your employees?
6. (if yes) Do you provide health insurance? Disability coverage? Life Insurance? Critical Illness coverage? Dental? Vision?
7. (if they provide or give access to health insurance) What type pf health insurance plans do you offer? What is the deductible? Out of pocket for care cost per employee?
8. (if health coverage is provided) Does the employee pay a portion of the premium? How much? Is the employee portion of the premium deducted from their paychecks pre-tax or after tax?
9. If an employee gets sick or hurt and is unable to work for a prolonged period of time, do you continue to pay that employee while they are at home recuperating?
10. (If no disability coverage) If an employee gets sick or hurt, how will they pay their bills and feed their family while they are off work?
11. (If no life insurance) When an employee passes away, how long do you continue to pay his or her wages after they die?
12. Do you offer a plan to help with the out of pocket costs your employees experience when they or a loved one gets sick and has to seek medical attention?
13. Do you offer dental coverage? vision coverage? Are the contributions to these programs payroll deducted pre-tax or after tax?

I build the emotion with each question and that emotion is designed to lead that business owner/decision maker to the realization that they have gaps and holes in their benefits package that employees are offered. After I ask two last questions:

(Business owner/decision maker name), If I can show you a way to help your employees protect their income, get valuable protection to help with out of pocket health costs and provide a valuable death benefit when an employee dies without changing any of your current programs and also not increase benefit costs...would that be of interest to you? Furthermore, when we do this if I could help you add a small amount of money back to your bottom line using FICA match....How would you feel about that?

These are the questions that I asked and I always invoked as much emotion as I could when asking questions and when presenting my solution.

Emotion Sells Ideas And Concepts

Those of you that know me have heard me talk about the fact that selling the concept of voluntary benefits or the actual insurance means you are selling an idea. Folks, your prospect cannot see, feel, hear, taste, touch or smell insurance or the voluntary benefit concept therefore it has to become an emotional sale. If you're telling a story to a prospect....you BETTER use emotion! Are you talking about a particular product or policy.... BETTER use emotion! Are you overcoming an objection than you better ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS use emotion. If you don't know how or your company sales presentation does not use emotion....reach out because I can help.

Conclusion

In closing we all learn sales skills through the carrier that we represent....myself included. However I learned that most companies do not talk about the how and why of eliciting emotions in the employer or employee presentation of voluntary benefits. My belief is that if you are not closing between 35 and 50% of the companies you are presenting to....emotion is more than likely the issue. Fact and feeling finding if done correctly stirs the emotions of the business owner/decision maker. It is where the selling starts! Therefore to me it is very important. Please let me know your thoughts in the comment section.

I wish all of you and your families a safe and happy Labor Day weekend!