The Skill of the Mini-Sale:

So Customer Says: That sounds OK...I'll Call You Back
By David Hon
Email: davidh@termonly.com

In selling insurance, there are some pivotal small “sales” which --- each time – mark the edge of the darkened cesspools from which the total Sale, bobbing and swirling down, may never reappear. Each little mini-sale requires dedicated sales work, from obtaining a mailed application back from the client, to urging the client to urge his doctor to urge the filekeeper to send needed medical records, to helping a client accept the fact his or her rates will be higher when the exam reveals high cholesterol. But each one is a crucial little sale in itself. Maybe it’s a little like a hockey game. 

Probably every insurance professional can tell you how – at least once a day – he or she is behind one goal, one-on-one with the goalkeeper in the last 10 seconds of the game. Of course we are service professionals, helping clients to find what insurance is best for them.  Nevertheless, you’ve got to make this shot, this mini-sale against the Keeper of Lost Sales, or the game won’t go on.   

An example: You’ve quoted someone on the phone, you’ve asked for the sale, they’ve agreed the need is there and the price is good and they have the money and what’s more, the client is a marathon runner…So you ask: Which does he think is better, 20 years or 30…But, what is he saying?.. ”I’ll call you back.”  

This is like the Love Object of your dreams wanting to be friends. In the history of the world, no prospect ever called back if they said they would. Now your silence is like a stench…The crowd has stopped cheering, stopped breathing….The puck has bounced back off the goalkeeper’s glove, and you’ve got 5 seconds to shoooooot…. 

You say: “OK Great…Well, I guess I’ll be talking to you soon, then….” 

You can almost hear the exhale on the other end. The crowd, too. The Keeper of Lost Sales drops his guard, relaxing…. 

You say: ”…Say, you know, Harold…stuff falls through the crack...Why don’t I just call you next week to check in…that be all right?” 

And before he can get his stick up, the puck is rocketing past the Keeper of Lost Sales, off his right shoulder, hitting the bar in the left corner and bouncing, angling I N !  It’s overtime and you’ve got more game. 

40% of the time the prospect says OK, call me back next week. 50% of the time he needs to have some bit of negotiated-win, so he says: “Better make it two weeks.” Only 10% of the time does the Keeper of Lost Sales repeat: “No, I’ll call you.” 

This exciting little mini-sale is more important than just giving you Overtime. It starts the game over again for you. However, in the next call, the prospect knows you’re already, and if you call back when you said you would, he probably trusts you a little more. Also, if he has to put you off a second time, he may well be a little more apologetic. And gradually, if you are persistent and professional…He may come to feel he owes you serious attention…just for your diligence.   

All over the country, the best insurance professionals are maintaining lots of these continuing sales “dialogues.” In every interchange where you don’t close the sale on the phone, you will at least need to “sell” it into Overtime again. Many insurance professionals have 50 or more of these “dialogues” growing, like a farm, and they reap a few every week. This is especially true of Direct Response Sales, using the telephone to contact a prospect that is interested in life insurance. And the mini-sales go on and on: 

Hi..Harold…Remember that insurance application I sent out to you last week? You’ve sent it back?….Oh, your wife sent it….Yesterday…You think she sent it….Is your wife there? Can you check with her?… Oh, she didn’t…Well, can you ask her to send it today?…Right….Then I’ll see it by the end of the week, right? And how did the paramedic go? …Didn’t show up?…Oh, she didn’t show up because you canceled…Oh she did show up and then you cancelled…Well did you reschedule?… She won’t? Won’t even come back?  Well just get the app off to me, and I’ll call the paramedic to reschedule….Yeah, I’ll try to get someone else. 

And so you call the paramedic…The paramedic will not go back to the customer because the customer won’t turn off the TV and so obviously doesn’t respect the paramedic. You guessed it…..Another mini-sale.  

Copyright 2004 – David Hon