The Annuity Lead

No matter how the annuity lead was generated, the prospect is not dying to buy an annuity.  That’s what selling is all about.  Uncovering the prospect’s desires and matching those desires with your product or service.  You do that by asking questions, not by talking about the features and benefits of annuities.

Most agents can’t sell. They think they can.  We highly recommend you study these two books:

SPIN Selling by Neal Rackham
Question Based Selling by Tom Freese

Anytime you end a sentence without a question mark, you’re doing a poor job of selling.  The main rule of a sales conversation: the one asking the questions controls the sale.  If your presentation is to tell the prospect about your product and then wait to address their questions or concerns, you’re losing 2/3 of you sales.

Another rules of selling is that you don;t explain your product and then look for a “yes.”  Products today are too complex.  Explaining your product simply confuses your prospect in most cases. In fact, you should have the prospect agree to do business with you BEFORE you even talk about your product.  Let’s consider this hypothetical sales conversion.  Note how the agent asks questions.

You: Thank you for meeting.  May I ask what motivated you to send back the card?

Prospect:  Yes.  I have an interest in what I can do to reduce my taxes in retirement and your postcard caught my eye.

You: How much tax do you pay now?

Prospect: about $20,000 every 3 months.

You:  I can see why you want to make a change.  What has your CPA advised?

Prospect:  No much—it’s kind of frustrating.

You: what options have you heard of?

Prospect: tax free bonds, annuities and E bonds

You:  Is there a reason you have not used these options?

Prospect; I don’t know enough about them.

You: rather than get into a detailed explanation of the options, it will save you time if I can just ask you some questions about what’s important to you.  Would that be okay?

Prospect: Sure

You: of the following three items, which is most important: return of principal, tax savings and how large a return you can get

Prospect: Return of principal is of course the most important.  next would be tax savings since the taxes, I feel, are eroding my principal.  Last would be the size of the return because I don’t want to sacrifice safety.

You: If I understand you correctly, If I could show you a way to put your money to work, with a guaranteed return of principal, and a way to slash your tax bill, we would have a basis for doing business together?

Prospect: Yes we would.

In the above dialog, you have focused on THEMN and THEIR desires and THEY have agreed to work with you and you haven’t even said a word about your product.  Now that’s turning an annuity lead into a sale.

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