Whether you’re selling health insurance or dental insurance, always the most important thing is to do is closing a lot of sales, because it is the bottomline in sales.
Many salespeople spend a lot of their time trying to find out how they can possibly close more sales. They read books and learn from the top sellers, but the only fundamental truth there is to know about sales is that nobody will ever buy from you if you are not persuasive enough. The art of persuasion, thankfully, is not that difficult to master if you only know the laws governing it.
There’s a science behind these laws – the psychologist Robert Cialdini wrote about the laws of persuasion in his book Influence: The Psychology Of Persuasion.
Law of Reciprocation
This law is another way to state the law of karma. It states that if we give something to a person, that person will feel indebted to us and, in return, will give something in return.
Cialdini experimented on the validity of this law when he sent out Christmas card to some people he didn’t know personally, but he found in the white pages of the telephone directory. He reported that at least 30% of those who received his cards sent a card back to him.
The Law of Reciprocation is always at work in business – salespeople give gifts to their clients, while power-dressed sales executives treat their clients to lunch. Somehow, giving creates an obligation in another person to give something back. All of these “free” things are setting up an obligation. Using this approach, salespeople will make you feel obligated to give something back by buying their product or service.
Insurance websites too apply the Law of Reciprocation by giving out free health insurance leads to freelance agents with the end of mind of generating more sales.
Law of Contrast
This law indicates that whatever information is volunteered to us, we always tend to compare it with similar information that we already know or that is presented to us at a given time.
If we track this in insurance sales, it really doesn’t matter if someone is selling you the cheapest no-exam life insurance program, if you are presented with an exam-required life insurance program that is priced lower, you will only be looking at the price. A very good insurance agent will point out to you that no-exam life insurance and exam-required life insurance are apples and oranges in comparison.
Law of Social Proof
This law states that humans are basically no different from sheep. They tend to follow each other. This law becomes very apparent in two conditions:
(a) Uncertainty or when a person does not know what to do or even sure what he or she wants. In this case, a person becomes easily influenced by people surrounding him or her.
(b) Similarity or when people identify with a person. This situation can be effectively seen in a testimonial – housewives are more easily influenced by a testimonial featuring a housewife.
