Whether you’re new to the insurance industry or you’re just in a rut, you don’t have to let your sales closing rate suffer.
Your sales closing rate isn’t what it should be, and your sales manager is starting to notice. But don’t panic yet, because there are ways to boost your closing ratio. It’s just a matter of taking things step by step.
Let’s start with a review of how your sales closing rate is calculated. The general formula used to calculate your closing rate is the number of deals you closed divided by the number of sales opportunities you had.
It’s good to understand how your sales closing rate is trending too. For example, your closing ratio may be up for the month but down for the overall quarter.
You need to get very familiar with your personal sales closing rate. How will you know you’re increasing your sales closing ratio if you don’t have a baseline.
Your six-step program for improving your sales closing rate
Now that you know your closing rate better, it’s time to begin taking the steps to improve your sales closing rate, and that begins with diagnosing your problems.
1. Get Feedback
One of the best ways to help your terrible sales closing ratio is to get feedback from your sales manager or colleague. You could perform mock sales calls with them or, better yet, have them listen in on one of your sales calls. Of course, you should do this with someone you trust. Their criticism may be harsh, but you will level up as a salesperson if you can digest what they’re saying and make those changes.
Here are some key areas to examine:
- Your overall sales presentation. How well does your pitch come across? Are you speaking too fast or too slow? Are you not listening to what your prospect is saying?
- The equipment you’re using to make sales calls. A new salesperson did a mock call for us a while back, and we quickly found out he was using a broken pair of headphones. Everything about the call sounded fine to him. Still, on the other end, his voice would get garbled, and there was even the occasional burst of static.
To be a professional salesperson, you must pay attention to the tiniest details. For example, your home office may be in a location with a terrible cellphone signal. You don’t want to fumble a sales call because your cell signal dropped.
Next, it’s time to explore your sales approach. It stands to reason that your sales closing rate could very well be off if your approach isn’t what it should be. Try switching up your sales approach. Here are three examples:
2. Consultative Sales Approach
In consultative selling, the sales rep acts more like an adviser, helping prospects make decisions based on their needs and interests. Sales reps recommend several solutions to their clients based on their specific situation and preferences.
3. Concept Selling
In conceptual selling, the salesperson begins by listening to the prospect to fully understand the prospect’s concept of their problems and issues. The salesperson then offers the product or service they have in a way that links it to the idea you just learned.
4. SNAP Selling
The term “SNAP” refers to a strategy that creates an environment where the salesperson and the customer are equals and have the same goal. Customer needs are the core of this conversational approach.
- Simple: Keep things simple and provide basic information about your life insurance policies.
- I(N)valuable: Demonstrate how your company is invaluable to the prospect. Make them feel like they would be crazy to buy insurance from anyone but you.
- Always align: Make sure you are in sync with the prospects’ needs. Listen closely to what your prospect is saying.
- Priorities: Keep the essential decisions and solutions at the forefront of the conversation.
Of course, no discussion about a poor sales closing rate would be complete without discussing objections. Handling objections from prospects can be one of the most challenging areas to improve for new salespeople with low closing ratios. So here are a few tips for mastering sales objections.
5. Practice Makes Perfect
Write down the most common sales objections you hear. Then craft a response for each of them. Keep this document handy when making sales calls. Then, practice replying to these objections with a colleague or sales manager.
6. Follow Up
Just because you satisfied the prospect’s initial objection doesn’t mean they don’t have other concerns. Follow up with them to ensure you’ve alleviated their problems. You may also discover new misgivings that would have torpedoed the deal if you had rushed by them.
Don’t ignore lead quality
Sometimes it’s not your sales approach, it’s leads you’re calling. They could be stale, called upon by ten other salespeople. It’s no wonder you’re sales closing rate is in the dumpster. HBW’s leads are exclusive and qualified. Our leads allow you to spend less time prospecting and more time doing what really matters – like selling life insurance policies.
Talk with your sales manager about getting HBW Leads for you today.