One of my favorites is when I hear somebody complain, “I did all these quotes for a prospect, and at the very end, they told me, ‘Well, we’ll let you know when we’re ready. We’re not moving for a while.'” And this is relative to homeowner’s insurance. What would’ve happened if you asked that prospect on the front end, “When do you plan on relocating?” Or, “When do you plan on closing on your new home?” You’d have gotten the answer instead of waiting until the very end. You didn’t ask one of the most important questions until you did all the work. That’s one of the reasons why we at Killing Commercial, and especially here at Florida Risk Partners, don’t quote for practice. That’s why. We get all the discovery out of the way, lay out our value proposition, and educate our clients and prospects so that they automatically conclude they want to do business with us.
Let’s say that somebody wanted a quote because they wanted to see how much it would cost to relocate to a different part of the country in a couple of years. If you ask them when they plan on relocating, they will give you the answer. That allows you to take the extra two seconds; it’s not even two minutes at this point, the extra two seconds to educate them on all of the reasons why it doesn’t make sense to provide a quote right now. It could be that the roof will be out of age or underwriting appetites change, and we all know here in Florida, the rates are through the roof already. Who knows how those rates will look in the future? Why commit to something that’s not going to be relevant? The problem is, your prospect doesn’t know. Why don’t they know? Because you never told them. And guess what? That’s the only way we’re ever going to change our industry.
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