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Good Pressure Sales Part 2


As I mentioned in the previous post, we have to give clients a friendly nudge sometimes. There's an old saying that "be backs aren't greenbacks". One of the important elements in sales is creating a sense of urgency because your prospect will continue to stall. "I need to think about it" or "Let me talk to my wife" will always be those annoying comments that can kill your sale.

In my workshops and seminars I give my definition of sales, which is persuading, urging or convincing someone to do something that they probably weren't going to do at that moment. For example, people know they need life insurance, but they put it off, and often it is too late. I don't want to sell you a policy in 10 years, I want you to buy now.

This definition works for anything really. Consider trying to get your child to eat spinach. We know that at some point in the child's life he or she will try spinach, but we made spinach for tonight and want this kid to eat it. Not tomorrow or a week from now. Now!

Image may contain: 1 person, sitting, possible text that says 'YOU WANT TO EAT WELL? SELL SOMETHING'

So we put on the pressure. We convince this young person (our prospect) that spinach is delicious and good for us. We even try selling on the approval of others (another technique I teach) by invoking the name of Popeye. Note: Have you ever noticed that Popeye never starts off eating the spinach, but waits until he's had a proper 5-minute ass kicking first? He should seriously rethink this strategy.

When I talk to a prospect about life insurance, I have to get their emotions involved. "How will your family survive if you die tomorrow? Will they be able to stay in their home?" Some people call that "high pressure", but I think of it as a reality check. Cars cross the center line all of the time. People die unexpectedly everyday.

And unlike the timeshare seller who will scream, "We just got an opening that's only going to last for a few minutes so you better jump on it!", I'm illustrating for my prospect something that can make or break a family's financial future. That's not high pressure, that's "good pressure", because I genuinely care. And hopefully I can prevent one more GoFundMe page due to lack of planning.

Chris Castanes is a professional speaker who helps sales people succeed through workshops and humorous presentations. For booking information, click here. He's also the president of Surf Financial Brokers selling life and disability insurance in several states
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