I don't have money to spare
by B.R. Majumder
(Kolkata, India)
Hi! I am B.R.Majumder, better known as BRM and many call me the Guru in the business of Direct Sales of financial services and life insurance in Kolkata, India. Over the past 27 years (which almost flew past), I had many successes in the business of Advertising, Marketing & Sales. In 2007, I decided to share my experiences and expertise with the people wanting to get success in Marketing & Sales and hence dedicated myself into Training of working people, particularly those in life insurance sales.
Before I embarked on training the life insurance agents/advisors, I conducted a small market research to understand which are the Common Objections faced by the Agents and if the Agents' were capable of handling those objections. What emerged from the research is that there are 3 Common Objections thrown at the agents by prospects/suspects :
1) "I have enough policies - don't need any more"
2) "I don't have money to spare"
3) "I have my own Agent to serve me".
Those 3 objections would knock out majority of the agents here in Kolkata and none could give befitting reply to convince/motivate prospects to sit down for a discussion.
So, appropriate handling of those 3 common objections became the starting point of my training.
Let me briefly address the Objection no-2 " I don't have money to spare ".
Most agents give up at this objection as they really do not know how to respond to this insurmountable problem of prospect not having money. Needless to mention that no agent in his proper senses will ever want to fund the first premium on behalf of the prospect. Hence, most agents pack up and bid good bye to the prospect with a typical advise
However, there could be another way of tackling the objection. The agent need to play the role of an advisor and re-assure the prospect that the money is there but is not visible, it has to be located and put together with a little bit of help from him and other members of his family !
The advisor now needs to pull out a clean sheet of paper and draw a line vertically at the middle to make 2 columns. On the left side, as a header, he should write ESSENTIAL EXPENSES and on the right column write NON-ESSENTIAL EXPENSES and then help the prospect list all non essential expenses and then request him to looks for % of savings against each item he can achieve each month. A sample of a pre-printed sheet which I provide during my training/workshops is given in the attachment for reference (it is in bi-lingual format, the other language being Bengali).
The expense items/heads may change depending on the local life-style and habits. For example Pan - a betel leaf preparation & Gukta- a chewing tobacco are local habits here, and people spend 2 to 3% of their monthly income on these addictions, a portion of which can be saved. This is a sure shot way of helping prospects locate his disposable but wasted income and the savings he can achieve through moderation. These small savings can help him create a sizeable wealth over a length of time.
I would love to share my expertise with all the readers of this submission of mine, provided the foregoing has some relevance to your market and psyche of your prospects. Please write to me at brm@insurance-foundation.com.