How to Sell Life Insurance: Mastering Tone Ep187

whenever I do training I try to think of it in terms of providing you guys uh hand holds that's what I say like you're climbing a wall and we want to give you these handholds that you can grab onto are these are these handholds always true well they always work no but they'll work sometimes and the sometimes is what gets you one or two or three more apps during a week than what most people get right [Music] thank you welcome back to another episode of the life insurance Academy podcast today we have my main man Chris ball in the room is this your first time here Chris yes yes we uh jumped in the time machine all the way back to the first episode yeah first time I tell you long time listener do you know how bad we were at the beginning of this like how shaky we were probably very similar to right now we're probably still shaky we just we just have better microphones I guess that's the difference their backgrounds better microphones better producers matter of fact this whole thing is auto-tuned yeah like a little T-Pain call you see pain see it no Adam's gonna auto tune us that'd be pretty good put a little lyric speaking of music I know we're gonna get in our topic today yeah but we got a brand new guitar player dude you don't have to put this on the podcast oh my God I'm just saying you're gonna be the next guy playing guitar in his closet with the lights off can a guy do that well pretty soon we're gonna have an episode talking about how to sell life insurance with a fender with a fender I'm cool with that so you could do a whole presentation yeah no but today we have a really exciting episode I think this is going to be uh extremely valuable and relative to everybody listening and it's really focusing on how to sell life insurance but the importance of tonality right um and this this thought this whole podcast is very simple uh to understand but it's these little nuances that we don't always think about and these different examples and when they're good and and when they help him and sometimes when they hurt and little adjustments yeah um we just did our our life insurance Academy virtual boot camp telesales training which was really cool to see and these little tips and tricks and coaching nuggets that you guys are going to get today um really are the things that are the simplest we call it a tweak a simple tweak that can literally change you from struggling of stressing out or fighting through trying to get an app versus writing 10 apps a week just completely and it's the tiniest little thing um what are we talking about Chris we did a uh recently did a training that you can find in our training portal on life insurance Academy called the language of yes Roger and I did this training Roger and I did do this um this training experience with agents on the phone we we did a special Zoom jumped into rooms did coaching actual coaching while they were on the calls we had guest speakers come in it was great we will have more of these so if you missed out and they're open to anybody and everybody yeah you don't want to miss the next one I mean it was ridiculously affordable um people made money I mean it's a great event right you can go to and you can make money on it so you get trained and yeah um we did this uh training this language of yes and it was kind of interesting to me because some of these things are so foundational it's kind of weird like and I was looking at like culturally where we are I just don't think we're good at talking and listening anymore like we live in a culture where people are staring at their phones all the time telling and yelling telling and yelling like people are talking while they're on their phone scrolling and not really in a conversation so you're not really looking at each other anymore Adam put your phone down there's no I'm just there's no tone anymore it's just it's kind of where I mean I want to get in the philosophy of it but we're less human than we've ever been it feels like yeah so we're not good at talking anymore we're not good at listening anymore so I think I'll add to that is I feel like nowadays uh people are more self-centered selfish unintentionally selfish um in in their whole process and um and that's every aspect of that right like you just talked about having a conversation with somebody but we're busy looking at our phones and scrolling through looking for something that's going to catch our attention interest us make us laugh it's not even you're that's true man this is getting heavy real quick but I will say this it's how it makes you feel you're scrolling because of how it makes you feel and I do think hey Public Service Announcement the more you know put down your phone have a conversation with somebody try it and see if there's an awkward silence and see if man I've been disengaged maybe a little bit from human beingish being a human yeah being a human so um before we get too deep into that what if they just ask the question how does it make you feel right like verbally or if their goal in any in any type of cells any communication in this world what if your goal in any interaction with somebody is to think I want to make them feel good yeah instead of always me feel good yeah there's a great book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey and one of the habits is the seek first to understand before you're understood seek understanding if you can do that in your relationships that's a great question Zach like you're sitting down with your your wife and you know she had something that went on during the day how'd that make you feel all of a sudden they start to to share a little more so that's why I love this business because you can actually be a better human yeah take a genuine interest in others and that's the whole podcast yeah all right see you guys we do want to give you some stuff um and Zach is right we did talk about uh we'll Center on this today this idea of tonality and I did look up uh tonality in the dictionary because I wanted to know what it said what words it said and it's uh kind of cool because I heard tonality so much in sales I've heard it a lot and when you look it up it doesn't really talk about voice it's actually a musical term and it's the harmony of notes working together and I love that idea I love that picture like if you if you take a what if you substitute the word notes for Words yeah that's what you would do absolutely it's it's like there's music in a conversation and and having the right tone or matching a tone you think of flow flow is a word that comes to mind right Continuous Flow soothing you can tell when a note's not right you can tell when a piano or guitar is not tuned correctly you know and I've got the tuner and I put it next to my guitar and I'm like ding ding ding ding ding you know trying trying to find the note to match the tune and then it's you know in in harmony that's in harmony with that and the same is true uh that's what this idea of tonality is if you are sitting with Mrs Jones in her home or more honestly I think it's more important if you're on the phone because the barriers of body language are are you don't have that available you don't there's a lot of pieces that you don't have control over I mean she Mrs Jones could have a unicycle or juggling chainsaws in her living room while she's talking to you like that that very well could be happening right you have no control of that I can't I can't say Krusty the Clown I need you to take a break for 30 minutes or I can talk to Mrs Jones about her life insurance situation okay um I don't know what's going on for the most part but um it's the same kind of idea of like your senses right like when when you're in person you have so many different senses that are going on right it could you know cite uh you know it could be a smell right space it could be a nice apple pie being cooked in there um you know just listening to them even touch like you know sometimes you know if if they're you're talking about something emotional and you're crying you give them a hug or something like that like you have all those different senses and over the phone you're very limited on those so your other senses get magnified it's just like somebody who unfortunately lost their ability or maybe never had their ability to see right right their hearing is Advanced and they can visualize through their hearing or they can't hear but they can see and they become very sharp at reading lips and that's a very good point yeah when you lose a sense the others become enhanced like Daredevil right and that's what it is over the phone it is and the more you practice it the better you'll get at it because you'll be able to read tone right but I whenever I do training I try to think of it in terms of providing you guys uh hand holds that's what I say like you're climbing a wall and we want to give you these handholds that you can grab onto um are these are these handholds always true um well they always work no but they'll work sometimes and the sometimes is what gets you one or two or three more apps during a week than what most people get right so the very first thing I do want to talk about is um let's start with the bottom first of the three that we talked about let's talk about speed versus Pace all right and uh the number one issue I see or the number one mistake that I see agents making is especially new agents I'll I'll give you I'll give you two okay number one for new agents is they go way too fast absolutely they they are Buzz sawing through their script because they are afraid they're going to get hung up on I think that's why it's why they're doing this yeah I think in my opinion of that it you're right is it is a lot of fear um I think it's a lack of understanding your clients I think it's a lack of understanding the sales process and what we're trying to accomplish um all those other areas when they're a little I don't want to say weaker but if they're they're a little less experienced in those other areas um the thought is well the way I keep Miss Jones on the phone is if I say everything a thousand miles an hour and she's not able to hang up on me and all said I'm gonna get an app right and or they're so new and and shaky as we both once were um that their anxiety kind of takes over and they are just sped up naturally right um I tell you A lot of times like when I hear the podcast sometimes I feel like I'm talking very fast but in the moment here I feel like I'm not talking fast but we always sound a little different than than we think we sound yeah yeah and if if you can the one of the reasons I really like dialing back the speed is uh it gives the agent the opportunity to listen to what is being said and not being said and if if your buzz on through a a um a script then you're missing a ton of stuff like you're you're missing um my the reason we're having this conversation you know Mrs Smith is because Mrs Smith's uh sister died two months ago and that the agent who's buzzed on you know hears that and they're like oh okay um so uh do you have any other coverage you know like whoa like this is a human being with a human interaction right and or this is the this is the other question um did they have any coverage like that's a complete mess right and and there's a time for that question but that's not the time at that point it's a moment on Pace where you can actually be quiet and pause yeah and and I think we would all agree that does phone sales is that first 30 to 45 seconds is the most important it's the most crucial um and when you feel like you're steamrolling over your client um you get it's not going to be good and you have to think about what are the main reasons of why a client would hang up on you early one they don't know who you are they don't know why you're calling right and they they simply can't understand you um here's the thing a lot of people that do telesales are calling clients that are typically older right um so they're getting a phone call from a number they don't know somebody they're familiar with they don't know who you are they don't know why you're calling and they don't even know the words you're saying yeah how in the world are they going to be able to form a connection and you're going to stand out and be different and the flip side of that is a thing called Pace right right A lot of people confuse speed and Pace yeah um speed is that hundred yard Sprint that you may be able to get pace is the cross country when you're running four laps around well said yeah my son runs cross country and you know you don't see these kids full out Sprint out the gate you know they'd be toast they wouldn't even finish the race you're exactly right now if you took a sprinter and made them run a mile and yeah the first lap they may be in the lead right um but who's going to end up winning the race and because the Sprinter you can't keep up you can't do that and pace is all about um is is about what we're talking about flow we're talking about Harmony we're talking about continuous yeah but how do we be flow with Harmony and and have the conversation continuous without being fast well if we're trying to go fast to eliminate pauses because there there is a thing about pauses can cause issues correct especially on the front side correct but you do not um you do not flow through that to eliminate pauses by adding speed because now you add confusion right you just talk slower but you put your sentences together right so you're you're not able to go through it yeah so an example would be um and and this is a good pause point if I'm calling I'm saying um hey Zach yeah who's this hey Zach it's Chris uh with Senior Benefits Services a little while ago you had sent in this card requesting information about the state-backed burial plans to take care of final expenses I'm the agent who was put in charge of your case I need to ask you some questions to confirm this information and make sure we get it out to you I have your addresses 587 success way and I have your birth date as 4 20 1974 is that correct uh yes it is okay great that was absolutely perfect and what I loved about that and if you guys rewind that and go listen to it again the most important thing is it was clear I understood what he was saying he wasn't freaking out scaring me to death but there was no breaks for me to interrupt and he didn't do it in a rude way he didn't do it in a any type of way that's going to make me feel uncomfortable and the next words are out of my mouth is answering a question and confirming the information right rather than um you know what's going you know what's going on um one of the one of the things I hate more than anything that bothers me and I don't know maybe you like it I don't know we hadn't talked about this but when you say uh Jesus Chris oh yeah and then you're like there's a pause but usually they say yeah you say yeah it's Chris like hey Chris this is Zach how you doing today right like nobody's gonna tell you how they're really doing and when they don't know who you are and then yeah it's gonna be a defense mechan it's like why do you want to know what how I'm doing what's going on who are you calling about what what is this about now you're answering their questions and I I'm on a hundred percent agreement with you I will say I've seen very successful agents do that but they've been doing it for a long time and they have control I I I'm amazed and I'm very impressed when they probably have something else they have some other pieces yes we'll talk about some of that other stuff but if you're a new agent and that's my focus is to equip new agents to do this because I know the The Confident ones will figure this out the new ones who are trying to figure it out they need these hand holds like that first pause uh his act I give you a chance to respond and now you have a sense of control and then I can move forward like that pause is enough so that pacing is very important and not Buzz sawing so now let's talk about this other and there's more to this guys like we can probably do 10 podcasts on speed and Pace right but um this next piece is uh let's we'll move our way up okay would be directive versus permission okay in our tone that's directive versus permission and that's that is where the confidence sellers do so well is confidence covers a multitude of sins and confidence is in a relationship with competence and they put in enough reps they've gotten hung up enough on they've gotten yelled at enough they know their products they know their services they have a belief in this product confidence has a a unique sense of calmness inside of it yeah and it's uh less reactive correct and in any situation especially over the phone when you're reactive to their objection or their apparent objection that's a smoke screen if you will like something that isn't necessarily true but you haven't earned each other's trust yet um that calmness allows you to move forward stay cool doesn't bother you doesn't react and that speaks something that speaks volumes for your client and being able to move forward through that right and that that directive tone even on that front side Zach where I'm saying hey Zach and then I'm going into confirming the address like it's not a permission seeking tone it's a directive tone I have this I have this is that can you give me an example of the permission speaking yeah um hey Zach yes uh hey Zach it's Chris with Senior Benefits Services how you doing today um fun what's this about um this is about uh the state regulated final expense programs that you requested do you remember filling that out no okay well that's that's not a big deal you probably forgot we you know you forget I forget stuff all the time um I just need to confirm some things here now do you live at 576 Northeastern way is that right uh yeah okay and I have your birthday is 4 20 1964 is that correct yeah yeah how'd you get my birthday yeah um well like I said you had filled out this card like yeah it's like a handoff you can see everything and like it just feels different your Energy's you know I don't know if you have restless leg syndrome but the whole time you're doing that you're shaking you know it fit perfect actually um but it's no confidence it's very passive you have no control um you may be saying the same words but that's the whole idea is how you're saying them correct the the confidence in the word you're saying you're almost like oh my gosh I hope they answer the phone oh my gosh I hope I can keep them on the phone oh yeah this hey guys I've talked to him for more than two minutes this may be an app like they feel that they can sense that do you think that's the person you want writing a policy to protect your family in the promise because the promise we're leaving that client is that when they're not there to take care of their family any longer that we're going to be the ones in the insurance companies we represent are going to be the ones that are actually going to step in and take care of their family when they can no longer do it right we are they're best friends we are there we are their companions we are their their people that they can depend on we're their right-hand man to be able to put this policy in place when they're not there and do you think that's the person you want to do that no and a matter of fact you may get through the whole thing and not know why you didn't get an app if you have a nice enough person on the phone but there there are two ingredients to this we teach this all the time to trust number one is empathy number two is Authority without that Authority you will get friend zoned every time every time without that empathy you're like a relationship right yeah yeah so there's no relationship on that side and that's the other part Zach like the mistake the other mistake I see on this part of it like we talked about early agents like newer agents and the mistake they made of going too fast the other thing I see is like you have a dial you have to turn like in these three areas you have dials that you have to turn and this directive piece um sometimes I see confident agents they will steamroll people now they may have the right pacing but they're so directive their tone never changes and they're just directive talking to them the whole time like right for me like that directive piece I may say next you know hey Zach I need you to grab a go ahead and grab a pen and paper and I'm going to give you some important information okay yeah so you go grab the pen and paper that's fine but the if if that continues on throughout that that whole thing I'm gonna miss a lot of the empathy side and not connect with you as a as a human being absolutely and so again on on that flip side like you can you could literally like you said if you're good enough in the confidence and you're pacing and you could you could almost be so directive that you can actually get an app right it may or may not stay in the books too long correct on the other side of that you could be so passive uh right you could be so permission based that the conversation never moves on and this a way I guess for me a way to diagnosis is if you have uh you have great activity you have a great attitude you have a great lead Source you're getting a bunch of people on the phone but all your phone calls last no longer than three four minutes correct this is a symptom of that because at the end of the day we can get them on the phone we can confirm the information but if we're not directive enough to know I've established this sales principle now I need to move to the next part I need to move to the next part I need to move to the next part you have to be in control and do that if you're not guiding them along it's going to stall out if it stalls out too long you're wasting their time and they will then start throwing objections they will start getting out of it and you'll start to sense that yeah absolutely so that's that's an important dial matter of fact Zach I did another training set with an agent had I don't remember a hundred leads and decent leads uh All Leads are great but had 15 at least 15 um incomplete applications well and and from my perspective it was all based on tone every bit of it there was this and I'm challenging you guys please record yourself and listen to yourself and ask what I buy from myself because there was a nervous energy throughout her whole tone all the way through the process and I'm like I don't know if that's physiological I don't know maybe you need to like see an occupational therapist or just practice speaking from here but something's got to change she started making those changes and immediately she got an application it was completely different it's amazing how important and it is like you know if I'm hitting an E note or not hitting the E note you're gonna hear it you're gonna feel it it's gonna go through you it's the same with language conversation I'm a big believer in energy man yeah like energy is this force and it flies right through that phone and I don't care if you're not able to you know be healthy personally and in the different areas of your life it's going to show through um your attitude what's going on like every aspect of that like I'm a big believer in getting the right mindset getting the right energy let that transfer through the phone through this podcast to you it has to it has to be right that has to be healthy because that nervous energy you really think a client that's never met you face to face that doesn't know you that um yeah they may want to take care of their their family and put a plan in place but trust is the most important and the first thing that we must establish it's hard to trust somebody you've never met and you just talked to to put something so important in place when they're shaking about it yeah I mean they're giving you Social Security they're giving you banking all this stuff like if they get a sense that you are not trustworthy based on even your tone that makes a difference finally uh we'll jump to this um and and I have these as verses but I just want to pay attention to them okay because there is a dial here it's conviction versus enthusiasm and I'll say this when you we talked about dials Chris Dial's different for everybody correct we are different personalities we have different life experiences we have different tonalities naturally right um so like when you look at these verses not one is good and one is bad there's going to be a middle it's like it's like buying a speaker an amp for your guitar right everyone the dials are going to be slightly in the middle one maybe more to the left the other one may be more to the right you have to find that special thing to get you in tune so so when I when I speak about this I'm I'm speaking to newer agents typically all right so this these are the things uh speaking with conviction being directive and having good pace like those three things if you can if you can get those you will get to an application in most cases with somebody on the phone now as if you know if you're a a strong personality and A type personality you're going to have to pay attention to your directiveness you're gonna have to pay attention to you know if you're a like life of the party type of Personality you're gonna have to pay attention to your enthusiasm you may have to pay attention to your speed yeah typically it's a little faster right yeah and that's kind of a nerve thing but it can also be a personality thing right so we're showing you the dial you have to determine where it turns and it only happens through activity that's it because most people won't put in the Reps to figure this out it's like like you said Zach the guitar if I'm playing the guitar at some point it's going to make sense and the sound's gonna make sense and how it works together makes sense so does does your client's personality energy have anything to play with your specific tonality what I mean by that is let's say you get this thing dialed in to where you have the same tone and almost to where you recorded yourself and hit play every time you dive the phone right what how does the difference in your clients affect that let me say this if you're going to make a mistake make the mistake of being um uh let's say I want to say uh neutral make the mistake of neutral okay because that will take you places because if you are super high energy guess what all telemarketers are super high energy hey Chris how you doing you know hey Zach what's up hey you know like boom done hang up hang up hang up if you're if you're too low um you're you know they're they're gonna feel like you're wasting their time so if we can hit neutral and then make the adjustment if I'm Mrs Mary and she's bacon pies and she's super nice to me then I can turn up my natural natural enthusiasm right so or you know I'll turn it up a little bit you're almost like you're matching hers correct you're matching her energy you're matching her Pace they're level if you but if you're making a mistake if that sounds complicated to you as a new agent then neutral stay neutral until you feel comfortable enough to adjust the dial you understand what I'm saying like like that volume if you're not like there are buttons you shouldn't press there are dials you shouldn't touch yet on your car right so don't touch those until you're ready but the one I pay attention to is neutral with conviction and what I mean by that is if I can get to the point where I've confirmed everything Zach you've grabbed a pen and paper and we start this talk I can say hey Zach before we get started I just want you to know I love what I do I've been doing this 10 years and I help families in that time I've helped 40 families with their death claims and the sad part about that is there's plenty plenty of families that decided not to do anything and I've seen a wake of Devastation as a result of that so I want you to know I'm here to serve you regardless of what we do I'm here to serve you because I care about you and your family now let me uh ask you a couple questions like I can shift to conviction and all of a sudden I was directive and now I sound like a human being it's a good start 11. there's it's a conviction um is very similar to confidence confidence has a sense of calm to it conviction takes that in my opinion one step further you have the calmness you have uh you know you you know how to write the app you've written an app but it has a belief and it starts to transfer that belief and that Effectiveness and that experience so it's not just confident in your own abilities be confident in all of your experiences and now you're gently handing that over to the client to create that same feeling for them of calmness of confidence of understanding of some empathy in there to really connect and figure out that again as we talked about at the beginning of the podcast that it's about them and it's not about us correct and Zach I'll tell you like this is true of the phone but it's true of face to face it's true of human interactions it's true if you're an interaction right yeah so um I hope this was helpful just a reminder of these dials speed versus Pace directed versus permission and conviction versus enthusiasm and guys a reminder this whole course is inside of our our library you can find that at lifeinsuranceacademy.org we'd love for you to join us in our courses and coaching we meet weekly and talk about this stuff we have a very principle driven sales price process and if you need to talk about that every week and it gets you one more app a week we're happy to help you absolutely good stuff thank you guys for being a part of this uh we'd love to hear your comments please hit the Subscribe button button the Burton and uh we will catch you on the next life insurance Academy podcast see ya thank you

Channel: LIFE INSURANCE ACADEMY

Views: 7,253

Keywords: final, expense, sales, final expense, final expense sales, life, insurance, life insurance, life insurance sales, mortgage, protection, mortgage protection sales, sales training, life insurance academy, life insurance sales training, life insurance training, life insurance agent, insurance agent

Id: anyd6Cknt4Y

Length: 33min 12sec (1992 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 20 2023