As benefits producers we sell and service health and financial security. When a child is sick or a spouse is in pain, we provide the means of treating the illness and easing that pain while protecting the family’s fiscal well-being. When the difference between business success and failure is a healthy, productive workforce, we provide important tools needed to build one.
Given the importance of buying decisions in this context, it’s understandable that most shoppers want help from an expert before making a purchase — someone who understands the stakes, risks and opportunities. They want someone who can help guide them to the solutions that best fit their unique needs. This desire for help from a capable counselor and advocate is especially true for business owners making benefit decisions not just for their own families, but for those of their employees as well.
Not surprising, then, are the results about key drivers for sales success identified by the “Trailblazed Sales Project Study.” It found that sales professionalism — by being worthy of the trust clients place in their brokers — goes hand in hand with sales success. (The study surveyed producers in order to isolate those behaviors and characteristics shared by high-growth producers, but not as common amongst their less successful colleagues.
The importance of sales professionalism was also underscored by the Benefit Selling nominees for 2011 Broker of the Year. Each of these year’s nominees — Nicholas Beatty, Mark Lacher (who received the honor), Tom Newby, Anjanette Simone and Leslie Wiernik — demonstrate a powerful consumer-centric approach in their business.
In the March issue of Benefits Selling, they talked about the need to understand their clients; to find creative solutions and educate their clients concerning possible solutions; to be available to their clients after the sale; and to stay on top of changing laws, regulations and products.
In short, they bring to life the concept of sales professionalism. Significantly, the approach taken by these outstanding producers is more than just about finding the right medical plan for their clients. Each have described moving beyond a transactional business model to a more holistic approach, one that looks at the overarching needs of their clients.
They speak of offering complete solutions. Or as Lacher said in describing how his firm operates: “What we’re doing is helping mitigate risks to [a client’s] organization in total and think about the organization in a much broader sense.” Given the changes coming to our industry, producers will need to make a similar transition to reinforce the value they bring to the system.
Computers, after all, excel in processing transactions. No software, however, can understand the broader context of that transaction and apply that understanding as well as a trained expert can. That, as the “Trailblazed Sales Project Study” found, and the Benefits Selling 2011 Broker of the Year nominees demonstrate, requires sales professionalism.
Alan Katz is principal of the Alan Katz Group and author of “Trailblazed: Proven Paths to Sales Success” (www.TrailblazedSales.com).
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