Voluntary benefits: Control the conversation
Most brokers make the mistake of asking employers about their interest in voluntary benefits, and then wonder why clients say they’re not interested.
Succeeding with voluntary benefits—or enhanced benefits, as I like to call them—involves a super simple strategy. It’s all about setting up a dedicated time with your prospect or client to discuss how enhanced benefits fit directly into their total benefits strategy.
Those brokers who get it, get it. But sadly, many take the wrong approach and as a result, they always get told, “No.”
Here’s a recent example of how things can go wrong. I had multiple conversations and training sessions with a broker who sought me out and wanted to work with me. All he had to do was set up an introductory meeting between me and his existing group client. The idea behind the meeting was to make enhanced benefits and group health benefits part of one comprehensive, bespoke strategy. I even encourage brokers like him to refer to me as their director of enhanced benefits, voluntary vice president, or whatever title they like, to show we are on one unified team.
Related: 5 way brokers can maximize voluntary benefits portfolios
He said he was all-in and understood his mission was to simply set up the meeting and let me take it from there. But then I got this email: “Eric, I asked my client if they were interested in discussing voluntary benefits and potential onsite education, but unfortunately, they gave me a sharp, ‘No,’ and I didn’t push back. I’ll continue to ask around and we’ll get the next one!”
Sadly, I get text messages, emails and calls like that more often than not. As salespeople, we need to direct the client where we need, and want, them to go. We must control the conversation. When you ask an open-ended yes-no question about something like employee-funded voluntary benefits, you’re always going to get told, “No.” If you’re going to continue to do it this way, please just stop wasting your time and don’t even bother.
Be the car salesperson
Let’s say you’re looking to buy a new car. The car salesperson is going to ask you questions, and do anything and everything to get you into a car that day, right? They’re going to follow your directions based on your interests and, as the consumer, you’re in charge.
But, as soon as you commit to the purchase, you’ve completely lost control. That salesperson is now in charge. They’re going to direct you where they want you to go. “Wait here for the finance manager, sit here while we do this, stand there while we do that, sign, sign, sign,” and then you’re finally done. All this time, all you can think about is driving your new car off the lot and posting pictures on all of your social media platforms to show everyone your shiny new toy.
Brokers need to be the car salesperson after the client has already agreed to the original purchase: health benefits. Employers pay you to give them unbiased advice and to consult on all things employee benefits. So rather than ignorantly asking if they’d like to go over a certain thing or a specific strategy, you need to assume they do.
It’s not, “Hey, would you be interested?” It’s, “Hey, I need to set up a meeting with me and my vice president of enhanced benefits to review the custom strategy we put together that will greatly increase your benefits, lower your costs, and help your employees. Is next Tuesday good or is Thursday better?”
Again, it’s an assumption on the part of the broker: “You pay me a lot of money, Mr. or Mrs. Employer, to give you the best advice and to do what’s best for you and your employees. I’m telling you we are doing this. I’m not asking you, I’m telling you.”
I certainly never tell brokers to be so blunt or to be so abrasive, of course, but the reality is that when you’re assertive and you don’t make it a question, then good things ultimately happen. It just plain works, folks.
You’re not Columbo
You’re there because they hired you to give them advice on all things benefits, so now it’s time to follow through. That doesn’t mean trying to pull a “Columbo,” though. In the long-running TV series, actor Peter Falk would spend the better part of an hour seemingly bumbling through a murder mystery, only to say, “Oh, by the way …” and then solve the case in the last 10 seconds of the show.
You can’t pull a Columbo and expect to get the mystery solved in the closing seconds of a client visit; yet brokers try this all the time. They book a meeting with their client for the health insurance open enrollment strategy session and the topic of voluntary benefits doesn’t come up until they’re putting their coat on and heading out the door. “Oh, by the way, Mr. Business Owner, I almost forgot. I wanted to set up a meeting with my voluntary benefits guy to talk about the other benefits that your employees can pay for, if they want.”
Nearly 100 percent of the time, the employer says, “Let’s just deal with it next year.” Then the broker checks it off the list, and tells me, “I ran it by Joe’s Plumbing and geez, they just weren’t interested.”
I promise you, it was the old Columbo approach that screwed it up. It happens all the time, and becomes a lose-lose-lose situation.
The employer loses because they’re not able to put together a custom enhanced benefits strategy, which would greatly increase their ability to attract and retain quality employees. The employee loses because they go without custom benefits to which they should readily have access. And, you as the broker lose because you’re not helping your client and adding additional revenue to your bottom line.
All of this because the broker didn’t assume control of the sale and direct their client where they wanted them to go.
Eric Silverman, founder and owner of Voluntary Disruption, a division of Silverman Benefits Group (SBG), is an Amazon bestselling author featured in the new book “Breaking Through The Status Quo.”
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