Selling Bancassurance – a Primer Abel Kabiru [email protected] [email protected].

Selling Bancassurance – a Primer

Abel [email protected]

1. Consultative selling

What is consultative selling and how does it differ from normal selling?

Normal face-to-face selling is transactional and follows this pattern:

1. Identify a prospect: Identify a qualified prospect, someone who wants what they have.

2. Learn what they want: Identify needs for the products that the seller already has. the salesperson matches the needs of the customer with the product they have.

3. Offer the best price: Since the customer already knows his problem/need and all they wanted is a provider, the transaction moves to the price. Therefore they bargain.

We create contact points through various marketing initiatives. The approach has been used for decades…and it works, but has limits.

Consultative selling takes a different approach and is carried out by salespeople with a different mindset and skill set.

• Consultative salespeople see themselves differently. • Their thought process is different. They start with the end

in mind. • They see themselves as allies, advisors, consultants.• They are profit improvement specialists. • They seek out the decision makers and find out they can

help them to improve their financial results, enhance value or broaden personal convenience.

How do consultants do their job?

• Consultants start by asking questions. Consultants are problem detectives.

• They provide customized solutions as opposed to generic solutions, co-generated with the customer.

• Its done step by step as you find what really works to the customers satisfaction.

• They ask 30% of questions and listen 70% of the time.

• They provide insights to their customers, educated suggestions on how to achieve their goals. They open customers eyes.

In selling new and innovative products and services like Bancassurance, a consultative process will be most suitable.

NOTE: Consultative selling techniques mostly succeed when the sale is B2B. However, it can also be used in B2C when toned down as well as when dealing with HNWIs.

When you introduce a new service in your bank or insurance company, you will have 5 types of clients:

What may affect the rate of adoptionComplexity: The degree of difficulty

involved in understanding and using a new product. (Slows diffusion)

Campatibility: The degree to which the new product is consistent with existing values and products (Incompatibility slows diffusion)

Relative advantage: The degree to which a product is perceived to be superior to existing substitutes (speeds diffusion)

Observability: The degree to which the benefits and other results of using a new product can be observed by others and communicated to target customers (speeds diffusion)

Trialability: The degree to which a product can be tried on a limited basis. (speeds diffusion)

So if we want to effectively market and sell a new idea to our existing customers, we need to categorise them.

Further, we need to develop an assured approach to interest the majority with our new services

What helps in diffusion? Word-of-mouth communication and targeting consumers (e.g. Dell)

Therefore, consultative selling is the best option.

So, how does it work?The 5 step sales process for

consultative selling

1. Strategic small talk, chit chat, warm up: Use this period to gather information by guiding the conversation. Ask questions that reveal goals, history, habits and problems. Turn questions and statements into probing tools while keeping the friendly atmosphere.

2. Trust and credibility: Establish yourself as a credible professional. Remember you persuade by “asking” not by “telling.” Ask questions that show you know your stuff.

3. Uncover, define or broaden the problem. You can only provide a solution if there is a problem. Many potential clients do not believe they have a problem and that is where you must uncover the issue and help them understand.

You must clearly define the issue for the client. Some prospects come ready with defined problem in hand and believe they know how they want you to fix it. But take that issue and broaden its scope and depth.

4. Show that YOU are the solution to the problem.

It is not enough to show that you have the solution; you must be the solution.

When the client feels that you possess the answer as a tool or specific bit of information, then price becomes a major factor in the buying decision.

So the solution must be a combination of tools, expert knowledge and YOU.

5. Provide the financial reason to act now. Provide the client with monetary reasons to take action today.

This can be in the form of the loss of income should they decide to go without your services; or immediate gain in cashflow should they use you. Also be extremely careful on discounting your fees as an inducement. Instead raise the value of your services and keep the price the same.

Building and maintaining relationships

The good thing about introducing and popularizing anew innovative product like bancassurance is that you already have a clientele

This removes the typical apathy that greets new products

Decide on the most beneficial demographic to focus

Invest in mechanisms to capture and retain client data.

You can only be a good consultant when you have information.

Where will you get customer information?

How do you package the information?

How do you then approach the customer with your value proposition?

For B2B clients:Look for the largest aggregators – cooperatives, organised groups etc.

Initiate the engagement at the highest levels possible

Seek to have a joint marketing effort between your organization and the collaborating organization

Your value proposition should be to the benefit of your collaborator.

B2B consultative selling provides your company with a higher probability of conversion where one deal will have significant impact on your numbers and profitability.

B2CCategorise your retail customers into Very High Networth Individuals, High Networth Individuals, middle class (3 categories) and the low income Bottom of the Pyramid market

Each category will require a specialised approach, value proposition and maintenance plan.

B2C engagements will invariably take long. To make good returns, you will need to have volumes.

Need to lobby the industry for sector integration. This will make sharing of information and product assimilation easier and collaborations within the financial sector possible.

Take advantage of technology, primarily:

Big data analytics

Customer Relationship Management software

Selling to C-Level executives

Whether you are negotiating with collaborating organizations or selling to HNWIs, its imperative to understand the nuances of selling to this demographic.

1. Target the right executive – who stands to gain or lose the most. Find out who has formal and informal power. E.g when selling an IT product.

2.Gain access. (Overt; Sponsor; Referral; and Gatekeeper)

3. Establish credibility – be seen as an trusted advisor. Build collaborative relationships

4. Create your value and deliver on the promise

Manager to Manager:

1. Credibility & exclusivity

2. Meaningful conversations

3. Sustainable effort

4. Peer exchange

5. Shared future

The people aspect

Driving new initiatives like bancassurance in your respective organizations is a process that will need to be managed

Be the cause champion, or identify one from your team

Ensure there is C-Suite to C-Suite engagement and exchange between your company and your collaborators.

The people involved, in the respective organizations, must be absolutely sold onto the idea and its benefits.

To manage your team effectively, 3 things will come in handy:

Recruiting –Expected results made clear during the hiring. Cultural fit – personality. Ensure you like the person.

Training- i) identify key skills needed to sell (ii) teach them new skills, coach them, go with them for meetings. You can not expect the salesman to excel in a technical area when they have not been taught and trained.. they need to know what exactly is bancassurance. After training, have follow-up and reinforcement.

Managing – you need 3 key skills to be effective (i) set goals (ii) have clear plans of action (iii)activities. Manage and motivate by objectives.

All sales management skills are learnable.

Encourage 360 degrees feedback. Foster communication (internal & external). Act on feedback to inform policy or new products from R&D.

Adopt a Kaizen philosophy with your team: Constantly be improving. Evaluate performance at least monthly.

Thank you