Successful Farm Insurance Agents Understand That Knowing Their Clients Is The Key
When it comes to asking questions that get results, no one does it better than a successful farm insurance agent.
They seem to have a special knack – you might even call it a philosophy of communication that gets their prospects – the farmers and business owners who depend on them, to open up and tell them about their hopes and fears for their family and their business.
The best of them ask the most in depth questions and get answers to them, without seeming aggressive or pushy. It often comes across to their clients and prospects that they have an interest in them along with a natural curiosity that always makes them want to know more.
And they are masters at creating a relaxed atmosphere for everyone – an environment that encourages openness.
Successful farm insurance agents always seem to know which questions to ask in order to get to the root of the matter – to learn clearly what’s important to the business owners and farmers they serve. They know how to involve their prospects in the conversation.
They know that selling in the 21st Century is collaborative – it is not a monologue sales pitch.
The result, more often than not, is that the prospect ends up creating the solution – makes the buying decision themselves. Their clients come to their own conclusions regarding the best actions to take for the security of their family and business.
Successful farm insurance agents involve their prospects in a way that makes it natural for them to tell them their deepest secret fears and desires. When they demonstrate their willingness to listen, these successful business owners open up completely.
Farm insurance agents I have spoken with tell me this is not magic – it’s just their way. They tell me that their attitude about questioning is what allows them to establish a line of communication with their prospects.
Successful farm insurance agents know that people want to tell you everything – if you are interested in listening, if you are not challenging them, if you are interested in opening up a line of communication – not just pitching your favorite product du jour.
Successful farm insurance agents know theirs is not a relationship that presents a challenge to the other advisiors – they complement one another and because the farm insurance agent gains so much personal insight so quickly, they are positioned as an advocate for the farmer with these other advisors.
The example that comes to mind is trying to push a shopping cart full of beach stuff through deep sand. After about three steps you’re stuck. The harder you push the more stuck you become. So, being the clever resourceful person that you are, you go around to the front and begin to pull it.
Bingo, it moves easily – the same way as a business owner moves through the process of helping their farm insurance agent understand them better. Ask them whatever you want to know and they’ll respond if they believe you are really interested.
Once they are invloved telling their story the agent has their attention and vice versa. Only then can the conversation become a collobration that results in action being taken.
Remember the expression. “I’m rubber and you’re glue – anything you say bounces off me and sticks to you” from when you were a kid? The successful farm insurance agent understands that their role in an interview with a farmer or business owner is to be the rubber.
They are a virtual mirror. A mirror held up to the prospect’s face – to allow them to see themselves more clearly – to better understand what he or she feels is important – that they want and deserve for their family, their business and themselves.
Farm insurance agents understand that their role is to understand their clients inner most hopes, dreams, and fears.
The problems discussed have become the client’s problems. The solution is the client’s solution and it will be very difficult for anyone to upset the decisions the client has made and derail the actions being taken.
