Using Conceptual Pull, Not Product Push

This new regular series features content designed to help advisers develop their soft-skills. Former adviser and industry consultant, Jim Prigg, has created a service called KnowledgeMaster to help advisers improve client relationships and referrals. In this article, taken from the KnowledgeMaster library, Jim talks about how to use conceptual pull, rather than product push, to improve insurance sales…

Ever noticed how certain things ‘stick’ in your mind? Things like Nike’s ‘Just do it’ or Coke’s ‘Things go better with Coke’. What about music like the Hill Street Blues theme or Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus?

Then there are pictures and symbols like KFC, Mercedes or the Qantas flying kangaroo that we immediately recognise.

Can you recall the smell of freshly baked bread or the aroma of fish and chips that cause us to salivate as the glorious flavours waft through the air to us?

The mind quickly associates with the senses certain immediate impulses so that we automatically conjure up the picture or place of our learning experiences. We intuitively react to our previous conditioning, don’t we?

Many potential purchasers base their acceptance and perception of life insurance on previous conditioning.

‘Insurance’ connotations

The sale of insurance conjures up pre-conditions, past experiences and personal experiences of what people think of those products and how they affect them. Yet advisers still talk of the word ‘insurance’ and all its negative baggage the actual word can conjure up for potential customers.

The word ‘insurance’ conjures up thoughts that relate to:

Negativity Sorrow
Morbidity Dejection
Death Tragic accidents
Suffering Pain
Personal loss Hardship
Bad experiences Economic loss
Lost opportunity Fear
Expenses of death Personal grief and grieving
Negative media coverage

Is it any wonder people don’t want to talk about the word ‘insurance’?

Rather than push the product of insurance, what if there was a way to instil a positive impression about the product?

Why not give positive conceptual names to what the product can do for people?

That means substituting a positive name of what the product is or does that is a benefit, not a guilt sodden piece of mental baggage.

The response is amazing for two reasons:

  1. People will tend to forget the stigma of the word insurance.
  2. Secondly they increase their appreciation of what the products can do for them by embracing the positive conceptual names.

Mindset change

  • Conceptual pull relates to ideas not products
  • Concepts are easier to understand, emotionally charged and give a positive mind-picture of their effectiveness
  • Conceptual pull equates to problem solving and agreeable solutions
  • The concept can tell what the product will do for people

If you can change people’s perception by talking about:

  • What the product does
  • How it helps people
  • The positive attributes of its application and acceptance
  • Working examples and case studies
  • Supportive news articles

…then you can alter their conditioning and hence their buying habits.

Here are some positive, happy, humorous and engaging names for the various types of insurances for you to use in your verbal and print based presentations…

Life insurance becomes:

Creating instant assets Personal risk management
Lifestyle protection Leaving a legacy
Asset protection Peace of mind contract
Comfort provider Wealth protection
Lifestyle protection Future lifestyle guarantee
Loan protection Dreams and goals protection
Estate creation Estate protection
Estate equalisation Mortgage redemption
Home protection Poverty prevention
Condolence cash Bereavement benefit
Business continuance fund Family education fund
Family security Family protection
Contingency fund Loan killer
Fiscal safety net Financial safety belt
Obligation remover Financial umbrella
Debt resolution plan Debt redeemer
Lifestyle continuation Children’s future fund
Obligation fulfilment fund Dollars of dignity
Loan killer Saving grace
Debt reduction fund Dollars of dignity fund
Debt clearance fund Instant cash

Trauma insurance becomes: 

Quality of life cover Dread disease cover
Recuperative protection Continuation cover
Survival cash Living benefit cover
Cover for the unexpected Lifestyle cover
Medical recovery fund Compliment your super plan
Back on the road cover Recovery fund
Peace and prosperity planning Post diagnosis cash fund
Portable protection Baby-sitting fund
South Seas tour fund Last party fund
Debt reliever Cover for the unexpected
Insurance for the living Quality of life cover
Asset protection Investment protection
Financially transmitted debt cover Dignity fund
Dollars of dignity fund Another chance fund
Return to life cash Quality of life cover
Mortgage vaccine Debt demolisher
Time out cover Education fund saver
Instant cash Income capitalisation
Respite and rest fund Corporate buyout solution

Income protection becomes:

Financial health cover Wage generation
Lifestyle maintenance Guaranteed sick leave
Guaranteed future income Bill killer
Mortgage neutraliser Gearing protector
Wealth protection Salary saver
Salary substitute Income defender
Income stream protection Mortgage vaccine
Debt demolisher Grocery guarantee
Lifestyle protection Welfare shield
DIY welfare Illness income stream
Creditor repellent Feedbag filler
Lifestyle safety net Income safety net
Centrelink repellent Clayton’s pay
Kids sport continuation fund Income stream protection
The prescription a doctor can’t give you ‘Choice of better doctor’ insurance

The object of this exercise has been to establish that insurance is a good thing by emphasising what it can do for people.

By giving insurance products positive conceptual names that describe the benefits it puts it in a much more value based perspective for clients.

This way people grasp the concept and the good it can do, rather than bathe it in the negativity that the word has accumulated over the years.

Action plan

  1. Choose three conceptual pull expressions for each product you feel comfortable with. Instead of using the ‘I’ word (insurance), practice using these words and phrases in your conversations and presentations.
  2. Over the next 10 interviews with people you talk to about insurance, substitute positive conceptual words and expressions from the above list (or create your own). Log the reactions of the people you talk to.
  3. Ask them questions on how they feel about what the product does for them. Explain the benefits of what the product does in simple terms.

 

This article is reproduced with permission from Jim Prigg CEO and founder of Knowledgemaster Pty Ltd.

Jim Prigg is the CEO and founder of KnowledgeMaster, an online resources company that delivers practical communications, interaction, sales and soft skills tips for advisers, dealer groups and product manufacturers. Jim says there is a raging indifference and ignorance to showing people in a practical sense the real face to face skills they need to sell insurance, which prompted him to create the KnowledgeMaster insurance series. It is not about compliance, technical or product knowledge, but the capability to inject emotion and empathy into the sales process. Rather than tell people what to do, KnowledgeMaster shows them “how to” do it. This means having access to practical scripts, interactive reports, successful communications ideas and just as importantly actions and activities at the end of each topic so we can help people to learn.

Contact or follow the author: Website | Email | Telephone: 03 5232 1500, 0408 520 453

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