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Can You Use Closed Questions to Sell More Insurance?

Written by: Cheryl A. Clausen

Article Overview: The quick answer is absolutely. Now let me explain.

Can You Use Closed Questions to Sell More Insurance?

The quick answer is absolutely. Now let me explain.

You’ve been told you should use open ended questions. Open ended questions are questions that can’t be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”. These are your typical newspaper story questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how.

You absolutely want to use open ended questions in your sales conversation because open ended questions get your prospect talking. As they respond to open ended questions you learn what’s important to the prospect and why. The information you get from these questions helps you understand exactly what the prospect wants and how to give it to them.

You also need a good mix of closed questions, questions that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”. There’s an important reason you must include at least some closed questions. These closed questions are what step your prospect to a buying decision.

However, you must be very careful not to try and manipulate the prospect when you ask a closed question. Some of you will ask, “Mr. Prospect you love your family don’t you?” To which the prospect has to respond “yes”. Then you follow-up by saying something like, “Well as a man who loves your family it only makes sense that you’d want to make sure you have enough insurance to take care of them if you can’t, right?”

Wrong. That kind of a set-up is like a punch in the face. The prospect instantly dislikes your question and YOU.

The closed questions you want to use reinforce what the prospect has already told you. When the prospect says “yes” they are confirming their own words. And the funny thing is those words sound even better when they hear them from you.

So you might say, “Mr. Prospect if I’ve heard you correctly you want to get enough insurance to take care of your family and you don’t want to overspend taking dollars you need today out of circulation, is that right?” Now, if you did in fact get it right, the prospect will agree and you can take the next step determining exactly how to accomplish that goal.

The more little “yeses” you get throughout the conversation the more likely you are to get the ever important “yes” at the end of the conversation. Use closed questions to make sure you’re both on the same page. Use closed questions to get the little “yeses” that result in a sale.

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Article Tags: circulation, closed questions, funny thing, insurance, open ended questions, punch in the face



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