Stories become key in unlocking the success of intermediaries

What are you doing to differentiate yourself from the industry clutter? Intermediaries have always had a role to play in the long standing insurance industry in South Africa.

All of the world’s most successful people are unique and have had the ability to take their uniqueness and transform it into a selling point. Humans are driven by emotions and one of the best ways to motivate a person to take action is to target their emotions by selling a story. If every intermediary in the industry adopts this strategy, success will increase.

Do not just talk to your client, understand your client

One of the biggest challenges in the industry is to change the public’s perception that insurance products are a grudge purchase. While we are certainly not expecting intermediaries to become psychologists, there is a few basic steps that they can follow in order to motivate their client to view the insurance industry in a more positive light.

According to motivational author, Justin Cohen, one of the most fascinating aspects of human beings is their ability to live a story. “Every client has a unique story and has a unique past. If you can get them to see you as a trusted business partner rather than a person trying to sell them something, you can motivate them,” says Cohen.

Cohen adds that successful intermediaries talk with their clients and not to their clients. The ability to understand your client and listen to their story will give intermediary key clues into the life of their client and the specific cover and products that they need. People do not care how much you know until they see how much you care.

Let them live a story

The next step in the process is to let your clients live a story. “I once knew a person who was 24 years old and was extremely fit. He was not sick a day in his life. He started to see a change in his body and he went to the doctor to do tests. The doctor sat him down and told him that he had an advanced stage of cancer and needed urgent private hospital treatment. The 24 year old did not have a medical scheme and had to sell his apartment in order to afford the treatment. He is currently living with his parents due to being unable to recover from the loss of not having a medical scheme when he needed it the most,” says Cohen.

He added that a story like this can be used as a very effective selling tool because of the way people live stories. Often, when a person goes to a movie they become part of the movie and feel that they are the hero in the movie because they are motivated by it. Although the story of the 24 year old cancer patient is hardly inspiring, it targets the same emotional cortex in the brain that motivates a person to take action.

There is a fine line between negativity and positivity. Negativity breeds negativity, while positivity breeds positivity. Negative people will unconsciously influence the mood of the group that they are with and the positivity levels of everyone in that group will drop. While if a person is positive, the mood levels of the group that they are in will increase. If an intermediary is going to use stories to motivate their clients they need to tell positive stories. 

Tapping into the human software

One of the most important events of our time was when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969. While his role in the mission was important, the software of the computers that got him to the moon where the most important part of the mission. 

While the body and the brain can be seen as clients ‘hardware’, emotions are the clients ‘software’. The most powerful decision a client can make is to do business with a person without this person having to ask the client to choose them. We have all heard of a hard sell and an easy sell and this is an extremely easy sell.

“Stories are brilliant at driving two key emotions; the first key emotion is social proof, where humans often defer to social norms. The key thought is that if a product works for everyone else, it will work for this individual. The second key emotion is the reactance effect. If you force a teenager to do something, they will rebel. The same behaviour applies to adults, if they feel they are forced into something, they will be completely against it,” says Cohen. 

Let your clients sell your brand

The final key to success is making sure that your clients are selling your brand in a positive way. This does not mean that everything has to be sunshine and roses, intermediaries have got some room to make mistakes.

“If an intermediary does not take risks, they are not trying anything. And if they are not trying anything, then they will not achieve anything. You will only get a hundred percent service rating if you make a mistake and then do your best to make things right. People are also more likely to purchase a product after they hear a positive review about that product from a friend or family member,” concludes Cohen.

Be passionate about what you do

Newly appointed Europ Assistance South Africa CEO, Rouxlé van Molendorff says that the element that brings this all together is maintaining the relationship that you have with your client.

“When you deal with a client all of the time, you will know if they are happy and you will know if their needs and requirements are changing. In this way, you can offer your client the best products and the best services to suit their unique needs,” says Van Molendorff.

Editor’s Thoughts:
We always hear about specific ways in which an intermediary can ensure success, but these are often easier to propose than to implement. However, these steps are easy to implement and will go a long way to your client seeing you as a valued business partner. Please comment below, interact with us on Twitter at @fanews_online or email me your thoughts [email protected]

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