Handling objections in insurance. How to sell insurance products in a bank correctly
It is perhaps difficult to find another financial product that, judging by the reviews of visitors to the Banki.ru portal, enjoys the same persistent hostility among people as insurance. Clients continue to complain about banks trying to impose policies when selling their loans.
As a borrower from Russian Standard, a bank employee in one of the Omsk stores flatly refused to even accept the application form without taking out mandatory (in her words) life insurance. “I had to register,” the client complains. - As a result, my laptop cost me about 1.5 thousand rubles more than planned. After purchasing the laptop, I called the bank at the number specified in the contract. I found out that the insurance is this loan is not at all necessary."
A story happened with a client of HCF Bank under the nickname DziD. The store also gave him something to sign loan agreement, in which he found himself agreeing to life insurance. “I said, I’m not going to die, to which I received the answer that this is required condition loan and it does not play a special role in the price,” says DziD. “True, in the end the insurance amount was 5,025 rubles and was included in the loan.”
The insurers themselves say that a policy is a product that is not bought, but sold. And the agents who know how to sell insurance are those who have been in this business for many years, know the products and understand how to interest the client. 25-year-old managers working in retail outlets or bank branches, clearly do not have it.
“Such employees, like many of our citizens, do not immediately understand the need for this product,” says the head of the service and insurance products department of the retail department. VTB business 24 Dmitry Remnev. - Consequently, it is difficult for them to sell insurance if they themselves do not believe in this product. But managers have a specific sales plan, and the easiest way to implement it is to tell the client that insurance is mandatory. This can be combated both by administrative methods, punishing such employees, and by training, informing about real payments, “selling” insurance first to the sellers themselves.”
Imposing one or another insurance product potential borrower, bank managers take advantage of citizens' ignorance Russian legislation. « Civil Code the lender has the opportunity to oblige the borrower to insure the risk of loss of collateral. For example, a bank may require a client to purchase insurance against damage or loss of property for a mortgage, or to buy CASCO for a car loan, explains Yulia Bondareva, head of the financial markets control department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service. “In other cases, when it comes to unsecured lending, a policy cannot be imposed; citizens should have the opportunity to refuse such products.” People mainly complain about the imposition of insurance for such risks as death and disability, as well as loss of work and temporary disability.
In April 2009, the Russian government adopted Resolution No. 386 “On cases of admissibility of agreements between credit and insurance organizations.” The document, in particular, states that the list of insurers with which the bank cooperates cannot be closed. The borrower has the right to propose to the credit institution the company where he would like to insure himself. To impose any insurance other than insurance collateral property, the bank has no right. For example, not one credit product he cannot require the client to take out life insurance.
Since then, many banks began to offer customers a choice of lending programs with or without insurance. Thus, at Raiffeisenbank the rate on a standard car loan for up to three years will be 12.5% per annum in rubles, if the borrower not only takes out CASCO insurance, but also insures his life and health. Without this, the rate will increase by 1.5 points per year.
By secured loan in Vozrozhdenie, for joining a client to a collective insurance agreement, the bank charges an annual commission of 1-2.4% of the loan amount plus 10%; in the absence of insurance, the rate increases by 2 points. The cost of a mortgage under the Secondary Housing program at VTB 24 will increase by 3 points if you only insure the risk of loss and damage to the collateral. And the bank will offer a rate of 10% per annum in rubles to a client who agrees to purchase a policy against the risks of loss of life and disability, loss or damage to the purchased apartment and termination or limitation of ownership rights to it. It often turns out that a loan with insurance can be cheaper than the same loan, but with a higher rate.
However, the presence of insurance does not always affect the rate, as, for example, when receiving a credit card or cash loan at VTB 24. “The only mandatory type insurance - CASCO when applying for a car loan, says Tatyana Burnakina, director of the project management department of Rusfinance Bank. - Other insurance programs are optional." You can buy at Alfa-Bank insurance policies for cash loans, consumer loans, credit cards. These insurances are voluntary and do not affect the cost of the loan.
The banks surveyed by the portal assure that the presence or absence of insurance does not affect the decision to issue a loan or the terms of the loan. At the same time, clients often complain about bank employees who claim that a loan will not be approved without insurance.
“A person needs to know his rights, to know the product for which he came to the bank,” emphasizes Dmitry Remnev from VTB 24. “For example, you can first familiarize yourself with the terms of the product on the bank’s website - it says there how insurance is provided. If you have any doubts during the sale, you can call the bank’s call center. Everything is spelled out in the documents: is insurance required, how the rate changes because of it, etc. If a person signed the contract without looking, then he should blame himself for this first of all.”
“If insurance is required under the terms of the loan and the borrower is not satisfied with this, he needs to contact another bank where this requirement is not present,” notes Burnankina. “If insurance is optional, the borrower should insist that their application be processed without insurance.”
There are, however, cases when knowing that insurance is optional does not help you get a loan without paying for the policy. For example, the client directly indicated in the loan application that he would be insured. “The employee said the decision would be announced in a few days,” he recalls. - Indeed, they called and said that they “approved”. But, as it turned out on the spot, everything is not so! They printed out my payments, which included insurance! When I asked what it was and where it came from here, the girl ran to the deputy head of the department. I was invited to see him, where they made it clear that all loans are provided only with insurance!”
Yulia Bondareva from the FAS recommends that citizens contact Rospotrebnadzor in such cases. “According to Article 16 of the Consumer Protection Act, the sale of one product cannot be conditioned on the sale of another,” she explains. “You can also contact the FAS; we review agreements between the bank and the insurer for violations of antimonopoly laws, if this leads to restriction of competition or the imposition of unfavorable insurance conditions.”
Bankers do not share accurate statistics on how often insurance events occur and how many of them are recognized as insured events. In order for the insurance company to pay compensation, it must first collect documents confirming the insured event. As a rule, within five working days it makes a decision whether to recognize the event as an insured event, and if the verdict is positive, it makes payments within the next ten days. After this, the bank closes the loan. Otherwise, the borrower or his heirs will have to continue to repay the loan.
Surely, everyone has ever heard such objections as: “I don’t see the point in paying!”, “It’s not worth that much!”, “I don’t want to throw money down the drain!” etc. Unfortunately, unlike Western countries, in the Russian mentality it is not customary to think about tomorrow, and about the future in general: it is enough just to remember the word “maybe”, beloved by many. The majority of our citizens, especially those living in small regions, if they encounter insurance, it is only mandatory, and not at all voluntary.
But, at the same time, as statistics show, for many clients of insurance companies, having insurance is a sign of social status and prestige. As you can see, there is a certain polarity in the insurance situation in the country: mistrust and prestige in “one bottle.”
Therefore, in order to win the “hearts” of people, expand the client base and get a good income, you need to understand how to sell insurance to a client. After all, the goal insurance business- this is sales.
Hot sales strategy
The most important thing when selling an insurance product is, with the help of competent questions, to try to recreate the picture in the client’s imagination terrible story(situations) that can be easily solved with the help of insurance; create tension and anxiety in him from just the thought of its possible repetition.
Here are some examples of key phrases that help sell insurance for the client:
- “What do you do in a situation when you return from vacation and your apartment is flooded? But you don’t have money for repairs?!”
- “What will you do when you find out at a doctor’s appointment that your child needs expensive medical care?!”
Keep in mind!There are many such examples, and they all help sell insurance, as they make clients think of these “terrible” situations as very real. That is why we must use the word “when” and not the word “if”.
Insurance is like a “lifebuoy” in the ocean of life
A good insurer must understand that it is he who is entrusted with the responsibility of helping the client make the only right decision about purchasing insurance, using all the necessary techniques for this purpose.
For example, how can you sell insurance to a bank client? To do this, it is necessary to apply the method of problematization and sincere concern for the fate of the client and his savings.
Important!To sell insurance to a client, you need to build an extremely trusting relationship with him.
Insurance: sales features
An insurance product (insurance) has its own peculiarity - it cannot be touched, smelled, tried on or bitten. In essence, insurance is paper, but only until the insured event.
It is this feature that makes the insurance business difficult: after all, most potential clients do not see the point or need to purchase “paper”.
But, ask yourself a question. Price aside, would you insure everything you own?
90% of people answer of course! This is the main secret of insurance.
Everyone wants insurance! You just need to find the key to each client!
To sell insurance to a client, you must:
- use competent terms(words should evoke emotions);
- use price division method(instead of stating the full price of insurance, it would be more reasonable to divide the total amount by the duration of coverage);
- lead confidential dialogue instead of aggressive selling(listen to the client’s doubts and share them);
- give many examples from real life (people often identify themselves with the heroes of stories and “try on” their image).
Summary
Company "Insurance Point", which you can buy for little money to run your business starting capital, will teach you proven and working methods and techniques for selling an insurance product.
There are many methods of manipulating human consciousness. The purpose of manipulation is, among other things, the sale of various goods and services. The impact on the client’s psyche is gradually spreading to the insurance industry. As a rule, companies that use prohibited sales techniques do not stay on the market for long. However, from time to time, new ones arise in place of those who have left. Knowledge of the operating principles of manipulative insurance agents will help you avoid problems. Namely, to effectively combat the imposition of insurance services, impractical insurance packages, trivial fraud or deception.
Orientation of the conversation with the client into the future
The most harmless way to quietly force a client to buy insurance. This technique came into sale from the arsenal of NLP (neurolinguistic programming). “Imagine for a second: CASCO insurance will solve everything possible problems on road!" – such words uttered by an insurance agent should immediately alert the policyholder. “Imagine” is the so-called “anchor” of consciousness. Despite its simplicity, the method is very effective. It is based on the desire of any person to see his future cloudless.
The way to combat this method of manipulating consciousness is very simple: you need to maintain a sense of the current moment. Instead of ethereal illusions, formulate a specific, financially oriented action plan to protect property.
Deliberate haste
False weakness or falling in love
Arouse pity, force empathy and help the “flawed” insurance agent- this is the psychological basis of this method of manipulating the client’s consciousness. According to Vis Vitalis, author of the book “Where a Woman’s Button is,” this is a typically feminine method of manipulation. Reducing mental censorship with this method of influence leads to the fact that the information received from the manipulator immediately enters the subconscious. After some time, the policyholder, without suspecting it, begins to carry out the installations of the fraudster or manipulator.
The protection method is both simple and complex at the same time. When talking with the seller of any product, you must trust only the facts. The person “at work” depends on your actions and is ready to go to great lengths to subordinate them. This should also never be forgotten.
Imaginary courtesy or help
Say yes"
The insurance agent constructs the conversation in such a way that the client is forced to constantly agree with his words. A series of affirmative answers reduces the barrier of the client’s critical perception, which is what the manipulator uses to sell an insurance service.
Link to authority
“I always buy CASCO and VHI!”, “I have the same policy!”, “The governor’s fleet is insured by our company!” A very common technique among sellers and small-level entrepreneurs. The given facts may indeed turn out to be true, however, it is not easy to verify their veracity. You should always remember this and trust only the obvious.
Lies, damn lies and statistics...
“Our insurance company is No. 1 in Russia.” "About us the most best reviews" Market research may be behind such statements. insurance market, paid from the insurer’s own funds. IN best case scenario– a rating assigned by a little-known and untrustworthy rating agency. Such manipulations can be easily identified by reading reviews of Russian insurance companies. The policyholder also needs to remember about the five “insurance” companies officially recognized by the Bank of Russia rating agencies. As of December 29, 2014, these are Expert RA, Standard & Poor's, Fitch Ratings, Moody's and Best Co.
Volitional control of consciousness
Volitional control over consciousness is the main form of struggle against various methods of influencing consciousness. Only attentiveness, caution and thoughtfulness can lead the policyholder to the decision he needs, and not the agent.
Here are a few more signs of the “work” of a manipulative insurance agent:
- Specific terminology in a conversation with a client: “subrogation under CASCO is our specialization.”
- Multiple repetitions of the same thought, cognate words in a conversation: “calculate CASCO, calculate CASCO, calculate...”.
- Apparent inattention to the facts presented by the client.
- Primitive petty lies or distortion of data.
The best way to avoid the danger of being deceived or drawn into a dubious insurance contract is to contact a proven and widely known insurance organization. Although this does not provide an absolute guarantee of the absence of any manipulation of the policyholder’s consciousness on the part of the insurer’s managers.
Often the sale of the main product as such is not so profitable - the price is not much higher than the purchase price. Often a company makes money on additional products. Insurance products are an example of such an add-on. But not every buyer can understand why he needs it. Read more about how to offer insurance to a client.
Relevance of the argument
A good salesman always knows his product well. And even if he knows it by heart, the information in printed form is always in sight. And this is quite logical. Every sale is a small transaction, a battle of arguments. And each argument has limited relevance in time.
This is important in sales in general and when selling additional insurance in particular. If you can't estimate the cost of insurance, it will be difficult to offer it. If the client objects, then it is important to quickly voice a counter argument - say, a less expensive option. If the seller cannot quickly formulate an argument (in our case, the cost of insurance or its option), then it will be difficult to move forward.
Comparison
Obviously, offering insurance to a client is difficult because not everyone sees their benefit in this. The buyer only understands that he needs to pay extra money for additional insurance. But there is another point of view that is important to convey to him. Namely, that standard insurance usually only covers factory damage. In the event of a breakdown not covered by warranty, repairs fall on the shoulders of the buyer himself. And often such repairs can cost half the purchase price or even more.
And insurance can cover the costs of non-warranty repairs several times greater than the cost of the insurance itself.
Phrases
It is useful to use questions. Questions allow you to non-intrusively lead to a certain thought. For example:
“What happened to the previous device?”
“Do you have children who may have access to the purchase?”
“Have you ever dropped a device, what did you do in that case?”
“How long do you plan to use the device?”
Answers to questions like these can give you information that will allow you to present compelling arguments. Such questions can lead to the idea that additional insurance is not an extra expense.
Useful scripts, in the form of a short presentation:
“The standard warranty only covers certain risks. Do you want to know how to protect your new purchase from non-warranty cases?
“We have an interesting program from... If you drop and break the device, fill it with water, and so on,... It will return the purchase price to you. Would you like to know more?"
Objection processing
The expected reaction to the offer of additional insurance is a lack of understanding of the meaning of this additional insurance. And as a result, an objection. But, as a rule, in the same situations the objections are the same. That is, these are what are called typical objections. And if you prepare in advance for such a situation, you can increase your effectiveness.
Too expensive
The buyer understands that insurance is a useful thing. But the fact that you have to pay for this extra becomes an obstacle. And you can overcome this obstacle with the help of price manipulation.
For example, splitting the price. Let's say you offer an additional guarantee for one and a half thousand. The price for a product that cannot be touched and may not even be needed at all may seem considerable. In this situation, splitting the price works well - if we divide the price by 12 months of the year, we get a price of 125. And this is just two packs of cigarettes.
Comparison. It’s already been mentioned above, let’s touch on it a little more. The term “expensive” itself implies comparison. It’s not for nothing that before working with an objection, it starts with the clarification of “what you’re comparing with.” Let’s say you offer an additional guarantee for a gadget worth 30 thousand. The cost of the additional one is one and a half thousand. A bit expensive? Perhaps, but fifteen hundred is much less than 30 thousand. And if a warranty case occurs, the benefits will be significant. Make this comparison for the client in response to an objection.
In 2012, banks had the right to sell insurance products was questioned. The State Duma in the first reading adopted amendments to the Law “On the organization of insurance business in the Russian Federation”, which prohibit legal entities act as insurance agents, but credit institutions managed to block this legislative initiative and retain the opportunity to sell insurance policies to their clients. This, experts admit, has benefited both banks and insurers, as well as end consumers of financial services.
In other countries there were and are no restrictions on the work of banks and insurance companies, and players financial market have been actively and quite successfully cooperating for many years. In this regard, it is useful to turn to the practice of Western credit institutions and see how their process of cooperation with insurance companies is established. Foreign experience shows that by organizing the sale of insurance, the bank can expand its product line. This, in turn, increases customer loyalty and has a positive impact on the image of the retail business. Of course, we are also talking about generating additional income through commissions. More broadly, the sale of policies allows the bank to diversify its business and quickly adapt to changing market conditions.
What benefits does cooperation with a bank give to an insurance company? The credit institution becomes an additional sales channel, which allows you to increase the number of clients. Due to the fact that in our country the population’s trust in banks is higher than in insurers, and bank brands, as a rule (with a few exceptions), are better known than insurer brands, insurance companies have the opportunity to widely promote their products through a trusted channel consumers.
Western practice financial institutions shows that the key to the success of bancassurance lies in the following factors.
- We need to start preparing the insurance products themselves. They should be clear and simple. Bank specialists and insurers, as a rule, create these products jointly, using the best practices, and also taking into account the client base of a particular credit institution. The product must be related to banking services. It should be simple so that both bank employees and clients can quickly understand its essence and make a purchase. In addition, you need to set the price and content of the product depending on the potential target audience.
- Proper organization of sales, which consists of developing a general strategy, building agreements between the bank and the insurance company on the distribution of responsibilities for further information support of the client.
- Training bank staff to work with insurance products.
- IT component. In this part, the presence of a CRM system in the bank, as well as a unified communication platform with the insurance company, plays an important role.
In the future, a more serious alliance between the bank and the insurer may be organized. In this case, the first will have the opportunity to influence the parameters of insurance products and their sales. The highest stage of development is financial supermarket(however, its concept is also questioned in developed markets), but in our country we are still talking at most about some kind of alliance. On this moment In practice, agency schemes are most often used.
The bank is interested in ensuring that a client who has taken out a loan, especially a long-term one, insures his life and health, as well as the risk of losing his main job. This gives the credit institution additional guarantee repayment of the loan, and the borrower can be sure that in the event of unfavorable circumstances, the debt to the bank will be repaid by the insurance company.
Forums where consumers discuss banking products and services, are filled with stories of how people were forced to buy insurance. Clients felt deceived and made this negative impression public. In this regard, it is important for financial institutions not to impose a service, not to force the borrower to sign an agreement under the threat of non-issuance of the loan. IN modern world the client will go to complain on the Internet, and the bank will suffer reputational losses, which will cost him more. It is necessary to explain to the borrower what the benefits of insurance are when obtaining a loan, and to convince him to buy the policy. This is a serious business process that requires additional development and staff training.
Bank employees are responsible for correctly communicating the terms and conditions of insurance so that the client is not misled. To do this, managers must have a clear understanding of the product, which must be regularly verified using both re-certification and the “mystery shopper” method. In turn, the insurance company must ensure a clear settlement of losses.
It is important for a credit institution to react correctly when an insured event occurs, otherwise the consumer will not buy the policy again. Here is an example described on one of the forums. The client insured bank card from loss and the risk of cyber fraud. After some time, he lost the card and came to the bank to reissue it. However, the manager said that this case is not insured and needs to be paid again annual maintenance cards. Further investigation showed that the manager was mistaken. However, we were talking about amounts of several hundred rubles, so the client did not make a fuss, but simply refused to take out insurance for new map. He shared his offended feelings with his interlocutors on social networks.
This means that it is not enough to sell insurance - it is important to competently resolve the insured event so that the borrower does not feel deceived at this stage. As practice shows developed markets, with increasing competition, clients, especially wealthy ones, choose a bank or insurance company not so much in price as in the quality of services. And the quality of services is what emotions remain in the consumer of services from interaction with the organization. If the client feels deceived, he will not buy the same product again, either in principle or from this company.
Another area of business development that is worth paying attention to is accumulative and investment insurance, as well as selection of offers for clients depending on the stages of their life path. It looks like the government will finally help the long-term life insurance market. At the end of May 2013, the Vedomosti newspaper reported that the Ministry of Finance had agreed tax benefits for citizens who have purchased a long-term life insurance policy. Policy buyers will be able to receive tax deduction in the amount of up to 120 thousand rubles per year, policyholders under the age of 18 will not pay tax (13%) on payments addressed to them. Proposals can be submitted to the State Duma as early as the spring session; they should become effective from January 1, 2014. Experts interviewed by Vedomosti believe that if benefits are adopted, premiums under new contracts could increase significantly over several years.
This means that the situation in our country is gradually changing, and in the future insurance services will be taken for granted. The practice of Russian banks, which have already taken steps towards the development of bancassurance, shows: if the joint work of credit institutions and insurance companies is carried out taking into account legal and ethical standards, both service providers significantly increase business volumes, and their clients feel satisfied. And this is fundamentally important in conditions of fierce competition in the retail financial services market.