How To Sell An Intangible - A Finance And Insurance Sales Training Example

By Author: David Nassief
Total Articles: 6
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Finance and insurance sales training:

Many years ago I had my first sales assignment as a finance and insurance salesperson at a Chrysler automobile dealership in North Carolina.

I remember one of my first customer's was Mr. & Mrs. Jacobs. They were a middle aged couple with one teenager still at home. They were buying a new Chrysler that would primarily be Mrs. Jacobs car.

There is one big difference in auto sales training and finance and insurance sales training. In car sales you are selling a tangible item the prospects can see and feel. In finance and insurance sales you are selling an intangible the prospects can't see and feel. One is not better or worse they are just different and require different sets of selling tools.

The products I sold as a finance salesperson were things like extended service contracts, credit life insurance, accident and health insurance, and the actual financing of the vehicle they were purchasing.

Two intangible selling tools used in finance and insurance sales training

Intangible selling tool #1 - Savings / cost comparison: ...
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First I presented to the Jacobs an extended service contract and Mr. Jacobs said he didn't want it.

Then I showed him a list of 10 of the most common types of major repairs people need to have done on their vehicles that the extended service contract covers. Next to each item was listed the labor hours required to do the repair multiplied by the average per hour labor rate for the local area. And next to that was the average parts cost of that particular repair. Most of these individual repairs came to a total of parts and labor cost of over a thousand dollars some were several thousand dollars.

I then showed him and extended service contract that was priced at $599. I also showed him the details of the coverage and how each of my 10 common examples would have been fully covered. This could possibly save him thousands of dollars in repair costs depending on the type of repair.

After showing him how much his potential savings could be and then comparing it to the much lower cost of the service contract he agreed to buy it.

Intangible selling tool #2 - Protecting a loved one:
The second product I presented to the Jacobs was credit life insurance on their car loan. Again Mr. Jacobs responded by saying, I don't need it.

I agreed with Mr. Jacobs that he may not need the credit life insurance but his wife, who was a stay at home mom, may need it one day. I explained that if he were to unexpectedly pass away his wife would be required to continue making the payments on her car if she wanted to keep it.

I them gave him two examples of actual situations I knew of regarding credit life insurance on cars where the husband passed away.

After that, Mr. Jacobs wanting to protect his wife said he would take the credit life insurance on their car loan.

The finance and insurance sales training take away tip
How to sell an intangible? In both situations I was selling a product that my prospects could not see or feel. And with the above two selling tools I turned the product's benefits into something my prospects could see and feel.

Try using these selling tools on your next intangible product presentation and watch it improve your closing success.