From stumbling to selling with stories

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As a marketing professional turned insurance broker, I will use this newsletter to document what I learn as I build my insurance business in real-time.

You can expect to learn:

• How I’m using digital marketing to gain clients

• How I’m outsourcing tedious tasks

• Which sales strategies I find the most effective

• How I’m building sales systems to (eventually) scale up

• Cool automated tools to increase client retention

• How I use AI and ChatGPT daily as a broker/agent

And much more.

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Now let’s dive into issue #1 👇

During my first AEP, I learned that stories make sales.

Now, I hoard them.

Read time: 2 min 18 sec

I kept hearing the same objection…

Every time I’d go over a plan with a prospect, I dreaded the “inpatient hospital” line.

“The inpatient hospital co-pay is $350 per day, days 1-5”, I’d say, trying to breeze past it.

I’d watch the retired couple in front of me look at each other, squirm in their chairs, then look back at me and say:

“That’s a lot!!! We don’t pay anything now!”

I had nothing.

Sometimes, I’d try to move on without really addressing it.

Sometimes I’d say, “yeah… well…”

Or, even worse, sometimes I’d say “Is it?” (accidentally implying they don’t have enough money for it 😰)

I needed to figure this out.

Painting a picture

After shadowing other brokers, I’d hear them tell stories to paint a picture.

At first, I didn’t have any stories to tell, and I didn’t understand the importance.

I’m a very logical person. I make many decisions based on statistics and calculations.

But, the fact is, most people make decisions based on emotion.

When I’d breeze past that inpatient hospital amount, they would see a big number, multiplied by the phrase “per day”, and they’d automatically assume the worst.

I heard one of my coworkers tell this story to illustrate how awesome the co-pay is:

“Imagine you feel like you’re having a heart attack. You rush to the hospital, they do an EKG, take bloodwork, realize they have to surgically clear your main artery, keep you overnight, and submit a bill for $60,000… You would only pay $700.”

I wrote this down and rehearsed it.

During my next meeting, I told the story (probably pretty clunky… like a 3rd grader at the school play who doesn’t fully know his lines).

Immediately after I finished, the couple looked at each other, eyebrows raised, and said:

“Wow! That’s great!”

Same line item. Opposite reaction.

No lies, no exaggeration, just framed with a story.

3 reasons this story worked

I believe there are 3 concepts at play here.

1. Painting a picture of real possibilities

Using a story takes unrelatable numbers in a boring insurance book and brings them to life through a hypothetical occurrence.

An occurrence they most likely fear in the back of their minds.

2. Using a price anchor

If something costs $0, then I say, “Now it will cost $700”… $700 suddenly seems incredibly expensive.

If I say something costs $60,000, then I say “Now it will cost $700”… $700 suddenly seems like a steal.

3. Handling objections before they object

When I use words to illustrate how reasonable the co-pay is before they tell me it’s too much, that objection dissipates in real-time.

Hoard stories

Now that I know the power of stories, I’m hoarding them.

Every time I hear a good story that explains a confusing concept or combats an objection, I write it down, adjust it to sound like me, and rehearse it until I can say it on autopilot.

You can use a notes app, a Google Doc, or Notion (like me), doesn’t matter.

Hope that helps!

Not sure how often I’ll send these yet 🤔.

Going to shoot for 2x per month.

Talk soon.

— Braden

Midwest Insurance Group