Telling only half the story

Has this ever happened to you? A clients walks into your office and purchases a product from you. Two weeks later, the same clients comes into your office again and needs to return/cancel the product. "Oh hey John! Why do you need to return this?" You ask.

"Hey Dwight! I got a better offer from a guy down the street and I'm gonna do that!" Replies the customer.

"Oh John. I understand. Let me ask you, has the product been delivered to you yet?"

"Well no." replies John "But the agent promised me that the delivery date and the agent told me he quoted me will be the rate."

"Did the other agent compare the terms of the policy with you?" I ask.

"Well...no. But the other agent is offering me the same product at a cheaper price and I'm going to go with him."

Two things at play here. One part is my fault, and another is not mine. First, let's get to where I'm at fault.

Because this person shopped for a product after I provided him one clearly means that I did not completely sell the product. Something in my discovery/presentation was off that my buyer had the need to go and find information from some other source other than myself. This is completely my fault. The first step to personal growth is recognizing that only you are to blame for customers/prospects not purchasing from you. By recognizing this, it puts control into your process and with control, you have the ability to change/improve your process.

The second part is not my fault and that is the salesperson who won the business over me. First, unless your selling pork bellies, oranges, or some other commodity, there will always be differences, however small. Misrepresenting that there are no differences in a product is false and should not be done. Even if your product is exactly the same, the main point of differentiation is yourself. Second, my competitor, only chose to talk about the benefits of his policy and none of the negatives. Here is a common example I see among life insurance policies.

Most life insurance policies (even term policies) are designed to last you until 95. If an agent says "Yeah, this 20 year term policy can last you until the agent of 95." What the agent is doing there is withholding a key piece of information there. Although the policy will last until the age of 95, the cost of insurance after those 20 years may go up by 10X or even 15X the 21st year. Leaving this part of the conversation out is misrepresenting what the policy does and will not create trust with your customer.

Here's another one "You can always reapply once the term is over and get coverage again." Again, what this agent is not saying is that coverage will not only get significantly more expensive down the road, there's no guarantee you can even get coverage in the future. You may run into significant issues with your insurability and no longer be able to be offered coverage. Withholding this key piece of information is incredibly sneaky and misleading.

After getting back what the other agent proposed, I was able to contact my client again and win back the business. After reviewing both options in detail (the benefits & cons) my policy won the day as it was better, in whole, for my client.