Lost Bid Surveys Reveal Reasons Behind No-Sales

Learn From Your Past Sales Mistakes

There is always some type of reasoning behind why a hesitant commercial prospect won’t buy their policies from you. Maybe it’s one of those dating things, where the declining person says something like, “It’s not you. It’s me. And I’m just not ready to commit.” Or, maybe it’s you and they want you to know exactly why they passed on the relationship. Then again, it could just be money. Regardless, why guess at the exact reason or reasons? Why not just ask?

Oddly enough, certain producers are tentative about this. They are bold enough to ask for the sale, yet too shy to inquire why the potential buyer said no. This common dilemma is hardly unique to property/casualty producers. It’s essentially universal. And as such, there is an everyday solution.

Learn From Mistakes

Learning from your past production mistakes is not a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of professionalism. Every human slips up now and again. That’s forgivable. But, refusing to learn from those mistakes is not. Therefore, every P/C producer and sales manager should devote some time to uncovering their most frequent and avoidable sales errors. And once they are identified, they can work on developing practical solutions.

A common method for spotting them is the ubiquitous lost bid survey. It’s a follow-up questionnaire that is sent to prospects who have declined to buy their insurance from you, soon after you made your unsuccessful proposal. Contractors and salespeople in other industries have used these helpful information-gathering tools for years. See page N37 for a Lost Bid survey example.

Why Didn’t You Buy From Me?

The Lost Bid Survey query device may be used to supplement, precede, or even replace the difficult “why didn’t you buy from me” phone call. That’s because some prospects find it easier to explain their declination logic in writing than over the phone, where emotions may get in the way. Distribute your survey as a paper document with a post-paid return envelope or as a Web form and send it off as soon as you get the bad news.

There is no need to feel awkward about employing this type of device, as long as everything is handled on a professional level. The surveys that are completed and returned help to reveal the top business reasons why you missed out on the sale.

Look for trends in your accumulated results. Then based on them, and your gut feelings, prepare a list of significant sales mistakes that you have made over the past calendar year. Ask yourself what you would do differently if you could approach the same prospects over again. Some you’ll want to skip entirely (review your qualifying procedures); for others you’ll wish you had a second chance. And, of course you do.

For those of you who don’t ever make a misstep, please disregard everything above and have a nice day. As for the rest of us, with New Year’s approaching, now is as good a time as any to learn from sales mistakes made in 2008. Fortunately, one of the great things about P/C sales (and sports) is that there is always next year.

Topics Trends Property Casualty