Members Really Don’t Care About the Features
If you have ever received sales training you are probably very familiar with the saying, “Features Tell - Benefits Sell”. In fact, it’s likely the only thing you remember from the training. It’s a catchy phrase that just seems to stick with us. But is it really true?
A number of years ago, I started working in our credit union’s outbound call center. My job at the time was to call members who had recently financed an auto or RV loan indirectly through a dealership. On top of thanking them for their business, making sure they knew when their payment was due, and helping them set up auto pay, I was also tasked with selling additional products and services.
GAP was one of the ancillary products to which my manager wanted us to pay particular attention. If the dealer didn’t sell it on the loan, it was our job to try to get the member to purchase it from the credit union.
I had previously worked in the credit union’s training department. One of my main roles on the training team was to be a product expert. In addition to other tasks, as a product expert I would create and maintain all of the product knowledge training for the credit union. Needless to say, I knew just about everything there was to know about our GAP product. So, when it became my job to sell it, I expected it to be easy.
After a bit of sales training, I started making calls and had success selling small ancillary products like e-statements, online banking, and autopay. Then, a member who hadn’t purchased GAP from the dealer came up on my list. I called the member and began telling her all about our GAP product. I mentioned that if she totaled her vehicle or if it was stolen and not recovered, GAP would pay the difference on her loan. I told her how it would also pay her insurance deductible and give her $1,000 as a down payment on her next car.
When I was finished laying out all of the amazing details of our GAP product, I asked for the business by saying, “Is that something you’d like me to add to your loan? It will only add about $5 a month to the payment?” Then I paused. In my mind, this approach seemed flawless. There was no way, I thought, that she could say no to a polished and informative presentation like this. But she said no…
“No,” I thought. How could she say no? I laid out everything GAP offered and what it cost. It made so much sense to me. When I got off the phone, I went to my manager to share my shock and frustration. I asked him why would she say no? His favorite quote hung on his door. It read, “You can’t fix stupid”. He pointed at the quote and said, “Go try again.”
So I went back to the phone and tried the same thing again. I did this over and over hoping to get a different result with the same approach. That month, I sold zero GAP policies and I couldn’t understand why.
I didn’t realize what I was doing wrong until a member on a certain call said something poignant that caused me to consider my approach in a new light. When I told him that GAP paid the deficiency balance, he spoke up and asked a question. He asked, “If I were to total the vehicle today, what do you think I’d have leftover on my loan after the insurance company pays?” It was a few thousand dollars. He then said, “Wow, so you will pay that for me, and my deductible, and give me $1,000! I get all that for only $5 a month? Yeah, that totally makes sense to me.” And he asked me to add it to his loan.
It was a revelation to me. It was at that point I realized that in order to sell GAP I needed to help the member understand why GAP’s features actually mattered to him. I wondered if it would work with other....-->
If you have ever received sales training you are probably very familiar with the saying, “Features Tell - Benefits Sell”. In fact, it’s likely the only thing you remember from the training. It’s a catchy phrase that just seems to stick with us. But is it really true?
A number of years ago, I started working in our credit union’s outbound call center....