Follow-Up to Close Sales

Research suggests only one in 50 deals are struck at a first meeting, yet many sales people give up after just one or two knock-backs. Perseverance will give you a major edge over competitors
For example: People in business often hope and expect to do business the first time they meet a prospect. Yet studies reveal that only 2% of sales occur when two parties meet for the first time.

The 2% who buy at a first meeting tend to be people who have already looked into the subject matter, and already know what they're looking for. If they meet someone who ticks all the right boxes and they get on well, then business may well be transacted. But that is far from the norm. The other 98% will only buy once a certain level of trust has been built up.

Anyone who believes they can go into a sales situation armed with '101 sure fire sales closes' and make sales is seriously misinformed - and about 20 years behind the times. Professional sales people get to know their prospects, understand their issues; solve their prospect's problems; and provide irrefutable proof. They build relationships and trust by engaging in ongoing dialogue (otherwise known as follow-up). They don't just peddle their products and services with an armoury of closing tricks.

There are many reasons why people who could benefit from your product, service or expertise do not buy. At least not without further prodding. Inertia. Lack of time. Too many other things on their mind. Concern about cost. CashflowBudget constraints. More pressing matters. Your failure to do enough marketing to establish your name in your field so they'll buy without question - and more. None of the these, by the way, is a negative. They are just psychological and transactional realities you must become aware of and recognise - which is why follow-ups are SO important.
Yet isn't it amazing how often you express interest in a product or service, but never hear from the person or company again? It happens all the time. Research shows, amazingly, that only 20% of sales leads are ever followed up. In other words, 80% of potential opportunities are lost without trace simply due to lack of follow-up.

People and companies who don't follow-up, who do nothing to build up that trust and relationship, cannot succeed, especially in today's tough economic climate. People need to be sure they're making the right decision before they commit to a purchase.

Different studies carried out at different times, in different places, by different market research companies over a number of years all reveal that 80% of non-routine sales occur only after at least five follow-ups.

Think about that.  It takes at least five continuous follow up efforts after the initial sales contact, before a customer says yes.  FIVE!

There are some fascinating statistics on this:
44% of sales people give up after one "no"
22% give up after two "nos"
14% give up after three "nos"
12% give up after four "nos"

That tells you that 92% of sales people give up after four "no's", and only 8% cent of sales people ask for the order a fifth time.

When you consider that 80% of prospects say "no" four times before they say "yes", the inference is that 8% of sales people are getting 80% of the sales.

Once you're aware of these statistics you should stack the odds in your favour by introducing a 'Five nos' strategy, where you maintain contact with prospects until each one of them has said "no", or "not now", or "not yet" at least five times. Every time you're in contact you have an opportunity to advance and build the relationship.

Businesses with a "five nos" strategy will always enjoy a conversion rate many times higher than their competitors who have no such strategy.  What strategies do you have in your business right now to ensure that you contact your prospects regularly in a gentle and meaningful way so that you win their business and their loyalty?duce a five "nos" follow-up strategy

There's also the fact that 63% of people requesting information on your company today will not purchase for at least three months - and 20% will take more than 12 months to buy.

Contacting your prospective and existing customers every three months or sooner builds trust and professionalism and keeps 'top of mind' awareness.  In this context, your customers do not regard contact for orders, payments and appointments, or the obligatory Christmas card as a meaningful communication.

What meaningful communication strategies do you have in place right now to maintain top of mind awareness once someone has been in contact with you?  How do you nurture your clients so that they learn to trust you and see you as a professional organisation?

This simple strategy could be critical to your survival in the current economic downturn. Implement it and prosper. Ignore it at your peril.

Mother's Love

Meliah Md Diah is 101 years old. Despite her age, she is one tough cookie, going by her mission, so late in life.

She is determined to continue taking care of her youngest son, Abdul Rahman Saud, 63, who is physically challenged.

In fact, according to the centenarian from Kampung Bukit Nambua here, as long as she is alive, she will give her best to Abdul Rahman who has not been able to speak, walk or lead a normal life.

"My son has never been a burden. Since he was a baby, I had bathed, fed and put on his clothes for him.

Deciding On Life Insurance

For many individuals, buying adequate life insurance has always remained a tricky one.  For many years, Life Insurance has remained as a tool to reduce your tax liability.  This situation is slowly changing because of the development in the industry as a whole and the various social media platforms taking efforts to educate common man on the importance of term insurance products.  We still have a long way to go where an individual buys adequate insurance cover and do not treat this as a savings tool.

Whether you own a car or a two wheeler, you are forced to buy an insurance to cover uncertainties.  So you do not really worry whether you are making a return out of the premium paid.  But when it comes to life insurance many are still lured away by the fancy excel calculations shown by the bankers or the agents.

How to take a better decision ?
If you just got employed, the first and foremost thing that you should do is to buy a term insurance.  Get in touch with an investment advisor and find out how much cover is needed.  You are normally allowed to buy a cover up to twenty times your annual income.  If your annual income is five lakhs, then you can buy cover up to a crore in general.  These days most of the insurance companies have online tools that can indicate how much cover you need to buy and the corresponding premium you are supposed to pay.  Term Insurance is cheaper and easy to buy when you are young as you would be medically fit in the early part of your life, in general.  Accidental death benefit, as a rider, is a good one to buy.  Do not go for any critical illness rider as most of the clauses given are confusing for a lay man to understand and I have seen critical illness claims getting rejected citing many reasons.  This still remains an area of concern and may be down the line we will get more transparency here.

How to protect your liabilities ?
Once you are employed and income keeps moving up, you would definitely go for a house and car purchase though not in the same order.  When you go for a housing loan, the banker automatically includes a loan cover term insurance to protect himself.  Fortunately, you are also benefited out of this.  Having said that, do not allow your banker to dictate terms.  Housing loan is coupled with a single premium loan cover term insurance and you would be asked to pay the premium upfront.  This is not advisable.  Instead opt for an online term for a sum assured in proportion to the loan taken, with a regular premium payment.  This gives you flexibility and control over your overall life insurance cover.  Even if you foreclose your loan, you can map it to other needs like a child’s education that need protection.

Step up your risk cover
There you are.  The next obvious step in your ladder is getting married and becoming parent.  Once you get married, your needs would change and increase in number.  If your spouse is not earning, then you have a financial dependent that needs to be taken care of.  Upon becoming a parent you earn further responsibility of educating your child.  This is a vital need in our social setup and at present you cannot shy away from this responsibility.  You need to step up your cover adequately by consulting your investment advisor.  The most important aspect is to continue paying these policies till you build substantial assets.  Then you would be in a position to review your risk cover need.  At that time, depending on your income and liabilities, you would have the luxury of discontinuing some part of the cover.

How to choose a right product ?
These days, there are plenty of online insurance comparison tools available.  This gives you a fair idea of which product is better with rich features.  Once you freeze a list of products, then do a study on the company’s claim repudiation ratios.  Anything above 95% is a good number to rely on. 

Buying online gives you advantages in terms of relatively less premium but if you feel you need the services of an agent, nothing wrong in paying slightly higher. The more details the company asks upfront, the better it is for you. 

Do not hide any material facts about your financial and physical health.  Disclose all relevant information as otherwise, the chances of a claim getting rejected is high.

Once in five years, get an idea of the premium prevailing in the Industry.  Sometimes, you may be paying more for a particular cover for which the premium rates would have gone down substantially.  Then you can buy a fresh policy and discontinue the old one.

Stepping up your risk cover as you go up in life, be it due to income rise or expansion in family, is an area that needs attention and review as and when change occurs.  Then you are in a better position to cover uncertainties in life.  Buy adequate term insurance, increase as and when required, achieve your financial goals and stay peaceful ! Though life is not a Twenty20 fixture, you need to step up at the right time to win !

Etiqa Takaful - Target Indonesia

Maybank Ageas Holdings Bhd will expand to Indonesia and the Philippines as early as 2016 via acquisitions.

Chief Executive Officer Kamaludin Ahmad said the group is looking at acquiring small and inexpensive insurance players in both markets and is in talks with several parties for the expansion exercise.

"We have been talking to a number of parties. The selection exercise is going to take a while," he told reporters after presenting its financial results for the year ended Dec 31, 2014 Wednesday.

He pointed out that obtaining the insurance licence in Indonesia and the Philippines is quite difficult and through the acquisitions, the company could leverage on the existing licences to operate there.

Kamaludin added that Maybank Ageas is targeting companies with lower valuation of between three to five times book value but with strong business operations and distribution channels.  Maybank Ageas is the parent company of Etiqa Insurance Bhd and Etiqa Takaful Bhd in Malaysia. It made its presence in Singapore last year, providing both general and life insurance products.

"Singapore's contribution is going to be between 6.0 per cent and 7.0 per cent this year. It will be closer to 10 per cent next year," he added.  Kamaludin said the company also expects its gross written premium to grow between 10 per cent and 12 per cent in the financial year ending Dec 31, 2015 from RM5.02 billion last year.

Maybank Ageas registered a pre-tax profit of RM767 million in the financial year ended Dec 31, 2014, a five per cent increase from RM733 million in the previous financial year with a combined ratio of 85.1 per cent, down from 87.8 per cent a year earlier. It has total assets of RM31.6 billion as at Dec 31, 2014.

Aging Population Health Insurance

Malaysia’s healthcare sector, recognised internationally for providing affordable and high quality services, has been experiencing healthy demand locally due to the country’s ageing population and rising incomes.

According to analyst (research arm of CIMB Investment Bank Bhd) in a healthcare sector report from June 27, 2014, an ageing population, higher prevalence of lifestyle diseases and rising incomes drove the 215 per cent growth in private healthcare spending during 2002-12. That growth could slow down in the next few years as income growth has lagged behind medical inflation.

Currently, the medical inflation rate in Malaysia is estimated to be around 15 per cent, according to Intelligent Money Sdn Bhd (iMoney). The biggest consumer of healthcare services – the elderly – will feel most of the pinch. This is due to their retirement income which may be diminishing or there may even be none at all. The increase in retirement savings has not led to more affordable private healthcare as the growth in savings has lagged behind the rate of medical inflation. Those without adequate savings and insurance coverage will need to continue working or seek financial assistance from others to fund their private healthcare expenses.

According to the research arm of Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd (Kenanga Research), it is estimated at end-2014 that during the 2010-2040 period, Malaysia’s population aged 65 and over is projected to increase more than three-fold of the 2010 population.

Kenanga Research noted that the increase will lead Malaysia to become an aging population in 2021 when the population aged 65 years and above reach 7.1 per cent.

Longer life spans also result in a larger number of people aged 65 and above,” the research arm said, adding that this improvement has been attributed mainly to advances in medical technology, higher personal wealth and growing awareness of the importance of healthcare and disease prevention.

The demand for healthcare services in Malaysia will increase at a more rapid rate than the population growth due to the larger number of old people.

Pacific & MCIS Merged

Pacific Insurance Berhad (known for its competency and expertise in medical insurance with the widest range of medical insurance in the market) has merged with MCIS (Malaysia Cooperative Insurance Society) General Insurance. MCIS Life Insurance is still in business as a separate entity.
    
With the merger, there is one less general insurance company operating in Malaysia at this point in time, and it shows that in the run-up to the 2016 tariff liberalisation of the general insurance market that foreign owned insurance companies are making their presence felt in Malaysia.

The Pacific Insurance Berhad previously the Pacific Bank Group, which was acquired by another banking group under the last Bank Negara sanctioned, merger and acquisition of smaller local banks with bigger banks to prepare Malaysian financial institutions for greater open competition survivability.

In 2013, the Pacific Insurance Berhad was ranked as the largest individual medical insurer company within the Malaysian general insurance industry. The company has its roots going back to the 1950s when it was the Malayan business arm of the Netherlands Insurance Company, then the 12th largest insurance company in the world. The company has been writing non-life business and is known for the expertise in writing general insurance.   

In 2011, it was acquired by Fairfax Asia Ltd and Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited became its parent company, but retained the Pacific Insurance Berhad brand name. Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, based in Toronto, is a Canadian financial services holding company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange with equity of more than USD 9.7 billion and assets in excess of USD 37.3 billion as of end 2014.

Purchase Life Insurance Online

U for Life Sdn Bhd, an online platform provider, launched the country's first internet insurance platform to issue e-policies instantly, on Tuesday.

Hannover Re, with a gross premium of around EUR 14.0 billion, is the third-largest reinsurer in the world, is a principle shareholder in U for Life. Designed with the needs of consumers in mind, U for Life is committed to help more Malaysians be insured by offering a simple, instant and affordable way to buy life insurance online.

The policy offered by U for Life is underwritten by Tokio Marine Life Insurance Malaysia Bhd, a member of the Tokio Marine Holdings, Inc. the oldest and one of the largest insurance group in Japan. With this platform, customers can find out more about life insurance online and purchase a basic protection plan and be issued an e-policy instantly.

The platform is expected to be a game changer in the life insurance industry as it will help to broaden our customer base especially among Gen Y. Our agents can refer this internet insurance to their customers who wants a basic plan and then follow up with their customers who want to buy medical and health insurance products. This move will greatly increase productivity for agents.

U for Life focuses on addressing the pain points of a buyer who currently views buying life insurance as a tedious and costly process. Customers can now review and purchase their e-policy within just 10 minutes. This allows customers to be instantly covered once payment is confirmed, so there is no need to wait for manual approval which typically takes weeks.

Customers pay as little as RM9.85 per month for life insurance protection of RM100,000. In view of the current cost of living and life insurance being a necessity, U for Life is fully committed to providing life insurance policies at an affordable low price in the market.