Every sales professional would naturally love to close a deal after one presentation.

But designing a presentation to do just that can be tricky!

In this article, I’m going to share several different factors that will help you turn your presentations into a one call close.

While you can’t do this with every single product, there are a lot of products that can definitely be sold as a one call close presentation.

I’ve sold insurance since 2011, completing over 3,000 one-call close presentations selling final expense insurance, and have perfected the practice to teach sales reps looking to boost their sales potential.

For insurance agents, we are taught to sell a policy on the first visit. We understand going back later is largely a waste of time.

Below are my seven tips on one call closing. I have learned through my own experience as an insurance salesman and have in turn taught to my own insurance agents.

These seven tips will help you craft a presentation that will not only make the sales process easier in many ways, but will also allow you to close more sales in the first call.

Let’s begin!

1. 1. Pre-Qualify

1. 1. Distrubing Questions

1. 1. Hot Buttons

1. 1. Present Effectively

1. 1. Use 1 Closing Technique

1. 1. Rebuttaling Effectively

1. 1. Cool Down

#1 – Pre-qualify

I believe the secret to closing is in the opening during the pre-qualifying process.

Pre-qualifying is asking specific questions to figure out if the person you’re meeting with is a qualified buyer or an unqualified suspect.

To do this you need to understand the product you are selling and what criteria your prospect needs to meet in order to buy what you’re selling.

It can be a litany of things, depending on the industry that you’re in.

You probably already have an idea of what they are.

Overcome Objections Early On

Typically, there are three to five issues needing resolved for a person to be a qualified buyer.

For example, in the final expense burial insurance business, it’s need and want.

Do they need a burial policy? Do they have a desire to protect their loved ones?

Also, we have to health qualify them. So there are health questions we have to ask.

And, the prospect must have a bank account and a budget in mind that they can 100% confirm they will be able to meet each month.

Bottom line, I will not present to a prospect unless they meet those criteria.

In fact, I would go so far as to say if they meet all the criteria but one, I do not proceed. I close up my book and leave. They are unqualified.

To pre-qualify you need to ask yourself what are the top qualifying criteria that your prospect needs to meet in order for you to do business with them.

Once you have those vital questions, you can design your preliminary pre-qualification section around getting answers to those questions, as opposed to waiting until the end of the sales call or another sales call.

#2 – Ask Disturbing Questions

This concept was taught by one of the greatest salesperson in the life insurance business, Ben Feldman.

He came up with the concept because after all, selling life insurance is all about talking about dying.

It’s a conversation very few people want to have.

But, you’ve got to be the person who asks and leads with those questions that really drive at the core of what matters to the prospect.

You may not be selling life insurance. You may be selling something that’s not that invasive.

Either way, you need to ask questions that really matter, that are significant, that get the prospect to think so you can uncover their emotions, their concerns, their challenges, and better gauge why they would want to buy whatever it is that you’re selling.

So come up with three to 10 disturbing questions you can have in your repertoire. That way you can get deep with the client and figure out what makes them tick

If you can do that, you can sell them anything!

#3 – Frame the Presentation Around Hot Buttons

This is a pet peeve of mine.

I often see agents give their insurance sales presentation in such a canned fashion that it’s clear they didn’t listen to what the client told them in the pre-qualification section.

If you aren’t able to go off-script to factor in your prospect’s responses, you are potentially throwing away a great opportunity to show you can address the client’s specific concerns.

If you do a good job of pre-qualifying, you will know what your prospect’s hot buttons are.

You’ll know what really makes them tick and you can use that information to sell them on why doing business solves those issues they voiced concern about.

I call these concerns “hot buttons.”

Smash Those Hot Buttons!

Typically, a hot button is an emotional thing. It’s not logical, it’s emotional.

In life insurance, it’s peace of mind.

I don’t want to burden my loved ones, I just want to know what I have and for it to be straightforward with no troubles down the road. I want my family taken care of and for the policy to work the way I need it to.

Sometimes, people have policies that lapse or go up in price and they don’t want any of that nonsense. It turns them off to buying again.

If you could connect how your product answers those issues that they’ve had, you are doing an immensely great job at getting closer to the close, where you can sell them on something in that first call.

The point is this…

Don’t overwhelm your clients with details that are unrelated to what their concerns are.

Most people have two, maybe three, core issues that they want your product to solve or that they need solving. Your goal is to listen to what those are.

It’s going to be different for each person. Answer those issues in the form of how your product solves the problem.

If you can do that and lay in hard on those core issues, it’ll make a world of difference in closing immediately.

#4 – A Good Sales Presentation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBgY_nsJ_iw&t=17s

A good sales presentation will close on the first call by overcoming objections before they manifest.

Again, a lot of this relates back to pre-qualifying.

Have you ever thought it would be great to know your prospect’s objections ahead of time?

Well, if you do a couple of presentations and the same objections keep popping up, then you have a pretty good idea of the objections you’re up against.

Instead of getting frustrated by the repeat objections, see it as an opportunity to answer those concerns in your presentation before the individual can even bring them up.

Think about the objections that you hear, the ones that are most common. There’s usually a half dozen or less that you will experience in your industry.

Weave your rebuttal to those issues into your sales presentation so that you overcome them, or at least address them, early on.

Answer Objections Before The Prospect Objects

For example, in my life insurance sales presentation, budget is sometimes the problem.

I ask within the first 10 minutes, “Hey, if I can qualify you for a program, can you afford $80 to $100 a month?” Or whatever the budget range is. When they say, “Yeah, that works.”

Now we don’t have a budget problem. =)

They’re not going to object to price at the end because they told me they could afford it and if they come back with that objection, then I’m going to say, “Hey, you said this works, what has changed?”

Or I’ll reply back and say, “Hey, that’s fine, let’s go lower. How would this range work?”

Either way, at least I know before getting into the real details that this is something that’s even on their radar. Why would I want to spend time with somebody who doesn’t want to afford anything?

Sure, you may say there are unique aspects to the insurance I sell. But if you work with fixed income clientele, sometimes they simply don’t have the money to spare.

I’m not going to waste 30 minutes trying to talk someone into insurance who can’t afford 10 bucks a month.

Instead, I would rather go to a real prospect who’s going to actually be willing to invest the money.

Overcome those objections, craft how to overcome them and engage them. Address them early on in your sales presentation, not later.

#5 – Simplify The Offer With One Closing Technique

A lot of my sales training comes from old-fashioned sales trainers like Brian Tracy who has great advice to offer even in our current age.

But a lot of the sales books from the old days talked about the different objections or different closing techniques you need to utilize, like the Benjamin Franklin close, the three option close, etc.

Well, the truth is you don’t need to know all that stuff.

As the old saying goes…

I fear the enemy that knows one kick and has practiced it 10,000 times, versus the guy who’s done 10,000 different kicks one time.

If you’re really good at one closing technique, it’s all you need. Don’t overwhelm yourself with an unnecessary number of closing techniques. Just get really good at one.

The one I like to use in insurance sales is a three-option technique:

Here are the three options in the price range you gave, which one do you like best?

That’s all I’ve done 3,000 plus times. Works pretty well.

It gives the prospect a clear understanding of what is required each month in payments and also gives them the choice to choose which plan is best for their budget – something that every prospect likes.

#6 – When Rebuttaling, Build Internal Tension, Not External Pressure

This is a nuanced way to look at objection rebuttals.

If you are rebutting a client’s objection and you’re guilting them, or you’re making them feel inferior, you’re going about the objection handling process wrong.

I learned this from a top producer in final expense named Tim Winders. He talks about building internal tension.

For example, when he rebuttals an objection, he revisits the hot buttons and the things that matter to the client and relates why taking action today is critical to solving those problems.

In other words, you’re getting back to the core of why they did what they did.

Sometimes people become reluctant to buy because of the money, or because of the timing, or they think they can wait.

You’ve got to build urgency internally and you’ve got to connect it to some realities.

Examples Of Building Internal Tension

For example, in insurance sales, we talk about the fact that nobody gets younger as they age, they get older and with age comes sickness and health issues and certainly higher prices.

Another concept that’s unarguable is we don’t know when we’re going to die. Death is a mystery as far as when it will occur and it’s better to be prepared now than to take the chance of not being prepared.

By not paying an insurance premium, you’re not avoiding the inevitable, you’re adding more risk.

We visit these concepts because the client can’t argue with them. They’re logically true, but they’re also emotional and it builds the internal tension that causes them to commit.

I challenge you guys out there who have objections and experience them to try these steps.

First of all, if you’ve learned my one call closing approach, you will find you will experience fewer objections.

For the objections that you do encounter, think of how you can connect to eternal concepts and foundational beliefs that are inarguable and relate how what you sell will solve those problems, or at least make their life more complete.

#7 – Don’t Forget The Cool Down

When you close on one call, immediately after you closed the deal, many times the client will get buyer’s remorse.

You can’t avoid buyer’s remorse entirely. Every good salesperson has clients who have buyer’s remorse.

But, if you take time to cool down a sale, close the deal, have the client ask questions, and then talk about anything other than what it is that you sold, you will save a lot of deals that otherwise might call you back.

Why?

You’re leaving them with a good feeling. People don’t remember specifics, they don’t remember facts. They remember emotions.

And what they feel about you is what matters most.

That cool down period gives you a chance to establish yourself as likable so that when the client remembers your interactions they will think, “I like that guy. He really cares and he listens.”

And that will tremendously reduce the chances of people changing their mind.

Turn Your Sales Into One Call Closes

Long story short, one call closing is possible!

By putting in a little extra effort to address concerns and appeal to your client’s emotions, you can take almost any sales call and potentially turn it into a one-call close.