Sales Managers for Insurance Companies - Essay Example

The question of imparting these qualities to salespeople is largely the responsibility of the sales manager. However, as pointed out by Acuff and Wood ( ), a manager can encourage his salespeople to go out and build good relationships with the customers, but because the nature of the relationship is a subjective one, the leader is unable to determine whether any progress is being made, even though he is responsible for accountability.

One of the things that a manager has to teach his sales representatives is the ability to bend and flex and adapt their sales pitch and styles to suit the needs of different customers. In the insurance industry in particular, certain standardized packages are available, however, a sales representative needs to be able to tailor his sales talk in such a manner that it suits the needs of the particular customer. Therefore, the most important lesson that a manager can teach his representatives is how to ask customers the right questions, by formulating at least 20 different types of questions that the customer can be asked to determine their needs. Once such answers have been obtained by the representatives for these key questions, they will be able to do things that are inexpensive, thoughtful, and also inexpensive at the same time. (Acuff and Wood, 2004, p 190).

The manager must teach the salesperson how to understand what the customer desires by asking the necessary questions and then try to determine how best a particular product can meet that need, or how it can be tailored or modified slightly to meet the need. Therefore salespeople should not focus exclusively on the customer or exclusively on the product but rather focus on bringing about a synergy between the two and managers should teach their salespeople how to achieve this. (Acuff and Wood, 2004, p192)

The manager must also teach the salesperson that his or her goal is to help customers understand that the company’s product is worthwhile. In the insurance business, the manager must therefore teach the salespeople how to emphasize and focus on the benefits of the products, in that it provides insurance against accidents and liabilities. By teaching salespeople to focus on the attributes of the product while also paying close attention to the needs of the customer, it will be possible to achieve good results. Read More