Selling is a strategy that does not always come naturally to business owners when they are first getting started. It is the equivalent of the awkward first few years of dating and learning about your love language. In the book, The 5 Love Languages the author talks about how to better understand what your partner needs and how they communicate and express themselves, by understanding their language we are better able to build a strong relationship. The same goes for sales.

The Death Of The Agent

This week I had the wonderful experience of dealing with insurance agents, both car and pet. In almost every single interaction, all I could think was how long will it take these businesses to die? The way they do business is time-consuming and outdated. They have not evolved with tech. To get a car insurance quote takes me an hour on the phone. I send this quote to my current car insurance company, asking if they can match it, giving them the opportunity to keep the business. The agent insists on a phone call. To be clear, I hate phone calls and idol chit chat with agents. This process is a time-consuming interruption to my workday.

I should not need to make a 20-minute phone call to make one small change to my insurance. As someone who streamlines and automates corporations, I find these processes the equivalent of using slow wifi to stream a video.

Next, I needed to update my pet insurance. I have a service dog that travels with me for work to ensure my safety at all times. To be honest the only reason I have or need a car is that Bella loves car rides. This exercise seemed to be easier but it was all a facade, the fine print is hidden with the hopes that you just click on a plan and purchase without actually looking at the details.

I ended up choosing Pumpkin Pet insurance, they seem to go a bit outside the box from the traditional insurance companies, and I like companies that break the mold. Most importantly the information was easy to find, it was easy to sign up without chatting with anyone and when  I did need to make a change the email was sorted quickly. Enabling me to carry on my day with little interruption to my workflow.

The point of the story is that when it comes to car insurance I am not being sold in a way that I want to be sold to, but the pet insurance company has innovated the sales process to speak my sales language. People love to buy things, but they do not love to be sold to. This is why your sales language matters.

What Is Your Sales Language?

One of the most important questions we ask companies when we start working with them is who their audience is, which is of course no big surprise. We spend quite a bit of time going in-depth on what they do on the weekends, who is in their family, and why they want to buy something. What most companies do not do, is ask what language does your demographic of avatar speak?

A 20-year-old guy is less likely to respond to a phone call then a 57 year old one, conversely signing up entirely using tech may seem daunting for a different generation. Your sales page needs to go beyond your brand and pretty pictures, you need to ask yourself, Are you selling to your customers the way they want to be sold to? It is the single most important question we ask when we start working on an AWESOME new campaign, and it is the question you need to be asking yourself today to make your business AWESOME!