“What the customer buys and considers value is never a product. It is always utility, that is, what a product or a service does for the customer.”
— Peter F. Drucker
Family. Safety. Peace. Calm. What kind of utility does a client get from these things? It’s hard to put a price tag on peace of mind, which is why preneed and final expense insurance sales can be difficult to price at value. But if you’re hearing, “It’s too expensive,” or “It’s just not worth the money,” from your potential clients, this blog post is for you.
Value for Money vs. Money for Value
Value means something different to every person. For some, value very much equals cost. These people only see products and services as subtractors from their bank accounts, and they often see them in a long list of other negative values they ‘have’ to pay (utility bills, medical care, car payment, mortgage, etc.). These are the ‘value for money’ people, for whom the cost of something is the only factor they take into consideration to decide whether the product is worthwhile or not. For these people, no price is low enough. Customers with a ‘value for money’ mindset will look at an exchange with a preneed and final expense insurance salesperson as a very simple math problem: what will you give me if I give you ____?
For other people, value means benefit. They focus on what they gained from an exchange and call that its ‘value.’ They might speak about experiences and the value that has been added to their lives from that experience. Products and services are no different. These are ‘money for value’ people, whose mindsets are more about quality than cost. Generally, these people are willing to pay for greater benefits because they see a product’s worth as how it affects their life experiences. Interacting with these people feels less confrontational for preneed and final expense salespeople if we emphasize the benefits of insurance.
Customer Value: In Your Control
Customer value is the perception of what a product or service is worth to a customer versus the possible alternatives. Much of that perceptive in preneed and final expense insurance is built by the insurance agent. When interacting with potential clients, are we consciously building their perception of our services, brick by brick?
“Worth” means whether the customer feels he or she received benefits that exceed what he or she paid. When a client cannot see that the benefits outweigh the monetary costs, that is when they snap into the ‘value for money’ mindset.
Keep in mind that cost, for a customer, is not always just money. Cost can also be time, effort, and inconvenience. Happily, these are largely in your control. If you cannot set the premiums that your client will have to pay, you can decrease their overall ‘cost’ by reducing the time, effort, and inconvenience your client feels they are being asked to expend. Make information easy for them to find. Be prompt and punctual to your meetings or calls. Offer to find answers for them or prepare documents ahead of time. By focusing on the benefits, we are offering our clients, we can flip their ‘value for money’ mindsets to ‘money for value’ mindsets.
