How To Escape From Motive Driven Selling

A busy yet gloomy Monday morning filled with chaos to get to work in time right when the phone rings and an unknown number flashes on the phone screen. From experience, you know you shouldn’t pick upt, yet, you do with the hope of it being relevant and useful. The first few words that you hear might sound like this, “I am calling to inform you that you have a pre-approved loan…” or “you have been approved for a free credit card…” The intent of the call might be different every day but the general tone will give you a picture of the person on the other side.

Why Sales people want you to buy their product?

In the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance sector, “cold calling” is used as a sales method to sell loans, credit cards, or insurance products. A process that is very important in the sales cycle of an Insurance Agent, Loan Agent, or Credit Card Agent. This call that you happen to answer  is their opportunity to convince you to try their product. If you contemplate buying one of these, then, that gets them excited. You might wonder why? Some of you might already know the answer to this. The answer is that you helped them get a hefty commission by just agreeing to take the product that you might not truly need.

What is a good financial product sale?

There is nothing wrong with getting a reward for a good sale. A good sale is nothing but understanding your needs and goals before suggesting the product to you. The trait of a good sale would be to give you options: these are the best credit cards out there for you or this insurance covers all your medical needs for the next 10 years. If they listen to you and understand, they can suggest better financial products.

What is going wrong with their sales pitch?

Unfortunately, their scripts find themselves bunched up differently. The sales team’s script needs to start with understanding your situation and then, recommend the product that fits well in your financial plan.  Instead, they are in a rat race to mis-sell term insurance or health insurance, or even a loan, just for the sake of commission.

Do we truly have an option to find the right financial product?

There is a growing trend for people to look for a financial consultant to guide them with the right financial advice. This is to stay filtered from the ones who are behind those calls with an elaborate script to persuade and sell the highest commissioned product to you.. This mis-selling behavior in the banking sector or BFSI sector has been reported several times in the past. The study conducted by The Economic Times clearly talks about how dealing with them is the only option. This is indeed reality as your personal data is being pushed even into the smallest banks, where you have never had any transactional relationship. These make you highly exposed and vulnerable and are cornered by your own trusted banks/NBFCs.

Going Above and Beyond for a smarter Financial Decision

A good sale always leads to more referrals and definitely helps the financial institutions to supercharge their growth. But now, the opposite is happening where customers are warning their friends & family about the annoying, daily sales calls. Until the sales agent realizes the secret power of value selling, you as a consumer have to be smart with your filtering process to get the best financial products.

These are a few tips that can help us decide what product to get.

• Research on options that will match your needs – Be it Insurance, Loans, or Credit Cards, today we can quickly access the information on the internet and get extensive research done on key metrics needed to buy a suitable financial product.
• Find the one that is affordable – Always understand our appetite and find the product that we can afford without hindering our lifestyles. It wouldn’t be wise to compromise on other life-altering decisions based on a bad financial decision.
• Learn about the fine prints – It is crucial to read between the lines and understand the hidden and invisible conditions associated with the chosen financial product. If we don’t know what to ask, we can start learning from communities that promote financial literacy. There are plenty of educational resources available to help us cultivate this best practice.
• Seek Assistance from Financial Experts – Always have some trusted individuals who are preferably experts in this field. This could help us benefit and sometimes even exploit (in a legal way of course!) our financial system and achieve your goals. An expert who can provide guidance in everything ‘money-related’.

In time, such customers will evolve to take right decisions on their own with experience and/or with external guidance from advisors. When that time comes, most of these insurance brokers, loan agents, and credit card resellers would find it challenging to trick customers into purchasing a product unsuitable for their financial needs. Until then we have to protect ourselves with knowledge that will help us distinguish the good from the bad. A good place to start would be on vittae.money, where we can learn from your own community The content shared will help us upskill and stay informed on the products and other regulatory methods proposed by the Reserve Bank of India.