Skip to main content

THE MOVING PARADE

 


Have you being to the Calabar Carnival? Calabar Carnival festival in Nigeria is rumored to be the "Africa's Biggest Street Party", the  number one tourist destination for Nigerians and tourists all over the world. The Calabar Carnival invites people all over the world for the yearly events ranging from National visitors to International guests in attendance and representation. The party is unending and loaded with so much fun and activities. Beautiful ladies display their attires and beauty, and bikers display riding skills while going from streets to streets. That is a Moving Parade.

The Moving Parade is a powerful construct, and its understanding could be a game-changer for the sales and marketing staff of Nigerian insurance industry. The construct is based on three powerful premises:

1.    People are in different places of need, desire, recognition and capability.

You sell a Car Insurance or a simple life policy to a 30 years old man. The Moving Parade teaches you to understand that even though you sell to this customer on the basis of this particular need, his future needs will constantly change as he gets older or gets more income or get more risk exposures. He may get married, and have kids. He may be buying his first home on a mortgage. He may be securing a bank loan with a valuable asset, with its attendant fear of loss in the event of early death. The Moving Parade ask the seller to be there to sell educational insurance for his kids, upgrade his existing policies, and sell new policies to him from another benefit point of view. The Moving Parade asks that the seller stick to that customer for life

2.  Most people made their purchase decision at a lesser level of certainty, commitment or felt need.

Most people are afraid of buying products that they will regret later. An average buyer of life assurance will probably buy a smaller life insurance than they can afford to buy. Similarly, a man who bought a N3 million can wants to buy 3rd party insurance. Understanding the moving parade will allow you to empathize, and see things from their view. Allow them to get in at the level they choose, as long as they commit to get in at all. Instead of getting frustrated, the construct of Moving Parade ask that the seller should relate to the clients in such a way that they buy your person, trust your advice, and will willingly act on your recommendation to them to buy an upgrade of their existing policies, and to buy new ones as their needs and capabilities change.

3.     Competition/technology is always a moving parade.

The Moving Parade explains how the competition will not sit still, but will evolve deploy many tactical plans and strategies to take market share from you by winning your customers over. Technology is an enabler, and may form part of the arsenal of the competitor to try to take market share from you. Therefore, with this understanding, the Moving Parade urges you to close your flanks. The Customer is interested only in the solutions you bring, and not the strategies you deploy. All the customer cares about is how much more you can give them an advantage, benefit, greater result they can get from dealing with you, instead of dealing with somebody else.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

10 Reasons why you should embrace a sales career

In 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad', Robert Kiyosaki listed selling skills as the most important skill in business.  To corroborate that, several great men and women such as Steve Jobs, Dale Carnegie, Joe Girard, Mary Kay, Barak Obama and even Donald Trump all had their beginnings from a selling career. This, it was much easier for them to be such exceptional administrators and business men. Sometimes in the year 2000, I met a journalist friend who laughed it off when I told him I had joined an insurance company to sell life assurance professionally. He felt insurance is dubious and sales job is demeaning. Needless to   say, he almost succeeded in derailing my nascent sales career. But I didn't listen. Looking back, I am extremely grateful that he did not succeeded in derailing my career! Since then, my sales job has given me financial reedom, independence and the ability to create wealth whenever, even from thin air if I so choose. Yes, if you are an accomplished professional salesman...

Pay Yourself What You are Worth

Wouldn’t it be fun if you could be earning more money from your sales job? What if you could write yourself any amount you want in commission cheques and bonuses, incentives and awards? As a salesperson, winning enough businesses to gain enough income to fund your desired lifestyle is by no means a small feat. But it is possible!! So says the book which is written as a guide to help more commission salespeople –  insurance and financial services sales executives, manufacturers and wholesalers' representatives, medical and pharmaceutical sales representatives, digital and software vendors, sales consultants,  etc – to earn more income from selling. To help you in writing the kind of paycheck that allows you to live your dream life. This book is written in a simple, how-to fashion, and language that can be understood by the most basic of learners. This book is written to address some chronic sales challenges in sales, especially in the Nigerian and African sales industry. It is ...

11 Productivity Hacks to succeed more in 2019 (Part 2)

Productivity Hack FOUR: Tackling New Tasks and Projects When you are assigned a new task or project, it is important to create a plan at the beginning so you get off to a good start. We will now look at some of the tools and techniques for use in new tasks and projects. The Sliding Scale When planning and organizing, try to create the right size plan for the task. If your goal is to organize your inbox, for example, it is probably not necessary to spend several hours planning each action. On the other hand, if you are handed a complex project, you may need to spend several days or even weeks to gather information and to create a plan. Is your task a small task or a major project? For small tasks, basic tools such as a to-do list or calendar will probably be the best choice. For medium-sized tasks or projects, you might want to use:  RACI charts Visual timelines  Storyboards For large projects, you may want to consider the use of: Gantt char...