3 Sales Lessons We Learned from Watch­ing Scary Movies.

Whether you live for the 30-day Haunted Halloween Movie Marathons, or spend most of October covering your eyes and ears – there’s no denying that scary movies hold a prominent place in the heart of entertainment. Jump scares and paranoia aside, the stream of life lessons brought forth by the genre are even applicable to the frightening world of insurance.

So what have we learned after years of watching characters make the same mistakes in different settings?

1) Timing is everything.

It’s always when our characters are focused on graduation, or the upcoming lake party, that disaster strikes. Celebrating is great, but don’t let tunnel vision narrow your sights to wrapping up the year while other opportunities escape your grasp. As clients turn their attention to renewing their health insurance plan, it’s the perfect time to introduce supplemental insurance products. Being in the right place at the right time may save you from an ax-wielding killer in the woods, but it can also provide opportunities to extend your sales in the field. If you can time it right, you’ll make the most of interactions with people whose deductibles have increased, or who have moved to an HDHP. If you sell group products, you can show employers how to help their employees while still protecting their bottom line.

2) Always bring backup.

When our protagonist finally comes face to face with their villain, the gun always jams, the booby-trap catches on something, or – you get it – something goes wrong. Counting on Plan A shouldn’t be your only defense. So take a tip from every horror flick in history and make sure to have a backup plan. If a client isn’t ready to reevaluate their insurance at year-end, don't wait for next November... turn it into a chance to have conversations all throughout the year. People have a lot on their plates this time of year, no use scaring them away from future possibilities.

3) Be prepared for surprises.

Imagine how quickly most scary movies would end if the characters expected the monster behind every door? Pretty fast, we reckon. You can similarly avoid pitfalls by anticipating the problems we’ve all seen time and time again. Think about the road bumps that you and your colleagues have run into in the past, and how you’ve overcome them – then plan to do it again. Even if the bogeyman of prospecting woes or low enrollment turnout doesn’t jump out from the closet, you’ll have ideas on how to deal with it no matter which door it’s hiding behind.

While we treat our clients better than any poor sucker from a slasher movie, we have to keep the mindset that drives the movie intact. Do the bad guys ever let anything stop them? Winding hallways? Doors? Long chase scenes after terrified characters? No. They stay focused and check off their goals one by one. We ask you to do the same, and if you find yourself running through a field of sprinklers at night, we hope you’ve come up with a well-timed Plan B.

Happy Halloween - stay spooky, stay selling and don't be scared to reach out to our team for help!