Does this sound familiar? You go into a sales interview telling your prospect that you work for one of the best agencies in town. You tell him you give great service, represent 14 markets and would like a chance to prove your value. As a result, he gives you the chance to bid on his account, and you feel like you've got your first victory. Incidentally, when you asked him if there were any problems you should address, he said, no-he just wanted to do what he could to keep his insurance costs low.

So you go to the office, prepare a submission, send it to your markets and get a great quote. Subsequently, you present the price to your prospect. Your prospect tells you that you've done a very good job and that you're in the running. He compliments you on your knowledge and professionalism, and you leave the presentation feeling pretty good. You celebrate your second victory.

Then Charlie, the incumbent agent, presents his quote. He is about 10% more expensive this year, and the prospect says, "Charlie, you're a little high this time." Charlie gets the message, goes back to his carrier, and gets it to lower the price. Charlie then makes his final proposal and miraculously keeps the account.

Isn't America great? The underdog gets rolled again, and the "big dog" keeps the deal.

What does "getting rolled" mean? Imagine you're the flag guy on a highway construction crew. Being a good guy and trying your best to do a good job, you stand out there guiding traffic. Along comes one of those big road-building, asphalt-smashing machines with a big steel roller on the front of it-sort of like the ones you see in Roadrunner cartoons. You're standing there waving your flag and guiding traffic when, with no warning, the machine rolls you out on the pavement as flat as a pancake.

It happens all the time to competing agents. As a matter of fact, it happens so often that many producers have become used to it as a way of life. The following rules can keep you from getting flattened:

Rule No. 1: No two objects can occupy the same space at the same time. In other words, the incumbent agent occupies the position you want. The incumbent is close to the prospect and will always get the last look if you don't do something about it. When the incumbent agent gets the last look, the competing agent usually gets rolled.

So the question is: How do you diminish the incumbent's position in the eyes of the prospect? Chances are that if you take any shots at the incumbent, your prospect will become defensive. After all, the easiest way to get someone defensive is to talk negatively about a choice he or she made. The problem is that your prospect picked the incumbent. If you say something negative about the incumbent, the prospect will defend his choice, and you'll be the bad guy. Therefore, do not violate:

Rule No. 3: Nothing, including an incumbent agent, is good or bad except by comparison. The tough part about selling anything is that to be effective, you have to be able to articulate differences. Unless you can create comparisons that demonstrate differences, that show one option to be better or worse than others, you're only babbling. Commercial insurance is hard to sell for one primary reason: The differences between one agent and another, between one agency and another, and between one carrier and another often are subtle. To make them more pronounced, observe the following rules:

Rule #4: No pain, no change. A bit trite, but there's a lot of truth to this rule. Unless someone is feeling dissatisfied, why would he or she make a change just because someone else's price is less? If a prospect enjoys a relationship with an incumbent agent and is not dissatisfied, chances are much better than 50-50 that the prospect will just tell the incumbent agent to match any competing price and let the incumbent keep the account.

Rule #5: It's easier to get someone to deny perfection than to admit to having a problem. Perfection is really just a standard of excellence. And it's easier to get someone to say, "No, the service I'm receiving does not meet that standard of excellence" than is it to get him or her to say, "Yes, I have a problem."

Rule #6: No one wants to be mediocre. Once your prospect acknowledges that his or her current service does not meet the standard of excellence, you simply reply, "And you're satisfied with that?" The prospect probably will respond, "Not really," and you will have taken the first step in driving a wedge between the prospect and the incumbent agent.

The dictionary defines wedge as "an object tapered for insertion in a narrow crevice and used for splitting." The narrow crevice is that tiny area between your prospect and the incumbent, which you have just begun to open up. The following dialogue, with my comments inserted, illustrates how this process works. When you enter into such a dialogue with a prospect, assume that the incumbent agent is doing a perfect job. If that's not the case, let the prospect be the one to realize it and tell you.

The wedge is the simplest, most effective selling technique. It almost always starts with "When your agent . . ." and is followed with an example of service excellence that the incumbent might not be providing. The possibilities, in addition to the one presented in the dialogue, include:

• ". . . brought out your policies and explained to you that you were self-insured in certain areas, were you happy with the way he explained it?"
• ". . . saw you before renewal last year and showed you a spreadsheet listing all of his carriers, their coverages, and their pricing so you would know you were getting the best deal, did you find a better value?"

If you're a good listener and willing to let your prospect do all the hard work, the wedge can be your most profitable sales tool.