"Doubling your insurance sales with neuroscience" with Clarisse Pamiès

Clarisse, you graduated from Sciences-Po Paris, Columbia, and you hold a major in economics at ENS as well as an ENSAE statistics degree. You've worked in banking, at the BCG, at the French State Modernisation Department, as Digital Director at Johnson & Johnson and you now manage Omind Neurotechnologies. Am I missing anything? 

No, that's it for now (laughs).

The common thread running through all these experiences has been to understand why and how people change, transforming themselves with their environment... or not! I've always had a taste for data, research and learning. So I try to use them to understand the mechanisms behind our behavior.

That's what we do at Omind Neurotechnologies : a training organization using neuroscience and technology to help professionals to surpass themselves and reach their full potential. This can be in sales, management, relationships and more. We work with companies ranging from Accenture and Crédit Agricole to Hannover RE or even IKEA.

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How exciting! Does that mean you instantly make your customers smarter?

Yes and no. 

No, because it takes time to become aware of how you operate in a given situation and to readjust. It's also not a matter of intelligence in the usual sense of the word. We’re talking about fomenting the ability to react appropriately to stress, to take risks, to create collective intelligence with colleagues or teams... 

And yes, because many people are unaware of the phenomenal power of this little machine. Our brain: some 86 billion neurons. It's capable of processing humongous quantities of information.

It's as if we were all given a Tesla at birth. But our lives often lead us to use it like a bicycle. We don't exploit all the functionalities at our disposal. For example, some of us are unaware that there are mechanisms for regulating stress and emotions, driven (among other things) by the autonomic nervous system. Others don't realize that they have the empathic capacity to adjust their trajectory according to the emotional signals sent back by their interlocutors, and so on. When, in fact, all you need is to be aware of those mechanisms to activate them. Scientific literature indicates that cerebral performance can be improved by the mere fact of understanding how the brain functions.

At Omind, it's this awareness in action that enables us to accelerate learning. We do that through training and coaching programs, whether for extreme sports athletes (Redbull), team managers or client managers in the professional world.

Through gamified experiences and practical toolboxes applied to their professions, we help managers, leaders or sales people maximize their potential and open up new possibilities.

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Crystal clear. Now, let's get to the heart of the matter: is mankind hard-wired to buy insurance?

In essence, yes. A great psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, won the Nobel Prize in 2002 for demonstrating the power of “risk aversion” in our economic decisions. According to his calculations, humans are 2.4 times more sensitive to loss than to gain.

This is undoubtedly why mankind began to develop these mechanisms that insured sailors venturing out to sea. There's something very anthropological about mutualization. It can take various capitalistic forms (mutual societies, tontines, insurance, peer-to-peer, etc.), but they are all solutions that mankind has put in place to protect itself from hardship.

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How does this translate anatomically? What do our brains have in common with those of a 14th-century Genoese sailor?

To put it (very) simply, our brain is wired for one thing: survival. In order to achieve that goal, it has developed two key functions that fire up in the face of danger: to flee or to fight. These are neuromechanisms that have been keep us alive for tens of thousands of years, as Homo Sapiens.

It is these reflexes that would draw our attention to berries in the forest to feed us, or prompt us to flee from a predator. Physiologically, this translates into things we can easily measure: accelerated heart rate, sweaty palms, etc. 

Today, the same mechanisms are at work when we receive a notification on our smartphone or turn on BFM TV. It’s hardly surprising that many people feel overwhelmed, given the relentless load of information, emotions and transformations in today's world. 

And since our brains are set up to survive and save themselves, they have developed shortcuts. It favors certain routes, commonly referred to as cognitive biases, which make us enclined to buying insurance. 

But nothing is ever simple with the human brain. Certain other biases (there are 180 of them!) can work against this automatic thinking. One of them is the illusion of control (the idea that we have control over something that is nonetheless random). So, in order to sell insurance, you need to set things up.

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How do you do that?

‍First of all, by steering clear from fear.

When you're selling insurance, it's tempting to try and ingrain fear. But a frightened or weary customer will tend to have low decision-making power and opt for more conservative routes (such as not being insurance, for instance). 

Indeed, British researcher Roy F. Baumeister showed that we make better decisions in a positive environments. The mere fact of feeling at ease and confident makes us more receptive to long-term solutions and benefits. Your role is thus to take your customers to that warm and cuddly state of mind. That’s the best way of having them value the benefit. 

Of course, this doesn't mean we should turn a blind eye to problems and sell a rosy picture of life. Disasters do happen, and they can be dramatic. The point is to educate your customers about these dangers, and then lead them towards a reassuring solution. 

Bear in mind that certain disasters, the most extreme ones (climate risks, for example), will require a certain degree of visualization. The reason for this is that our minds don't allow us to project ourselves into a disaster if it seems remote or has never struck us. That's why North American insurers such as Allstate ran highly visual tornado awareness campaigns in the wake of Hurricane Katrina... 

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Let's say I specialize in rental risks, an important but less spectacular risk than natural disasters. What levers can help me?

‍We can't reprogram our clients' (and our own!) 180 cognitive biases. But we do have two main courses of action. 

First, there are the so-called “micro-nudges”. These are ways of presenting things to encourage each and every one of us to make choices that are beneficial in the long term. They can sometimes take the form of small rewards sprinkled throughout the customer journey. They might be handed as freebies or free trial periods when you purchase your internet contract, credit card, and so on. 

If your key focus are rental risks, think about the immediate rewards you could offer retail promoters or their end customers. Also don’t forget breaking things down into several stages to manage your customers' cognition. You’ll have a better chance of closing the deal. 

Otherwise, a second powerful lever for action are emotions. Etymologically, “emotions” come from Latin “motio”, which hints at that force leading to move, to take action. That is a powerful tool that you can activate through empathy for example.

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‍Wonderful! Let's end on that note with a quick role-play. Let's say I've got a tender for referral pitch coming up. How do I leverage empathy?

Empathy, in the neuroscientific sense of the term, doesn't have quite the same meaning as in everyday life. It's not necessarily about “being nice” (which be more sympathy), but rather about reading the other person's emotions and adapting one's approach according to this information. It's also easy to measure, empirically. 

Indeed, it can be traced through the amount of oxytocin present in our bodies, also known as the “attachment molecule”. It's a molecule only found in mammals. It's what makes it possible for rodents to bind with their offspring or accept a burrow mate. It's also what neuro-economist Paul Zak says could boost by 17% the confidence your customers place in you. 

So, here are a few rules of thumb before entering the meeting. First, visualize the scene and anticipate your emotions. This is the bulk of the work we've been doing with two-time Kite Surf Free style world champion Bruna Kajiya. In mental preparation, using our immersive Omind tools, she was able to work on her fears and stress management. Because we’re all scared of falling, often especially when you’re at your best! Entering the room calm and composed will put you in a good position to bond with your counterparts. Conversely, stress and cortisol inhibit oxytocin.

Once you’re in the meeting, try and use mimicry to establish rapport. Look your customers directly in the eye. Stay alert to any reactions, and don’t rush into answers. You’ll probably find that you’ll end on the “same wavelength”. That state of connection too can be scientifically proven.

Finally, share positive emotions. Praise, approve, etc. It's by generating oxytocin yourself that you'll generate it in your interlocutors.

Clarisse, thank you so much for sharing!

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Here are a few accessible sources if you want to dive a bit deeper : 

• Kahneman, D. (2011). “Thinking, Fast and Slow.”
• Thaler, R.H., & Sunstein, C.R. (2008). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.
• Zak, P. et al (2004). “The Neurobiology of Trust.”