How to Sell Insurance – Aged Lead Store
How an agent sells an insurance policy differs from how sales operate in almost every other category. think of other products and services: a car, a tech toy, a sandwich, a haircut—almost any product or service can be seen, held, or touched.
Not so with insurance. here, you are selling tranquility, an abstract idea, a promise, in a way, you are selling yourself.
Whether you work with real-time or old leads, you need to create a connection with your prospect, get to the bottom of their insurance problem, and provide a winning solution.
The following sales tips won’t necessarily help you sell a sandwich, but they will help you sell insurance policy coverage to customers.
How do insurance agents get clients?
One of the biggest questions insurance agents ask, especially new agents, is “how do I get clients?”
Actually, it’s not as difficult as you might imagine. Here’s a step-by-step approach to building your first business book.
- get a simple and affordable crm to collect and manage your contacts. I recommend starting with zoho, nutshell, pipedrive or close. If you’re not ready to invest in a crm, at least put your contacts in a google sheet or airtable to collect and track your leads.
- add all your friends and family to your crm. don’t be shy many of them will be eager to support you in your new business venture. some will even buy a new policy.
- see for past leads and a list of leads at your agency. there is gold in those lists of previous clients and even those who have been discarded for not responding.
- Set up an email drip sequence to introduce yourself to your friends and family, as an insurance agent. schedule appointments by offering to do a free review of your insurance coverage. it’s great training and will likely save some of them some money.
- Create another email drip sequence for the above prospect list(s). Introduce yourself as your “new agent” at the signing. book appointments to do a six-month review. several will be curious and correctly assume that it is good practice. get an appointment and many will again save some money on their insurance.
- all of these contacts should also be part of your daily calling list. most email systems track who opens your emails. these are the ones you call first.
- Once you have these systems up and running with a fairly high success rate, buy old insurance prospects and start scaling your efforts.
Now that you know how to get new customers, it’s time to work on how to sell to them.
accept the consultative selling approach
Are you a consultative seller? If you are selling insurance, I highly recommend this approach and not one of the more outdated approaches. As the name suggests, consultative selling is about playing the role of a consultant, an expert ready to give advice. With this approach, elevator pitches and campaign pitches take a back seat, so you can use your time with your prospect to ask direct questions and actively listen to the answers.
Time and time again, studies show this is a winning approach with insurance prospects. Due to the nature of insurance, clients need to feel a good relationship with their agents. you can achieve this in two ways. First, find out as much as you can about a prospect’s details and insurance needs. why did you request a quote now? What was the best and worst thing about your last insurance purchase? second, make your prospect feel comfortable by mirroring their behavior and taking an interest in their interests and concerns.
make a lasting impression with storytelling
People are captivated and moved by a strong narrative. For insurance sales, storytelling can be a powerful tool to make a lasting impression on prospects and increase your sales in the long run. That’s because people can visualize themselves in a situation described in a story and feel real emotions about the uncertainty or safety their family might experience in different insurance scenarios. such emotions can be a powerful motivator for a prospect to take action.
Your insurance narrative can take many forms and works best if it’s tailored to the potential client and the type of insurance in question. For life insurance, it’s often helpful to spell out how a prospect’s family could be left in a difficult financial position if they were to die today without coverage. on the other hand, you could tell a positive story about how a particular product helped a customer or her family in a time of need. Combine these stories with actionable insights and product features and benefits, and you have a winning sales approach.
learn how to reverse an objection
Even the easiest insurance sales conversation will eventually reach a point where the prospect will voice objections. This is natural, of course, and a normal part of most sales discussions. still, the challenge for the agent is to quickly and easily respond to these sales objections, without breaking the mood or making the prospect feel pressured.
A great tactic is to reverse those objections from a negative point of view and transform them into a more positive point of view. To best effect, you’ll need to know your products and their benefits inside out, and you may even need to know a competitor’s shortcomings or bargain-priced products. You’ll also need to be careful not to dismiss your prospect’s concerns out of hand. acknowledge their concerns and then address them constructively with new information.
learn to read your prospects
It’s a really useful skill for insurance agents to learn to read people. this is more natural to some than others, but it is possible to improve even if it is not second nature. This is a particularly useful tool when a potential customer shows signs that he is ready to buy.
When a potential customer is ready to buy, it’s time to stop the sales pitch, feature and benefit discussions, query questions, and simply ask for the sale. In these cases, there is nothing wrong with being honest with the prospect and making a direct request. the key is knowing the right moment to make this pivot.
make a lasting impression
A lasting impression will earn you more appointments, more sales, and more referrals. but it is not always about being exaggerated. Sometimes, it’s the little things that carry the most weight. While actively listening to your prospects, make notes of important personal details. ask for the children, or the dog, wish them a happy birthday. remembering and caring enough to ask will help a lot.
Exceptional service can also leave a lasting impression. A great brochure, presentation, or newsletter can help educate prospects and prospects about the insurance they need. passion and personality can also be great for leaving your customers with a lasting positive impression, and they’ll remember you the next time they or someone they know needs insurance.
flexibility and delicacy win the day
As you sell more insurance, you’ll find that each sales inquiry presents a new challenge. each person is different, has unique insurance needs, and no two sales are the same. this is the exciting part of sales for those who excel at it. getting it right means having a certain amount of flexibility and finesse. Agents who learn to switch gears between different means of persuasion and different sales techniques will have a greater chance of growth and success.
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