During an economic downturn, selling life insurance is more difficult than ever. Everyone is looking at every penny and does not want to spend money unnecessarily. There are ways to know how to sell insurance effectively, even when times are tough.
How to successfully sell life insurance
You have to understand that most companies are suffering today.
How to become a successful insurance agent: Don’t think that life insurance alone is the hardest thing to sell during a recession. Selling any product is difficult in times of recession. Don’t think that entering a different field instead of selling life insurance will make selling easier. You must be persistent and know that sales will be more difficult than in times of prosperity. Here we present strategies that will allow you to successfully sell insurance policies to your prospects or potential clients.
1. Rate your prospects.
Try to find prospects who are good candidates for buying life insurance. If you work for a company, they can provide leads to potential clients. If you are working independently, you will have to find a way to how to sell insurance for yourself.
Review the life insurance policies you have sold in the past and find similarities between clients. If your insurance policies have attracted a certain audience in the past, then try looking for prospects with similar criteria.
2. Try to address the current needs of your prospects.
Is there a way that your life insurance policy can help people now? During a recession, people think about their current financial situation and focus less on the future. Think about ways you can make your life insurance policies meet a need today and not just a need for the future.
3. Sell packages to cut costs.
Consider selling multiple insurances alongside life insurance policies to lower the total cost of all policies.
4. Take time to learn about the products you offer (coverage, reach, etc.).
To sell life insurance effectively, be the life insurance expert. Give customers confidence by showing that you know what you are talking about. Study the policies and their details thoroughly before attempting to sell. Being able to do all the calculations quickly without stumbling over the details.
5. Selling life insurance requires strong sales skills.
Consider taking a professional sales course to strengthen your skills.
Sales and Marketing Strategies for Life Insurance
Selling life insurance for a living person can be difficult. Agents often rely on commissions for their income rather than a salary, so if they don’t sell, they can’t pay their bills. Competition is fierce, and people are not always willing to discuss sensitive financial matters with a stranger. Implementing some basic sales and marketing strategies can increase an agent’s chances of having a successful career.
1. Conduct consistent prospecting
Your insurance sales career will not be successful unless you have a steady stream of leads to visit. Consistent prospecting efforts ensure that you never have to worry about not having enough appointments. The telephone is commonly the most efficient prospecting tool, allowing you to contact a large number of prospects in a small amount of time, even allowing for a “personal touch” not offered by email or letter. Make sure to set aside about two hours a day when you can make calls without interruption.
2. Find a suitable niche
Insurance is a competitive business, so it is advantageous to establish a niche to distinguish yourself from your competition. A niche may involve marketing to a certain age group or occupation or specializing in a certain type of insurance. Establishing a niche can make it easier to get referrals, as people tend to associate with other people who have similar interests or characteristics and often refer their friends to the people they do business with.
3. Discover a need in your prospects
Generally, people don’t buy life insurance unless they think they need it. Your job as a life insurance agent is to uncover the need during your presentation and show the person how life insurance meets the need. One way to clearly show the need is to use a tool called an Insurance Needs Calculator, which looks at a person’s overall financial situation and shows what would happen if they died and their income was no longer available to their family.
4. Look for clients who refer you
Life insurance can be a touchy subject as you are discussing people’s financial information and goals. Therefore, people will feel more comfortable dealing with someone you trust. After making a sale, ask the new customer if they can refer or recommend them to others you can help and if they would be willing to make the presentation for you. This immediately increases the level of trust you have with the potential new customer, making it much easier to get a sale.
Qualities of a Successful Insurance Agent
There are some qualities that the seller should know how to sell insurance successfully. Successful insurance agents are constant. You have to be consistent as your tasks will be a routine that must be repeated with each customer and you should not skip any steps to get a successful sale.
1. Successful insurance agents are Persistent. You need to be persistent as you will receive many negatives and still you should not be discouraged from gradually accumulating policy sales that will constantly return your money.
2. Successful insurance agents are persistent. Perseverance will be very important to him because to progress it will be necessary to set higher and higher goals and really strive to achieve them, although he must not be accountable to anyone because he is his own boss, he must be demanding of himself.
3. Successful agents are proactive. You must be proactive to constantly search for clients even though your income has already reached a satisfactory level, you must not settle down and you must continue to search for more clients to ensure your stability and steady growth.
4. Successful agents are creative. Creativity will always be something that you should always cultivate by constantly improving and innovating in your sales techniques and looking for sources of prospecting, and looking for opportunities where others do not see them.
5. Successful agents are good at managing their time. You must be good at time management because being autonomous it is very easy to waste time on distractions. The ideal distribution of an agent’s time is to invest 80% with their clients and 20% in routine administrative tasks.
6. They have an agenda. Keeping an agenda with a record of your activities should be a habit for the successful agent: when you visited such a client, if the sale was made or not, how many calls were made and global statistics of your weekly, monthly and yearly to constantly evaluate yourself. and look for areas of opportunity based on this data.
7. They are sociable. You must be sociable to make the most of all your contacts, as they are the key to getting more clients and increasing your income.
8. They are sure of themselves. You must have self-confidence to inspire confidence and be persuasive with your clients if they see the agent confident and confident in what he says, it will be more possible for them to put their own trust in him.
9. They are empathetic. You must be empathetic to be able to treat your prospects in a friendly way and win their sympathy, the power of a good deal can be the difference between making a sale or going home with nothing.
The profession of insurance agent is a profession that requires patience and perseverance, not everyone has these qualities or is willing to develop them, but those who can be very successful in this career in which according to the efforts. The results are obtained and you can have a higher income than in most other professions.