Sales Tips that Work for Independent Insurance Agents
Learn the many things you can do to increase sales as an independent insurance agent. These tips can help.
Independent insurance agents know that successful sales aren't guaranteed, even when clients are motivated and the choice seems obvious. Selling insurance takes time. Educating clients, developing client relationships, encouraging referrals, and establishing a presence on social media – all of these strategies help drive up insurance sales for independent agents. Here's what you can do to attract clients and keep them loyal.
Use Best Practices When Educating Clients
It's not enough to know everything about your insurance products. You must have the ability to communicate what you know with your clients. They need to see, as you see, how each product can serve them.
Your clients rely on you to help them weigh the differences between each product and come to a logical conclusion. Which policy to choose is not always a clear-cut choice, but with your help, clients can find the right product for them.
Education comes down to good communication. Communicating the pros and cons of each product logically and clearly is an essential part of your job, one that you can get better at with time.
There are many things you can do to improve the way you communicate with clients.
- Streamline communications. Send out communications in various formats, communicating with multiple clients at once whenever possible. There are many ways to do this: send out educational emails, start a newsletter, and update your social media.
- Stay organized. Return calls promptly. Document conversations with clients. Address client questions with concise, clear answers.
- Welcome client calls. Make yourself accessible to clients, then encourage clients to call whenever they have a question. Clients who can reach you easily are more likely to pick up the phone and call when they have a quick question.
- Give clients communication options. Some clients prefer to communicate by email, others by phone, and others in person. Give a range of communication options, so clients can reach you in whatever format they prefer.
Give Swag Freely
It takes more than one contact with a client to close an insurance sale. In fact, a typical sale may take four or five conversations before closing. Between those contacts, clients can become distracted, may have contact with other agents, and may forget why they needed to make the purchase.
Your promotional items are a subtle reminder to clients about whom to contact when they're ready to buy an insurance product. Quality mugs, bags, umbrellas, hats – all these items and more help your clients keep your business at the front of their minds.
High-quality swag is better than cheap products that will likely be shoved in a drawer and forgotten. Don't hesitate to spend money on well-made products. The more useful the item, the more likely your clients will use it. To ensure clients wind up with items they find helpful, give them a choice of items and let them pick.
Tell Stories
Stories generate emotional responses in people and help us make memories that we'll hang onto, sometimes for years. Marketing research tells us that storytelling can increase conversions by 30%.
Get used to telling stories to clients. Research also tells us that 95% of purchasing decisions happen because of an emotional connection, so when telling stories, provide details that tap into client emotions. Develop a few effective tales that you're adept at telling, with relatable details, humor if appropriate, and a memorable ending.
Show that You Are Different from Your Competitors
Your clients could get your insurance products from another agent – or could they? Showing how you're different from your competitors will keep clients coming back again and again. Sometimes the products themselves are not what differentiates agents – sometimes, it's the other services those agents provide.
Touch base with clients regularly. Offer to review insurance coverage with them annually. Respond to clients promptly, and pose questions to clients that help them think through their buying decisions. If you happen to know about an insurance product that only you offer, emphasize that value to clients during your conversations.
Encourage Referrals
Over 90% of people trust referrals from people they know, yet referrals are a powerful sales tool many insurance agents fail to take advantage of. Some ideas for encouraging referrals:
- Send gifts to clients who refer other clients
- Write a personal note thanking clients for referrals
- Put out a call for referrals on your social media page
- Offer to make a charitable donation for every referral made
Have a Presence on Social Media
Social media is one way to make your presence known to locals. Join local groups and engage in conversations taking place about local issues. You don't need to talk about insurance in these forums, but you should be ready to provide expertise when it's called for. During those conversations, you'll make contacts and gain leads.
Offer the Right Combination of Insurance Products
Unlike captive insurance agents, you can offer a wide range of insurance products from various carriers, which means that you're positioned to meet the needs of a diverse set of customers. Voldico membership provides access to industry-leading carriers. Contact us today to learn more.
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