Five Keys to Selling Insurance Products

Selling insurance is not easy. It’s a highly competitive business filled with a confusing array of products. Consumers don’t like to think about insurance, and they usually believe the price is too high. Many people believe that they don’t need it, or they’re simply willing to put off purchasing a policy until they have more time and/or money. Additionally, buying a policy can be confusing for the uninitiated consumer.

You’ve rustled up five insurance leads from a topnotch online service. Ready to sell each and every one of them. At least, you think you’re ready. Here are some tips to help you prepare to go 5 for 5.

1) Be Organized

Prior to calling anyone, you must be organized. Being organized refers to both the product you’re selling and the method by which you sell it. First, you must know your product inside out and be able to talk about it easily. If a potential client has a question about term life insurance and his or her choices regarding length and amount of coverage, you need to be able to give them an accurate answer. When calling leads, be sure you have everything you need with you. It’s preferable to call with your computer in front of you, enabling you to easily access any information you might require. You won’t lose a sale if you’re asked a question and you say, “Let me just double-check my computer,” but you may lose it if you say, “I don’t have that information right now, I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

You must also be prepared in the manner in which you go about pursuing your leads. It will take numerous phone calls before you connect with a lead. You’ll need a system for tracking calls, taking notes after you speak with the lead and for determining the next action to be taken regarding that lead. It’s very important that you take time to keep careful notes regarding a lead. Missing a follow-up call, forgetting to send requested materials or losing information essential to that lead will all have the same result&ndashno sale.

2) Be Educated

Being educated means that you understand the marketplace, your products as well as your potential and existing clients. How do you know if you’re properly educated? Ask yourself this simple question&ndashwhat makes my service and product more valuable than any of the other services and products that crowd the insurance market? What is the value of what you are trying to sell and what separates it from all of the rest? Is it your commitment to service? Are you a full service agency, offering a broad range of products? Do your products carry great value&ndashare they priced competitively but does the consumer get more for their money than from any other company? Perhaps you provide additional services free of charge&ndasha monthly newsletter, portfolio planning or a yearly insurance review?

To define what gives your service and product value, you’ll need to know what your competitors offer, understand what consumers want and determine the significant attributes of your products.

3) Be Quick

When you receive a fresh lead, you must act quickly. If someone has requested information, there’s a small window of opportunity for you to make contact. Working against you is the fact that people are busy and it will usually take 5 calls or more for you to connect with a lead. If you have the opportunity to leave a message, do so each time you’re given the chance. Hanging up on someone’s voicemail is equivalent to never having made the call at all.

4) Be Polite and Professional

When contacting someone via the phone always remember that you are, in essence, in his or her home or territory. In other words, you’re talking to someone because they are willing to listen to you. Always be polite and professional, even if the lead’s behavior is not reciprocal. Ask if you’ve called at a good time and, if not, if there is a better time to call. Don’t try to keep someone on the telephone if they’ve said they’re busy. Always offer to contact the lead at another time or to send them information via e-mail or the post office. Try to keep the contact alive, and if they say they are not interested, ask if you might call them again in three months to see if they may be interested in your product. Even if you sell that lead nothing, you may still realize a sale due to your phone decorum. That lead that does not work out may know someone who’s looking for insurance and your professional behavior may have impressed him or her enough to mention your company. One thing is for certain, if you’re rude or non-professional, that person will definitely talk about your company to friends and family, and those conversations won’t help you one bit.

5) Be Willing to Go the Extra Mile

Consumers constantly complain about bad service. Remember, you’re working to earn the business of that lead and once you’ve done that; you’re working to keep their business and possibly expand upon it. If you develop a reputation for good service and for going beyond the norm when it comes to service, your enterprise will be held in high regard and good word-of-mouth will provide you with more clients.

Leads do not sell themselves. Yes, there will be those rare times when you get that easy sale, but more often than not it will take persistence, effort, and knowledge for you to convert an insurance lead into a client. In order to succeed, you’ll need to be at the top of your game day-in and day-out. Can you go 5 for 5 in converting those new leads? If you do, you’ll be batting 1.000.

I’ve heard them called by many names as of late: Generation Y, Gen Y, The Plug-and-Play Generation, The Gotta-Feel-Good Generation. What they’re all referring to is the new young generation - our current 20-somethings. Every generation “deals” with the generation who comes after them. Their different views, their different ways of doing things, and so on; this generation is no exception.

Why is everyone talking about this new generation now though? They’ve been coming along for years. They’re in their 20’s now, after all! Because now they’re starting to impact the workforce and because we couldn’t predict their group characteristics until we saw them in action. In some ways they’re changing the landscape for the better, in some ways we oldies would say for the worse.

Regardless of the nostalgia we feel for the “old days” this generation is plunging headlong into the workforce and will impact you and your business at some point. There’s really no sense fighting it. No generation has ever changed the generation which came after it; not once that generation reached its 20’s anyway. These are the kids we raised and we did raise them this way, so let’s figure out how to work with them. To work with them we first need to understand them.

What makes this generation tick (or turn off) and what is the impact on businesses looking to hire them?

Problem: They’re not called The Plug-and-Play Generation for nothing. This generation grew up on video games and television while their parents were out working and making (what they viewed as) better lives for their families. This led to a whole generation of children, now entering the workforce, who need instant gratification in whatever it is they do. Whether its work or play, the satisfaction must be immediate.

Solution: What this means to the business owner looking to hire qualified workers is that you need to be diligent in assigning tasks to (or rather asking the worker if they’d be happy to do the tasks) that they enjoy doing. You must challenge this generation to the capacity in which they want to be challenged.

Problem: This generation waits for nothing and no one. If they don’t like the game, they find a new game to play and new people to play it with - now - not tomorrow or next week. Simple as that. Think pulling the PS2 game out of the player and inserting one they think they may like better.

Solution: This goes back to speed again. They’re used to moving at the speed of the internet, not the speed of the horseless carriage. You’re going to have to give this generation what it’s looking for or prepare to lose them. Regular check-ins individually to gauge their interest and excitement is critical to keeping this generation happy and working for you.

Problem: The Generation Y’s demand that they feel good about what they’re doing. If they don’t feel good about it, they’re not going to do it. Again, simple as that and no amount of money will convince them otherwise. Remember: they watched their parents work and work and work to earn a few extra bucks and what did it get them? Absentee parents who were rich. This generation wants quality, not necessarily quantity.

Solution: Sometimes the work just isn’t all that gratifying. However, you can combat that by showing your gratitude in the work being done. Often the sheer pleasure of helping someone else and that person being grateful is enough for the worker to receive the gratification they need.

Problem: The generation of ADD. Oh yes, this is where ADD became popular. The Gen Y’s are not going to pay attention for long. They want their information fast and to the point.

Solution: Don’t waste time with long drawn out memos and information. Just shoot it straight and fast!

Problem: A recent study suggested that the average tenure in a job for Generation Y’s is 18 months. Wow, what happened to life, or even a few years? Unfortunately those days are but a memory. As older workers retire and leave the workforce, we’re left with the generation we raised and we need to count on them to fill the open positions within our companies. Remember again that this generation watched their parents stick in jobs for life, only to be spat out by the very corporations and unions who claimed they’d protect them - when they were juuuuuusssst about to collect that pension. The Generation Y’s aren’t going to hang around to let that happen to them.

Solution: There’s no changing this generation’s stick ability. So as a business owner you have two options: 1) Make the work enjoyable or 2) Prepare in advance for every single worker’s eventual departure. If you opt with number 1, you need to figure out what it is that makes each and every one of your workers happy. They must be regarded as the individuals they are and with their own set of needs and instructions. Prepare to meet those needs or move on to number 2: The most crucial thing any business owner can do is to have instructions written for every task that is performed within their company. Put all those instructions in a safe place and hang on to them so you can pass them on to the worker’s successor. In staffing, one of the biggest complaints we hear from clients is the need to retrain the next person. I’m sorry - that’s the way it is nowadays. We train and we retrain and we need to be ready for it.

Problem: Lack of office etiquette. Check out this recent article on Yahoo! News about modern office etiquette (and lack of it) finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/careerist/40342. Unfortunately, as the article suggests, the new generation may not even know they’re breaking the rules! Etiquette in their world is far different than that of other generations.

Solution: As my husband and business partner says, “But wrong is still wrong and right is still right”. However, with the internet and a new generation, is this perhaps the new “right”. Maybe, maybe not. If most families are dysfunctional, doesn’t dysfunction become the new “normal”? Unfortunately I think the new generation has us beat in sheer numbers folks. In this writer’s opinion there’s not much we can do but learn to deal.

Problem: As another article finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/careerist/38889 on Gen Y’s by Penelope Trunk suggests: “They won’t play the face-time game.” That means they’re not going to sit in the office just to make you happy. They know that work can be done from home (or from the beach) just as well as it can be done sitting in the office.

Solution: Let ‘em work from home! Why not!? Working from home offers the ultimate in flexibility (something this generation demands) and helps keep this generation of workers happy and working for you.

As a virtual staffing agency, we deal with the same things as you do day in and day out. We’re not immune to the caveats of Generation Y. We deal with the unique issues of this generation through increased back end staff which checks in with and coaches our virtual assistants regularly. We also take great pains to make good matches between clients and virtual assistants and quickly offer to change assignments if it doesn’t “feel right” for the virtual assistant.

Yes, this (generation’s issues) results in a higher turnover of virtual assistants but no higher than what you’d experience in the bricks and mortar world. In many respects we shield our clients from the impacts of turnover by quickly locating new help, interviewing and screening for the right skills and attitude. But even as a virtual staffing agency, we still can’t change a generation or their attitudes so we can’t stop the turnover - we can help our clients get through the turnover.

Even with a high-turnover generation, companies can still benefit from all of the pluses of virtual assistance and virtual staffing. The cost savings over hourly in-office staff still exist; office politics is still absent; the speed of bringing in additional help is still present; the benefits of not having someone sitting in your office holds ground; start up capitol needed (desks, computers, phone lines) of hiring help is not a concern; and ultimate flexibility still exists.

In many ways, hiring virtually is a great way to deal with the issues businesses must face with this generation. This generation wants flexibility. Working virtually offers the ultimate in flexibility, which helps keep the generation happy. Virtual staffing fits this generation like a glove and is one of the best ways to put them to work for you.

If you’d like more information on how to set up a virtual office, please check our article at teamdoubleclick.com/news/free_articles/SetupYourVirtOffice.html.