Let’s be honest. Selling insurance is different than selling anything else. Our time-tested insurance sales training tips can help you move more leads down your sales funnel.
Selling insurance can be challenging to sell. Insurance is expensive to buy but something that you cannot see, hold, or touch. Not to mention, it is one of the instances where you need to look the part and portray yourself as experiences, informed, and there to ensure their company is protected. Essentially, you are selling yourself as much as you are selling coverage they are buying. So if you are new the world of selling insurance – or are just looking for ways to improve your commission this quarter – here are 15 insurance sales training ideas to try.
1. Dress Professionally
When meeting with clients in person, they are much more likely to take you seriously if you look the part. It will give you more confidence as well. If you struggle with confidence when in a face-to-face meeting, try sharpening up your wardrobe.
2. Find Way to Connect on Personal-Level
Customers are all about relationships. So if you have a big meeting coming up, take a moment to learn more about their background. What does their company do? Where did the owner go to school? What you find out about interests, hobbies, or perhaps events they spoken at or articles they have written? All of those things are great examples of ways to connect on a personal level.
3. Ask about Their Favorite Team or Hobby
Do some homework prior to a meeting to find out what they like. Do share a favorite sports team? If so, do work to learn players’ names, statistics, or outcomes from recent games. Do you share a favorite hobby? Work that into the conversation and quickly the walls will come down and you can relate to them in way that you can use to your advantage to close to the deal.
4. Don’t Use Slang
My English teacher in high school always said to use “standard” vocabulary. And you know what? He was right. People judge you by not only what you say but how you say it. Avoid using slang like, “no problem-o” or “right on.” Be not only courteous, but polite, and always avoid slang of any kind.
5. Use Combined Work Experience
With insurance, people are not just buying from you, they are buying from your entire agency. Calculate the combined years of work and professional experience that they will receive as a customer from your business.
6. Update Your Phone Voice
The more mature your target customer is, the more professional you will need to sound. Practice and listen to how your voice really sounds to ensure that you are coming across as smart, confident, and experienced.
7. Don’t Forget About Young Buyers
Though sometimes not top-of-mind, young consumers need to buy insurance too. But their top concerns might be different than older consumers. But still they are renting apartments, buying homes, buying cars, and starting businesses. Find those customers and don’t forget to sell to them too!
The Blitz For Sales Follow-Up system empowers you with the tools you need to nurture relationships and improve sales performance! Schedule a free demo with us, and we’ll show you how we can help you automate your sales and marketing follow up to increase efficiency at your company!
8. Listen More and Speak Less
Young salespeople might not realize yet the importance of limiting your impulses. If you want to show your lead that you value them, open your ears and really listen to what they have to say. Do not feel the need to always interject unless you have something value to offer. Prove to them you value what they have to say.
9. Working Hard Pays Off
If you get butterflies when meeting with clients because you are afraid of making a mistake, the best way to combat that is to be prepared. Work harder than your colleagues to ensure you are as prepared as you can be prior to talking to a client. It will pay off every time.
10. Except that Selling Insurance is Hard
That in essence is the point of this entire post isn’t it! Selling insurance is tough, often arduous work. Those agents that have the top sales number make some sacrifices to get to where they are. If that is a goal of yours, accept that you will have to work hard to get that level of success.
11. Learn about Marketing and Advertising
You do not need to become a marketing expert, but you do need to understand how your agency or business can leverage the latest marketing trends and technology to find and nurture leads, and win more accounts. Our recent post on how to generate more insurance sale leads is a great place to start.
12. Sell Benefits Not Product Features
When talking to any customer, what’s important is not what your company does or what it sells. What matters to your clients is how your business can help solve a problem or issue they are facing. How can what your selling help them resolve a problem?
13. Don’t Overdo the Industry Jargon
While it might seem like a smart move to learn as much as you can about insurance and when wow them with inserting an industry term into every other sentence, think again. Like anything, too much of anything can be a bad thing. Learn the jargon, due use it sparingly and only when appropriate.
14. Listen for Buying Cues
When talking to a client, really listen to what they have to say. Often times, the direction of the conversation will lead you into an opportunity to talk about a product that can help them, or another coverage option that might be a better fit.
15. Remember It’s Not All About the Price
Even in the insurance industry, people might shop for the best price, but that isn’t the only factor that matters to them. Consider what other things your business has to offer such as support, claims processing, responsiveness, and more.
To be successful in sales, you need the best tools to save time so you can close more deals! Contact us today to schedule a free demo and we will share how Blitz’s automated sales and marketing follow up system can help your organization increase sales performance!
What is the best way you have found to increase sales at your insurance agency or business? Share your feedback and tips in the comments below!