Here’s How You Can Close More Life Sales This Year

Here are some tips to help you close more life sales this year.

It’s on to quarter number two! How’s the year coming? Are you on pace for your life insurance goals or quotas? Life insurance is one of the hardest insurance products to sell. In fact, those agents who sell solely life insurance generally quit the business within one year. It shouldn’t be this way. With enough knowledge, preparation, and strategy, anyone can make life sales. The good news is that you have most of the year still remaining to reach your goal or quota. Here’s how you can do it:

Know Your Stuff

Imagine you were in need of life-saving brain surgery. Who would you trust more to perform the operation: a physician with 10 years of experience or a neurosurgeon, also with 10 years of experience? You would select the neurosurgeon because they have specialized knowledge of the brain. The same is similar if you want to sell more life insurance. To sell effectively, you need to be an expert in your field to earn credibility and trust from your clients. Focus on learning as much as you can about all different life insurance products and the value they bring to your clients. To make it easier, break up your learning. Start with one product. Master it. Then, move on to the next. With time and dedicated learning, you’ll soon become the expert to whom everyone turns!

Build Meaningful Rapport

You’ve heard it your entire sales career: you need to build a rapport! Talking about the weather, sports and weekend plans are all great starts, but if you’re trying to make life sales, it needs to be meaningful rapport. Ask your prospects questions about their career and life, such as family or where they are from. After all, if they’re going to consider an impactful life decision like purchasing life insurance, you want to get them thinking about their life. Meaningful rapport building will set the mood for the sales conversation. Don’t forget to remain professional throughout your conversations. You don’t want to come across as too care-free. Rather, you want to become the trusted advisor that clients will tell their friends about.

Plan Your Strategy

With careful planning comes results. Envision your goal. How many life policies do you want to sell this year? Then, ask yourself: “How am I going to get there?” Without careful planning, you could end up being another failed life insurance agent statistic. Next, think of your market. Determine who you want to target to sell. Then, invest in leads, perhaps by direct mailers in order to get yourself out there and become a familiar face within your market. As you gain life sales prospects, you’ll want to use sales software to make sure you’re following up with leads in a timely manner. A failure to plan is a plan to fail, so carefully formulate your strategy. If you need help, seek out industry experts or perhaps other life insurance agents to find out what they’re doing to be successful and replicate it.

Are You Promoting Value?

When having a life sales conversation with a client, you must always sell the value. Consider this fact: when examining the average cost of a life insurance policy, the older a client is, the more they will pay for their policy. The added cost to other existing expenses and investments can deter clients of all ages from purchasing life insurance. Handle the sticker shock objection by being consultative in the conversation. Understand your products and create a conversation around the value they have already brought to many of your clients. Paint a verbal picture by giving specific real-life scenarios where your client would need life insurance. For example, let’s say your client has children; make them realize that if they were to suddenly pass away, their children could be held responsible for paying any of their outstanding debt. That’s quite a burden to leave for your kids. Whatever the example may be, make the examples tailored to your client. To do this, you must first know your client’s’ financial needs and goals by asking good open-ended sales questions.

Pick Up the Phone

Have you recently purchased life leads or perhaps a direct mail list? Or maybe you want to begin cross-selling your book? The most direct approach to target your opportunities is to pick up your phone and dial your prospects. This is an aggressive market, which means you need to be aggressive too. Use an auto dialer to help you reach more prospects daily. Of course, you’re probably not in the office all day. You’re out meeting clients and attending events to grow your book, which can leave you wondering if a hot life prospect has called your office. To prevent this, many agents use a mobile phone app that connects to your business line. They’ll receive callbacks from hot prospects no matter where they may be. Are you setting yourself up for success when selling life insurance over the phone? Prepare yourself and become the success you want to be!

Are You Prepared for Rejection?

The ‘no’s’ are just a part of the insurance sales profession. However, rejection is much more prevalent in life insurance because not everyone feels that they need life insurance. It’s not a requirement like automotive insurance is if you have a car, for example. However, keep in mind that a ‘no’ today may not be a ‘no’ down the road. Sometimes simply educating your clients during a review on the value of life insurance gives you a reason to make it a conversation topic in the future. With the seed planted in their minds and their permission for you to reach out, use a calendar that automatically reminds you to follow-up with a call or email. By staying in front of all your prospects, you can sell more life insurance!

Final Thoughts

Life insurance is a tough field, but anyone can do it with passion, knowledge, strategy, and time. To achieve more life sales this year, take these tips into consideration and drop us a comment below with your thoughts. Also, contact our team to learn how industry leaders are selling more life insurance this year using Blitz!