As an agent, successful insurance prospecting to convert leads into clients is the most important challenge to overcome. Many agents struggle to prospect correctly and consistently win over leads. This can cause instability for your business, as leads that don’t convert may end up choosing a different competitor.
If you find yourself in this situation, don’t worry; Quotit is here to help. We’ve put together a list of our top five insurance sales tips for making your prospecting efforts seamless and successful!
5 Prospecting Tips To Help You Earn More Clients
1. Use Every Lead Generation Strategy in the Book
It’s no secret that as an agent at a health insurance agency, you need every tool and resource that can help you maximize your sales and succeed in your insurance prospecting efforts. This includes email marketing campaigns, cold calling, follow-up emails and calls (more on this later), and more. Evaluate every area of your business and look for opportunities to upgrade your lead generation strategies by examining current insurance sales techniques, trends, technology, and experts.
For example, if you find that you’re noticing some inconsistency with your email responses, you may need to revisit your subject lines and make them more enticing to the reader. Or perhaps you’re not getting many calls back. If that’s the case, you may want to assess your script for client meetings. It’s possible there are some areas for improvement, such as your delivery of the script, tone of voice, or listening skills. No matter what it is, take the time to evaluate your business from every angle and research-proven techniques and resources to boost your lead generation efforts.
2. Create a Referral Rewards Program
Often, referral programs are not done correctly, leading many to believe they may not work. When done correctly, referral programs can be one of your most effective marketing tools for generating health insurance leads.
Your referral program should:
- Reward clients for using it
- Make it easy for clients to refer you
- Incentivize even previous clients to work with you again
3. Prepare For and Overcome Objections
If you’ve prospected for some time, you know the typical objections you’ll face. Planning for them is essential for any successful insurance prospecting campaign.
Here’s an example scenario and how you can handle objection:
Prospect: "I'm happy with who I get insurance from now."
You: "I'm glad to hear that (insert name), and I'm not here to come between the relationship you have with your current agent. Instead, I'm only interested in making sure you have access to the best plan for where you are in your life now. You see, the issue with most insurance is that people tend to buy it and forget about it. And the problem with that is that life, situations, and responsibilities change. In most cases, the insurance coverage gets neglected.
Prospect: “I don’t know. My insurance coverage doesn’t seem too bad.”
You: Let me ask you this: When was the last time you had someone look at your existing coverage and compare it to what's available based on where you are in your life today? Here’s just an idea I had: I'll compare your existing coverage and your current needs with what's available today, and if you have the best coverage at the best rates, then I'll tell you. And if I see coverage that I think fits your needs better, and it makes sense to you, then I’ll leave it in your hands. Either way, you'll win. What do you say?"
4. Use Opening Lines That Create Momentum, Not Friction
What you say during the first interaction with your prospects will have more influence on your success than anything else, as it sets the stage for all future interactions. Your goal should be to pique their curiosity and build enough momentum to spur continued conversation.
Here are a few ways you can grasp the attention of your prospects and get them involved in the conversation:
- Ask them about their prior experiences with other agents
- Take the time to understand their needs, as well as their family and life
- Talk to them about their hobbies, passions, and goals in life
The intent is to get the prospect to engage in the conversation, rather than tune it out. Once you get the conversation started, it becomes easier to dive into insurance, which can be a delicate subject to start out with since it involves health, finances, and more.
5. Master the Art of Follow-Ups
Following up with clients and prospects is one of the best ways to continue a conversation with them; however, many insurance agents forget to do so consistently.
Not only should you have follow-up calls or emails done at regular intervals, but you should also ensure you tailor each one specifically to your prospect. Included in the message should be a recap of where you left off, what the next steps are, and a call to action to schedule your next appointment.
Embracing Insurance Sales-Focused Technology
Prospect targeting and data management used to be a time-intensive task that required many hands to execute effectively and organize properly. Nowadays, with sophisticated CRM software technology, these tasks can be completed in seconds.
Equipping yourself with advanced software for email marketing, customer relationship follow-up, quoting, and data management allows you to focus on what’s most important: prospecting for new clients and retaining your existing ones.
To learn more about using technology to help you prospect in today’s digital landscape, get your copy of our guide, Prospecting in the Digital Era, today!
