Long-term success in insurance sales will depend on your ability to keep expanding your business. Whether you are a seasoned veteran or just starting your career, growth can be challenging. Adding new clients requires a great deal of time, effort, and money spent on marketing campaigns and lead generation. Instead of focusing on finding new clients, consider the vast opportunities you have within your current book of business. Increase your total revenue per client by selling ancillary insurance products to the people who already trust your expertise.
Why Sell Ancillary Insurance?
Expanding your business doesn’t need to come with a huge price tag. It can cost exponentially more to sell to new clients than existing ones. Nurture the relationships you have with your current clients by following up with frequent emails, keeping in touch through social media, and including them in newsletters and industry updates.
If your existing clients have confidence in you, they will turn to you for solutions to their additional insurance needs. If you’ve already sold health insurance to a customer, take advantage of the connection you’ve already established. Even if they aren’t interested in buying ancillary insurance products immediately, building a strong relationship during and after a sale will result in their loyalty when they are ready to purchase other coverage.
Clients don’t want to have to work with multiple brokers, and they shouldn’t have to. Create a one-stop shop for all their insurance needs. If you don’t offer them access to a multiple-product platform, they may choose to work with someone who can. Let your existing customers know which ancillary insurance products you sell and encourage them to consider their options.
With confidence in your industry expertise and your understanding of their specific needs and preferences, your clients will return to you repeatedly for policy renewals, referrals, and ancillary products.
Types of Ancillary Insurance
Consider selling some of the following ancillary insurance solutions to broaden the scope of your cross-selling capabilities.
- Short Term Health - Intended to help cover a gap in coverage during transitions, short term health insurance protects individuals that may be between jobs, waiting for employer group coverage to begin, or in need of a temporary plan. Applicants will be subjected to medical underwriting and pre-existing conditions will not be covered.
- Life - Protecting family members when the primary income earner dies, life insurance distributes a lump-sum payment to beneficiaries upon the death of the insured. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 97% of employees who have access to group life insurance take advantage of it. If your clients’ employers don’t offer this benefit, they are likely to appreciate the value of the life insurance products you sell.
- Dental - Dental coverage can include preventive and diagnostic care including annual checkups, cleanings, x-rays, and more. Without dental insurance, an unexpected oral health crisis can be incredibly costly.
- Accident - A great complimentary offering to healthcare coverage, accident insurance will help cover the costs of an accidental injury, like a broken bone, concussion, burn, or laceration. Many accident policies offer a lump sum payment to help pay for out-of-pocket expenses that can add up quickly, such as a hospital visit, emergency treatment, ambulance services, and more.
- Vision - Essential services covered by a vision care plan can include preventative eye care, vision exams, prescription lenses, and even surgery. Vision care can be critical to overall wellness and continued good health. Early symptoms of high blood pressure, diabetes and other diseases can be detected in an eye exam before showing up in a regular physical exam.
- Critical Illness - The financial damage caused by serious illness can be devastating to a family. Critical illness insurance can provide a lump-sum payment when a pre-determined event occurs, such as a heart attack, coma, life-threatening cancer, renal failure, stroke, or other critical health issue. The cash payment can be used to cover non-medical costs, such as mortgage payments, groceries, or car payments.
Selling Ancillary Products? Know Your Plans
Once you decide which ancillary products you will offer, get to know the details of those plans. Organize the products into tiers of costs and benefits, including low, mid-range, and high priced options so that your customers can determine the level of coverage they want and are comfortable paying for.
Research shows that consumers will find value in ancillary products that cost 5-15% of the core product they are purchasing – in this case, a comprehensive health insurance plan. Focus on the benefits that your client will find value in.
If you already worked with a client to successfully find them healthcare insurance, use the insight you gained into their particular circumstances to help them find additional coverage solutions. Depending on where your client lives, you can cater your sales pitch to address the regional market and economic conditions as well.
The Key to Success? Cross-Selling
Make it easy for your customers to buy multiple products at once:
- Use a Cross-Sell Engine and Shopping Cart to provide automatic product recommendations based on what your client already has in their cart.
- Drive sales by promoting bundles offered by carriers or create your own to encourage clients to purchase a complete package of coverage, such as health, dental, vision, and life.
- Thoughtfully pair complimentary products. For instance, if a client buys a high-deductible health plan, suggest investing in a critical illness plan to help cover the high deductible in the case of a catastrophic illness or injury.
- Focus on maximizing the value for your client, not just making more revenue. Embrace your role as an advisor, not just a sales agent. Try to understand the challenges facing each of your clients. Presenting custom solutions for your clients will have them appreciating your integrity, compassion, and of course, your industry expertise.
Now is the Time to Pursue Ancillary Product Sales
As an insurance sales agent, you have seen the rising costs in healthcare coverage over the past few years. Premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket costs have been increasing, making it impossible for some individuals and families to stay afloat in the midst of an unexpected health crisis. Selling ancillary insurance products will provide much-needed solutions to gaps in coverage.
You also understand how the Affordable Care Act has resulted in huge reductions in commissions. In order to succeed, top brokers and agents have to turn to ancillary sales to generate more revenue. Use your existing customer base to take advantage of these opportunities.
Work with your existing clients to understand all of their needs – and maintain your competitive edge by using a customizable ancillary quote engine with up-to-date rates, underwriting and benefit plan details. Integrate your system with a customer relationship management (CRM) tool to help you stay in touch with clients regularly and track the progress of a sale.
