Insurance sales can be rewarding, but starting out from your own home means you need the drive, the training, and the know-how.
Here, we’ll walk you through how to sell insurance from home and what you need – and won’t need – to get started!
Is Insurance Sales a Good Career Anyway?
Yes! If you set yourself up to succeed with the right tools and insurance sales training for working from home, you can find a lot of success.
In fact, Glassdoor reports that insurance agents can make 60k-109k per year, including bonuses, which makes insurance sales a profitable occupation with a high ceiling for growth.
3 Benefits of Selling Insurance From Home
Higher Earning Potential
Without the time restraints and distractions that come with the traditional office, you can increase your productivity and make more money; the median salary for at-home earners is roughly $8,600 higher than that of in-office workers.
Lower Costs and Emissions
You can save heavily on costs by eliminating your daily commute, eating fewer meals on the run, and needing a babysitter less often. In fact, at-home workers save an average of $432 a year on fuel costs compared to commuting for an in-office job. Additionally, they lower emissions by 29% in just one week when working from home.
Better Schedule
When you sell insurance from home, you have the freedom to set more flexible work hours. Want to sleep in a bit longer or start the day earlier? Working from home makes it possible to work at the times when you’re most efficient.
Sell Insurance From Home in 3 ½ Steps
1. Know the Requirements To Sell Insurance Remotely
If you've been selling insurance for some time, the transition to a home office is relatively straightforward. If you're getting your first start in the insurance world, however, an action plan is a must.
Your first step is to determine what education, testing, licensing, and background checks are required. This will depend on which types of insurance you sell and where you are located.
Pre License education will be required by your state and can usually be completed through online courses that will cover insurance law, ethics, and regulations. It will be necessary to pass the licensing test after your courses are finished to start selling insurance.
Before your license is issued, you will have to go through a background check by your state’s Department of Insurance. This check will include any criminal history and/or pending charges.
2. Organize Your Space
Once you have received your insurance license, it’s time to focus on the equipment and tools you’ll need to sell insurance from home successfully.
Start by building an office space that’s organized, quiet, comfortable, and professional. If you have children or loud pets at home during the day, choose an office space that best eliminates outside noise.
Next, ensure you have the following: high-speed internet – with mobile hotspot capability as a backup option – ample cloud storage, the correct video conferencing apps, such as Zoom or Google Meet, and any apps for doing your job daily, like Asana, Slack, etc.
Additional Tips for Organizing Your Workspace
- Regardless of how paperless you strive to be, you will need an easily accessible file cabinet. Consider a locked file drawer for any sensitive information in adherence to HIPAA privacy and security regulations.
- Consider taking a few minutes to record personal messages for clients. You can do this by simply dedicating a corner of your office space to video messaging and removing distracting items in a well-lit corner.
- It’s equally important to keep your digital life tidy and efficient. By using customer relationship management (CRM) software designed for selling insurance, you can keep client data organized and cut down on paperwork. A CRM keeps track of crucial client information, including names, policy renewal dates, pre-existing health conditions, and more.
3. Use the Right Software and Tech
Adopting the right technology can set your business apart from your competitors and help you sell insurance remotely. With innovative CRM software, for example, you can generate and manage leads, communicate with prospects and clients, provide multi-carrier information, give real-time quotes, deliver proposals, and assist clients with online enrollment services, all in one comprehensive system
CRM software also adds a crucial element to selling insurance from home: automation. Rather than relying on spreadsheets to input data, consider using an advanced CRM that does the work for you. For instance, some software will send reminders about unfinished tasks or remind you to reach out to a lead. Such software also makes it possible to pull customer information directly from databases and add them to emails. Whenever you add automation, it lowers the likelihood of human error and increases your efficiency.
To fully take advantage of technology that can make selling insurance from home easier than ever before, ensure you update your office space with updated tech, have a client-friendly website driven by valuable content, utilize social media to build your brand, and use automation to streamline your daily tasks.
The Half Step: Trial and Error
Tying this all together is the half step in this process: When you have what you need to get started, take the leap, and don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board if you need to!
We encourage you to try new technology, techniques, or tools to make your selling easier. Just ensure you keep notes of what works and what doesn’t work for you, especially when selling insurance to multiple generations. This will help you have a plan for no matter who you’re selling to.
Sell Insurance From Home With Less Stress
Selling insurance from home can be a highly rewarding career, especially if you start with the tips outlined in this blog post. But this is just the first step toward creating a successful, remote career in selling insurance.
Learn more about working remotely in our guide designed for insurance agents and brokers just like you here!
