One of the most effective ways for insurance agents to increase their sales is not to attract more clients, but to cross sell to already-existing clients. When you cross sell, you won’t have to start from scratch. You can harness the power of the current relationships you have already established to increase your revenue.
Here are the top five tips to cross sell life insurance to your clients.
1. Build Your Relationships
Consumers make purchases from people they trust, and they’ll continue to make purchases from people with whom they’ve built solid relationships. All insurance agents need to realize that the client-agent relationship does not stop when the client purchases a new insurance product. In fact, this is only the early stage of the relationship.
Agents should constantly be building their client relationships over time. You can do this by educating them on ways they can save money, by providing resources for how to be safe when driving, and more direct tips on insurance products they may not already have.
When you position yourself as an expert through content, and tailor that content to your audience, you’ll be building a long-lasting trusting relationship that will hopefully result in increased future sales.
2. Understand Your Clients’ Needs
When you are prospecting for new sales, you’ll be gaining a lot of information about potential clients. Those who purchase an insurance policy from you will provide you with their basic information you’ll need for the plan, and this information can go a long way in helping you understand who they are and what their insurance needs might be.
Make sure to have casual conversations with your clients so you can use the time you have with them to learn more about them. If they don’t have a spouse or children now, you may find through conversations that they are engaged, have a significant other and/or have a baby on the way.
This information can prove very valuable in suggesting why life insurance might be a good idea for them. Even if they came to you to purchase only an auto insurance plan, understanding your clients’ situations will help you understand their real current and future insurance needs.
3. Develop a System
Agents should always develop a well-defined sales system. This system doesn’t have to be the same for each agent, as it should be catered specifically to the agent and his or her clients.
A system will integrate all of the ideas an agent has for cross selling and result in a well-thought-out and clearly-defined plan on how to execute on them. It’s always a good idea to write this system down so that you have a blueprint to refer back to as you’re progressing through the steps.
When you have a written plan, it helps to reinforce the importance of the system and keeps you accountable to the plan you have created.
4. Track Your Progress
You should approach cross selling life insurance the same way you do new sales for any other insurance products you sell. You need to track your progress to your ultimate end goal.
This can be done in a number of different ways. At the very least, you should be gathering information and taking notes every time you have a touch point with a potential cross sell client. What information did you send to them? How did they respond to it? What is the next follow-up and when will that occur?
If you’re not tracking the life-cycle of your cross-sell funnel, it will be next to impossible for you to make real progress toward your goal of increasing your revenue.
5. Follow-Up
All insurance agents should know that it’s important not to give up if you fail to make inroads during prospecting. You also need to know how to balance being persistent with being too aggressive or pushy.
This aspect of cross selling is extremely important, as you’ll be dealing with current clients who already contribute to your bottom line. In other words, if you anger or annoy these clients, it’s possible they may decide to shop around for another agent, which could result in you losing revenue instead of gaining it.
This is why a lot of cross selling will occur over a long period of time. If you approach presenting additional products to current clients in a more passive and helpful way, you’ll likely get a favorable response. Listen to what your clients say to you when they say “no thank you” or “not right now.” This information will prove valuable for when and how you should follow-up in the future.
Work with an Insurance Marketing Organization
As a leading Insurance Marketing Organization (IMO), Good Life Insurance Associates (GLIA) provides a full range of insurance products, back-office services, and tools to support your individual clients’ wants and needs. We provide financial advisors and insurance agents in our network across the country with access to a full range of premium carriers, expert support services, and an industry-leading compensation plan.
Contact us today to learn how we can help you establish and grow your insurance business!