Tips for Young or Inexperienced Insurance Agents

Starting a career as an independent insurance agent is exciting. The benefits that come with running your own business are endless, as are the possibilities of success. At the same time, it can be very challenging to succeed as a young or inexperienced insurance agent. Yet, by following some tried-and-true tips of the industry, you can put yourself in the best position to achieve all you want to achieve. Here are some of the top tips for young or inexperienced insurance agents.

Network

Much of the insurance business revolves around building relationships. Whether it’s with your clients, colleagues or others in your business community, establishing solid relationships is key to finding success in the industry. One of the best ways that you can build solid relationships as a young or inexperienced insurance agent is to network. You do this by joining formal networking groups such as your local business association, an insurance-specific group or even a young professionals group. It’s a good idea to join multiple groups, in fact, as this will allow you to meet as many diverse people as possible. In addition, it’s important to engrave yourself as part of the local community. You can do this by volunteering at local events, joining a local community board and much more. Networking helps to build your brand, and gives you more opportunities to meet prospective clients and gain referrals from those you meet.

Focus Goals on Behaviors

Goal-setting is a crucial part of success in any business. Many times, though, goals are set around the “end-game.” In other words, a goal might be to reach a certain revenue number or open a certain number of new accounts. Young or inexperienced insurance agents need to start a little more basic than that, and they can do this by focusing their goals on the behaviors that will get them to their “end-game” goals. For instance, set goals for how many cold calls you’re going to make in a day, how many new connections you make on LinkedIn each week or how many new people you’re going to meet at a networking event. Focusing on the behaviors that drive the conversions will help you actually achieve your goals.

Get Comfortable with Rejection

Like any sales position, rejection is just a big part of the game for insurance agents. In fact, you’re going to be rejected a lot more than you’re going to be successful in converting prospects into clients — and that’s OK. It’s important to get comfortable with rejection if you want to be a successful insurance agent. Doing so will take time and practice, but anyone can do it. One way to do this is to not view rejection as a complete failure. Instead, use it as a learning experience that you can build on over time. When a prospect says “no thank you,” ask them why. You may be able to glean valuable information from what they say that you can then use to improve your sales pitch, your business model or the products you’re offering. Getting comfortable with rejection will help you persevere and keep picking up the phone when you receive no after no. Eventually, if you keep at it, you’ll start hearing some yeses.

Identify Your Target Audience

When you’re just starting out as an insurance agent, it’s so important to hone in on what you want to sell and who you want to sell it to. Are you going to focus on auto and home insurance, or do you prefer life insurance? There are so many different insurance products to choose from that it can get confusing if you don’t start small and grow. By approaching insurance sales this way, you’ll be able to become very knowledgeable about all the ins and outs of the products you’re selling, essentially becoming an expert in your field. What this also does is allow you to identify your target audience, which is a vital aspect of sales. By identifying the people who are most likely to purchase your products, you’ll be able to cater your branding, marketing and sales efforts directly to them. Creating a customer persona for your target audience will make it even easier to understand who these people are and what makes them tick. When you put in the appropriate time and effort into identifying your target audience upfront, you’ll actually be reducing the amount of work you’ll need to do later, since your entire sales process will be streamlined. This is something that all insurance agents should do, whether they’re young and inexperienced or have been in the industry for many years.

Discover the Good Life

We understand that all of this information can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t need to be when you have the right support. At Good Life Insurance Associates, our experienced insurance sales associates are here to provide support and training for both new and experienced agents. To learn more about us, remember to explore our business support services. Or, to speak with a member of our team about your journey to becoming an independent agent, contact us today!