Daily sales & marketing tips for insurance professionals

How do you focus your energy when it comes to converting prospects to customers? Do you give the guy who makes a million excuses the same time, energy and effort as the one who is barely on the fence about doing business with you—or the one who’s ready and willing to listen right now?

The first type of prospect will suck the life out of you. You need to get excuse-makers, gossipers and complainers like these out of your life because they don’t lead to viable business. The more time you spend with them, the more disappointed and unproductive you’ll become—and that can mean death to your business.

So what type of client should you be focusing on? Those who are balanced, grounded and positive. Clients like this take responsibility for their own lives and actions and won’t place the blame for their failures on your shoulders. They work hard, resolve problems and conflicts as they come up, communicate freely and respect your expertise.

Focusing on this type of lead helps you work smarter, rather than harder, by making the most of your time and energy. In the end, the mature prospect will help you close more sales. Therefore, it’s well worth your time to learn how to identify what type of customer you’re dealing with, so you can focus on the right personality type and grow your business.

The best way to tell one type of client from another is by examining their actions. The person who sets appointments with you and then misses them, or comes to the table without any money, is wasting your time. So throw them overboard—along with defensive, rude, unhappy excuse-makers.

Some people may be genuinely interested in what you have to offer, but don’t have the time to meet with you, are over-extended financially or simply lack focus. Don’t toss these prospects out the window, but put them on the back burner to contact at some point in the future.

Now, spend most of your time and effort on leads who are looking for the products you sell, are open to letting you into their lives, and tend to make things happen. Clients like these are worth their weight in gold, and can really help boost your bottom line!

By determining where your prospects sit from the start, you can improve your closing ratio and become much more successful as an agent.

So don’t get bogged down by the wrong prospects. Renew your focus and improve your success long term by centering on the right type of client. 

Then spend some time making sure you’re at the top of your game by getting adequate sleep, eating a healty diet, thinking positively and surrounding yourself with successful role models. You’ll stay challenged and productive—and your success rate will show it.

From the moment a prospect walks through your door, shakes your hand and begins talking, proceeding through the sale is all about psychology.

If, at that point, you can learn to identify the type of person he or she is, understand their values, read their body language and see how they’re feeling by the expression on their face—no matter what they’re actually saying—you can increase your sales and start making more money.

So says Michael Lovas, co-founder of AboutPeople, a unique consultancy focused on helping companies and individuals better read, attract and connect with their A-Level clients.

According to Lovas, learning to read and respond to prospects in a way that’s meaningful to them makes it easy to craft a response they can understand and, effectively, get inside their heads.

Not too many years ago, insurance agents were well versed in personality types. In fact, it was part of their sales training. But these days, those numbers have dropped significantly, leaving especially newer agents scratching their heads, as they try to figure out how to appeal to each customer individually.

If you’ve taken personality type training to help you succeed in business, good for you! We’d love to hear how it has helped you in business. If not, check out Lovas’s article entitled, Why your sales efforts fail to read more about the psychology involved in sales and common personality types you need to learn to reach.

By knowing how to read and understand prospects, you can reach more customers and make your sales presentations clear to them. And that’s the first step to making more sales.

If I asked what your customers think of you, what would you say? Do you let them know you’re happy to hear from them, they can reach you at any time, and you’re ready and willing to listen and help?

As we begin a new year, now is a great time to take stock of the impression you and your business make on customers – and what you can do to squelch bad habits that may be standing in your way of success.

In my book, sincerity is the number one attitude that leads to making a good impression – and I’ll bet, if you asked them, most of your customers would agree. After all, if what you say isn’t backed by a supportive tone of voice and positive, affirming action, people will stop listening altogether. And that can spell disaster for your business.

If you’d like to minimize negative impact, show more concern for your customers and business associates, and squash nasty habits that could be affecting sales, take stock of these do’s and don’ts – and start making changes now:

1. Never start a conversation, sales pitch, email or letter with “we.” Instead, every time you converse, focus on the customer and his or her needs.
2. Drop the jargon. No one likes feeling like they’re talking to someone who’s speaking another language.
3. Ask questions. This is the best way to discover your clients’ true needs.
4. Tell stories. They increase involvement and stimulate imaginations.
5. Share your expertise – but do it humbly! Your knowledge and experience are your best assets.
6. Don’t let what others do influence your marketing. You know what works for you; use it.
7. Acknowledge emails promptly. This is good etiquette and shows clients you’re available and listening.
8. Never use a testimonial unless it’s real. Anything less will reflect poorly on your business. Use testimonials willing to be contacted, and be ready and able to give out their information to anyone who asks for a reference.

Ready to improve your business image? Try tips like these this year – and please, let us know the results!

For More Information:

Creating the Right Impression: 22 Dos and Don’ts

Building Solid Client Relationships

Are you regarded as a good listener? How do you know? In my opinion, active listening is one of those skills which requires constant attention and practice. I still find myself once in a while interrupting when I shouldn’t or thinking about what I am going to say next in a conversation and forget what a person was stating to me- yikes! This is not good practice, especially in a sales/customer service situation.

 Therefore, if you find yourself in the same predicament from time to time, remember that active listening is crucial when determining the needs of a customer and providing the best products for them. Active listening involves more than just listening…active listening involves probing for more information, paraphrasing, and acknowledgement that you are listening. If you do not listen well, you may lose a sale.

 Here’s a fun listening exercise that I participated in during a training class a few years back (however, it’s better facilitated as a listening exercise- not a reading exercise). It goes like this:

 You are the bus driver. At stop #1 three people got on the bus, one of them was wearing a blue baseball cap. At stop # 2, five people got on and one exited the bus. At stop #3 two people got on, one person was carrying a bag and the person with the blue baseball cap got off. What is the bus driver’s age?

 If you answered the age, which is yours by the way since you are the bus driver, then you passed! If not, then that’s okay, this exercise is a reminder to us all to make the effort to listen effectively to our customers. (Keep in mind that this exercise should be provided verbally in order to be effective)

 Have some fun with your co-workers and see who can pass the listening test!

Emailing is a fantastic marketing tool, and if you haven’t already hopped on board the email train, please check out Katherine’s blog on October 27th! (You can read it here)  It also can be the cause of a common conundrum for agents these days: how often should you email, and how do you distinguish another ‘emailer’ from a prospect that needs a phone call?

If you’re wondering how early you should start sending emails to your prospects, let me answer your question with this question:  How soon do you start calling a prospect once you receive one?  Now you have your answer.  Want more?  Okay: as 21^st century human beings we are exposed to millions of sensory sounds, smells, tastes, and images every day.   We’re used to it.  We’re also used to tuning out most of it.  In fact, unless our brain makes a conscious effort to actually move information into our long term memory, we only retain cursory information for about 20 seconds. Then it’s gone and other images, sounds, smells, etc take its place.  So, you’re not only competing against all the other noise out there to get your prospect’s attention, you’re competing for a spot in their memory.   Take every chance you can to get noticed: a phone call is always a great way to sell to a lead, but an email (which you can save and resend multiple times with a few minor adjustments) will also give them something visual to remember you by.  Plus, it puts all of your contact information in writing right in front of them!

I love email.  I can receive and pay bills, keep in touch with friends and family, order movies, and keep up with my favorite retailers, all in the same log-in.  That being said, I also am part of the technical generation – a generation which defies any age restrictions – and therefore am more comfortable navigating my inbox than my voicemail.  My insurance agent’s email address is saved to my email address book, but unless his phone number is on his email signature, I have no idea what it is. So, how DO you distinguish someone that is more comfortable with making contact through email versus someone that needs a phone call?  You won’t really know until you try, but if someone has extended to you an extra opportunity to contact them, why ignore it?  Seize the opportunity that the prospect themselves have given you.

 How do you rate yourself as an insurance agent? What measurements do you use to obtain feedback from your customers? How do you know if you are meeting customer expectations? Some organizations use postcards/surveys or online marketing tools to solicit feedback. Some call the consumer after a certain amount of time to obtain feedback. For example, I have received calls from car dealerships after a completed service and do take the time to answer their questions.

InsureMe obtains feedback in a number of ways. We’ve created surveys, and yes, we do read them; we conduct follow up calls to hear feedback; and we also obtain great feedback through daily conversations with our agents. We value your feedback, as without it, we cannot continually improve our products and services.

Whichever marketing feedback tool works for you is best – the key is doing what it takes to obtain instrumental feedback either for you or your organization. Consumer feedback allows an organization or an individual agent to see what they are doing right or what they need to improve, not only from an individual/agency standpoint but also for competitive advantage reasons.

I was reading an article in my favorite local magazine recently about a small sample of business people that had found their true passions in life (career-wise) and were now pursuing them. (Of course, the article included an easy five-step guide on how all adults could follow in that group’s footsteps if they wanted.)

While I generally try to steer away from anything that guarantees to make my life better in anything less than ten steps – standards please! – this particular article got me thinking.  How many of us factor how passionate we are for something into our career choices? And does our passion, or even our personal strength, for what we do translate into our success?

I recently placed a call to an agency and was greeted with the following message “Why, it’s a sunny day at (insert generic insurance agency name), thank you for calling. How can I brighten your day?”  I’m sure you’re probably thinking that this is a really fun and original greeting, and it probably was when the agent first thought it up, but the person that recited it said it in a complete monotone.

Obviously, the passion for this particular job had run out.  Unfortunately, the person’s lack of passion for their job was directly translated to their success because they were the first person any consumer came into contact with when calling their business.

OK, maybe this is a fairly obvious example, but it’s also one that causes more lost sales than people realize.

While it’s neither logical nor practical to take what we’re literally passionate about and then do that exact thing every day (I have a passion for shoes and sleep, but I don’t work in a shoe store or sleep 24 hours a day!), it is possible to take a look at what drives you and apply it to your business in a positive way.  In order to do that, of course, you have to KNOW what your strengths are first.

Are your strengths in line with your business values and purpose?  If you need a little help in this department, might I recommend a great read, Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D.  Once you’ve got your strengths and your passions all sorted out, sit down and figure out how you can apply them to growing your business.

According to the StrengthFinder in Now, Discover Your Strengths, one of my strengths is Woo, which means I enjoy meeting new people, and I find the challenge of meeting and winning over strangers energizing rather than intimidating.  This has been a very helpful strength for me to have in this business.

To find your strengths, you can go to strengthfinder.com or purchase a copy of the book.

Today, the Internet is one of the first places people go to shop for their insurance needs. But is everyone who shops for insurance online looking for just the lowest price?  I don’t think so.  I think they want a fair price, but they want a good product from a good name as well.

Twenty years ago, people went to the phone book for almost everything.  Every year, I get the phone book dropped on my front porch, and I throw it on a shelf where it stays unopened.

I think the same thing happens in many households today.  When you call Internet leads and just give them a price, they will probably go with the lowest one unless you tell them what sets you apart from your competitors.  Insurance companies are not apples and apples.

These days it’s much easier to comparison shop than ever before, but Internet shoppers are just like everyone else.  They are looking for the best value for their money.  In other words, if you can show them the total value package your agency offers—things like great customer service, added discounts, and an easy and supportive claims process, in addition to price—they will be less tempted to go with the lowest price and more likely to stay when they decide to compare rates again.

I joined a fantasy football league this year.  This is my first year playing, and I’m having a lot of fun.  I ended up getting last pick in the draft, and I thought I was going to be at a serious disadvantage, but I won my first game.  It helped that my opponent picked a quarterback who likes to throw to people wearing the wrong color jerseys.

When I help agents set up an account, they sometimes tell me they want to put themselves on vacation on the weekends because they are not working then.  They may feel they will be at a disadvantage if they get leads when their office is closed and can’t follow-up right away.  However, I think that you may be putting yourself at a disadvantage if you don’t take leads on the weekends.  Many people who request quotes on the weekends have dependable 9:00 – 5:00 weekday jobs and may become a really good client.  If I were to request a quote, I would do it on the weekend because that’s when I have the time.  People who request quotes on weekends will make the time to talk to you if you make the time to contact them.

As it turned out, I picked a very good fantasy football team (with my wife’s help) even though I was last in the draft.  I was able to pick twice in a row, and I picked up a couple of good players.  Weekend leads may appear to be a disadvantage, but if you don’t try them, you may miss out on that perfect client for your agency.

Ah…vacation…..doesn’t that sound nice right about now? I’m thinking of a trip that includes a lounge chair…a good book… and quiet. I’m not headed out-of-town this holiday season, but thinking maybe Spain in the spring…

 Okay…back to work. With the holidays fast approaching, I want to take a moment to discuss the option of placing your account on a “vacation” hold. Some of you may be wondering when you last took a vacation; especially some of the new insurance agents. 

 Placing your account on vacation status doesn’t mean you are actually taking a vacation, setting an account to vacation status can be used for a couple of reasons: actually taking a vacation and the need to stop the leads for a period of time or placing a temporary freeze on the account to catch up with the leads. For whatever reason, you can place a hold on your account by setting the account status to vacation.

 You can access your account online anytime and set vacation start and stop dates. Simply go to http://agent.insureme.com, logon to your InsureMe account, click on the Account tab and click on Set Vacation.

 I’d love to hear you if have an upcoming trip to an exciting location. Safe travels!