Do you get a lot of objections when you call your insurance leads?

Are they typically the same ones over and over? Then it may not be a coincidence.

Many insurance agents are quick to blame a lead vendor when it comes to their lack of sales when it comes to insurance leads. However, if your leads are exclusive to you, delivered in real-time, and generated with your demographic needs then it’s not the vendors fault.

Sure, that sounds awful convenient but it’s true. A lead is simply someone who showed interest in your product by submitting a form. That’s it. Vendors can’t make them want to buy. They just gathered their info for you and sent it to you. It’s your job to sell them.

So, let’s help you understand why you’re getting lots of the same objections.

Why insurance leads give objections

First, you’re going to get objections on almost all of your calls. If you’ve been an insurance agent for any length of time, you can deflect some of them and understand it’s a natural thing. In fact, people who buy will give you more objections than those who don’t.

But if you’re getting a lot of objections that end calls for you and they’re the same type, we’re going to go over several common mistakes that will cause a reluctance to purchase a policy.

    1. Information overload

Are you talking price, health, and everything they need to know over the phone before the appointment? That’s a lot for someone to process when they simply filled out a form. Your goal on the phone should be simply to set the appointment.

    2. Not building enough value

If you’re at the appointment and they say they need to think about it, you may have given them information overload by offering too many options (try to stick to 3). But if they say they don’t want it or don’t need it, you may not be showing them enough value. Try showing five benefits before you go into price next time. Then, ask them if they like each one and make them pick a favorite.

    3. You didn’t address their needs

Make sure you are doing a full needs assessment at the beginning of your appointments. It builds the relationship and gives you all their pain points. DO NOT MOVE ON until you feel like the relationship is ready and you know why they are shopping for a policy. The perfect way to start the needs assessment is by simply asking, “What got you thinking about this?”

Now that you know a little bit about why prospects bring up objections, Cody can help you rebuttal your more specific objections and help you get less of them.

If you want to close more of your insurance prospects, you have to ask the right questions.

We have shot tons of insurance sales videos on how to ask questions to gain control of the call and get the answers you want.

During your presentation phase of an appointment, whether on the phone or in person, you should ask questions to get them thinking about what they would do in the event they needed a policy and didn’t have it. These are some of our go-to questions.

Close more insurance prospects with these questions

    1. If you passed away tomorrow, how would your family pay for your final expenses?

This should be a question every life insurance agent asks their prospects. Pressing this pain point will make it evident to them they need to make sure they don’t burden their family with medical bills, funeral expenses, and burial expenses. After asking this, bring up the latest costs of a funeral and burial and the estimated rising costs (currently expected to be $12,000 in the next couple years).

    2. Do you wear glasses or contacts?

This is to cross-sell Dental, Hearing, and Vision plans for Medicare. If you’re at the home and see them wearing them, simply ask how they’re paying for them. Over half of seniors require glasses or contacts. They could actually put money back into their pocket with this add-on.

    3. If you hit an uninsured motorist and injured them, how would you pay for their medical bills?

Many people have no idea they would have to pay out-of-pocket for any medical bills beyond their policy’s coverage. Bring up this fact and ask them what they would be able to pay for out of pocket so you can offer an adequate policy to get them properly covered.

    4. How would your family continue to pay your mortgage in the event you are unable to work or pass away?

For you Mortgage Protection Specialists out there, this is how you can get them to realize their family’s largest asset could be at risk in case they become seriously injured, terminally ill, or pass away. A mortgage protection policy will then seem like a small price to pay to make sure they keep a roof over their family’s head.

If you need more ideas to close your insurance prospects, our coaching and training programs have helped hundreds of agents increase their income and rejuvenate their businesses.

Cross-selling insurance is a fantastic way to add additional revenue as an agent.

By selecting the correct products for your main product’s demographic, you can attack the book of business you have already built instead of having to prospect other clientele.

And, if you present the additional product correctly, it won’t sound like a sales pitch. It will sound like you’re trying to better protect your client instead of milking them for all they’ve got.

Cross-selling insurance strategies

Approach your current clientele

Look at your current book of business. If you’ve kept good notes on them, you should know their needs very well. Medicare Supplement and Advantage agents could easily be pitching Dental, Vision, and Hearing products to nearly everyone. 61% of the entire population wears glasses and that percentage gets higher the older you get. A Dental, Vision, and Hearing plan could actually save your client money. So, be sure you’re establishing good relationships with your clients and keep a solid profile on them.

Stay in touch

You have a system (hopefully) to attack your leads and new prospects. Why not have one to stay in touch with your current customers? Not only will it help keep them on the books, but you can use that as an avenue for cross-selling insurance products. Even if your current data doesn’t say they don’t need your additional product, that doesn’t mean their needs haven’t changed since the last time you spoke with them.  And just as you wouldn’t give up on your lead after one call (again, hopefully) you shouldn’t give up on a cross-sell after one try. Just be sure you’re always doing what’s in the client’s best interest so you don’t hurt your relationship.

E-mail is your friend

Slip an attempt at a cross-sell in your email marketing nurture campaign. Make sure it’s a valuable one and would match their demographic. It builds awareness that you’re more than a one-trick pony and are there for their changing needs. It could also be a way for them to refer you to friends.

This only works if you are on-point with your needs-analysis

If you want to make cross-selling insurance work (and keep your clients happy in general) you have to be doing a fantastic needs-analysis from the jump. Ask lots and lots of questions about your prospects current policies and needs. Ask them if they know of anything that could change in the near future. Just by casually mentioning your secondary products you could have them reach out to you when those things change. Understanding their situation and their future goals will help your cross-selling efforts tremendously.

When you’re ready to get serious about cross-selling insurance or any other revenue-enhancing career moves, Cody Askins can offer ideas and tips in his Success Society coaching program that will make exponential differences for you.

Should you be implementing sales voicemails?

Absolutely.

According to Hubspot.com, 80% of calls go to voicemail, and 90% of first-time voicemails are never returned. Why?

It’s because most voicemails that insurance agents leave are either:

1. Too long
2. Ineffective
3. Not followed-up

So, to help you clean up your sales voicemails, we’re going to look at scripts and tactics to help you get callbacks.

Tactics for sales voicemails

We have six tactics for you to improve your callback ratio:

1. Say the voicemail script with a nice, clear tone. Tone is 86% of your communication.
2. Tell them you have good news for them regarding the information they’ve requested.
3. Express urgency and state you have a few quick questions to ask and go over.
4. Let them know you’re going to be in the area and ask about a drop-off time.
5. Listing the phone number twice in the voicemail will ensure they have your info and the prospect knows who you are.
6. Act like you know the prospect and less like another sales person. The more personal the message, the better.

Now that you have some strategy in mind, let’s take a look at exactly what you should say in your message.

Scripts for your voicemails

You want your voicemails to be around 30 seconds long. Any longer than that, the insurance lead will likely hang up the phone and delete your message.

So, here is the script we use for our sales voicemails:

“Hey (lead’s first name), its (your first name) getting back to you about your request for the new (product) information. I’m the local field underwriter, so call me back real quick to setup delivery. Thanks (lead’s first name), again its (your first name) at (insert number).”

And, don’t forget, you want to leave one voicemail every day that you try to reach your insurance leads. This will improve your chances of receiving a callback as well.

Want to try some different variations of the voicemail? Here are some different variations that you not only can use in your voicemails, but also your texts and emails:

QUICK QUESTION – “Hey, Betty! This is (your name). I’m calling you because you requested information on the new final expense information. I had a quick question for you. Can you give me a call back at (insert number)? Again, this is (your name) at (insert number).”

GOOD NEWS – “Hey, John! This is (your name). I’m calling you because I have great news about that final expense information you requested! Give me a call back at (insert number). Again, this is (your name) at (insert number).”

ASKING ABOUT A DROP-OFF TIME – “Hey, Betty! This is (your name). I’m calling because you requested information on the new final expense information. I’m going to be out in your area on (insert day) and I was wondering what time you’d like me to swing by. Give me a call at (insert number) and let me know. If you don’t call me back I’ll just drop in at. Again, this is (your name) and my number is (insert number).”

Cody Askins goes over sales voicemails more in-depth in his Call to Close program or you can even join his Success Society coaching program if you’re really serious about taking your career to the next level.

Here’s an insurance sales tip to all of you who have trouble selling higher premiums: show higher prices first.

One problem agents have is “selling out of their own wallet” and thinking of how much they’d pay for a policy. Don’t assume they can’t afford it. They know how much they can pay.

Think about this: when they pass, what do you think their family is going to care about most? That their loved one had the cheapest policy or the most protection?

During your appointment process, you should never ask your prospect what their budget is or what price they’re looking for in a policy. If it doesn’t kill your sell, it will cause you to sell lower premiums as a result.

So, how do you show higher premiums and actually make the prospect want it?

Insurance sales tip: Show higher prices first

When you show your three options, show them the premiums starting with the highest amount first. Most of the time, they will select the middle option instead of choosing the cheapest price.

This tactic was proven in a 2012 study by Kwanho Suk, Jiheon Lee, and Donald R. Lichtenstein.

Over an 8-week span (and 1,195 beers), the researchers alternated the sequence of beer prices. They maximized revenue when they sorted prices from high to low. Thanks to a simple change in sequencing, the bar owners now make an extra $0.24 (on average) for every beer sold.

Why does this work?

When consumers are reading through a list of products, they use the first price they see to generate their “reference price.” If the initial prices are high, customers generate a higher reference price. So, when customers use a higher reference price to evaluate the options, all of the options seem like a better deal.

Another reason is the psychology behind loss aversion.

When you show price in ascending order (low to high), customers view each new product as a “loss” in price. With each price hike, they’re gradually losing the ability to pay a lower price. Thus, they feel motivated to minimize that loss by choosing a lower priced product.

But, by showing options in descending order (high to low), customers view each new product as a loss in quality. Thus, they feel motivated to retain a higher quality product.

However, you must get them to perceive the quality in the higher price. Which is why we preach to show the five benefits to a policy before you present the options.

Cody Askins also has ideas specific to each line of insurance on how to sell higher premiums. To get this insurance sales tip, agency building secrets, and one-on-one coaching, Cody has a new coaching program that helped one agent sell $300 more annual premium per sale on average.

If there’s one thing we could stress in every insurance sales training event or video we do it’s that you need to be trying to grab attention.

How can you do this? Consistent content online.

Ideally, this would be video as it has become the king of content. However, whatever you do needs to be posted consistently and so choose your platform with this in mind.

Online attention is all about activity and staying top-of-mind.

You want your warm market to think of you anytime they think about the word insurance. You do that by putting out content, doing creative promotions, and anything else that can grab attention. So, our insurance sales training for the day is going to help you think of ideas to grab attention and turn it into sales.

Ideas for online attention

You don’t have to do something that’s expensive. It can be free pizza Friday’s where you give away a couple large pizzas to everyone who requests a quote. That’s less than $50 with the potential to earn lots of commission. A small budget is not an excuse for lack of self-promotion.

Have a decent budget? Here’s an idea: do you have a local sports team? Give away tickets to their games for form submissions. It’s likely that you can negotiate a cheaper ticket if you buy in bulk or buy an ad in the stadium and negotiate to get free tickets weekly. Then, give away those tickets for form fills. That’s two campaigns for the price of one.

Looking for ideas on content to put out weekly to get attention and build an audience? Lots of successful Medicare agents host seminars to explain the benefits of Medicare Advantage or Supplements to seniors. Advertise a sign-up sheet that collects their phone number and email to book a seat to your seminar. Then, after your seminar, start calling them and asking them if they enjoyed the seminar. Then, see if you can help them with their coverage.

Are you a P&C agent? Post helpful content on how to maintain their houses and vehicles each week. If it’s truly helpful, it’ll get liked and shared, thus building your audience.

Whatever you choose to do, keep track of your numbers to make sure you’re making a healthy profit. That’s the goal of all this after all.

If you would like insurance sales training specific to you, your product line, and budget, Cody Askins has coaching and training programs available.

Too many insurance agents are afraid of picking up the phone to call prospects.

Think of all the tools at your disposal that can help you prospect, set appointments, make sales, and do customer service. What is the first thing that popped in your mind? I’ll bet the majority of you thought of your phone.

And for good reason. This is what “Entrepreneur” said about sales and the phone:

The Internet connects everyone on this planet instantaneously. Social-media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn are being used multiple times a day to catch up on the latest news, find out what your friends are doing, get attention and to market yourself. Yet there exists one device more powerful than all of that when it comes to making and closing sales — the phone.

So, why are so many agents in the insurance industry afraid of the phone? Either they don’t understand the power it has or they suck.

How insurance agents can stop fearing the phone

Stop viewing the phone as your enemy. Instead, view every call as an opportunity to make money. Afraid your prospects don’t want you calling? Sales Force presented a poll that said 92 of customers use their phone before making a purchase.

One change you can make to alter your perspective of the phone is to divide your average commission between your average calls between sales. Then, start attributing that amount to every call made: every call you make is worth X amount of dollars.

But if you’re afraid of picking up the phone because you’re not good at it, you need to fix that.

That change only comes two ways:

1. Training every day
2. Calling more

Very, very few people are good at things from the jump. Their expertise came from practice and, ultimately, doing.

Therefore, you need to be finding ways every day to learn and work on your phone skills. This can come from reading, role-playing, purchasing courses, or mentorship. If you’re serious about your career and your paycheck, you’ll find a way.

To begin with, you may need to stick with a script and focus on tone and asking questions. Most veterans continue using a script because it is efficient and has effective verbiage.

If you need help with training and mentorship, Cody Askins has lots of training courses and coaching programs for insurance agents.

When you break down how to close insurance sales, the focus is truly to build value.

To do this, we go through four steps:

1. Show five benefits
2. Ask eight questions
3. Present three options
4. Ask for the business

The eight questions are sprinkled amongst the other three steps. However, let’s look at each of the other steps a little more in-depth.

Showing five benefits

Present five benefits to the product you are trying to sell. After each benefit, ask them if they like the benefit.

Once you’ve shown all the benefits, ask them which is their favorite. The reason for this step is to build the value and get them saying yes. It also gets them used to making a decision.

Next it’s time to show them some pricing.

How to close insurance sales by showing three options

After showing the five benefits, you will show three levels of pricing. By not showing too many options, it helps avoid the “let me think about it” objection and other information overload problems.

Here’s how you present the three options:

“Now (client’s first name), I’m going to show you three options… And I need you to choose one okay?… Now I think I know which one you will choose, but I need you to tell me.  All three of these options come with all five of those benefits, especially the (favorite benefit) which I know you loved. So, which of these three do you like the best?”

Most of the time, they’re going to choose the one in the middle. Remember: Don’t be afraid to show higher premium policies. Never “sell out of your own wallet.”

Go for the close

Now it’s time to ask for their business. Did they say to comeback later or call them back? Are they starting to act disinterested or like they don’t need your policy?

Here’s a couple closes we like to break out in those situations:

NO CALLBACK CLOSE: “Unfortunately, we have a no-callback policy. We’ve had people say they were going to think about it, but then they never do, and they end up passing away, and then their kids are mad at us for not helping them make a decision. Now, we get along super well, you need it, you want it, and you can afford it, so why don’t you just take it. Now, Let’s see if we can get you approved. What is your full legal name?”

TAKE-AWAY CLOSE: “I’m with ya and I’m really hoping that you are able to qualify for this because some people really want it, but unfortunately I’m not able to give it to everyone because some people are unable to qualify. So, we need to start by seeing if we can get you approved, What is your full legal name?”

Want more training on how to close insurance sales or handling objections? We have training programs on many aspects of insurance sales and even an exclusive coaching program with Cody Askins.

We developed our “Rolling 100” sales prospecting technique after finding a poll on an insurance forum on which 80% of insurance agents said “finding enough people” to pitch was the hardest thing about selling insurance.

Which makes sense because prospecting is easily the thing we are asked about more than anything else.

So, what is the Rolling 100?

Rolling 100 — a sales prospecting technique

Cody Askins says every agent has $100,000 waiting for them in their warm market alone.

The problem is, too many agents think they’re out of warm market prospects after they’ve run out of close friends and family to sell. So, the Rolling 100 is a list of 100 warm market prospects.

Our twist to it is every time you remove a name from the list, you add another one immediately.

Think it’s impossible? Stop confining your list to just family and close friends.

Your warm market, truly, consists of anyone who you have built the slightest relationship with. Here are some examples of some outside-the-box names you could put on your Rolling 100:

• Friends of friends
• Parents’ friends
• Grandparents’ friends
• Former teammates of high school or collegiate teams
• Coaches from those teams
• Former classmates
• Former teachers
• People from church
• Favorite waiter or waitress at restaurants you frequent
• People at an organization or club of which you’re a part
• Mechanic you always use
• Former coworkers
• Former bosses
• People with which you play recreation league ball
• Neighbors

Stop making prospecting difficult

Cody always tells a story of when he sold a policy to the guy who collects his trash. When you truly get serious about prospecting and want to sell insurance, you’ll be able to fill up the names on this list in short time.

Are you hesitant to pitch the names on this list? Think about this:

If something happened to them and they had no coverage or were under insured, you would feel absolutely awful for not trying to protect them.

So, how do you approach a warm market prospect? Present it as either:

1. A lunch or dinner meet-up
2. Them helping you work on your pitch

Need a script? Here you go:

“Hey, (prospect name)! What’s up! *Shoot the breeze and catch up* Hey, I don’t know if you heard, but I’m in the insurance business now. I’m loving it and really enjoy helping people. I know you probably have insurance already. I’m going to see if I can save you some money. Let’s grab dinner. Should I come over there or should you come over to my place?”

It’s that easy. If you’re still having trouble with prospecting, I have training courses that can help you or you can join my Success Society and we can go over strategies specific to your situation.

One of the reasons 92% of insurance agents fail and never figure out how to sell life insurance successfully, or any other insurance for that matter, is their lack of confidence.

They don’t always believe they’ll make the sale.

I’ve always said, “If I believe I’ll make the sale more than the prospect believes I won’t, I’ll usually close the deal.”

And research seems to back it up.

A study conducted at Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Behavioral Decision Research found that displaying confidence was more influential in establishing trust than past performance.

So, this goes to prove if you walk up to a prospect’s home and bring energy and confidence, they’ll be more apt to buy than if you just dump information about the policy on them.

Remember: Prospects are going to have less confidence in your product than you have. That’s why I almost behave over-the-top excited about my policies. Toe the line though, arrogance can sometimes turn a prospect off.

Remaining confident to sell life insurance successfully

How can you consistently maintain your confidence?

I’ve got a couple ways to boost your confidence consistently

Self-affirmations

It may seem silly, but self-affirmations while avoiding self-damaging speech is actually scientifically proven to reduce stress while improving confidence.

Any statement you speak or think that begins with “I am” or similar needs to be something positive.

This doesn’t mean you should say, “I am the greatest salesman” or anything untrue.

Instead, self-affirmations should be reminders of your true potential or prior successes.

Did you make a sale that you didn’t think you’d make before?

Next time you are struggling during a presentation and feel doubt creeping up, bring the memory of that successful sale to the forefront of your thoughts.

Logging your victories

I love writing things down because research proves the physical action of putting pen to paper commits things to memory better.

Start a journal where you write down the sales you make and track all the things that went well during the appointment.

At the end of a successful sale, ask your clients why they bought from you. If they say they don’t know, those who know me know what I’m about to say…ask “If you had to say, what would it be?”

There will probably be a trend that you can nail down and figure out what makes you successful.

 

If you enjoyed these tips, you’ll love being a part of my Success Society. Get more information on that program here.