Selling Insurance Policies in America is a difficult task. For a country of over 333 million people, statistics show that 8.6% of people in America did not have any form of insurance throughout 2020. While this may not look like a big number, it accounts for approximately 28 million Americans who did not have any form of insurance during last year.
For any other insured person in the country, these numbers may not be important. However, if you are an insurance agent or broker, this may be good news for you as it signifies that there is a huge market for you in America.
If you have ever reached out to a prospect as an insurance agent and heard the dreadful “I will get back to you” response, this article will show all you need to know and do to convert it into a more favorable response.
Are you ready to follow up with your prospects and close more sales as an insurance agent? Here’s what you need to do.
Why do you need to follow up with prospects as an insurance agent?
Not many business owners like to follow up with their prospects. It may be because of the discomfort associated with consistently hitting up someone and talking about your business.
However, if you want to grow your insurance business, here are a couple of reasons why you need to follow up with your prospects.
1. Following up with a prospect allows you to build that relationship needed for them to purchase insurance policies from you.
2. Sometimes, your prospects may need some more time to think about their options and get back to you on what insurance policy they would love to purchase. If you don’t follow up with them, another insurance broker will close the sale.
When the prospect is eventually ready to buy the insurance policy, they will buy from the agent who was more consistent with follow-up.
Now that we have discussed these points, here’s how to effectively follow up with your prospects as an insurance agent.
How to follow up with prospects as an insurance agent
If you want to sell more insurance policies this month, here’s what you can do to convert those prospects into successful buyers.
1. Understand that there are so many ways to reach prospective customers today
All thanks to the internet and technological advancements, you don’t have to spend your entire day cooped up behind a desk, making endless calls. Now, prospects are just a chat away.
You may get across to them via email, social media DMs, calls, or even via teleconferencing apps like Zoom. The point is, there are many ways for you to reach prospects, and as a goal-oriented insurance agent, you should be utilizing these platforms to follow up on your leads as well.
Your follow-up tactics should depend on a few factors, especially the communication platform you have chosen to use.
2. Put your contact details out there
It is not enough to update your Facebook bio or website homepage to say that you are an insurance agent. How can prospects reach you?
If you are using a website as your primary lead generation platform, you should have a contact request form embedded into your website. This way, website visitors can fill in their relevant details, and you get those details fed into your comprehensive database.
If you are active on social media, please ensure that your contact details (like your email address and phone numbers) are there on your social handles. This way, the prospect can reach out to you whenever they want.
3. When a prospect calls or emails
One thing your prospects don’t want is to be kept waiting. It affects almost every type of business as humans usually look for convenience and speed whenever they are about to transact with business owners.
By any chance, if you missed a prospect’s call or email, immediately return it. Consider every missed call you refuse to return a missed opportunity, one that any other insurance agent in America can take. You don’t want that, do you?
4. Schedule a follow-up call with them
If a prospect found their way to you (either your social media handle, email, or website), they may be deciding to purchase an insurance package but just need a little extra push to do so. A sure way to give them that push they need is by scheduling a call with them.
Calls give you the luxury of speaking with the prospect in real-time. When you are on the phone with someone, it is easier to get real-time feedback. Getting a favorable response on call is easier if you play your cards well.
So, at intervals, take a look at all your lead pools and extract the information of new prospects. Reach out to these leads via emails or instant messaging on platforms like WhatsApp and schedule follow-up calls with them. During these calls, keep in mind what you will discuss in the next point.
5. Spend more time talking about the prospect’s needs
You want to sell more insurance packages, but you can’t sell more if you don’t understand your prospects’ needs.
When you get on a follow-up call with a prospect, consciously ask them about what they think their liabilities are. Questions like “what insurance package do you want to purchase” and “how much is your budget” can not provide you with much information. You need to ask questions like, do you have funds for your family to use even if you are not there? Who would take care of your family if you stopped working today? With this information, you can speak about the needs of the prospect and close the sale.
Note that the follow-up call doesn’t have to be a phone call. You can do it via any platform that allows real-time communication between both parties. If you aren’t scared of videos, Zoom or Google Meet are great alternatives.
6. Sometimes, you will need to educate
The more you interact with leads, the more you will understand that some people have no clue about insurance policies and their implications. You will meet many naive customers in your journey as an insurance agent.
You will have to bring them up to speed on what you are offering. That is why the previous step was necessary.
During the sales call, some prospects may ask some ‘dumb’ questions. If you can handle them well, they may likely purchase any of the insurance packages from you.
7. Be consistent
No matter how hard you try, some prospects won’t purchase any of your insurance packages the first time you follow up. For this class of people, consistency is the key. You may need to call them over an extended period before closing that sale.
However, as a wise insurance agent, you must know when to back away from one prospect and channel your energies on others. This is because not everyone will end up purchasing insurance packages from you. Your time should be all-important.
Summary
Follow-up is a crucial aspect to grow your business as an insurance agent. Knowing how to impress your prospects and convert them into customers is vital if you want to hit your sales targets.
One thing to note is that speed is vital when following up with prospects as an insurance agent. Many people end up purchasing their insurance from available agents whenever they are ready. Hence, initiating follow-up conversations immediately after a prospect leaves their contact details is necessary.
To be successful with your insurance business, you need the perfect blend of speed and sales closing skills because 78% business goes to the first company that calls.
