Daily sales & marketing tips for insurance profressionals

We’re not in the business of reinventing the wheel here at the Agent Blog, so we’re going back to basics with these tips. You’ll find nothing fancy or groundbreaking. There will be no new buzz words or clever metaphors. But if you can master each of these directives, you will be an unstoppable sales force.

Demonstrate authority by showing your thorough knowledge of your industry and products. Authority is persuasive.

Provide social proof. Use the words of past clients when possible. On your web site, in your email signature, etc. Tell a story about how you saved someone a bundle of money.

Be honest. Do what you say you’re going to do, etc, etc.

Be nice. It’s amazing how far nice will get you.

Be generous. Go out of your way to do something for the client. He or she will feel an obligation to reciprocate.

Work on your tone. This should be at the top of the list. Take your cue from barbers and hairdressers—seriously.

Go for the early up-sell. This may make the original quote seem more reasonable.

Keep your message simple and sticky. Even if you have 10 great reasons why the prospect should buy your product, give three. People can hold three bits of information. Give them ten and they’ll retain nothing.

Send notes. Even to those that got away—they will be pleasantly surprised and may just change their minds.

Ask for the sale. (Hey, you’d be surprised … )

As always, your comments are encouraged. What did I miss?

Customer retention is essential to a thriving business. The fewer clients you lose, the fewer you’ll need to add. It’s basic math (my favorite kind).

But a lot of agents lose track of their clients after the policies have been issued, and the result is an alienated customer base that lacks loyalty and will chase after a lower price at the first opportunity.

The key to retention is to show them you care. It’s essential to instilling a sense of loyalty. Send a card or call every once in a while, even an email while do most of the time (but a card is better). Stay on their radar.

We’re emotional beings, we humans. Econ 101 teaches us that consumers are rational, utility-maximizing individuals, but we’re not, at least not most of the time. You know the phase “people buy on emotion and justify with facts”? What about “buy now, worry later”? Have you been watching the Dow lately? I think I’ve made my point.

When you build a relationship, even a superficial one that’s based on sending a Christmas card each year, you make a connection with the emotional part of the client’s brain—their limbic brain, if you want to get scientific. Loyalty resides in the limbic region.

If you don’t build an emotional connection, the client’s neocortex (the rational, penny-pinching part) takes over. They will start to wonder … Could I get a better deal elsewhere? Cold calculation ensues: Why would I stay with my current agent if I could better deal?

Then the client is no longer your client.

It’s tough to sell insurance when you’d rather be in bed watching TV and eating Cheetos. Your sales pitch will lack that necessary enthusiasm and urgency.

Let’s face it: Winter is not for the faint of heart. Even the heartiest among us experience a mental dip in these cold and dark months, and those susceptible to seasonal affective disorder (SAD) experience a drastic and prolonged decline in mood. SAD affects 11 million Americans, according to WebMD.

Good news: there are a few simple things you can do to boost your mood in the winter.

Marc Salem writes a column called “Mind Control” for Men’s Health magazine. He recommends a few “mental fakeouts” to trick your sunlight-starved brain into a brighter state. His mood hacks: Listen to a favorite tune, put on a blue shirt (naturally relaxing), and sniff a lemon. Another tip, which sounds ridiculous but is supported by a couple of scientific studies, is to force a smile. Doing so may trigger an actual physiological response. Just don’t walk around with a big fake grin. That’s a little creepy.

You might also consider taking a walk during your lunch break, especially if it’s a sunny day. Not only does physical activity help raise spirits, the sun’s rays will deliver much-needed vitamin D to your body. Vitamin D is associated with mood. You can also increase your vitamin D intake by eating fatty fish (salmon and tuna, for example) and milk.

Raise your mood, increase your effectiveness, boost profits. Go!

Comedian-musician-slacker Chris Hardwick has a great article in this month’s Wired magazine on his “flirtations with the 4-hour work week” and other productivity schemes.

As a freelancer with an internet-age attention span, Hardwick maintains a constant struggle to get stuff done. “My days are like eBay shipments: a few tangible things and a whole lot of packing peanuts,” Hardwick explains. “I obviously need help being the boss of me. So I decided to try an experiment: I’d spend two weeks absorbing, in succession, three well-known productivity systems and see if I could find one that worked for those of us who count income in 1099s instead of W-2s.”

Hardwick chose three popular productivity books: David Allen’s Getting Things Done, Julie Morgenstern’s Never Check E-Mail in the Morning, and Timothy Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek. His article chronicles his progress under their respective teachings. The result is pretty hilarious, particularly the part when he uses Allen’s GTD method to kill a black widow spider living in his drainpipe.

Our mania for productivity has spawned a major industry, and paradoxically, a great wasting of time, especially for people with easy access to the internet, where getting stuff done is known as “lifehacking.” I know from experience—I’ve spent more time than I like to admit on sites like Lifehacker.com and 43Folders.com.

That is not to say that productivity books and web sites aren’t helpful. You just have to realize that it’s easy to become addicted to the idea of productivity—which is, psychologically, a close relative of the idea of utopia.

Utopias will never exist (at least not temporal ones). Nor will total productivity. By all means, read books and try to create more free time for yourself. Most of us could trim some fat from our days. But know when to give up on the idea of total efficiently—chasing after that ideal will only make you really, really, inefficient.

Hat tip to Claire at Terms & Conditions for linking to this list of the most ridiculous insurance claims of 2008. Attorney Randy Maniloff, of the law firm White and Williams LLP, compiled a list entitled “Special Report: Coverage For Dummies.”

Maniloff explains: “Reading a lot of insurance coverage cases makes you realize that some people do really dumb stuff . Their not-to-be believed behavior causes injury, a lawsuit is filed and then comes the inevitable insurance claim. The results are mixed, but more often than not courts do not allow these tomfools to pass the buck.”

The number one Tomfool? A motivational speaker from South Carolina. The verdict?

General liability coverage not available to a motivational speaker for injuries sustained by a program participant when, at the repeated urgings of the speaker, the participant attempted to break a board with her hands. Ouch.

Here’s one of my faves:

No coverage owed under a general liability policy for an insured who injured an old friend by saying hello to him using his “signature greeting” —placing him in a headlock and squeezing while simultaneously asking how he was doing.

Huh. Guess the headlock hello hasn’t caught on yet.

If you’ve got a taste for legal writing, check out Maniloff’s review of the most significant industry-related court cases of the year. Good stuff.

A lot has changed in insurance sales, and that begs the question: What are the essential attributes of a successful agent in the 21^st century?

Persistence

Persistence has always been a requirement in sales, but it may be more important than ever. Why? Because the general populace is busier and more distracted than ever. The added challenge is that persistence is now predicated on first getting permission—interruption tactics no longer work. (Read more on permission vs. interruption marketing.)

Proficiency with technology

The information revolution fundamentally and irrevocably changed the insurance industry:

Technology has greatly affected the insurance business, making it much more efficient and giving the agent the ability to take on more clients. Agents’ computers are now linked directly to insurance carriers via the Internet, making the tasks of obtaining price quotes and processing applications and service requests faster and easier. Computers also allow agents to be better informed about new products that the insurance carriers may be offering.

–Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor

Those agents who are limber enough to adapt to an ever-changing technological environment will be greatly rewarded. In short, sales success these days is less about being a good schmoozer and more about being a good techie.

Ability to specialize in multiple areas

More and more, agents sell a panoply of insurance and financial products, from auto and homeowner’s policies to mutual funds and mortgage loans. This enlarged job description places a heavy cognitive load on today’s agent and requires a mind that can retain a great deal of information AND dispense it in a way that is clear to the layman. The agents that can do these things effectively will have greater success in cross-selling, which has become increasingly important.

Reasonable expectations

Let’s look at this attribute from the perspective of online leads. While the use of internet leads isn’t particularly new—InsureMe came online in 1995—many agents are only now getting on the bandwagon, often at the behest of the people at corporate, who realize that their agents must go where the people are going—online, to get free quotes.

Selling internet leads requires an additional layer or two of persistence mixed with a set of reasonable expectations. This is a balancing act. If you treat your online leads like expendable commodities, they’ll respond poorly and you’ll be left with a lousy closing ratio. On the flip side, if you make a point to convert every prospect into a sale, you’ll burn out and get discouraged in short order. Selling online leads is a numbers game that requires tenacity, technological savvy and a systems-based approach that also has human touch.

I know that you are always looking for ways to increase your sales, ways to market more effectively. And I know that the insurance industry is trying to catch up with the internet savvy world.

About a year ago, we reported on the social network “sexy insurance”. It definitely sounded interesting, but maybe not entirely serious. We also have seen the growth of bulletin boards, where agents can ask other agents questions (Insurance Forum).

I just received notice of another insurance social network: InsuranceCampus.org, initiated by Walter Podgurski, longtime insurance marketing promoter.

What is available at this website today is just the skeleton of what this network could be. It is easy to sign up for, and if you have a particular topic you wish to discuss, you can easily create a ‘group’ and see if anyone else is interested.

For social networks like this to be successful, we need many people involved. So check it out and see if you might be interested. It can’t hurt too much, doesn’t cost anything and it is probably time for you to get involved with an industry social network.

Here’s a helpful reminder that may bring added conviction and confidence to your sales pitch:

You’re selling a product that everyone actually needs.

You’re not selling a clear malt beverage or mobile treadmill. You’re selling insurance—the cornerstone of sound financial planning, the best protection from the often cruel and costly whims of man and nature.

There’s more. Insurance is complicated as well as essential. You are in a unique position to help people understand it. You are a provider of a valuable service.

It’s easy to forget that, and when you do, it’s common to lose confidence in what you’re saying, stop believing in what you’re selling.

So remember – your job is helping people.

Do you know how most politicians win elections? They ask voters to vote for them.

Seriously. I’m no Karl Rove or David Plouffe, but I can say with confidence that asking for votes is a winning campaign strategy.

Ok, candidates must also give voters reasons to vote for them, but there’s an important point at which the candidate has to stop giving reasons, ask directly for votes and then hope for the best.

The same holds for insurance agents. Do you want the sale? Make sure your prospect knows it and tell him or her explicitly. It usually makes for a nice closing statement: I would love to provide you with insurance, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns, etc., etc.

By stating your own wishes, you add an important layer to your prospect’s thought process: When it comes time to buy a policy, he or she will compare prices, name brands, coverages, etc. But that person will also do a quick calculation: Which agent asked for my business? Which agent wants me?

In a world of infinite choices, most of them indistinguishable from each other, many consumers just want a reason, however small, to pick one or the other. That way they can move on. Ask for their business and you give them a reason.

Somewhere in the transition from adolescence to adulthood we lose the instinct to make things simple: we forget to make plain our desires.

To be sure, you won’t always get what you ask for. But you’ll increase your odds greatly if the world knows what you want.

You may have noticed lately that posts have slowed to a mere trickle. Not to worry—the Agent Blog hasn’t dried up. In fact, behind the scenes we’ve been furiously preparing for the launch of Agent Blog 2.0.

In short, the future of the blog looks pretty bright.

While the focus will remain—daily sales and marketing tips—we’ll soon be sporting a new design, blogging platform (Wordpress) and hosting provider. Those last two things probably don’t excite you, but we’re pretty stoked. So keep checking in … we hope (fingers crossed) to roll it out next week.

In the process of preparing for the transition, I’ve been combing through posts of yore, back when Megan Mahan ably helmed the Agent Blog. I recommend poking through the archives—there’s good stuff in there! And maybe it’s just me, but I think we made some pretty memorable videos.

Since it’s Friday, I’ll leave you with something to get you into the weekend mood. Something … provocative:

CLICK HERE

Have a great weekend.