Why You Need Any Insurance Sales Process For Non-Sales People

The customer walks in the door of an insurance agency and the “Receptionist” greets him kindly.  She has been there for years and he has been visiting her once a month for 15 years. 

“Hey, Tim, how are you today?”

“Oh, I am OK, Sally graduates this weekend and I am running errands, I need to get this paid.” 

“Oh wow, Sally, your granddaughter, it is hard to believe she is already graduating, I remember when she was only 3.”

Mary has been at the agency for 20 years. She refuses to get licensed, knows more about insurance than most, builds a great rapport, and knows the clients by name.  

She tends to the needy clients, the ones that come in or call every month. Sound familiar? 

Some agencies have gotten rid of these staff members because they are not licensed, but I am not sure if I agree with that. In our Insurance Sales Process, this receptionist could actually be your best lead source! 

Have you asked her how many insurance policies she has? Can she tell you about them? What about her family and their policies? Does she have life insurance? I BET SHE DOES!

The problem we have:  “We overlook characteristics and traits of people who are not licensed because we know they can’t talk about specific insurance products. While failing to realize they may be our biggest assets.” 

What we fail to realize is:

• They have policies that they understand.
• They have Family and Friends they want to be protected too
• They usually handle the needy clients we don’t want to deal with
• They have listened to insurance agents on the phone for years
• You’d be surprised how much they know about insurance!

WAIT, I bet you’re saying she can’t talk about insurance.  

YES, SHE CAN! She can talk about her own! I bet she knows her policies, what carrier they are with, the liability limits, deductibles and what they are and how much she pays.  

Who in an insurance agency doesn’t? Now on rare occasions, you will have unlicensed people that just don’t care, but oftentimes as long as these staff members have been around insurance, they stay for a reason and they care! 

These staff members have built up a rapport with every walk-in client you have ever had, they know their life stories and they know what assets they may have and what they may be missing.

Insurance Sales Process Leads to Everyone Being A Part of Growth

But they don’t like to talk about  Insurance Sales and I get that, but do they have to talk specifically about sales? 

They can ASK QUESTIONS like:

• Oh, you have a lake house, do you have a boat?
• Your daughter is getting married, what is the ring like, do you need that added to a policy?
• You collect baseball cards, what would happen if they were destroyed, do you have them covered?
• Timmy just started driving, did you know there is a policy that would cover him better?
• You have a puppy, have you thought about pet insurance?

Cross-Selling Isn’t Hard (With a Sales Process)

If they are using the above statements, they are really just gathering information from the client. This information isn’t any different from a typical conversation they may be having with the clients. 

If they like to chit-chat with clients HERE IS THEIR EXCUSE. As long as they get a cross sales or a policy for a producer to quote they can chit chat with the client. 

If they aren’t helping the business grow with their intentions then maybe they aren’t the right fit for the agency after all. 

Service Team Members Know the Customer

Have you ever asked Mary about a client and she tells you their whole life story? Is that when the light bulb goes on? Right? 

How do you know all of this information we don’t have all of these policies, well it is probably because THEY aren’t asking or are not passing the information to a producer for a quote.

What can they do?

• Cross Sell
• Upsell
• Get people on EFT or pay in full
• Get referrals
• Get reviews
• Share stories

Incentivizing The Team For Growth

You cannot expect them to hand all of this information over to another staff member for quotes and not get something for their efforts.  

You don’t have to pay for every lead, BUT you should pay for anything sold. Give them a percentage of what the commission is.  

They did get the referral and that is the first step in the  Insurance Sales Process. Incentives don’t always have to be MONEY, as Stephen points out in the blog banter, some staff prefer a day off, massage, swag,  a fun day and so many other things. 

Make sure you ask the team what incentivizes them. What makes them happy and what would be a reward for them? 

The “Only” A Service Person Dilema

Many agencies have CSRs that ONLY service books of business. For some reason, they think all they can do is service work. 

Well in this case that is all we are asking them to do, but we need to push a little bit harder! We need to require our service staff to ask for different pieces of the sales process. 

They can ask for their own reviews of their service. We can also ask them to cross-sell things the customers they are servicing have a need for.

  “If we know a client needs another policy, or has another policy with another agent and we are not actively working to earn that business we are failing!”

We are failing the customer and we are failing our agency. Being a “service only” person is no excuse for losing business for the agency. 

We need to look harder at these customers as part of our family and try harder to protect ALL of their assets. If we look in the mirror and review our own insurance and our staff do the same thing we would notice a big difference with coverage we have compared to the clients. 

Because we know about insurance we have a lot of coverage, high limits, and additional policies. So why don’t our clients? 

We need to play show and tell with our own policies.  If we use our policies/coverages as examples and stories we immediately can relate to the client in a different way, we show value for the policies they may not understand or may not have, or may not even know about. 

EDUCATE, EDUCATE, EDUCATE!!!

Our Insurance Sales Process should be INCLUDED in our Service Process as well. Our service and sales department go hand in hand. If they don’t, we have some restructuring to do.

For many agency team members they need a plan to go with their insurance sales process. We a FREE template for you to use with your team to plan their week for insurance sales success. 

The Word SALES is Scary

The word sales can be scary for some people. If they are an extravert they sell themselves all the time, this is easy for them. 

They may just be afraid they can’t sell, which is their hang-up. If they are an introvert it will be a little harder, but can still be done. Service can be easier and less scary because there aren’t numbers hanging over your head, so it makes you less accountable. 

We need to start making all staff accountable for increasing the size of the agency, not only by retaining and doing renewal review calls but also cross-selling during those calls!

So why are we here? We are here to: 

#1 Protect the client 

#2 Build an agency that we love to work at 

#3 Earn a paycheck. 

I think number 3 is usually number 1, but in all reality should it be? When we choose to work somewhere shouldn’t we choose to be there to build and grow something we are passionate about? When do we lose our passion and why? 

How do we keep that passion alive? Some say with incentives and challenges, others don’t know.

Turning INTROVERTS Into SALES PEOPLE

Introverts will shy away from sales because you have to talk to people, but if you are a service person you are talking to people anyway.  

They need to use the service moments to their advantage and cross-sell and upsell accounts. They need to memorize scripts and get into GOOD habits of asking for different items. 

Do you rent or own your home? Is a great place to start!

How Waitstaff Sell At Restaurants

Well, they really are sales people. 

Even fast food restaurant staff are, have you ever heard “Do you want fries with that?” When McDonald’s noticed people buying the entree with no fries they stepped out of their comfort zone, they almost assumed the sale but used a simple statement, how many people decline fries? 

I know insurance is much harder and more complicated, but if you don’t offer it and you don’t ask they can’t say no. Don’t forget many people don’t know what umbrellas are or scheduling items, once you educate them, they may educate others and sell the products for you. 

If a policy is something you can’t live without, why do you allow your clients, friends, and family to live without it?

Product of the Month

Use the Product of the Month idea. Focus on a different product every month and have staff focus on selling it or at least asking about it. Just like a waiter and/or waitress sells the meal of the day, start selling the product of the day.

Would you love to target past unsold quotes? They are vetted quality leads. We have an insurance sales process designed to win back lost quotes – check it out. 

Two Referrals/Reviews a Day

Challenge your staff ALL OF THEM to get 2 referrals/reviews a day. Make it easy for them. Create snippets for them to text to clients, and a link to your pages for Google reviews. 

Get some “I LOVE REFERRALS” stickers, find what works, and provide what they need! If you have a lot of walk-in payments stickers on the receipt are a great option. 

How often do you text clients? Many businesses have automated texts that go out a couple of hours to a day later asking for referrals or reviews. It is definitely something to look into. 

Mindset

Staff have gotten into a mindset of keeping doing things the same way all the time. These ways have built bad habits, it is time to change. One of my favorite quotes is:

“When you stop learning you stop moving forward (moving forward means you have to change and evolve with the industry and technology.)” 

Our agencies have to keep up with the times and we have to train and educate staff to do that. There are so many agents that have been where they are for so long they “think” they do everything right because they have seniority. 

Well, news flash! A teacher that has 30 years of experience can learn new teaching techniques from a new teacher, fresh ideas, and fresh perspectives. 

The same thing in the insurance industry. The agents don’t necessarily go to “agent school” they just take an insurance licensing test, HOWEVER, they do know younger generations and are usually well versed on new technology and can have great new ideas on how to relate to the younger generations. 

Let them express their ideas, discuss them and find ways to implement them. Get all staff on board to try it.  Make a deal with the older staff members and have them try it at least 10 times before complaining about how it doesn’t work and talk through why they think it doesn’t work. 

They may be right, but they also may be wrong because they are using bias and they don’t want to change!

In conclusion, non-sales people can really make a difference in growing the agency and can be a HUGE part of the  Insurance Sales Process. 

They can:

• Cross-sell
• Upsell
• Bring in referrals
• Ask for reviews

All of your staff should be focused on both sales and retention in one way or another. If only the sales department introduces the service staff to the client that is the beginning of them helping with service and retention. 

Your sales staff should always be cross-selling, upselling, and trying to get referrals and reviews from clients. 

You cannot grow if you don’t ask. And remember you don’t need to PAY for leads you have a ton of clients that can be sold other policies and they have friends and family you could be helping, focus on that and watch grow! 

Don’t forget to book an Intro meeting with APP and see how we can help your agency with your biggest challenges!!!