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Hitting Your Goals With an Effective New Business Insurance Process

Posted on September 9, 2024 by Michelle Aguilar

Does Having A New Business Insurance Process Help You Hit Your Sales Goals?

For some insurance agents, a new business insurance process can feel restrictive. The team might get overwhelmed by focusing on the steps instead of selling. However, top sales professionals in the industry know that a well-designed sales process helps you sell more insurance. 

Every opportunity has a beginning, middle, and end. The way you handle each step can significantly impact your sales success.

In this blog, we’ll discuss whether “winging it” or repeating the process each time helps or hurts you. We’ll also look at whether your agency has a sales process or a quoting process.

Ways Having a New Business Sales Process Helps You Sell More Insurance

Have you ever been on the insurance sales roller coaster? You have a great month, a horrible month, an okay month, and then you repeat that cycle over and over again. This means your process is inconsistent, and you’re not doing everything that made you successful. You go back to the basics, get back on track, and then fall off again. This isn’t a reliable way to consistently hit your sales goals. 

Here are five reasons why a consistent new business insurance process helps you sell more insurance.

#1 Managing Your Biggest Resource – Time

With a good process, you can find more time for sales. A solid process outlines how much time to spend on different leads, what to reject, and when to move on. Without a process, many agents let their emotions take over. They might hang on because they’ve already invested time, have fewer leads, or simply like the person. A written process helps you stay focused on what matters most.

#2 Identifying Metrics

When you manage your sales pipeline with simple math, you can quickly see where to focus. In sales, there are two key metrics (though you can track more, these two are essential):

  • Closing Ratio: Do you need more leads or need to close more deals?
  • Number of Opportunities: Do you need to close more deals or find more leads?

When you can measure your sales pipeline and you’re on the sales roller coaster, only two things matter: getting more opportunities or closing deals at a higher rate. You can overcome a sales slump by consistently using the same approach.

#3 Test & Refine

In sales, small tweaks can make a huge difference. Simple changes, like adjusting a word in your script or quoting over the phone, can have a big impact. Often, as creatures of habit, we stick to doing the same things repeatedly. When we’re told to change, our brains resist. However, having a process makes it easier to test and refine your approach, allowing you to review your metrics to see if it’s working. 

When you can see that a new strategy is beneficial, it’s incredibly motivating!

#4 Benchmark Against Your Peers

When the entire agency follows the same new business insurance process, it’s easy to see what the top sales team members are doing. You can listen to their scripts and learn their numbers. Personally, I’ve always had a drive to be the best. I know that I don’t know everything, especially in sales. Sales is not something you master; it’s something you continually work on. 

When everyone uses the same process, you can identify strategies that might boost your sales. One commonly missed opportunity is cross-selling on new business.

#5 You May Forget Key Steps

When you have a sales process, you don’t have to overthink things. I fly every week, and I love knowing that a pilot, even with 30 years of experience, uses a checklist to ensure the plane is safe. 

In sales, we sometimes get overconfident and think we can just wing it without a quote sheet. WRONG. Being too comfortable means you’re not reaching your potential and just going through the motions. Of course, you’ll miss something. Often, what’s missing is the actual sales part of the process, and we fall into a routine of just quoting prices, starting the roller coaster ride again.

Bottom Line: A sales process is not confined, it’s freeing. There is freedom in discipline. 

Do You Have a Sales Process or Quoting Process in New Business Insurance Process

Many agencies have a quoting process but lack a sales process. Here’s what a sales process includes that a quoting process might be missing:

  • Written agency value statement
  • Written agent personal pitch
  • Sales rapport-building questions (before underwriting questions)
  • Lead qualification standards
  • Strategy to efficiently gather underwriting information
  • Plan to set an appointment, quote over the phone, and/or present on a virtual meeting
  • Providing the opportunity 2-3 options
  • Custom proposal
  • Core carriers to quote
  • Rehearsed quote presentation
  • Planned close
  • Clearly written follow-up process
  • Documented common objections and responses
  • Plan to attract post-sales referrals

Now pull up your new business insurance process – which of these is missing?

Conclusion in New Business Insurance Process

Consistency is key when you are in sales. End the sales roller coaster by committing to a reliable sales process. Don’t reinvent the wheel – try our new business insurance process template. If your team needs insurance sales training, we can help!

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