Converting Service Calls Into Insurance Cross-Selling Opportunities
We’re up to part three of our series on cross-selling, and we already covered cross-selling at the point of sale, and during renewals. Today, we’re discussing converting service calls into insurance cross-selling opportunities.
“I want everybody to take a deep breath, put your shoulders back and say I’m not going to take each call as a transaction, I’m going to take each call as an insurance agent and make recommendations, and that can include cross-selling.”
When a customer calls into your agency, you actually have an excellent opportunity to cross-sell by doing things such as looking for gaps in their coverage, and helping find discounts that customers may be missing out on. But much of the time, agents fail to act on this opportunity, for two main reasons.
Here are the two big traps that we often hear about converting service calls into insurance cross-selling opportunities, and how to get over them.
1. We simply process the transaction
When a customer calls in with a question or a problem, most of the time we dive into problem solving mode, and simply process the transaction. Instead, we need to go into account management mode, which is where we’ll really find opportunities for converting service calls into insurance cross-selling opportunities. When we do this, we slow down to speed up, we look at each account carefully, and we take the time to go beyond processing the transaction.
2. We think there’s not enough time
One of the biggest barriers agents face is feeling like either they don’t have enough time, or that their customers don’t want to take the time to hear about cross-selling opportunities. One thing we need to keep in mind is that when a client calls in for a service call, they absolutely have the time. No client is going to say “you have two and a half minutes to do this endorsement” and rush through the process. We should definitely take the extra minute or two to look, educate, and encourage. Agents themselves also may feel like they don’t have the time, but again, an extra minute or two is a wise investment, which can lead to massive return.
Making these changes isn’t as easy as flipping a switch, but these changes are about modifying our mindset. If we slow down and take time to look at our accounts, and remember that taking a few extra minutes out of a call is perfectly acceptable, we’ll have much more luck converting service calls into insurance cross-selling opportunities.
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