Role of Insurance Agent: Insurance Order Taker vs. Advisor
Curious what the best and right role of an insurance should be? Our next tip to drive retention might seem counterintuitive, and it’s to be an insurance advisor, instead of just an insurance order-taking. What’s the difference? Well typically in life, we’re taught to be “people pleasers.” Think back to when you were a kid, when you probably had adults telling you to “do what people ask.”
“Do you want to be an order-taker or do you want to be someone that drives those advisor relationships?”
In order to be ridiculously amazing insurance agents, we need to rewire our brains so we stop simply taking orders from customers, and instead, act as their valued advisor.
Here’s why in the battle of insurance order-taker vs. advisor, the advisor will always win:
Advisors are valued
When you call your lawyer or your tax professional, you expect them to have the knowledge necessary to guide you through that process. That’s exactly why we go to these professionals, and we need to start thinking about our own insurance expertise in the same way. If you’re simply picking up the phone, taking your client’s order, and hanging up, your expertise isn’t going to be valued. This is the best role of the insurance agent.
Advisors have conversations
A big part of being an advisor means having real conversations with your clients. If a client calls you upset about their rate, you need to have a conversation about it. You can say: “I see your husband had two tickets this year, so you unfortunately lost your safe driving discount.” Ultimately, people tend to come to independent agencies because they want to have these real conversations with their advisors.
These conversations do three things
When you have conversations as an advisor to your client, three things happen. First, your relationship will deepen and strengthen with your client. Second, you know that if they’re spending the time to talk to you, they’re likely not spending this time with other agents. And thirdly, people will start to really value your expertise and opinion.
The bottom line is that in order to drive retention, you need to trust that your expertise is really valuable to your customers, and you need to use that expertise to weigh in on their needs. This might involve having some longer conversations with your clients, but it’ll result in deeper relationships, and increased retention.
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