sales and marketing
Marketing for Life Insurance Leads
By Robyn Sharp
As an Allstate agent, life insurance is
an important part of your business. However, selling financial services is often a
lot harder and less consistent than selling
auto and home insurance. Why is that?
For the most part, the reason is simple.
Many agents do not regularly prospect
for Allstate Financial Services (AFS);
instead they choose to focus on auto and
homeowner insurance. Most agents naturally gravitate to these lines of insurance
because they are more profitable (paying
higher long-term commissions) and because they have a greater level of awareness to the general public. From the consumer’s viewpoint, auto and homeowner
insurance are products that have built-in
mandates. This is because nearly every
state requires vehicle owners purchase
liability insurance to drive, and lenders
that back consumer mortgages require
34 — Exclusivefocus
the borrower to insure their home. These
types of coverage are not optional. Life
insurance, for the most part, is a choice.
What Works and What Does Not
As with other lines of insurance,
achieving consistent results in AFS requires a marketing system. Life insurance clients rarely just wander into your
agency. You have to make the sale happen. However, as with any marketing
system that is utilized in your agency,
some are good, and some are not.
Managers used to always say that the best
way to write life insurance was to simply,
“ask everyone.” Forget everything else, they
would say. Do this, and you will succeed.
This is not necessarily bad advice; it
is just missing the rest of the pieces of a
compelling marketing plan. It does not
inspire the client to take action, and it
certainly does not give you a clear way to
follow up.
As every agent knows, operating an
agency in the 21st century means the
points of contact with your client will
not always include a visit to the office.
Your clients, or prospective clients, may
not live close to your office and may prefer to use email as their desired method
for communicating with you Adding a
sentence in an email questioning them
about their life insurance needs hardly
qualifies as an efficient method for marketing life insurance. And, if a client
does make their way into the confines of
your office, it is more than probable they
have been asked about their life insurance needs a time or two. In this regard,
the repetitiveness of just asking about life
insurance begins to lose its effectiveness.
It should be clear at this point that “ask
Fall 2014
everyone” is not a strategy. It is, however,
an acceptable part of a year-long process
that if done properly and appropriately,
can yield positive results.
The Up-Sell
Every new client should know that
you offer (and recommend) life insurance. This discussion should be included
right from the start of the relationship.
Begin by quoting an extremely basic
term policy for every new client. The
quote can simply be based on age and
smoking status. Print the quote and include it in the new business documents
for the sale (auto or homeowner) you
are completing. Review the quote as
they sign their paperwork, and let them
know how easy it is to start life insurance coverage. Ask if they already have
a life insurance policy in force, and try to
gather as much detail as possible without
progressing into a sales presentation. You
will appear confident as a fact-finder and
consultant as opposed to an agent who is
trying to pad their app count for the day.
Gauge your client’s response from
here. Obviously, if they request more
information, you are going to follow
through.
Even if their interest level during this
initial meeting is below making an immediate request for coverage, you should
consider every future point of contact a
way to ask for updated information regarding job status, new additions to the
family, etc.
Contacting your prospects can be done
through telemarketing, email blasts, postcards, or a combination of all of the above.
Each month, send something about
life insurance to this list. If the list is too
big (making it hard to follow up or too
expensive if you are using regular mail),
break it down into smaller segments.
฀
฀ ฀
฀
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฀
newspaper. Make photocopies when it is
printed and mail to your list.
There are many different things you
can do to educate and reach your target
list on a monthly basis. When you start
seeing the policies roll in, you’ll be even
more motivated to keep marketing.
Life Marketing Ideas:
฀
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quote every 90 days. Follow up with a
phone call two days later.
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monial from an existing client about how
it eased their mind to have the life insurance coverage in place.
฀
฀ ฀
฀
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฀
aboutQDSDDIXOODGWLI
a family that DIDN’T have the
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+HOS (You can find
coverage
they 9LHZ
needed.
some great stories and articles on the
LifeHappens.org website.)
Make the Process Simple
Count on your clients being busy and
distracted. Anything that doesn’t pop up
on their radar in a time sensitive or urgent way gets ignored.
If you begin a conversation about life
insurance by describing it as a process
that is long, drawn out, and difficult,
your clients are going to put it on the
6,*1,1
back burner until life slows down. No
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agent would ever state it that way, but
your potential customers will interpret
references to required blood draws, ac-
Now What?
By using this process during each
sale, you will develop an excellent list of
potential life insurance clients. If your
agency’s sales production is down in a
particular month, and you are not significantly adding to your life insurance
prospect base, consider running an audit
of your current book to add to this growing list. Target auto clients between the
ages of 25 and 55 who own a home.
Find a good way to keep track of these
names, either in your agency management system or on a simple spreadsheet.
Then start planning your campaign!
A marketing campaign should be kept
simple. It can be as easy as targeting a
list of people with a consistent message.
Fall 2014
Exclusivefocus — 35
quiring doctor’s records and requests for
information about family medical history as being anything but an easy process
for completing a life application.
Many successful agents make presale assumptions regarding the type of
policy that would fit a particular client’s
needs. For example, you might suggest
an amount of coverage based on the
information obtained while writing a
homeowner policy. While this approach
is more of an art than a science, it can
also demonstrate to your prospect that
you are keyed in on their characteristics
as opposed to suggesting an amount of
coverage or type of policy that likely will
not meet their needs.
A policy with coverage limits that does
not require a medical exam may be the
best fit for younger, more active clients
who have not had the time to acquire a
significant amount of assets.
Older clients may have a more predictable schedule with flexibility when
it comes to meeting with you to discuss
their needs. For this type of client, it may
be better to meet several times in order
to determine the correct product and
coverage limits.
Take a look at the various policies
Allstate offers. Is there a term policy
that doesn’t require a medical exam at
the coverage limit you have targeted for
your client? Do you have a policy type
and coverage limit that is conducive
to completing the application over the
phone?
Knowing your client and the product
options that are appropriate for them are
key to a successful and expedited sales
process. The use of an EFS and the skillset they possess is an option for certain
clients, but do not discount the ease with
which you can accomplish a basic life sale.
While many agents are reluctant to reach
out to their FSL for support, they may be
an excellent source for product information or a liaison with life underwriting.
YOU ARE THEIR
Your Clients Hold You in High Esteem…
They Value Your Guidance and Opinions…
They Count on You and Follow Your Advice …
When Your Customers Transfer Out of State, Continue to be Their Hero…
CALL THE NAPAA AGENT TO AGENT HOTLINE:
877.627.2248
We help locate experienced Allstate Agents for customers
transferring from state to state
Requests by email should be sent to HQ@napaausa.org
36 — Exclusivefocus
Do Not Require an In-office
Appointment
When a prospective client responds to
your marketing efforts with a request for
a quote, do not immediately assume it is
necessary for them to come to your agency. By methodically taking them through
much of the same process as a face-toface meeting, you will be surprised how
many clients will appreciate the ease of
doing business with you over the phone.
The speed of technology allows most,
if not all, consumer products to be purchased this way. Why not life insurance?
It is imperative to have excellent skills
in completing the online app. And after
you have made the assumptive close and
hit the enter key, don’t forget to remind
the client that you will be stopping by
their work or home to get their signature. It takes a little more work on your
part to secure the sale, but you will be
streamlining your client’s involvement
while simultaneously providing them the
protection they need.
Do not forget to congratulate yourself for the work you do. By installing a
simple process for selling life insurance
into your agency’s daily routine, you will
ultimately be making a difference in your
clients’ lives. This is the rewarding part
of being an insurance agent and even if
you do not always feel appreciated, this
is one element of our business that cannot be forgotten. When you tell someone
that purchasing life insurance is important, it is the truth!
Make sure to communicate to your staff
just how critical life insurance is and how
important they should feel for being able
to provide this valuable coverage to your
customers. Of course, no agent wants
their clients ever to have to use the proceeds from a life policy, but if they do, you
will know that your team stepped up and
made a true difference in a family’s security. There is nothing more fulfilling than
that. You are not just selling life policies
to hit a quota, you are helping to secure
a family’s future from the unknown. Ef
Robyn Sharp is a former agent and owner
of Mega Agency Marketing. Visit www.
agencyupdates.com for a free copy of her report “5 Quick Start Secrets to Selling More
Insurance (In 7 Days Or Less).”
Fall 2014