We have finally made it to the final of our six-part series on cross selling life insurance in your P&C agency. The first five parts (see visual below to check them out) took you from the basics of generating life insurance leads (and leaning on your existing clients to get started) through the selling and closing processes.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6Now we’re going to close this out with a wonderful way to get free life leads through providing exceptional customer service.
So, what could possibly be left to talk about? Despite all the core skills we’ve discussed up to this point—and all are critical to building a life book that stays with you—it is possible this last step might be the most important: hand delivering each life insurance policy.
That’s it? Deliver the policy? There are two important reasons to deliver your life insurance policies.
- It solidifies your position as their go-to agent. They will appreciate that you’ve taken your valuable time to show interest in their needs. This is also another opportunity to explain what they have purchased and answer questions.
- Tees up future discussions. Once the policy details are finished, we encourage agents to ask the clients if they could spend a few more minutes answering some questions that will allow the agent to provide additional recommendations to meet their needs (questions the agent might never had asked had they sold a P&C product). For example:
- How comfortable are they with their current financial plan for retirement?
- What keeps them up at night regarding their financial future?
- How well do they think they have saved for retirement?
- How would they describe their appetite for risk?
- How important is it to have a steady stream of income in retirement?
- How comfortable are they in providing for their family if they are disabled?
There are many more questions you could ask, but I think you get the idea.
Selling life insurance isn’t the only opportunity. Many clients will be very interested in hearing about other products such as fixed annuities and products such as Indexed Universal Life (IUL) that provide low risk ways to balance their portfolio and further protect their assets.
Here’s the key: you’re not there to make another sale. You’re there to get another meeting.
These questions are solely to get information about what’s important to the client so you can provide ideas and options. At the end simply ask if it’s ok to call them back with some ideas. They will appreciate the courtesy of you asking and, almost 10 times out of 10, they will say yes.
And, while you’re not there to sell, you will undoubtedly find a client who is intrigued with a product. In that case, give me a call and we can help them on the spot.
Now we understand it’s not always possible to deliver every policy, but in those cases where you can’t be there in person you should try to have a phone call, with exactly the same objectives as the visit.
You should also try to meet with your client each year to conduct policy reviews to protect your clients and your book of business.
By delivering your life insurance policies you are closing one door and opening another. It will be time well spent.
We hope you enjoyed this six-part series on Cross Selling Life Insurance in Your P&C agency. Call me today to get started. You can reach me at my office, 866-547-8780 ext. 102, or through email at drew@redbirdadvisors.
