Last week we spoke about part 1, the recipe to cross selling life insurance in your P&C agency. In that article we walked through why P&C agents are more likely to possess the secret recipe over other insurance agents. We also included a bonus video explaining the process and script language to pivot to more life insurance discussions with your existing book. This process doesn’t happen overnight and takes practice, which is why we are talking about it again!
So, what the heck is Step 2 of this process? Marketing!!
In sales-driven businesses like insurance, marketing is often mistaken for sales. And, vice versa. Think about sales and marketing as a car: marketing is the engine and selling is the driver.
Sales don’t happen without leads and leads don’t happen without some type of marketing.
The most successful agents, life or otherwise, are those who commit to a marketing plan to generate leads. Remember this about marketing: if you had a new product to introduce would you run just one ad? Would you just send one direct mail letter? Or one seminar?
Insurance Cross Selling Statistics
As you know the more policies you have in a home, the better your retention is going to be. We reached out to our friends at J.D. Power to pull some cross selling statistics we feel are important for you to know.
- 35% of Gen Y homeowners are not taking advantage of bundled deals.
- Gen Y customers are overwhelmingly less satisfied with their homeowner insurer, making customer experience a huge opportunity to differentiate yourself.
- Gen Y customers are significantly less satisfied than the baby boomers which means you need to appeal to these two types of customers completely differently.
- 48% of Gen Y say they change insurance due to price which emphasizes the importance for you to offer multiple plans.
- 75% of satisfied customers state the will “definitely” recommend their insurer.
- 77% of satisfied customers “definitely” will renew their policies.
There are many tactics, but there are two excellent tactics—one more common and the other coming on strong—we think every P&C agent should utilize.
Now that you understand some of the important reasons why you should be cross selling and how you can better appeal to your customers, lets take a look at some of the actionable ways you can start cross selling immediately.
Video Email Marketing
Say the word “video” and most folks throw up the “I don’t understand video” or “it’s too hard” objections. If you have a smart phone then you know how easy video can be to produce and distribute a video. Many successful insurance agencies and carriers today use video as part of their core marketing efforts, from introducing new products to providing a higher level of service and, yes, to generate life insurance leads.
Now, we’re not proposing that you start producing your own videos. There’s hardly enough time to sell much less take on the role of video production. Through the Redbird network, you have access to a series of videos that can be customized for your business and to help you get started click the link below to receive a FREE E-Book on how to use video in your insurance agency.
You could be sending videos to your book of business in as little as a few days!
DOWNLOAD FREE E-BOOK: INSURANCE VIDEO MARKETING MADE “EASY”
Download Your Copy
Direct Mail
Direct mail is the other end of the marketing spectrum: tried and true but showing its age a bit in the face of the explosion of the Internet.
That said, we believe direct mail done correctly can be a powerful tool to differentiate your business to both commercial and personal lines clients and, most importantly, drive leads.
We believe direct mail is most effective when personalized. We mean hand signed letters and real stamps. The easy way to get started is to use letters we have developed for both commercial and personal lines. Download them FREE below.
Here’s what we do: we send 20 letters per week to clients with a specific message, and tell them we will be following up in a few days. It’s really that simple. Plus, the letters are already written and you simply customize on your letterhead.
FREE DOWNLOAD – COMMERCIAL & PERSONAL LINES LETTERS
Download Your Copy
I found some statistics recently from our good friends at Nationwide that further reinforce the huge opportunity of cross selling life insurance in your P&C agency:
50% of U.S. Households who already own life insurance say they need more.
35% of those likely to buy insurance in the next 12 months say they haven’t done it because no one has approached them about it.
37% of people considered buying life insurance when it was suggested to them.
These stats clearly show why cross selling life insurance is good for your agency and why you should consider expanding your offering to meet the broader needs of your book of business. Not only does rounding out your accounts strengthen your relationships but it also increases client retention. Industry data shows that retention increases 7.4% when you add life insurance to your offering for personal lines clients.
With increased retention comes increased revenue!
We have reviewed best practices of some of the top agencies in the country and have brought the most competitive solutions to the table for you. The programs listed above work and more importantly can be customized to fit your agency’s needs. You can choose the plans that align with your goals and work directly with the Redbird team to implement and start producing life insurance leads immediately.
Cross selling life insurance to your P&C book of business just makes good sense when it comes to maximizing lead generation. Life insurance impacts lives and they want to buy it from those they know and trust. As P&C agents, you already have their trust and simply need to ask the right questions, otherwise someone else will.
These are YOUR clients. Start speaking to them about life insurance and you’ll be shocked at your results.
For questions and sales support, contact me today at 866-547-8780 ext. 102. Remember, we are here to help you brainstorm, create and execute a life insurance cross selling campaign.
