I Am a New Agent in Need of Advice

[Dshort86]

I have started at an older agency in a town located 10 miles from the town I live in my town is 15xxx people if that makes any difference,and the owner of the agency does mainly homeowners and his son does sub auto. My stepfather is the area manager for a preferred insurance company and is always telling me I need to cross sell my boss' clients for life insurance. He says to take the approach of scheduling a policy review with his clients and then while at their kitchen table move into working with them on a needs analysis for life insurance. Well I've been calling the existing business about policy reviews and all I'm hearing is "No thanks we're happy with our coverage's and that won't be necessary". I believe this is because they're not trained for policy reviews but I don't know what to say to help my situation. Any advice would be much appreciated. As much as I hate to ask but maybe some scripting help on how to warm these people up to the new guy at the agency.
Thank you.
And I'm in Illinois I don't know why there's an Alabama flag by my name.

 

[BNTRS]

They don't want to do the review because they don't want to buy more insurance, which is exactly what you plan to do right? People are smart, they know what "review" means.

They don't know you. To them you are just some insurance agent, they know how you make money--or at least have some idea. You have to bring some enticing value to the table. If you are the life or investment expert, why not call them up and present yourself as such?

You call enough old clients you'll find someone who has been thinking about buying life insurance, is about to retire, or some sort of business like that.

How many people have you called?


FYI, when the voice on the other end of the phone is different from their original agent, and that voice is talking about a review, most people know somethings up.

 

[david J]

couldnt agree more with the first guy.
The flag is like that on all new members to the forum

 

[DHK]

I have started at an older agency in a town located 10 miles from the town I live in my town is 15xxx people if that makes any difference,and the owner of the agency does mainly homeowners and his son does sub auto. My stepfather is the area manager for a preferred insurance company and is always telling me I need to cross sell my boss' clients for life insurance. He says to take the approach of scheduling a policy review with his clients and then while at their kitchen table move into working with them on a needs analysis for life insurance. Well I've been calling the existing business about policy reviews and all I'm hearing is "No thanks we're happy with our coverage's and that won't be necessary". I believe this is because they're not trained for policy reviews but I don't know what to say to help my situation. Any advice would be much appreciated. As much as I hate to ask but maybe some scripting help on how to warm these people up to the new guy at the agency.
Thank you.
And I'm in Illinois I don't know why there's an Alabama flag by my name.

Your positioning is ALL WRONG!

You're basically saying "We want to review your coverage to see if it's now insufficient, so we can sell you more coverage... and make us more money."

Your approach script SHOULD'VE been something like the following:

"Hello, Mr. Nice Client? My name is DHK. I work with Mr. BigShot Agent with Insurance Mutual. Mr. BigShot's business has been growing substantially, that he brought me on board to help him catch up on some priorities and improve the service that he wants to be offering his preferred clients, like yourselves.

What we'd like to do is schedule a time for you to come in, and meet with me and Mr. BigShot Agent and we can give you a preview of the kinds of services we're rolling out to our preferred clients and if you would like to participate. How would that sound?"

You see, the clients aren't "trained" regarding annual reviews. And unless you show how you're involved AND how it can benefit the client... and even get them EXCITED about their agent's success that he's had to bring in MORE HELP so he can offer BETTER SERVICES for PREFERRED CLIENTS... (like them), it just sounds more appealing and that they're part of a select and successful financial organization.


But, if you're going to do this, you had better have something DIFFERENT to show your clients. You had better have a good plan and be ready to ACT on it. Then, after you've "wowed" your clients (including a review of their life insurance), be sure to ask for introductions to people just like them who would enjoy a similar service.

 

[Guest]

Here's a suggestion:

"Hi, John? It's William Jones from X.Y. Zooker; your homeowners and auto insurance agency? Mr. Zooker asked me to give you call, number one, to say hello and that he hopes you and Martha had a good Mother's Day, and number two, he's trying to get an understanding of what the average amount of life insurance is that his clients own. He feels most people have plenty of coverage, but he didn't have any real numbers to look at. Do you mind him asking how much you and Martha have?"

Get the details, how much, term or whole, how long they've had their policies, which company the use...whatever they'll tell you. The say:

"Thank you for your help, John. I have to figure out how to create some kind of a graph with all this data, but the results will just be a chart, with no names on it. I had suggested to Mr. Zooker that even though life insurance isn't something we've focused on in the past, we should have someone in the office who can answer questions for our clients who might need information from time to time."

Then set aside the client for about two weeks. At that point follow up with a thank you card, letting the client know that Mr. Zooker decided it would be of service to his clients to purchase software that helps him double-check existing plans to make sure his clients aren't paying excessively for their life insurance, considering the drop in premiums over the last few years. Since the software is so simple to use, evaluations can be run in about 5 minutes so Mr. Zooker is happy to run it free for his clients as a value added service.

Then wait for the calls. When the clients call in, rape the living daylights out of them. Just kidding.

 

[WinoBlues]

Very nice. I like the phrases "Oh, by the way" or "did I forget to mention"

There is a wealth of info in those P$C files.

I would cherry pick my first 100. But that is mostly because I am lazy and want it easy. The P$C agent has already done most of the fact find.

Kinda like my single days. I would work till about 10pm then hit the clubs. Let the other guys spend their time & money. By 10pm these guys are doing the Robot or Funky Chicken on the dance floor. Ah, the old days.........

Here's a suggestion:

"Hi, John? It's William Jones from X.Y. Zooker; your homeowners and auto insurance agency? Mr. Zooker asked me to give you call, number one, to say hello and that he hopes you and Martha had a good Mother's Day, and number two, he's trying to get an understanding of what the average amount of life insurance is that his clients own. He feels most people have plenty of coverage, but he didn't have any real numbers to look at. Do you mind him asking how much you and Martha have?"

Get the details, how much, term or whole, how long they've had their policies, which company the use...whatever they'll tell you. The say:

"Thank you for your help, John. I have to figure out how to create some kind of a graph with all this data, but the results will just be a chart, with no names on it. I had suggested to Mr. Zooker that even though life insurance isn't something we've focused on in the past, we should have someone in the office who can answer questions for our clients who might need information from time to time."

Then set aside the client for about two weeks. At that point follow up with a thank you card, letting the client know that Mr. Zooker decided it would be of service to his clients to purchase software that helps him double-check existing plans to make sure his clients aren't paying excessively for their life insurance, considering the drop in premiums over the last few years. Since the software is so simple to use, evaluations can be run in about 5 minutes so Mr. Zooker is happy to run it free for his clients as a value added service.

Then wait for the calls. When the clients call in, rape the living daylights out of them. Just kidding.

 

[xrac]

Your positioning is ALL WRONG!

You're basically saying "We want to review your coverage to see if it's now insufficient, so we can sell you more coverage... and make us more money."

Your approach script SHOULD'VE been something like the following:

"Hello, Mr. Nice Client? My name is DHK. I work with Mr. BigShot Agent with Insurance Mutual. Mr. BigShot's business has been growing substantially, that he brought me on board to help him catch up on some priorities and improve the service that he wants to be offering his preferred clients, like yourselves.

What we'd like to do is schedule a time for you to come in, and meet with me and Mr. BigShot Agent and we can give you a preview of the kinds of services we're rolling out to our preferred clients and if you would like to participate. How would that sound?"

You see, the clients aren't "trained" regarding annual reviews. And unless you show how you're involved AND how it can benefit the client... and even get them EXCITED about their agent's success that he's had to bring in MORE HELP so he can offer BETTER SERVICES for PREFERRED CLIENTS... (like them), it just sounds more appealing and that they're part of a select and successful financial organization.


But, if you're going to do this, you had better have something DIFFERENT to show your clients. You had better have a good plan and be ready to ACT on it. Then, after you've "wowed" your clients (including a review of their life insurance), be sure to ask for introductions to people just like them who would enjoy a similar service.

DHK, is pointing you in the right direction. You could also try an approach along the lines that we are reviewing all of our clients coverage to make sure that they are not over or under insured. You could say that your are finding that you can actually save some clients money while you are finding some are missing important coverage that they should have.
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Very nice. I like the phrases "Oh, by the way" or "did I forget to mention" ........

That is an excellent phrase:

Four little words can increase your per-group revenue - Articles - Employee Benefit Adviser

 

[Guest]

I also like the phrase "Oh crap, I got gas. Sorry about that. Whooooo doggie!".

 

[WinoBlues]

Man oh man , bad flash back to a very bad appointment. You know, people really should keep those toilet scrub brushes in the guest bath also. :-(

I also like the phrase "Oh crap, I got gas. Sorry about that. Whooooo doggie!".

 

[Dshort86]

I'd like to tell everyone thank you for the help and advice, one other question, does anyone know of any GOOD programs or classes to help sharpen my selling skills in the insurance field?

Thank you.