Your biggest sales challenges selling life insurance are easily remedied by knowing your product, listening closely, and improving follow-up strategies.
Anyone whose teacher marked “talks too much” on their report card probably followed their path in life to a great career in sales. Finding your sales niche is an exciting process, and many land in life insurance because it can be so lucrative, and because people often need assistance choosing what’s right for them, despite the sales challenges of click-and-buy life insurance available online these days.
Even if you’ve decided selling life insurance is your gift, you surely come across other sales challenges as well, so we’ve gathered some of the biggest ones that life insurance agents come across, as well as some tips on how you can conquer them.
6 Sales challenges and how to conquer them
1. Being able to communicate your product to your prospects
Once you undergo product knowledge training, you will appreciate the different life insurance products, including term, whole, universal, variable, and group policies. Each has unique features, advantages, and disadvantages; your prospect will want to know them all. They will likely also ask you which one you have or you’d choose. Be honest because sincerity is what will make the sale.
2. Selling an insurance product that your customers will want
This one is easy; if you can’t stand behind the company or product you are selling, sell another life insurance product. One of the biggest sales challenges in life insurance is getting behind what you’re selling, and if you don’t believe in the company you are selling for, you’re doing yourself and your prospects a disservice.
3. Having to answer all those questions that come up.
Not every question you receive will be about simple debates like term life versus whole life. Some will be more personal questions, like engaging with a wife whose husband was just diagnosed with cancer and whether he qualifies. Taking off your sales hat to talk to people when they may be in crisis is part of the job, and one you should be prepared for.
4. Handling the emotions that can arise from talking to strangers
Are you new to phone sales? Have you ever gotten yelled at just for doing your job? One way you can avoid getting scolded for cold calling, is by buying warm, exclusive, double-verified life insurance leads from HBW Leads that come from people who have asked to be contacted. Otherwise, read our post, How To Deal with an Angry Lead While Keeping Your Cool, which includes ideas for de-escalating angry prospects over the phone. And when you’re having one of those days, take some tips from How To Practice Self-Care Working From Home as an Insurance Agent.
5. Not being able to sell a policy to the first customer you call.
Once again, buying warm, exclusive, double-verified life insurance leads from HBW can help improve your conversion rates, but there is always something to be learned from each engagement. For example, did you cut the customer off when they were talking? Did the customer seem unsure when you asked if they had more questions, but you kept moving on? Getting an agent to buy life insurance isn’t required anymore; it’s easy to buy online now, so your role should be in service to the prospect and as an advocate for their needs. Anything else may push them away.
6. That moment on the call when a prospect says, “I’ll think about it and get back to you.”
We all know that moment where you know you’ve probably lost the sale, and this is usually it. At this point, the prospect wants to get off the phone, and they may be overwhelmed by information and too frozen to make a decision, or they may have decided what you’re offering isn’t right for them, and they’re just being polite. Without leaving the call on a cringey note by harassing them with “but wait!” options, work on your lead follow-up game instead. Make sure you get their email first thing on the call, and if there’s anything you wish you’d said during the call that you think could have turned things around, explain it in an email. If you find they’re highly responsive in email, they may be more comfortable with that platform—respect that and try to move forward digitally.
Defeat one of your biggest sales challenges by buying warm, exclusive leads instead! Our leads come to you waiting to be contacted so you can spend less time prospecting and more time selling life insurance policies. Learn more.