Do you want to become an insurance agent from home? Do you want to learn how to sell insurance products over the phone from home? If YES, i advice you read on. To succeed as an insurance agent, you must have a steady source of insurance leads. The more leads you generate, the more commissions you are likely to make. However, leads are mere opportunities that may not necessarily represent sales.
They don’t automatically turn into sales. You still need to convince your prospects to buy insurance from you. And one of the best ways to make that happen is by calling them on phone. No doubt, meeting with prospects in person remains the best way to sell insurance because you can interact well with and make a better assessment of the prospect. And you can adjust your sales pitch depending on certain cues that you pick up from your interaction with the prospect.
However, calling up prospects by phone also allows for extensive interaction with your prospect. The only disadvantage is that you are not seeing them in person. But even with this disadvantage, you can consistently convince prospects to buy insurance from you. Here are some guidelines for selling insurance products to prospects over the phone.
7 Easy Steps to Sell Insurance Products Over the Phone at Home
1. Be confident
When speaking with a prospect over the phone, you need to be confident; as this will pass signals that you really know what you are doing. Many insurance agents make outbound calls with fear and hesitation in their voice. This makes them sound “weak and wimpy” and only creates a poor impression in the minds of prospects.
One of the best ways to sound boost your confidence is to understand the basics and virtually everything about the product or service you are selling. You don’t want to start stammering when the prospect asks you a question about the product you are trying to sell.
2. Be natural
Speaking to prospects in a way that makes them think you are reading a script prepared by someone else makes zero sense because you won’t convince them to buy your products that way. Before making the call, take your time to learn what you will say. This will make you flow freely and naturally. Your prospects want to do business with those who sound natural, not ‘robotic.’
3. Listen to the needs of the prospect
When you are speaking with your prospect, your ultimate goal is to get them to buy an insurance product from you. That’s fine. But don’t just focus on your sales pitch. Remember that a phone conversation is meant to be interactive, not one-way.
By giving the prospect the chance to speak and listening to them, you will know how to convert them. They will tell you what they liked or disliked about insurance policies they bought in the past. They will tell you what they would like to have included in any policy they buy afterwards. This valuable information can help you determine the best insurance policies for the person and ultimately help you close the sale.
4. Sound interesting
Remember, most calls you will make to prospects are unsolicited. That you are calling them when they are least expecting that is enough intrusion. And the only way to get along with them is to sound interesting. What this means is that you will need to blend your choice of words with your prospect’s response. If you are the type who has memorized the same “template” pitch to use for all prospects on phone, you won’t go far.
5. Be personable
Try to speak with the prospect like someone who understands that they are humans, like you, and have their own commitments. Try to ask for the prospect by name. Ask if they have time to speak with you regarding insurance opportunities. Don’t speak for too long because that will affect other tasks they have to handle, but don’t rush either, especially if the prospect is eager to get more information from you.
6. Customize your insurance packages for the prospect
Always tailor insurance packages to the needs of each individual prospect. If you are selling a business owner’s policy (BOP) which does not contain professional liability insurance by default, you should add that if your prospect makes that demand. Once you assess the needs of your client, it is perfectly acceptable to ask for time to come up with a package to customize to their needs. It’s better that way than to rush the customization procedure.
7. Call at the right time
Use the information you have about the prospect to figure out the most favorable time to call. Don’t call too early or too late in the day, since most prospects are not used to getting calls from insurance agents at those times.