Small Business Finance Tips » Insurance

The Art of Selling Final Expense Insurance

admin — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 19:26:38 +0000

Final expense insurance has been around a long time and will continue to be sold for a long time in the future. Although the product itself is simplistic and easy to learn and get your arms around, there is definitely an art when it comes to selling final expense insurance.

Selling burial insurance is a process that requires and agent to build a need, want and desire for the product. Like any life insurance, everyone needs it but no one truly wants to buy and pay for it. As with other things in life we should have, if it was free, everyone would most definitely have it. Problem is… it’s not free so we need to create that need they can’t live without. So how do you do that?

First off, the client needs to see the value of having a policy and protecting the people they care about. Any life insurance I have I look at as an asset and not as a monthly expense each time I make a premium payment. It’s important you talk in terms that the client is creating an instant asset for their family and not an expense.

The second thing that is very vital to helping your client is don’t tell them they need final expense insurance but have them tell you. This is one of the biggest mistakes agents make selling absolutely everything. A successful agent does not tell a client they need the product, a successful agent has the client tell them why they need it and want it.

It is very important to ask probing questions to get the client to tell you. This is where most agents fail. Agents usually tend to do the telling in the selling process and by telling the client instead of having them tell you, in the end the client doesn’t take ownership to the sale and the sale is lost.

“Mrs. Jones, do you see planning for your final expenses your responsibility, or do you see it as your children’s responsibility?” The follow up question after Mrs. Jones answers it is her responsibility would be “Why? Why do you think it’s your responsibility and why wouldn’t you want to put this on your kids?” Sit back and listen to her tell you why she needs to buy your final expense product. These types of questions make the client take ownership and make the sale for you.

To be successful selling final expense, you need to create a need for your product since not many clients really want to purchase what you have. How you create that need is by asking questions that get your client to sell themselves and take ownership. Don’t make the mistake that 99% of all agents do and that is tell your client why they need final expense insurance.

8 Tips to Hire Telemarketer to Supercharge Your Insurance Sales

admin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:49:53 +0000

Hiring a telemarketer is a business strategy an insurance agent can explore where the telemarketer is to secure appointments and the insurance agent focuses his or her time solely on appointments and writing applications.

Telemarketing can be an extremely efficient and inexpensive way of acquiring business if used correctly. It should be a carefully planned activity to ensure your strategies and tactics are spot-on.

In addition to scheduling appointments, a telemarketer can help qualified prospects interested in hearing from the insurance agent. The insurance agent can then focus on sales without the emotional baggage caused by making tonnes of cold calls.

The following are a number of tips that can help telemarketing service work best for you:

(a) Master the Art First

Go through the telemarketing process and be really good at it, only then you have the experience and competence to hire and effectively train a telemarketer. This is important if you want to get the best results from the telemarketing service.

(b) Use a Proven and Tested Script

A telemarketer has only a few seconds to make a good impression. Once you are sure you have the right script that you can use to produce desired results, you can train the telemarketer how to use the script tactfully especially when handling rejections.

(c) Selection Criteria

You may consider hiring telemarketers with sales background. They are able to take on the job more quickly and smoothly. Telemarketing is not for the faint-hearted, you may go through some basic call scenarios in order to judge their ability to manage stress.

(d) Adherence to Regulation

Study the laws regulating telemarketing activities in the area you operate your business. Find out if “Do not call list” is applicable. Make sure your phone list is scrubbed against “Do not call list”.

(e) Prospect Lists

If you decide to purchase prospect list, you may like to purchase from a reputable source that offers you the target market that you like to focus your energies on. Buying “freebie” lists can frustrate yourself and your telemarketers.

(f) Pay Rate and Incentive Scheme

Telemarketers are paid hourly plus bonus. A competitive wage and reward can ensure you get to hire experienced and dedicated telemarketers who in turn will do their best to set quality appointments for you.

(g) CRM System

Choose a CRM System that can bypass answering machine and connect prospects to the telemarketers as soon as the prospects pick up the phone. It is annoying for the prospects to listen to robotic sounding auto-diallers.

(h) Outsourcing

You may consider outsourcing. You can approach a telemarketing service provider that specializes in your service or product. For offshore services, assess the English-speaking and comprehension abilities of the telemarketers.

Telemarketing service can give your business a competitive edge by letting you concentrate on your core business activities. A strategic integration of telemarketing service into your business operation can help you significantly increase sales and profits.

Own Your Own Insurance Business

admin — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 15:46:47 +0000

To start an insurance agency you will need to decide on going independent or being a captive agency. Some of the best known captives include Farmers, Nationwide and Allstate. Captives sell exclusively, or mostly, one brand of insurance. There are advantages and disadvantages of each so it is advisable to investigate both. Many states require an insurance company to sponsor your license application, so selecting a company is a good place to start. A property and casualty license is generally the minimum to start and allows you to sell auto and homeowners type policies (Laws vary by state). It is advisable to get additional licenses such as accident and health, and possibly investment type licenses (For example Series 6 and 63).

For either choice many agents work part time first to get licensing, training, experience, and begin building a client base. If you have your own business your income will probably be straight commission. Normally you are paid for the sale of each policy and again every time of renewal. In my area 20 to 30 policies per month is considered good for new agents. This might pay you $2,000 to $3,000 depending on the type of sales. After you pay your expenses the income can be quite small when starting. As your book of business increases your renewal income will greatly increase your income.

An option to building an agency from scratch is to buy an existing agency. Typically you will pay 2 or more times annual earnings. For example, if an agency has 1,000 policies that earn $100,000 annually in renewals, you will probably pay $200,000 or more. It is possible to finance an agencies purchase. This will generally require 10% or more for a down payment. SBA is the most common lender for this kind of loan. My company, Texas Capital Mortgage 281-537-7800, can help with business financing for Texas residents. (I have found that the mortgage business is a good compliment to the insurance business.)

Obviously you need a lot more information to start an agency. I suggest spending a lot of time researching the business before jumping in. Read some books about the business. The larger companies have district offices where they can tell you about employment with them. The agent you buy your insurance from may be willing to share his experience with you. There is also a lot of information available online.

Insurance is a great business but don’t underestimate the difficulty! After starting with Farmers full time, the first 1/2 year I lost 50K (much of this was start up expence), the next year I lost 20K, and this year I should make some profit. Some agents will do better or worse but this could give you some idea.

Final Expense Telemarketing Script

admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 03:03:39 +0000

One of the most essential aspects of having a successful final expense lead generation campaign is creating a script which works. While many companies that provide telemarketing will have scripts on file its recommended that you create your own script, at least as a reference so you get the sales opportunities you want. The reasons for this are:

You will always know your business and clients better than the telemarketing organization you hire. A script crafted for your particular offering will sound better than a generic script that prospects may have listened to from your competition. You can make the script give you only the information you need and match your offering exactly.

While its vital that you have a script that works for you there are a variety strategies which you can use to enhance sales.

Keep it uncomplicated, let the customer know why you are calling as well as why they should care. Do not waste their time, if it requires 6 words to get to a point don’t write 10. Keep the aim of the call in mind when creating the script. If you are producing a lead or setting an appointment that should be the goal of the call. Nothing else should be included.

This is the basic format you can follow:

Hello, may I speak with XXX. My Name is NAME.

I’m calling from XXX Financial Company. I’m calling regarding a free quote on final expense insurance that we are providing people in the area.

Our plans can save you up to $xxxxxx dollars on your funeral expenses and any outstanding debts you may leave your family.

If the prospect asks: “what is final expense?”

Final Expense is mini life insurance that takes care of any outstanding expenses and burial costs that you leave behind. It keeps your family from getting stuck with the bills.

Rebuttals to common questions:

The plans are extremely affordable and we have the most competitive prices. We can even work with individuals on fixed incomes. This will only take a couple minutes and can save you and your loved ones thousands of dollars!

I just need to get some basic information…

Verify name Husband age, wife age Do you smoke, does your wife/husband smoke? Do you have any serious medical conditions? Verify the address

Thanks so much for your time. I’ll have one of our specialists follow up with you and get you a quote on a final expense policy. Have a great day!

After you have your script completed it isn’t set in stone. It can call for some changes based on the telemarketer’s feedback to get things running smoothly after the calls start to be made. You will also want to come up with answers to questions that prospects may ask during the call.

Insurance Companies and Telephone Marketing

admin — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 18:35:12 +0000

Have you ever wondered how insurance companies go about marketing their insurance policies? Aside from a company Web site, advertisements in the classifieds, and commercials? Many insurance companies get leads – prospective clients – by telephone marketing.

Many insurance companies use what are known as call center phone systems. These systems call prospective clients in various different ways. There are five basic call center phone systems that insurance companies can use when marketing their insurance policies, but they cover two main ways of marketing to prospective clients. Insurance companies can use auto-dialing systems when an actual insurance agent is calling prospective clients but uses the phone system to dial the client’s number. Insurance companies also use broadcast marketing methods, when prospective clients are called but are not addressed by an actual insurance agent; rather, they are play a prerecorded message.

While these telephone calls may sometimes feel like telemarketer harassment, they’re actually great marketing tools for insurance companies. Using these marketing tools can help insurance companies gather information about people residing in a certain area, i.e., demographic information, which will help them better plan their marketing strategies for that region.

These telephone calls can be beneficial to the prospective client, as well. Prospective clients who receive these telephone calls aren’t being harassed; they’re being given the opportunity to find out more information about a particular insurance company, more information about how that particular insurance company can help with their insurance needs, and even schedule call backs for the times when they really are interested, but just don’t have the time to talk on the telephone.

So, the next time you get a telephone call from an insurance company, don’t be so quick to hang up. Remember, they are simply marketing their product – insurance policies – just as other businesses market their products. If you aren’t interested, let the insurance agent know; or, if you’re in the middle of dinner, schedule a call back.

5 Tips for Better Insurance Agency Emarketing Subject Lines

admin — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 06:41:20 +0000

It all starts with the subject line, it is the most important component in your emarketing message. The subject line will determine the success or failure of your campaign. Your email message will be given a few seconds of scrutiny before a reader determines if they will open it or discard it. Further, if they don’t like the message, they may decide to opt out from future emails. Surely the subject line is worthy of great thought and consideration, measurement, analysis and split test variations. I tend to recommend educational subject lines with a call to action for a webinar, white paper or case study. These types of subject lines are different from those used for promotional offers, for example an email from a Groupon or Staples or Best Buy.

Tip #1 Keep it Short

Many emarketers consider ideal subject line length to be under 50 characters, with a 35 character target. However, the relationship between the sender and receiver can dramatically skew this rule. For example, if your insurance agency is well-known by those receiving your emails, and your subject lines pertain to complex topics, like healthcare compliance and mandates, longer subject lines can perform admirably. The best subject lines offer a glimpse of your important topic, whetting the appetite to learn more, resulting in an email open.

Tip #2 When Possible Target By Segment

Targeted messages will improve open rates. Targeting a specific message which is of key importance to a specific segment will yield. For example, “New OSHA Rules for Heavy Equipment Operators” or “Hours of Service Changes Effective January 1st” will speak to specific audiences, understanding this message is specific to them. These types of subject lines will be deemed relevant, as we will discuss in the next tip.

Tip #3 Make it Relevant and Interesting

Relevant and timely messages increase emarketing open rates (and click through rates). From my perspective this is often more about education and less about selling. Insurance agency emarketing should revolve around rapport building. Agencies or marketing organizations that spew out tens of thousands of emails, touting their new product, program or new and improved pricing will result in greater opt outs, spam complaints and potential “black listing” from ISPs. Consistency, relevancy and frequency should be the mantra for your insurance agency emails. For most insurance agencies, you should allow at least a week between emails to the same prospect.

Tip # 4 Make it Informative

Arguably this tip could also fall under a tip called “make it educational.” The subject line should be able to promise informative and educational content, and fulfill that promise within the email body. Your first goal should be to offer interesting and educational topics germane to your target prospects. Once you are engaged in an ongoing web dialogue, your agency will have many opportunities to further engage with your prospects, and they will be more likely to buy since you have established this rapport.

Tip #5 Make it Honest and Keep it Simple

We all know about the “KISS” rule, in so much as simpler is often better. With emails we want them to be simple, easy to understand and to fulfill the intent of the subject line with your actual email content. Agencies should never promise one thing in their subject line (PPACA updates) and then discuss how they can offer the best service and rates for health insurance in their email body. If your agency is offering a webinar or case study for contractors, the subject line and content should match, delivering on the intent of your email.

Bonus Tip – Don’t Bury the Lead

You’ve probably heard this old adage. It’s good advice for news reporters, bloggers and emarketers. The subject should be the lead to your email story. This can include things like:
5 Critical Steps to for Your Next Renewal New Hours of Service Regs for Owner Operators ROI Based Wellness Programs for Small Employers Healthcare Mandates and Compliance Updates

These topics offer educational value and new and relevant content. They range from 41 to 47 characters in length including spaces. Leverage interesting and timely topics and ensue the subject line is your lead, and measure the results of your campaigns for opens, click throughs and opt outs. Whenever in doubt, leverage split tests to further measure your insurance agency emarketing campaign effectiveness.

Best Practices For Insurance Agency Producers And Online Prospect Meetings

admin — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 13:50:07 +0000

Traditional face to face selling can be challenging enough for any insurance agent or insurance agency producer, but with the advent of progressively more web based sales meeting, many insurance salespeople (agency producers is often the accepted vernacular) need to sharpen their sales skills to ensure optimum impact for their web based sales meetings. Some salespeople are very good at traditional meetings, others have successfully transferred their in person skills to the web based venue, while others struggle, not yet comfortable with the new virtual approach to B2B insurance sales. Part of being successful at virtual selling requires the sales professional to have a variety of “tools” in their sales bag, and the ability to utilize the correct tool for a given sales scenario. In this case, we’ll focus on one common sales scenario, an online prospect meeting or web based meeting between the producer and the insurance agency prospect.

The hard work has been done, you’ve got a prospect interested in learning more about your insurance product or service, and you’ve set up an online meeting to demonstrate your value proposition. Here are a few tips that will help your online presentation be successful:

Make your points quickly and succinctly. Don’t waste your time or the prospect’s Cadence and articulation is important, rehearse your presentation, keep it brisk but not rushed Web meetings are best kept short, 30 minutes is much better than 60 minutes Make the presentation personal to the prospect. Find out his or her needs and concerns and show how your product or service will address them specifically. Make sure there is a clearly defined beginning, middle and end to the presentation Make sure they “see” the screen that you’re showing – ask what screen they’re viewing Ask questions frequently to ensure they understand Make the session interactive if it is a web meeting (as opposed to a web seminar) Estimate one minute per slide on average – though this varies by individual producers style and cadence End the online meeting with a call to action or next steps. Be very specific about this. Be sure to display, and verbally state, your contact information to the prospect.

Of course, there are many other nuances to running a quality online insurance prospect meeting – but following these few simple rules will give you a solid foundation to be successful. Insurance agencies and producers alike need to get comfortable, in fact proficient, with web meetings, they are faster, more efficient and are rapidly becoming the preferred meeting approach for many businesses. After all, if there is a cancellation, no sales time is wasted and rescheduling can be done in seconds.

Final Expense TeleSales – The Need For Insurance Selling Systems

admin — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 04:34:41 +0000

Success in selling Final Expense Insurance comes from having a complete Insurance Selling System in place. Many times Agents may have parts of the system in place but most of the time they fall far short which then is a spiral to failure. There are several key factors which drive that success and missing anyone will create certain failure, even for the most ambitious Insurance Agent.

You can’t sell to air so without Final Expense Leads one has virtually no probability for success. Quality leads, without a doubt, are the life blood of a successful agent. final expense leads come in many different forms and price points. The industry average for “A” leads is anywhere from $25-$35 per lead and these leads can often be as old as 2 months depending on who you are receiving them from. The less sought after but should not be over looked “B” leads are far less expensive but are far more than 2 months old and have usually been contacted or “worked” before you lay your hands on them.

Most Agents usually have less than 10-20 “A” lead in there possession at any one time. Having access to such few leads stops an agent from being successful selling Final Expense. To be successful an agent needs to spend almost, if not more than, $1,000 per week on leads to have enough fresh leads to work. Unfortunately most agents aren’t willing to spend that much on their business because of the risk of not making sales. So at this point the agent is setting themselves up for failure.

Insurance selling training or a mentorship program and on going training is crucial to an agent selling final expense insurance. Being able to shorten the learning curve and making each presentation count is important to the success of the agent. Without this the few leads an agent has gets wasted on inferior sales presentations and the inability to close sales. This one piece of the puzzle is lacking in the insurance industry. Agents aren’t properly trained and are out of the business before they start.

An Agent needs to have access to a mentor and regular training to be able to hone skills and make each lead count. Very few organizations have quality ongoing training for their agents. Most agents are given a contract and fed to the wolves and left to defend for themselves. A sure sign there final expense business will be short lived. Good on going training is one thing the best insurance selling systems have in place.

Final Expense Telesales has a complete Insurance Selling System in place for those looking to sell final expense over the phone. Not only do agents have access to 1,000′s of quality final expense leads, these leads are delivered to them real time as they arrive through a contact management system. Everything is paperless. All you need is a phone and an internet connection.

All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) Insurance – Why You Should Insure Your Vehicle

admin — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:30:03 +0000

Insurance policies differ according to the states. The terms and conditions of policies are different in different places. In Pennsylvania all terrain vehicle (ATV) insurance is very important for ATVs, in fact this requirement is legally required. The features of ATV are usually covered by PA rates. ATVs have to be insured even though they are registered. This is made compulsory by some states. If your vehicle is found in a private place, then off-road insurance is generally not required by the vehicle. Insurance of liability is mandatory if the vehicle is in a public place. The government of Arizona has declared some easy but important plans for insurance. A PA insurance quote can be obtained by you today. You can get off-road plate or on-road plate. If you are having on-road plate your vehicle should possess lights for brakes and turning. The owner as well as the rider of the vehicle is covered by PA insurance rates. What ATV you possess is immaterial. You should be aware of the categories of the insurance. You could go for Pennsylvania all terrain vehicle (ATV) insurance. The ATV may have lights for different functions such as steering wheel and a windshield. The PA quotes would then be different from those for a normal ATV.

The policy holder can get more advantage with increased PA rates. In this ATV, permission to go to the highway is obtained and it also covers all the insurance which is necessary. Following tips are useful to get best policy.

1) You should know about the options of Pennsylvania auto insurance. The option that is best for you, which suits your requirement should be chosen by you.

2) You should be able to compare auto insurance quotes. There is no need to worry as insurance quotes are offered by several companies. It is advisable for you to get insurance quotes immediately so that the rates can be compared.

3) You have to be updated about the special programs which many companies offer. There may be many things that you won’t be told by your agent.

4) To get a great PA rate for auto insurance you should be able to bargain in an efficient manner. Important features should not be ignored by you but other coverage plans can be skipped if not needed. This will assist you in reducing the cost associated with Pennsylvania auto insurance.

5) You should try to find out the reasons why there are changes in rates of auto insurance. Pennsylvania all vehicle terrain (ATV) insurance helps you in this.

6) You have to study the factors which determine a great insurance policy. There are many different rates offered by Pennsylvania auto insurance, so don’t jump to conclusions that you will not get a better rate. Research before you decide the policy best suited for you.

ATV insurance is generally ignored and by doing this you can suffer from financial loss. This would be a big mistake on your part. You have to follow a few simple rules by which you can get a reasonable rate on ATV insurance. Pennsylvania all vehicle terrain (ATV) insurance would be the best bet.

Are the Days of Insurance Agency Telemarketing Over?

admin — Sat, 21 May 2011 04:17:19 +0000

Are the days of insurance agency telemarketing over? My answer to this question is, “it depends on the industry and prospect profile”. Telemarketing (or cold calling) albeit a form of interruption marketing can be very effective when properly approached and applied to a specific niche and b2b target profile. There are far better ways to market many B2B products and services, but there still exists a time and place where highly targeted, niche cold calling can prove effective for B2B businesses. I’d like to qualify this statement, that the days of telemarketing will ultimately come to a close as more cost effective means become available, as eMarketing, Social Media Marketing, ePublishing and other web centric means prove to be more effective and less expensive. But today, cold calling or outsourced telemarketing can still yield results for certain insurance agency niches and prospect profiles.

For example, truck insurance agencies focusing on smaller trucking firm profiles with 2 to 50 trucks can average 6 appointments per week in about 10 hours of telemarketing per week (approximately 1 appointment per 1.5 hours of calling). Whereas truck agencies focusing on 100 plus trucking firms are likely to see better results leveraging eMarketing and web seminars over telemarketing, or at a minimum, they should integrate telemarketing into a web seminar marketing strategy. Many experts would agree that a fully integrated, comprehensive and web centric approach to insurance agency marketing yields the greatest return on investment. However, vertically oriented agencies, or agencies with a unique value proposition can still achieve compelling results from a well planned, professionally executed B2B telemarketing strategy.

Cold calling can also be done on a tailored basis by salespeople (insurance agency producers) calling high in their targeted prospect accounts, which when combined with a personalized email can yield effective results. The challenge, of course, rests upon the ability of the producer to find the time to do this consistently with the myriad of other responsibilities which impact their time. Many marketing veterans describe the difference between agency producer cold calling and telemarketing from a production perspective. Telemarketers are typically expected to yield about 25 calls per hour, documenting changes in position, direct phone number and of course delivering pitches along the way. This means that in 60 hours of calling per month, the phone is dialed about 1500 times, or 18,000 times per year when fully extrapolated. Insurance agency producer time is much better spent on other activities; they do not have the time or patience to consistently deliver this volume. Obviously, telemarketing is not just about volume, a well defined, and consistently refined script is essential, and can result in a qualified appointment for every 1.5 hours of “telemarketing”, which can be worthwhile for an agency producer, or for that matter, any vertically oriented small business.

Thus, in my opinion, though the days of telemarketing are dwindling for many insurance agencies and other businesses, there are still instances where a targeted telemarketing campaign provides a health return on marketing investments. If it is done professionally and properly, high quality B2B telemarketing can yield cost effective results.