This month’s insurance agent sales how-tos: Good (and lousy!) closing lines
Closing lines: they can be the final tipping point towards a sale…or a final nail in the coffin of a sale gone bad. We’ve gathered some pointers for closing lines in your email and closing lines in your presentation, in hopes they’ll help you finish out the year strong! Here are our insurance agent sales how-tos this month.
Insurance agent sales how-to #1: More bad closing lines to delete from your sales emails
Back in April, we listed four closing lines that are guaranteed to get you nowhere. (You can review them here, Toss these email closing lines right out of your repertoire.)
Here are a few more that you need to jettison, courtesy of Hubspot’s 15 Closing Lines Completely Sabotaging Your Outreach Emails:
- If you’re not the right person at [company] to connect with about this, could you direct me to the right one? This smacks of laziness on your part. Find out who the right person is: make a phone call and talk with the receptionist, or do a people search in LinkedIn, searching under the job title that you need.
- I’d love to meet with you… / show you… / walk you through…. Statements like these make it all about you. They sound self-serving. Instead, put your focus on your prospect: In a 10-minute phone call we can (accomplish this). In a 45-minute meeting we can (accomplish this).
- Is insurance something you’d be interested in? Typically, yes/no questions are never good to ask, because you stand a 50-50 chance of them giving you the answer you don’t want – and deleting your email. Out of sight, out of mind. This question is a little insulting (any savvy adult knows he or she needs insurance coverage) and much too vague (you haven’t given the prospect enough details yet to know if she wants the conversation to go further). Instead, take baby steps with your prospects, and lead them to the next step. In this case, it’s “Let’s have a 10-minute phone conversation to see if I can improve your insurance coverage or your premiums. Are you available on (and give them a couple of options of days and times)?
- When’s a good time to chat? Remember, baby steps. Instead of an open-ended question, give them some day/time options. This will cut down on the irritating back-and-forth emails as you settle on a time.
Related: Shed bad sales habits this month to boost insurance sales
Insurance agent sales how-to #2: More closing tips to help you land that account
In wrapping up our posts on closing tips over the past few months, here are a few more to consider to help you nail the deal:
- Make it personal. Explain how your proposal isn’t only the best solution for the company or entity, but it also will personally protect the president, CEO or board. The decision to say yes by the decision maker makes him or her a hero and a savvy business person for choosing the best solution.
- Know when it’s a long shot. Often the prospective client is using other bids to try to force their current insurance provider to cut their premiums. Many also have an in-force company policy requiring them to send out for bids every few years. How do you know whether to spend days on a proposal that may never get glanced at? Often you don’t. The best way to ascertain this is with a meeting or phone call to get answers before you start. As you ask, listen carefully to what’s said – and what isn’t. Understand their pain points and address those in the proposal – in your cover letter and throughout. Even if you don’t get the deal, follow up afterwards; periodically send them a link to an article you know they’d find helpful. At the end of nine months, follow up to find out how their year of coverage with your competition has gone, and is there any way that you can help.
- Know when to fold. Whether you’re the insider and your client has just gone out to bid, or you’re the outsider whose bid has been solicited, and it’s obvious that the client’s mind is made up (not in your favor), then graciously walk away after your best shot at closing. Then keep in touch. That winning proposal may not work out so winningly for your prospect in the long run.
- Give them the “Columbo Close”, as mentioned in PropertyCasualty360. Each time, after talking with a particularly obstinate suspect, Columbo would walk to the door, pause and say, “Just one more thing.” For the personal lines producer, that “one thing” could be “Can your family really afford to lose this much?” or “How much is your family’s personal safety worth to you?” For a commercial producer, it may be something like “Do you realize how much of a hero you’ll be when you choose this solution? It won’t take long for you to realize savings from this policy, whether it’s from added risk management tactics that you hadn’t thought of, or when you sign contracts with even bigger clients and provide them with your proof of coverage.”
Related: Hot sales tips for insurance agents
Just one month left in 2017 to grow your book of business! Use these insurance agent sales how-tos that focus on closing line dos and don’ts to nail those last few deals in your pipeline. Good luck!