Insurance sales techniques
If you’re like most business-consultants-slash-sales-people, you’re constantly on the lookout for new and improved insurance sales techniques. New tactics that can help you gain the upper hand when you’re competing with other agents. Novel (and let’s face it – easy-to-use and not time-consuming) ways to uncover new potential clients and win the deal. Here are a few insurance sales techniques we’ve gleaned recently from some sales experts: sales triggers, advanced Google searches to uncover prospect information, and ways you may be hurting your sales mojo. Read ’em and reap.
Sales trigger events: How to find and take advantage of them
In a recent blogpost, Hubspot outlined 30 sales trigger events that may just mean a company is open to new vendors. While all of them don’t relate directly to insurance sales, most of them do. How do you discover these trigger events? Depends on the trigger itself, but can include LinkedIn, Google alerts, keeping tabs on industry news (theirs), their website (particularly their news or press releases page), social media and more. As the first of our insurance sales tactics, here’s a partial listing of those 30 sales triggers:
- New executives. Looking to prove their value right away, they’re open to fresh ideas.
- Company expansion. Moving to a new location? Adding to their current location? Adding new equipment and inventory? More insurance coverage will be needed.
- Personnel move. If you’ve already established a good contact at the company who moves to a new company, you now have an “in” at the new company. Reestablish that relationship and offer your help.
- New product launch. The company is moving into “uncharted territory,” says Hubspot. They may now be open to your support.
- Legal problems. Do they have compliance issues? Sounds like their broker may’ve given them bad advice. It’s a good time to offer help.
- Significant hiring. If you see the company is on a hiring upswing, offer a free workplace safety or benefits review.
Read all 30 triggers – and how you can find out about them – on Hubspot’s blog.
Related: Up your sales game by improving two insurance sales tricks & treats
How to find that information that you need online
Let’s say you want to search for any sales trigger events for a particular target prospect. Here are a few tips for advanced Google searches that may be of help to you. Use this second insurance sales technique to mine that company’s online data to help your pitch:
- Got word that this prospect is launching a new product? Quickly search their website to learn more about it, to tailor your pitch. Let’s say their new product is Acme Airstream. Then in the Google search bar, type in site:www.acme.com “Airstream”.
- Want to find out who their competitors are? Perhaps they said no, but you have a good background in that industry and want to search for other potential clients. Let’s say Acme.com is the company whose competitors you want to uncover: In your Google search bar, type in related:acme.com and Google will pull up websites with similar content to Acme’s – which probably means they’re a competitor.
- Did your prospect use industry jargon you’re not sure of? Quickly look it up like this: Let’s say the term you need a quick definition of is rocket science. In your search bar, type in define:rocket science.
- Want to get your hands on an attendee list from a recent conference? Often those lists are posted as PDFs, but distribution is limited to attendees. You can still find it this way: Let’s say the industry conference is Rocket Science Creators 2018. Your search should be “rocket science creators 2018”filetype:PDF.
- Latest sports scores or team schedules? Of course, we’re only suggesting this one in the course of prospecting, like…you’re about to see a prospect who you know is a Red Sox fan. Quickly find out how they’ve been doing by typing the sports team name into Google. Google Sports will post both scores and schedules automatically.
Learn more advanced search tips and search modifiers from Hubspot here.
3 ways we’re our own worst enemy in sales
We all know sales is a numbers game:
Ferret out X number of prospects + make X number of calls and appointments + give X number of presentations = X number of closed deals.
But sometimes we get in a rut, inadvertently torpedoing ourselves, trying to win that numbers game. Here are a few insurance sales techniques from ThinkAdvisor that make sure you don’t accidently trip yourself up.
- Don’t pretend to be their friend. Sure, be friendly – we don’t mean be cold – but acting like you want to be their best friend is a turn-off. They’re looking to you to present a compelling case for winning their business – not be their BFF. Be competent. Show that you thoroughly understand their business and can offer better solutions.
- Don’t jump into your pitch before asking discovery questions. They need to talk first. They need to know they’re being heard. How can you know what their hot buttons are without asking such questions as: Why did you agree to meet with me? What problem are you trying to solve? What changes are happening that affect your business? How are you different from your competitors?
- Don’t give up. Is that prospect worth spending more time on, even if their decision-making has stalled? Keep reaching out, sending them articles that are appropriate for their business, quick notes that say you’d love to answer any other questions or a voicemail, asking what else can you provide to help them reach a decision.
Related: Top insurance agent sales solutions when the sale stalls