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-- When you qualify a prospect, look for someone who is growing. He or she may not buy a large policy today. In a few years, however, the growth-oriented prospect is likely to have been promoted in his or her job and will have a broader network of referral contacts.
-- Looking for a special way to stay in touch with your clients? On your agency's anniversary, send a note to all of your clients thanking them for enabling you to stay in business.
-- A time management tool that helps a lot of busy people is to set aside about half an hour a day as quiet time, during which you cannot be disturbed. This can be a great time to plan and do other "thought intensive" tasks.
-- Don't assume anything. If you don't actually know the answer, ask the question! This shows clients and prospects that you genuinely are concerned about their best interests. By not asking the question, you might be making false assumptions that will lose sales or weaken your rapport.
-- To get from where you are to where you want to be, it's a good idea to review the quantity and quality of your client base annually. You need to keep your finger on whom you have been selling and what they are buying. If you want to grow your business in a certain direction, this kind of assessment can help you track your progress and make adjustments as needed.
-- Treat your top prospect like a valued client, and you can move closer to a sale. Aside from including your top prospects when you have extra tickets to community events and sending cards to acknowledge important personal events in your prospects' lives, make it a point to identify your top prospects for your staff. Your staff members should be listening and looking for information that can help you gain ground with your prospects. Your prospects will remember your outstanding service and thoughtfulness and gain confidence that you also treat your clients well.
-- Do you fall into the habit of not taking complete facts anymore? If you have been in the life insurance business for a while, you may reach the point where you anticipate what your prospect will say after listening to him or her only briefly. This tendency can lead you away from bonding with your prospect and truly addressing his or her needs. Stick to your basic fact finder to ensure that you always cover the important areas and make an extra effort to view each prospect's situation as a new challenge instead of a matter of routine.
-- When a key person dies, problems develop. As the company searches for a replacement, it might experience a financial slump. Its competitors take advantage of its lost momentum, and its customers perhaps lose their confidence in it. Creditors demand immediate payment, employees search for other jobs, and debtors delay their payments. The company's valuable asset -- its key person -- is destroyed, and unless the firm has been wise enough to purchase key-person life insurance, it won't be compensated for the loss of this asset. All of these problems can be solved by cash -- in other words, by life insurance.
To get the most from your face-to-face calls, make sure to pre-qualify your prospect. Organize your sales materials to prevent awkwardness and searching during the interview. Use a post-interview evaluation sheet to analyze your sales techniques, and flag areas in which you can improve.
-- The fine line between the successful life insurance agent and the struggling life insurance agent is not much more complicated than who is willing to make that last call.
-- Our handshake is an important part of the first impression we create. Be aware of your handshake's pressure; match the pressure of the person with whom you are shaking hands.
