Life insurance prospecting tips
- Gauge how much life insurance your potential client needs.
- Take an objective approach.
- Do a needs analysis.
- Be real with your prospects.
How are you calculating the face amount?
You find yourself in front of your prospect and it’s time to go to work.
That’s an adrenaline rush.
You’ve ended up in front of this person or couple because you asked for the opportunity, or they reached out to you for your assistance with life insurance.
Either way, it’s now your responsibility to guide them through the process and educate them on this valuable asset.
Unfortunately, most people end up buying a life insurance policy that ultimately will not take care of all their needs.
Here's what you need to know about life insurance prospecting and giving your potential clients exactly what they need.
Life Insurance Prospecting
Follow these tips to get the best results for your prospective client – and yourself.
1. Gauge how much life insurance your client needs
Generally, when prospects approach an agent, they already have an idea of what they want to buy.
Usually it’s a “big” policy that sounds like it will take care of all their needs in case of the death of the breadwinner. They might throw out a number like $500,000 or $1,000,000 of coverage.
In most cases today where a family is involved, it’s your job to show them that although $500,000 sounds like a lot – it may not be enough.
If you’ve approached them and sold them on the fact that they should consider purchasing life insurance, then you now have the responsibility to advise them correctly.
Be ready for “raised eyebrows” when they hear the amount you suggest and fear what it might cost.
2. Take an objective approach
In reality, the approach and the tools needed should be exactly the same and will allow your potential new client to see an objective approach to determining their “need” for life insurance – whether you approached the client or the client came to you.
The key word here is “objective.”
With life insurance prospecting, the goal is to appreciate the client’s subjective concerns, which will inevitably be incorporated into a more objective approach.
3. Do a needs analysis
The only way to do this effectively is to run a needs analysis.
A needs analysis is best accomplished by utilizing either a needs-analysis questionnaire (which is available from your General Agent or life carrier), or the easier and more commonly used tool like an online life insurance-needs calculator.
Although most clients will focus primarily on what feels like an amount that will have the greatest impact on them should they die (usually just the loss of breadwinner’s income), there are many other important factors they’re likely overlooking.
To simply be subjective when coming up with an amount is probably shortsighted.
A 5-minute needs analysis will take your prospect through each of the steps a beneficiary will be faced with upon the death of the insured. By the end of the needs analysis, the resulting number will not be one that is debatable, but rather one that needs to be addressed.
In other words, the amount of life insurance needed.
Don't fall into this trap
All too often, life insurance producers avoid using a needs analysis because:
- They appear too technical, especially for the producer whose main focus is not life insurance.
- It creates a life insurance need that is larger than what both the client and producer anticipated.
The true amount of life insurance needed might appear to be a deal-breaker in some situations, but it shouldn’t be if properly put into perspective.
4. Be real with your prospects
No matter what the outcome might be, your primary responsibility as a life insurance producer is to provide your prospect with a real number, whether they like it or not.
The real number becomes the baseline for further discussion – and often leads to larger sales!
If the real number becomes an affordability issue, that’s OK, because the next step must be to tailor the coverage to the prospect’s actual budget.
At least now you both know that the need is there and it’ll be your job to marry their affordability to the most critical aspects of their need. And, you leave the door open for additional sales down the road.
Become a trusted guide
When life insurance prospecting, don’t fall into the trap of trying to convince the prospect of an affordability issue that is simply not there. Rather, determine their actual life insurance budget and get them started on the road to building their life insurance portfolio.
That’s how you turn a subjective feeling into a discussion about how much life insurance your prospect actually needs.
