Archive for the ‘Prospecting’ Category

The Best Way to Succeed? Know Your Niche.

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

According to a new report by the Insured Retirement Institute, boomer clients like to get their financial advice face-to-face rather than over the phone or online. This probably comes as no shock to many agents, who have probably been working with their boomer clients for many years. (That same study also showed that 55 percent of boomers more than five years out from retiring do not know how much they need to save for retirement, which is troubling – but unfortunately is nothing new.)

However, when I conducted interviews with Gen Yers to learn about their financial habits, most of them expressed a desire to purchase their insurance products online. Even though they might want to work with an advisor at some point, they’re more than happy to communicate via email, phone, Twitter, or even text message – they’re on the go, and they’re fine with a financial advisor who can communicate that way, too.

Seniors, on the other hand, may be in a variety of different financial situations, and often have younger family members with a vested interest in their financial situations. You’ll have to deal with those family members, too.

If you choose to market to one specific age group, the best thing you can do is to know your niche. Study what type of marketing that age group responds to, how to effectively market to that age group, and what communication methods that niche groups like to use. This is particularly important if you aren’t a member of the niche you want to work with.

But what if you aren’t a niche agent? If your goal is to serve one and all, you can still use niche marketing tactics to help you in your business. Before you meet with a client, try to do some basic fact-finding over the phone. Learn how old they are, or at the very least find out if they’re married or have any children, which should help give you a rough estimate of their age. Then do some basic research about the communication methods that will work best for that type of client. If it helps you, create a cheat-sheet with effective marketing and communication points for different age groups that you can refer to at-a-glance before meeting with different clients. That way, no matter the age of your client, you will be able to talk with them in a way that you’re both comfortable with.

Posted in Insurance Marketing, Prospecting | No Comments »

What Are The Risk Factors For Your Future Clients?

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

As Americans age at a rapid rate (by 2025, there will be 65 million baby boomers, ranging in age from 61-79, and making up 25 percent of the population 16 and older), producers who are just hitting their professional stride might be asking themselves – where is my next generation of clients going to come from? Current high schoolers will soon be heading off to college, and once they graduate (or turn 26, depending on the life path they choose), they’ll be ready to choose a few insurance policies of their own. But what types of risk factors will they be facing? As it turns out, quite a few.

According to a new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most high schoolers engage in behavior that puts them at an increased risk of dying. The study, conducted from 1991 to 2009, analyzed risk behaviors. The most common causes of death involved motor vehicle crashes, and expected teen risk behavior such as smoking cigarettes (19.5 percent), drinking alcohol (42 percent), and being sexually active (34 percent, and 40 percent admitted that their last sexual encounter had been unprotected) were common. However, the most frequent risk factors noted over the course of the study related to health and wellness.

In the week before the survey, 78 percent of the students had not eaten fruits or vegetables more than 5 times per day, and 29 percent had consumed soda at least once per day. Eighty-two percent of students were not physically active for at least an hour a day each day for the week before the survey. Only a third attended physical education classes daily, and 12 percent were obese.

Couple the fact that high schoolers lead relatively unhealthy lives with the fact that they seem completely unprepared to deal with their own financial futures – a test by the Jump$tart Coalition measuring  aptitude for managing such financial resources as credit cards, insurance, retirement funds, and savings accounts showed an average score of only 52.4 percent.

Fortunately, there are resources out there. The Association for Advanced Life Underwriting, the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education, the Million Dollar Round Table, and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors worked together to create NextGen3, an interactive program which includes lessons, games, and videos designed to appeal to a younger demographic. This is part of an ongoing – and growing – push to spread financial literacy at a younger age.

As insurance agents, do you think it’s your responsibility to help the younger members of our society understand financial matters and live healthier lifestyles? Do you do anything to reach out? Comment below and let us know! Or, take our poll on the ASJonline.com homepage!

Posted in Insurance Industry Issues, Insurance Marketing, Prospecting | 1 Comment »

It Only Takes One…

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

You read all the time about the importance of sending multiple email blasts a month. Keeping in contact with your prospects, experts say, will help them remember you, even if they’re not ready to use your services at this time. Then, when they do need you, they’ll see your name in their inbox, recognize it, and pick up the phone right away.

But does this strategy really work? I can tell you first hand that it does.

There is an insurance professional who sends me emails a few times a month. I’m not sure how I got on his list, as his emails are targeted to people seeking new policies. Since I wasn’t looking for new coverage, every week I simply deleted his email unread. I could have just as easily asked to be removed from his list, but for whatever reason – whether it’s because I was too busy, or because I thought the emails might come in handy someday – I never did.

Then one week, the subject line of his email caught my attention. It was compelling and interesting, presented a different angle, and was on a topic that I happened to be struggling to find someone to write about. I read the email immediately, and replied within 10 minutes asking whether he’d like to become a contributor to ASJ. By the next day, I’d found myself a new source, and the agent had further positioned himself as an expert in his field.

So many times, concerns about flooding inboxes or the amount of time that an email campaign could take outweigh the benefits of frequent contact. But the truth is a successful enewsletter should be blasted at least twice a month – and at an absolute minimum once a month. Clients and prospects want to hear from you. They want to know what’s going on in the financial world, or get a fun bit of trivia, or a little game to brighten their day. And if they decide they don’t want those things anymore, they can opt-out of your newsletter. But more than likely they’ll simply delete it if they don’t want to read it, until the time that they don’t delete it because they need you. And there you are, in their inbox, waiting for them to pick up the phone.

There is, of course, another lesson to be had in this story, and that’s about the power of compelling subject lines. Even though the agent had been sending me quality content for months, it wasn’t until he sent me something with an attention-grabbing subject line that I sat up and paid attention. Write your subject lines well, and send emails often, and you’re bound to get a few new clients (or at least sell different products to existing clients) from your efforts.

Posted in Insurance Marketing, Insurance Technology, Prospecting | No Comments »

Prospecting to Your Current Clients: My Story

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

At least once a month for the past two years, I’ve edited a prospecting story. Which means that since I became the associate editor at ASJ, I’ve read 24 articles on how to pull of the perfect prospecting call, or how to follow-up with a client – and that doesn’t include our big feature giving 52 of the best prospecting tips, or the other excellent advice we’ve given over the years. All in all, I’d say I’ve read more than 100 pieces of prospecting wisdom, and listened to seven or eight experts share their advice in person on how to handle that thing with which many agents struggle.

So you’d think, after all that, I’d be able to identify a sales call when I got one from my insurance agent, right?

Wrong.

It was all so casual. I was just finishing up my work day when my cell phone rang. I picked up the phone and heard the friendly voice of a rep from my car insurance agent’s office on the other end. She said she was just calling to verify a few details from my account, and did I have a few minutes? I said of course. She confirmed my age (I’d just had a birthday), and asked if I wanted to upgrade one of the benefits on my plan, now that a higher coverage amount was available. She also noticed that I’d recently been married, and wanted to offer to put my husband on my account as a second driver. We discussed what that would mean for my account, and I thought we were finished. Then, just as we were about to hang up, she slid something in that I totally wasn’t expecting.

“Heather,” she asked, “Do you have life insurance?”

The way she asked was very smooth, calm, and collected. It was in the middle of a series of questions, and since we had already been talking for a few minutes I already felt comfortable with her. I didn’t feel like she was trying to sell me something (even though I’m fully aware that she was), I felt like she was just following up on my account, making sure it was up-to-date (which she was also doing).

If I didn’t have life insurance, I’m sure I would have automatically said, “No,” even if I would normally have lied to get a pushy sales person off the phone. The way she approached the situation was very smart. As it was, I told her I did have it, but thank you for offering.

The truth is, every time to you talk to your clients is an opportunity to offer them new coverage. Of course, you don’t want to turn every pleasantry into a sales pitch – for example, if you do birthday calls, please don’t sing happy birthday, and follow it up with a “P.S., How do you feel about your long term care insurance?” But when you’re already talking to a client about their policies, or see that they’ve made a life change, it’s definitely the perfect time to ask if they’re interested in expanding their insurance portfolio. The absolute worst thing that can happen is that they’ll say, “No, thanks.”

What have you got to lose?

Posted in Insurance Marketing, Life Insurance, Prospecting | No Comments »

You’re Never too Young to Learn About Insurance

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

Major life insurance organizations are providing teachers with the tools to help high school students learn about life, disability, and health insurance as part of Financial Literacy Month in April.  

The Association for Advanced Life Underwriting, the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education, the Million Dollar Round Table, and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors worked together to create NextGen3, an interactive program which includes lessons, games, and videos designed to appeal to a younger demographic. And even though agents can’t actually sell to high school students – and, under the new health reform, most likely won’t have the opportunity to offer them health insurance until they’re in their mid-20s – teaching young people about financial literacy could be a great opportunity for agents looking to establish and grow their practice over the coming years.

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Posted in Insurance Industry Issues, Insurance Marketing, Practice Management, Prospecting | No Comments »

Do Active Clients Make for Better Decision-Makers?

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

This year, employees were more active in their benefits decision than in years past. A recent study by human resources consulting firm Hewitt Associates found 45 percent of employees actively chose their benefits for 2010 instead of simply defaulting to the same coverage they had previously or taking no coverage at all.

This was up from the 2009 open-enrollment period for voluntary benefits, where 39 percent actively enrolled.

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Posted in Insurance Industry Issues, Prospecting | No Comments »

2 Marketing Lessons From Toyota

Friday, February 19th, 2010

By now, you’ve probably heard about the disastrous worldwide recall of more than 8 million new Toyota cars. And while you may not drive a new Toyota, if you’re involved in sales there is still a lot you can learn from the way the recall was handled (or, rather, not handled) in the event you ever have to face a crisis. Here are the two marketing lessons you should take away from the Toyota debacle.  

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Posted in Insurance Marketing, Practice Management, Prospecting | 1 Comment »