According to Statista.com, there are over 1.1 million insurance agents in the United States. This means is that if you are selling just “insurance,” you have a lot of competition. This article will share five strategies you can use to stand out from competition and having clients not view you as a replaceable commodity.
In a crowded industry such as insurance, you want to start by researching what and who you are up against. Your goal is to create a message that stands out and places you in a category of your own. Here’s is an example of a way how you can do it. If you sell car insurance, you are competing against all other car insurance agents and your prospects and customers are likely to see you as a commodity. However, if you sell car insurance for German luxury sports cars and work exclusively with dealerships such as Porsche, you immediately stop being a commodity and become unique. You can be selling homeowners insurance or you can specialize in homes of a certain value.
Many insurance agents complain that all their customers want is low price and that they would love to get customers who understand the value of quality service and quality products. However, if you were to carefully examine the advertising of such insurance agents, you would discover that one of their main selling points that they are advertising is low price. So, they advertise a low price and they get customers who care about low price. The conclusion from this is simple: if you want customers who care about something other than price, advertise something other than price.
Prospecting is the weakest link in the sales pipeline for many insurance agents. An insurance agent typically can do at least an adequate job explaining what products or services he or she has for an interested prospect, but it is finding interested prospects and getting in front of them that is a problem.
The solution to this issue is counterintuitive because it includes stopping doing prospecting altogether and focusing on positioning instead. When you do prospecting, you look just like every other sales person trying to sell insurance. The guard of people goes up. The trust goes down. They start looking at you as someone who wants something from them. What you want to accomplish is the opposite. You want them wanting something from you.
One of the powerful ways to accomplish this is writing articles. You can also write a book, give interviews, start your own blog, and more.
Once you get a customer, your job is not over. Your job is only starting. Your goal should not be to sell a policy. If that’s all you do, your customers may leave you at any time. Your goal is to build a long-term relationship and to become a trusted advisor to them. When you accomplish that, your customers not only won’t leave but also will bring their friends to you. The best way to build a relationship is to show up and provide value on a regular basis. Start a monthly newsletter, send tips by email, and organize events with other businesses in the area where you are present, but are not selling directly. All of this will help you earn a reputation of a respected member of the community and a go-to person when it comes to the insurance that you specialize in.
You want to keep in touch with your customers in a way that will help you stand out from competition together with the unique niche that you choose. One of such ways is ringless voicemail. It is technology that allows to leave voicemail messages without calling the phones of people who get the messages. The technology works by contacting the provider of the phone service directly via a business line and delivers messages thought the business line. This way, the delivery of a message does not interrupt or annoy the customers and the customers also do not incur any charges. With ringless voicemail software, you can create reminders about expiring policies. You can also send voice thank you notes and invitations to various events that you organize or participate in.
Ringless voicemail technology is extremely powerful because it allows you to automate and streamline your business. You can record messages and set them in such a way that customers receive them automatically during certain points of their customer paths, giving you more time for positioning and engaging in other business-building activities.
