9 Tips of Success in Life Insurance Agency
Life Insurance Business is based on credibility and long-term relationships. A Life Insurance Agent is more successful when his clients trust him. For a New Life Insurance Agent, it can be challenging to improve his business quickly and increase his New Business. But if he follows some important rules in his Insurance Business, then this difficult task can become easy for him.
In this article on Jeevan Bima Bazaar, we will discuss a total of nine important rules. Which will prove to be helpful in increasing the business of a Life Insurance Agent and making a successful career. As a trainer, I would say to you that whether you are a New Life Insurance Agent or an Experienced Agent, all these rules being told. If you follow this, then I can say with confidence that you will get positive results in your business.
Follow the Principle of Regular Contact
If you are an Insurance Agent and you want to achieve unlimited success in your Insurance Business, then it is very important for you to stay connected with each of your customers. Research on "Get-in-Touch Frequency" shows that when you contact a person regularly at an interval of 45-60 days, then your image remains in that person's mind.
This research shows that the thinking and memory power of different people is different. Some people can remember a person for 45 days, while some people can remember for 60 days. Here you have to understand that I am talking about the memory related to your business.
I want to make my point clear. Suppose you introduce yourself to a person as a Life Insurance Agent and his memory power is 45 days. So within these 45 days, whenever Life Insurance is mentioned to that person, your image will emerge in his mind.
Don't let your Clients forget your Professional Image:
If you want your Insurance Business to be a success, you must make sure that you try to create a positive image in your clients' minds every 45 to 60 days. You can do this by visiting your clients at their homes or by making phone calls.
Just think, if you meet your clients once a year, I think your image in their minds will become so blurred that they will think you are a life insurance agent or a smart hero from an obscure movie. So our advice is that it is very important to share a little chit-chat, a little advice, and some friendly talk with each of your clients every 45 to 60 days.
Strengthen the Professional Bond with a Personal Touch
For the success of a Life Insurance Business, it is very important that you not only talk to your customers about insurance, but also try to build a better relationship with your customers. This means that you should make efforts to improve your professional and personal relationship with your customers. Make your customers feel that you are not just a seller of Life Insurance Products for them, but you are an important part of their lives.
Example:
Suppose one of your customers, Mr. Nagar ji, is getting married to his daughter. You not only congratulate him on his daughter's marriage, but also ask if everything is going well and if he needs any kind of help, you will definitely help him. When you say this to Mr. Nagar ji, he does not see you as just a life insurance agent, but he considers you as his well-wisher and friend.
It is possible that after the daughter's marriage, Mr. Nagar ji plans to buy a policy for his daughter and son-in-law and he takes your help to do so. Because now they will not consider you just an insurance agent but their well-wisher.
I think it may be easy to build professional relationships as a life insurance agent but balancing personal and professional relationships is the art that sets you apart from others. Talk to your clients not only about the special moments of their life but also about the small moments of everyday life. This is the relationship that will keep you in their lives for a long time.
Connect and Motivate Customers with Third Party Experiences
It has often been seen in the Life Insurance Business that when you try to prove your point on the basis of logic, the matter gets worse instead of getting resolved. In such a situation, I feel that whenever you feel that you should take the help of logic to take your point forward, then it is appropriate for you to take the help of third party story.
I remember my childhood, I did not like to eat green vegetables at all in my childhood. Often potatoes would disappear from my vegetable bowl and green vegetables would remain as they are. Whether forced or explained the benefits of green vegetables, I was a stubborn child who never listened to anyone.
Something happened during those days that my aunt had come and while serving food, she explained that the daughter of the neighbour aunty has grown up eating green vegetables and now she rules her entire house. Then I came to know the real reason of eating green vegetables. 😄 Isn't it a strong reason?
What I mean to say is that when you can easily explain your point by telling a third person's story, then why take the risk of reasoning power.
Example:
Imagine that you have to travel with a person and travelling is your compulsion. But the problem is that you have often seen him reaching anywhere in dirty clothes and you want that when he travels with you, he should not do this. So what will you do now?
You can tell him, hey friend, I had gone to Lucknow with Verma ji. We both had to go to the LIC meeting. But you know Verma ji, he starts the journey wearing anything. After reaching the meeting, people teased him so much that I felt very bad for him.
Now if you had directly told that person to wear proper clothes while walking with me, then it is possible that he would have felt bad about what you said, but when you presented the example of Verma ji, you have conveyed your message and that person will not feel bad about what you said.
With the help of such third party stories, you can tell your customers even the most difficult things. The customer does not feel bad and easily implements it.
Healthy Relationship Calls
If you want to make your Life Insurance Business successful, then the purpose of your every call should not be just business. Sometimes it is also necessary that the purpose of your call is just to have a light conversation with the customer. When you have such a conversation with your customers, your customer feels that you are not connected with them only because of money, but you care about them. This feeling gives your customers a better feel.
I definitely take out some time every day when I can give time to this work. I believe that it is as important to spend time on this work as it is to spend time for business.
This kind of call of mine is often very practical. For example, I ask a customer on a phone call - Sir, how is mother's health now? Is she able to eat properly now? Keep giving mother her medicines on time and convey my regards to her. Also tell mother that I will pray to God for her good health in the evening.
Or I talk like this- Sir, Rohit's result is out. How are his marks? Sir, I have found out that the JEECUP form is going to be released in the month of November. So he should work hard. I have heard that Lucknow has the best engineering college of Uttar Pradesh and the placement there is also very good, so Rohit has to be admitted in that college.
I also talk like this- Sir, I am going to the nursery this evening. Sir, I saw a rose plant in your garden. You have taken care of it very beautifully, so I am thinking of planting some plants in my garden too. Sir, if I have any problem, will you guide me?
I believe that such calls have no meaning. But despite this, these calls play a very important role in the insurance business. There have been many such occasions in my life when I have called just like that and the customer has called me and bought the policy. So you should definitely apply this rule in your life.
Offer the Right Solution to the Customer
I think this heading should be changed. According to me the heading should be try to become an advisor and not an agent. Although you can present yourself as an advisor, you can actually give yourself this title only when your customer accepts you as an advisor.
Often Life Insurance Agents are dedicated to selling their products. But they do not understand that just trying to sell insurance products cannot be the reason for your success. For this you need to do something different. If you want to be successful in the insurance business, then you have to offer solutions to your customers.
I am sure most of you are understanding my word solution in the context of the customer's problem in Life Insurance, but it is not so. What I mean to say is that you should try to give a solution to whatever problem your customers face.
This will make the customer see you not just as an agent but as a trusted advisor. Understand the customer's needs, communicate with them and try to provide them with the right solution based on their needs.
Example:
Suppose you have sold a life insurance policy to a doctor. Now someone in your neighborhood falls ill. You can take that person to your doctor customer. The doctor gets his patient, which means he is also happy and the person in your neighborhood gets the right doctor, which means your neighbor is also happy.
Suppose a wedding ceremony is going to take place in a house, you give a list to the head of that family which contains information about your own customers, which includes information about tent wala, decoration wala, confectioner, clothes wala, goldsmith etc. And you tell him that sir, you go here and take the goods you need by telling my name. All these are my policyholders. I am sure that whatever goods you buy at other places, you will definitely get some discount by introducing me here.
Now on the other hand you can contact these customers and tell them that I am sending you my other policyholders. But the only condition is that if they tell my name then take care that they do not find any complaint in their goods and it should not happen that buying goods from you becomes expensive for them. Because if this happens then in future I will not send any other customer to you.
By doing this you can provide solutions to many people at once. Yes, I want to say one important thing for such places. While providing such benefits, do not fall into the greed of getting commission in between. Because if you do this then it is possible that you may get some benefits in the beginning, but in future people will stop trusting you.
Attend Formal Events of Clients
Attending formal events of clients takes your relationship to a new level. Doing so not only strengthens your business relationship but also personal relationships. When you attend social and personal events of your clients, it sends a message that you value the important moments of their life. This not only deepens your relationship, but also makes the client feel that you play an important role in their life.
Example:
Imagine that one of your clients invites you to his child's birthday. You attend the event, give a gift to the child and meet all the family members. You are a part of this important moment of happiness of the client. This makes your client feel that you are not just an agent in his life, but a person who is with him in the important moments of his life.
By doing this, not only do you strengthen the relationship between you and your client, but the next day, people who attended the event start talking about you. Your client introduces you as his good friend and a good financial advisor. This proves to be very beneficial for your insurance business.
Win the trust of Customers with Praise and Respect
Everyone is hungry for true praise and respect and remember this rule applies to your customers as well. Suppose one of your customers has bought a new bike and is going somewhere in the market after dressing up well and you meet him. You can say something like, "What's up Sharma ji, today your personality looks no less than a hero. When did you buy a new car? To tell you the truth, the color of the bike and your attire are amazing."
Or suppose you meet a stranger at his residence and you feel that the person has built his house with a lot of heart, then my suggestion would be that you praise the house wholeheartedly. By doing this you will impress the customer.
Consider, you go to your bank. A staff praises you, he tells you that he knows that you are a good life insurance agent in your area. Or he tells you that he likes your attire. So next time when you go to the bank for some work, who would you like to meet first? Remember, everyone is hungry for praise.
It has been seen many times that a few words of praise are more effective than any complex marketing strategy. When you appreciate your customers, your effort alone makes them loyal to you. Sometimes two words of praise are no less than a "policy bonus" for your customers. So as a trainer, I would suggest that whenever you get a chance, do not hesitate in praising your customers.
However, you must be careful that the praise should be genuine. Artificial and false praise can create a very destructive effect. For example, suppose a person's shoes are torn and you say, Sir, what wonderful shoes you are wearing. I hope you can guess what the result will be.
Ask for Feedback, Improve Services and Win Customers
Sometimes feedback is like a friend telling you that your shirt collar is up. You fix it immediately, and look even more stylish next time! 😄
The best strategy to improve Life Insurance Business is to take feedback from customers and improve based on that feedback. When you do this, your customer feels that you don’t abandon customers after selling insurance policies like other Life Insurance Agents do, but rather strive to do better. You value your customer’s experiences and opinions.
You can say to your customer, "Sir, you are important and valuable to me and I believe that you will give me the right guidance. So I want to know what I should do for my business so that I can provide better services to you and other customers like you. I also want to know from you that I can provide life insurance protection to other families in my area. I also want to know from you that if you feel that I am making any mistake knowingly or unknowingly which has a bad effect on my insurance business, then please do not hesitate to guide me."
When you ask the customer in this way, he will definitely give you some suggestions. Assess the suggestions given by the customer and if you feel that there is a need to make improvements then definitely do it.
Rewards for Customers
Often, feedback from your customers will do you a favour. Improvements based on this feedback will not only improve your services but also strengthen customer trust.
Sometimes, offering small rewards or surprises can also strengthen the bond between you and your customer. It makes them feel that their time and suggestions are truly valued. These small tokens, whether gift cards or customized gifts, show customers that you appreciate them.
Conclusion:
As a life insurance agent, customer relationship management is the key to a successful career. By following these nine strategies, you can not only maintain strong relationships with your existing customers but also attract new business. Next time we will dive deeper and discuss how techniques for choosing and offering the right policies can help you grow your business even faster. So stay tuned and don’t miss the next article!
