Being an insurance agent has a lot of benefits. You make your own rules, you decide when you want to work and you answer only to yourself. However this business is one that can come to a standstill if you do not take the initiative to keep the ball rolling and the leads hot. The business only works when you do. There will only be growth when you push it further along the line.
So here is what we are going to talk about in this article. How do you become a successful insurance agent? What are the qualities of successful insurance agents? We list down pointers of what we think would benefit you in the long run.
So here goes:
- Be a people person – To consistently find leads, you cannot be shy. You have to be friendly, open and willing to put yourself out of your comfort zone every single day. No matter what the outcome of a conversation is, whether the potential customer is interested in buying an insurance policy from you or they are just being polite and listening to you go on selling, you still have to wake up and do the same thing every day, over and over again. This requires a lot of patience and commitment. Furthermore, you should also never stop being genuinely interested in the people you meet and don’t ensure you don’t just come across as a sales person.
- Read, read, read – All the successful people in the world have one trait in common. They are all readers. Read books, newspapers, magazines. Read on topics within the insurance industry. Read on topics unrelated to the insurance industry. The bottom line here is that reading makes you smart. It keeps you well informed. It enables you to hold a discussion with anyone you meet. Whether with a housewife or a high-powered stock broker, you can and will be able to hold a conversation and make a connection.
- Be hungry – There is a famous quote that says “dreams don’t work unless you do”. Make it your motto everyday. A promise to stay hungry and constantly seek opportunities. You have to be active in meeting prospects, calling them, and always finding innovative ways to make prospects convert into clients. The more effort you put into your work, the more results you are going to see.
- Be available – Accessibility is a big plus point as an insurance agent. If you do not reply to emails or calls about even the most basic queries, why should a prospect stick with you? They will go to the first person that makes them feel important. So be the agent who has a helping attitude, is responsive and easily available, especially when clients need to file their claims, ie. when they need you the most!
- Drive Value – Take your business to the next level by giving your prospects top-notch client experience. Help them by educating them more on the products than just its price. Be an advisor, not just their next door salesperson. One way to do this would be by taking real life situations and tying it back to why they need a particular product. For example, an elderly mothers birthday is a good time to ensure her insurance policy is adequate for her needs.
- Do not fear failure – Some days will be better than others. And some days you might feel like you have accomplished nothing at all. Do not over think it. Just chalk it down to a bad day and move on. Take a time out to reflect on what you can do to ensure this kind of a bad day never happens again.
- Track your performance – Keep a diary or a log book and take out fifteen minutes each day to literally track your own performance, You are your best critic. Learn from that.
- Be trustworthy – Sometimes you will come across people who are simply not familiar with insurance policies or how they can benefit from them. It can be very easy to persuade them to buy various policies, even ones they do not necessarily need. Rise above this and instead, be a friend. Keep the client’s requirements in mind and not your commission. Take time out to understand their lifestyles, and then match them with the right policy. You need to be working this game for the right reasons. For one, maintaining good relations tend to generate a lot of word or mouth reference leads for your business. Along with this, once you sell insurance to a client, they are potential clients for a lifetime – especially in the case of life insurance policies.
These are just a handful of lessons to keep in mind. Understand that every day is a learning process towards building a reputation and brand for yourself in the market. Your work process will be full of trial and error but as long as you keep at it and persevere, results will follow thus making you stand out from a sea of insurance agents all clambering to be the most successful.
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