The basis of insurance training techniques begins with knowledge of products for sale. Insurance sales effectiveness comes when product knowledge is combined with leads and personal skills. See why most insurance salesman training techniques for insurance trainees fail.
When the trainees are admitted to the job market, there is a meeting with the insurance manager to stock their suitcase-sized briefcase with sales products. Their “training” manager walks into the supply room and gives them a brochure on every single product the company sells. This can easily exceed 50 plans with numerous options. These can include products as simple as travel accidental death or as complicated as life insurance for key people. The agent is overwhelmed when the trainer simply tells the agent trainee to familiarize himself with everyone. This is one of the worst insurance training techniques possible.
For insurance sales to be effective, you only need sales product knowledge for the plans you will be selling. So much time is wasted by misguided agents trying to understand insurance concepts from plans they will never sell. As security for all eventualities, they pack at least one of each insurance brochure in their briefcase. An effective training technique guides agents to what they are selling. This quick 30 minute meeting does not introduce them to insurance product knowledge that they need to learn and which is totally unnecessary at this stage.
Management must provide training on what sales products are actually being sold by the agent. Instead, only insurance policies with the highest premiums or what the manager prefers are detailed. Very few insurance managers are willing to customize their insurance training techniques to the individual agent. They like to use a cookie-cutter approach. What market is the agent interested in and in what age group or geographic region does he feel most comfortable selling? Insurance sales effectiveness is not achieved by forcing an agent into an uncomfortable area of insurance without providing time-consuming sales product knowledge. Only a few insurance managers give that.
Without the tips and personal qualities listed below, the agent trainee quickly becomes an insurance jack-of-all-trades, and failures quickly follow. That’s a fact you can’t blame the bank for.
To thrive in the insurance industry at any given time, you need sales leads, confidence, self-leadership and the ability to become a niche insurance specialist. These all intertwine. In your insurance sales training techniques, ignore your insurance manager on the cold calling problem. You can’t do casual insurance cold calling because you don’t know the emotional needs of your prospect. Selling effectiveness requires uncovering the emotional needs of your prospects. Otherwise, your prospect is just a suspect. The insurance manager will provide prepared leads from old policyholders. They cover the entire spectrum of life insurance. This is a surefire path to failure and will discourage you from developing product specialties.
Very quickly, you need to get a prospect list from a list broker with clients you can sell well and who are close to your income level. Example: Self-employed construction workers who own a home, aged 25-45, with children in a specific neighborhood. You are now developing a product niche. This means that by choosing maybe three products, you become a sales specialist. In this example, it could be mortgage life insurance, major health insurance, and accidental disability insurance. You can have a rewarding career in finance if you become an expert in this career niche. Your confidence and product knowledge will increase and suddenly your completion rate will go from 40% to 80%. Potential customers prefer to buy insurance from a professional in a specialized niche.
Another specialty insurance niche could be working only with seniors. There your products would be long term care insurance, Medicare supplements, and terminal cost burial life. To become an insurance specialist, you must gain expert knowledge of insurance sales products, but only the plans that meet your customers’ needs.
Don’t miss out on a lot of insurance training, although techniques will vary depending on the company you represent. Nonetheless, the best knowledge is to realize that you are in business for yourself. So invest time and money sensibly in your career.
