Bluefire Insurance

What if you had an amazing product but weren’t making enough sales? 

That’s what it feels like for countless agents trying to sell insurance each day. These agents understand that they have a great product. Nonetheless, they often strike out when selling insurance. 

Sometimes, the problem is the agent, not the insurance. Part of making sales is looking and acting as professionally as possible. How, then, can you look more professional when selling insurance? Here are 7 tips to help you skyrocket your sales. 

1. Dress the Part to Get More Insurance Sales 

Let’s start with the obvious. If you want to look more professional, you need to dress more professionally. Keep in mind that a customer will make up their mind about you within seconds of first seeing you. 

What is the best attire for selling insurance? Think “business formal.” Men and women alike should consider wearing suits. In certain regions, you can get away with more of a “business casual” look, though men should never dress less formally than slacks and a button-up shirt. Women, in turn, should never dress less formally than business slacks or a knee-length skirt and a blouse. 

It may sound cliche, but your potential customer’s first impressions really do matter. And dressing the part of a professional insurance salesperson is the first step to closing sales. 

2. Have a Professional Online Presence 

While it’s important to dress professionally when selling insurance, prospective customers are likely to first see you online before meeting you in person. That’s why it’s important to have a professional online presence. 

At the bare minimum, this means having a professional website. You should also consider creating business pages for yourself on social media platforms such as Facebook (which is also a great place to learn more about customers). 

Be sure to provide all of the necessary info for your Google My Business profile so that prospective customers can do a quick search and find the details of your business, such as your phone number, website, and directions to your physical office. 

Relatively speaking, all of these are little details. The little details add up to make you look organized and professional well before you meet someone face to face. 

3. Listen More to Your Customers Than You Speak 

When you are speaking face-to-face with a customer, you may be tempted to launch into a prepared sales spiel. However, customers are likely to tune you out if they think you are just reciting info from a pre-prepared script. If you really want to look more professional, you need to master the fine art of listening more than you speak. 

Customers will consider this a sign of respect. After all, many salespeople don’t make a real effort to listen to what the customer has to say. Listening well can make you look more professional than much of your competition. 

As an added bonus, listening more than you speak means you will discover more about a customer’s unique needs and pain points. This will help you discover the best possible angle to sell a customized insurance plan. 

4. Know Your Product Backward and Forward 

When you let customers speak rather than talking over them, they are likely to have many questions about your product. Therefore, it is vitally important that you know how to answer all of their questions. 

Make sure you know your product backward and forward. Try to anticipate customer questions, like how raising their deductible is likely to affect their rates and how much they might save by bundling insurance packages together. 

Answering these questions promptly and accurately does more than help you make a sale. It also helps you look more professional because you clearly know everything about your insurance products before a customer walks through your door. 

5. Customers Don’t Understand Insurance Jargon 

When speaking to customers about your product, don’t make rookie mistakes like using a lot of highly specialized insurance jargon to impress the customer. 

Here’s the blunt truth: Jargon doesn’t really impress the average customer. In fact, they are more likely to think you are just throwing these terms at them to confuse and overwhelm them. Confused and overwhelmed customers are likelier to take their business elsewhere. 

Instead, try to find down-to-earth ways to explain everything to your customers. They’ll appreciate the simplified explanations. You’ll look infinitely more professional when you can explain things in plain language to your customer rather than throwing jargon out there. 

6. Quick Communication is Key to Customer Engagement 

You won’t be able to answer every customer call or email right away, yet much of your professional life will be spent returning messages. If you want to look as professional as possible, try to respond to these messages as quickly as you can. 

To understand why, consider the customer’s perspective. To you, this may be just another customer and another potential sale. To the customer, though, getting the right insurance plan can be a matter of life or death! 

Responding quickly to customer messages shows you understand their concerns and know how to relate to your clients. And this is one of the quickest and easiest ways to make yourself look more professional in their eyes. 

7. Energy and Enthusiasm Are Key to Improved Sales 

Ever hear the phrase, “It’s not what you said, it’s how you said it”? In many ways, this describes what you need to be mindful of when selling insurance. 

Prospective customers want more than a knowledgeable sales professional. They want someone energetic and enthusiastic about interacting with them. 

Such energy and enthusiasm can be infectious and help you land more sales and referrals. And by showcasing how passionate you are about your job, you are likely to look that much more professional. 

Take Your Insurance Sales to the Next Level 

Now you know how to look more professional when selling insurance. But do you have the right product to offer your customers so  you can take your sales to the next level and beyond? 

Here at Bluefire Insurance, we help empower independent insurance agents to have the right products for their customers. To become a Bluefire partner, fill out this form or call us at 866-424-9511 to learn more.