Growing Your Organization's Hispanic Market Sales

Growing Your Organizations Hispanic Market Sales

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The opportunity to sell insurance products to our nations Hispanic population has never been more promising than it is today.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that more than 35 million Hispanic people are now living in the United States, representing an enormous and virtually untapped market for independent marketing organizations and insurance carriers.

What does it take to reach this market? IMOs and carriers may presume that they need to commit vast personnel and financial resources to develop a Hispanic marketing initiative. Not true. In fact, there is no Hispanic “market.” Rather, there is only a communication barrier between you and your customer.

Dont believe the myth that you have to live in Miami, Los Angeles or New York City to sell insurance to the Hispanic community.

When considering your opportunity to sell products to Hispanics, dont underestimate your city or towns Hispanic population.

Although major metropolitan areas typically report larger numbers of Spanish-speaking residents, Hispanic customers may be found in many smaller cities and towns throughout the United States.

Contact the U.S. Census Bureau (www.census.gov) to learn more about the opportunity in your area.

IMOs dont have to be established Spanish-speaking organizations to successfully market to the Hispanic community.

Any mainstream agency can be successful with Spanish-speaking customers. In fact, you dont need to double your investment or rebuild your infrastructure to reach Hispanic customers, either. The key is to build a fully bilingual sales force within your existing insurance agency.

Your first step is to hire a “champion”un campe?n. A champion is a fully bilingual authority within a mainstream agency hired to focus on the Hispanic segment.

Your champion works within the agencys structure, using the sales principles that are already in place. A champions role is not to go out and sell the products, but rather to recruit and train a team of bilingual agents that will market the agencys products and services to the Spanish-speaking public.

Another common misconception is that bilingual agents require extensive training to sell insurance products. Again, not true.

Youll find that Spanish-speaking agents are already selling insurance products in English, to English-speaking customers.

These agents are simply waiting to be approached with an opportunity and tools to sell to Hispanic customers.

The champion should train agents to position the sale as benefiting the customers family members, which often is a cultural tenet of the Hispanic community.

The effective champion is a strong communicator who understands the needs of the sales force as well as the structure of the IMO.

Your champion becomes the IMOs representative for the Hispanic segment, working directly with the insurance carrier to obtain the marketing support to sell the products.

For every successful IMO, theres a supportive insurance carrier providing the right tools to get the job done. A carrier should support an IMOs Hispanic selling efforts by concentrating on recruiting, service, marketing and incentives.