Podcast Center
Video Center
Webcasts
Resource Center
Events
September 28, 2005 at 08:00 PM
Now is the time for insurance sales professionals to capitalize on worksite marketing opportunities.
Employers want to offer more exciting packages of benefits while coping with the rising cost of health insurance, and employees are increasingly examining ways to upgrade their existing health insurance coverage. Both groups seek additional benefits at affordable costs.
Therefore, the opportunity to provide viable alternatives for employers and employees exists for insurance professionals. One popular solution is offering a variety of ancillary benefits and asking employees to pay for those benefits on a voluntary basis.
The result: Demand for voluntary worksite benefits has soared to unprecedented heights. To meet this demand, agents must have an effective sales plan.
Here are some steps agents can use to sell more voluntary benefits products.
1. Know your product. You can’t sell what you don’t know. Familiarize yourself with the benefits and coverage that each product offers. There are a myriad of ways to learn more about voluntary benefit product offerings, and increasing your level of knowledge will help you provide better service to your clients.
o Shadow a seasoned agent and experience product offering firsthand.
o If you have been selling worksite benefit products for awhile, familiarize yourself with enhancements to older policies.
2. Motivate yourself. D’s don’t look good on a report card, but the 3 D’s of internal motivation–Desire, Determination, Discipline–separate sales professionals who take initiative from the order takers. Ultimately it is up to you to get out of bed and make phone calls to seek various business opportunities.
3. Set goals. Begin by writing your objectives down.
o Where do you want to be in 5 years? How are you going to get there?
o If you plan to increase profit sharing by 20%, how will you go about doing that?
o How many networking contacts do you plan to make today?
Review and revise the list often. Work to stay ahead.
4. Do your homework.
o Study the demographics of client company employees and current benefit offerings.
o Explore the client’s product needs during an introductory interview.
o Find out what the client has, what it needs, and what it wants to change.
Learn as much as possible about the organization you are calling on to determine if your products can meet its business needs and the needs of its employees.
5. Perfect your presentation. After informing clients about specific product offerings, be sure they will walk away educated about the products and able to make an informed decision. This can be achieved when you are:
