6 years plus in the insurance business, I’ve always describe my job as “meeting 3 people a day to have a cup of tea” to my friends. I can always see that disbelief on their face. Is my description for the job scope of an insurance agent too far from reality?
In fact, the truth is not too far from that. An insurance agent’s work can be broadly classified into 2 categories. They are Insurance prospecting and Client servicing.
Insurance prospecting
Looking for new prospects is a very important activity that every agent got to do. In fact, most agents fail in the business because they do not prospect actively. Obviously the 3 people I meet for tea don’t appear in my office by themselves, I have to go look for them.
How do I do it?
There are about 6 ways that agents can prospect, namely
- Friends and family members (direct market)
- Referrals
- Existing clients
- Cold calling
- Survey
- Roadshow
Of course, some agents will be comfortable with some but not the others. As an Agency leader, I would advise my new agents to try all methods and discover for themselves which is best suited for them. From there, they can further develop their skills to make that prospecting method their specialty.
Based on an average sales skill set, I would say an agent can do business with 1 out of every 4 prospect he meets. Therefore to have 100 clients, an agent got to meet 400 people a year. That’s how simple it is!
Client servicing
After closing that case and making the commission, providing continuous service is crucial to the success of the business. “Hit and run” agents will usually leave the business in a year or two.
Servicing includes updating clients on their insurance portfolio, meeting clients for portfolio reviews or catching up, keeping clients informed of new programs that can benefit them and so on. Basically, keep your clients in the loop and build a long term friendship with them.
Insurance is a relationship business. Some of the clients hardly know me initially. I always tell them “give me 1% of trust and I will earn that 99%”. Till date, these “strangers” turned into some of my very good friends and kept referring their friends to me. Word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool you can ever find.
I am always grateful in the simplicity of my job scope. It’s only doing what is necessary to meet that 3 people for tea daily and do business with them. Even If we don’t do business, it gave me an opportunity to make another friend.
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