There is never a natural process of becoming somebody instead of nobody. Passion, awareness, smart brain, good attitude, strategy and opportunity will play the role to provide you a good support of becoming what you want to be.
In today’s world, working must be profitable. And, one of the most profitable professions along with the promising benefits is being a life insurance agent. As we have told you, you can’t go instant away. There are several qualities on how to become a successful life insurance agent that you need to have if you seriously want to make living by becoming insurance agent.
However, being an insurance agent is not as easy as you may think of. It is always possible that you experience rejection over time and it makes you so stressful. So here we come with the best tips and strategies that show you what qualities you should have dealing with the skills and knowledge that you have to master.
Contents
Must-Have Skills
There are a number of must-have skills that you have to master if you want to be a successful life insurance agent.
Dealing with the skills, you can apply the following strategies to try to be a successful life insurance agent. There are mainly four tips to follow below:
- First, prioritize what the clients need. Though a life insurance agent primarily makes money from commission, you should focus on the clients. Otherwise, you won’t last long in the business. So, listen carefully to what your clients tell about their needs and provide them with help. Earn their trust first though it may be the hardest thing in the job.
It is also important to offer the clients an insurance product that gives you lower commission. This is to ensure the clients that they are more important than your commission. Well, this is the first strategy to earn trust from the clients.
- Second, provide a good customer service. This way, clients or customers feel happy and tend to stay with the insurance they purchase if their agents always be there when needed. Respond every question and answer their phone quickly. This will lead to assumption that the clients’ agent is always ready to help.
- Third, have an emotional intelligence. Yes, one of the best qualities that a life insurance agent must have is able to listen and empathize with the clients deeply. When it comes to a difficult situation on finance, a client is usually confused, stressful and having no idea of what to do next. The financial reality is not that good. This way, be sensitive and thoughtful to provide them with help and advices so they will feel there is nothing to worry about their financial difficulties while they also want to purchase a life insurance for a better future.
In personality and reliance, there are also a strategy that carries 3 tips on how to become a successful life insurance agent as follows:
- First, you must have high energy level. This means you must stay energetically to server the clients whenever they need you to do something. This way, life insurance clients are always curious at all times. So, make sure you must always be ready with what the clients want to know.
- Second, you must be persistent. Being persistent is considered the most vital part if someone is really dreaming of to be a successful life insurance agent. Keep smile though you may be rejected by the clients for so many times. In this case, a good insurance agent know exactly that “no” of someone is just a sign that he/she will say “yes” in the end.
- Third, be honest. In most cases, insurance agents don’t stay longer with their company because they are not honest. They often work from on insurance company to another as they don’t work honestly. Further, an insurance agent will win the client’s heart and trust to purchase the policies if he/she is telling the truth upfront. This way, the clients will also give a high respect to such agent. They will also likely continue purchasing the policies.
In offering a product, life insurance agents must be knowledgeable. In this strategy, there are two kinds of things that you should have on how to become a successful life insurance agent.
- First, you must offer a variety of life insurance products. Truly, offer the clients a comprehensive selection of either products or services that so they can choose one that mostly meet their needs.
- Second, you should know the technical know-how. This deals with the way you purchase the policies. Explain to the clients about the tax and legal aspects of insurance products you are offering. Ensure them that the products you sell are designed to fit their entire financial situation.
In this regards, many of life insurance agents also earn financial planning designation like Certified Financial Planner. Some agents also apply the financial planning, income tax preparation and other financial service as their main profession. Insurance business is just an extra one when it is necessary.
Must-Have Characteristics
In order to be a good life insurance agent, you also need to know what characteristics you should have. This way, build your character as a life insurance agent that is like no other person out there. Keep in mind, that a character of life insurance agent is different from that of a marketing manager. Think of the difference.
Here are the characteristics of a great life insurance agent:
Salesmanship
A good life insurance agent must be a good salesmanship. You must have strong sales skills to attract and maintain your clients. To build this character, you can join many kinds of seminars and involve in some professional training programs.
Love Learning
The next character to build as a way on how to become a successful life insurance agent is loving to learn. It is advised that you learn every new products provided by the company. Also, learn more about the company you are working for. This will acknowledge you and create a skill base.
Be connected with the other agents in the team or in another team in the same field. This will give you more opportunities to develop your skills.
Proactive
Have you been a proactive person? What is meant by being proactive? Well, proactive means that you are active and actively moving. Specifically, be proactive to learn, to offer products to clients, to provide help, to always update the information and etc.
Be ready with any updated on-policy changes so you can prevent accidents dealing with the way you are providing help to the clients of life insurance. A proactive life insurance agent invest in in-house risk management strategies to evaluate and find if there is any issue. This is aimed to save your insured money and make you trusted among the clients.
Finally, a proactive life insurance agent will earn much more. In short, the more you are proactive, the more opportunities you’ll get to get clients to purchase your insurance products.
Get Involved in Your Community
Why do you need to get involved in a community? That is due to the fact that you will never know where you are going to get a client or opportunities to sell your insurance products. Thus, it would be beneficial to join a local community that usually holds event in relation to life insurance.
Well, some communities that you can take participation in it is are Chamber of Commerce, School board and sport teams, local library, local charities and non-profits, business networking groups, eventbrite, Nextdoor and Meetup.
Though you cannot find any opportunities that hire you in that community, they may have a link to other people that you can go through. Note, more referrals are similar to more successful businesses.
Linked With Other Insurance Agents
As life insurance business is a fast-paced industry, requiring you to get connected with the other agents. This will keep up your skills to be updated and upgraded. Getting linked with the other insurance agents is also considered as the easiest way to gain more opportunities either by attending industry conferences or joining a professional networking group.
Perhaps, these popular insurance associations can be your best places to get linked.
- The Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America (IIABA)
- The National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA)
- The National African American Insurance Association (NAAIA)
If your local communities do not come with the link to provide you with the opportunities, you may search online platform such as LinkedIn and look for insurance agents there.
To help you get linked, set also your own measurable goals and proceed the relationship-building after you are successfully connected with other agents. This means that you can try to give away business cards, connect on LinkedIn with new contacts and send the follow-up emails to tank to the new contacts. This will build a partnership so you can easily get linked with other insurance agents.
Rich of Marketing Tactics
As you are working to sell insurance products and services, you cannot ignore not to learn marketing tactics as one of the tips on how to become a successful life insurance agent. In this regards, try to sell yourself.
Some people may think that it is just a conventional way, yet, some others view it as a tactic. In fact, it works. This way, you could start by calling some local businesses to find out whether they need a life insurance. Also, you must call back quickly when someone is calling you. It is always possible that the caller is your future client.
Avoid Factors Contributing to Why Insurance Agents Fail
Why do you think life insurance agents fail to attract clients? Of course, there are some factors that contribute to the reason why they fail. So you must avoid the factors and try not to do the same mistakes that other insurance agents might make.
Lack of Knowledge
One of the best insurance marketing strategies is avoid the lack of knowledge. As we have told that you must learn everything about both life insurance and the company you are working for, make sure that you have been sufficiently acknowledged well.
In this regards, most of insurance companies provide enough support so that their agents are all knowledgeable. The agents can get the knowledge by joining mentoring program conducted by either the community of life insurance agents or the company itself.
Goals Are Not Set Well
Setting up goals is much important dealing with how to become a successful life insurance agent. However, some new life insurance agents might not know that they should have a goal framework that is measurable in order to have a high income as well as to serve best the clients.
Conclusion
All in all, it is important to learn how to be a successful life insurance agent if you seriously want to make living from that. To sum things up, there are three things we have reviewed to give you the tips to be a successful agent. First, you must be skillful. Second, you must have a life insurance agent character, and third, avoid the factors that cause you fail.
