4 Closing Techniques That Foster Win/Win Scenarios for Insurance Agents

In the insurance world, you want more than a sale—you want a client for life. Learn how to master the right closing techniques for extraordinary results.

Being a great insurance producer—with consistent, above-average numbers to back it up—comes down to one thing: building consumer trust.

Customers trust agents who are genuinely interested in and committed to meeting their needs. They also trust agents who know their products inside out and are open and honest about what they’re offering. Therefore, successful closing techniques hinge on how trustworthy your client perceives you and your brand to be.

While single-sale conversion rates may be high for a short period, customers won’t hang around to renew their policies if they don’t trust you. For insurance agencies especially, you want more than a sale—you want a customer for life. This generates consistent, ongoing revenue while you grow your client base.

The right closing techniques can solidify the beginning of a long-term relationship with your client. With this guide, you will master the right techniques for each sales scenario, turning ordinary sales into extraordinary results.

1. Make Your Proposal a No-Brainer

The first closing technique relates directly to building trusting relationships with your prospect. By uncovering and addressing their individual needs, you can nail your proposal. When the client feels you have their best interests at heart, they will trust that your recommended policy meets their needs. Addressing their personal concerns confidently, with simple solutions, makes your offering an obvious choice.

To understand their priorities and detail their needs, you must ask the right questions. While you likely start every sales call with some basic questions, the way you deliver these questions creates the foundation of a trusting relationship. Remember, your prospect is providing personal details to a stranger. Make them feel comfortable by turning stale sales questions into a friendly conversation.

Ask Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions are a good way to encourage dialogue and subtly learn about your prospect. After you’ve built some rapport, consider asking these open-ended examples:

• What would you do if someone else caused an accident where your car rolled over? This will get your prospect thinking about the cost of material damages as well as compensation for pain and suffering, medical, and time off. Probe further to explore different scenarios. Then flip the question to if he was the one at fault and caused someone else to flip. Now he’ll realize coverages may not be adequate.
• If someone sued you for a million dollars, what would you stand to lose? This will have your prospect open up about her assets as well as the resulting lifestyle losses, and in a mindset of protecting that.
• How much do you think the insurance coverage you require costs? Many people think insurance is a lot more costly than it really is. If your prospect overestimates the cost, you’re in a great position to let them know you have affordable premiums that meet their needs.
• What other insurance do you need to provision for? This question helps you determine whether the client already has other insurance and where to place them in your product suite.

2. Handle Objections Like a Pro

You may feel like you have your closing techniques completely aligned when the client unexpectedly objects to finalizing the sale. An objection from the prospect indicates a barrier between what they need satisfied and the proposal offered. You have a little more work to do, and it starts with listening.

Listen

Salespeople tend to talk more than they listen, but listening is an integral soft skill. Inadequate listening can be fatal to your sale.

Engage completely when your client talks to you and expresses concerns. Don’t react on your own negative emotions or act defensively. Instead, stay focused on the prospect and understand where they’re coming from without bias.

The client’s objection is likely due to one of four reasons:

• They don’t see the need for the amount of recommended liability coverage.
• There’s a financial concern.
• The prospect doesn’t see it as an urgent decision.
• They don’t fully trust you, the product, the company, or the outcomes.

Acknowledge and Respond

Restate the concern as you understand it and ask the buyer if there’s anything else that worries them. The initial objection isn’t always what lies at the heart of the matter.

Respond by asking if you can help resolve these concerns. For example, if money is an issue, ask them if there’s an unnecessary inclusion that can be left out. You may also need to do some further research. Avoid long-winded answers and don’t wing it—you will distance them further.

Be available to explain solutions if your prospect is unclear about anything. By showing the client you’re interested in helping them solve a problem rather than just wanting their sale, you build trust and a better chance of closing the deal.

3. Master the One-Call Close

These days, it can be really difficult to get someone to answer their phone, even when they know you. So whether it’s from a cold call, an inbound call, or a live transfer, when you have a fish on the line, you have to reel it in.

The one-call close aims to turn your prospect into a buyer in a single call or conversation. However, this closing technique’s success requires adequate preparation and training on your side.

Although one-call closing techniques can vary somewhat, our friends at Craig Wiggins Coaching and Consulting (CWC) use this 8-step process:

Start the Conversation

Set the expectation that your goal is to give them better policies. Better in the form of coverages and value—but never mention price. It’s also a good idea early on to get their permission for you to send them a text with your contact information.

Build Rapport

Gain trust and likeability as opposed to being a stranger who dives straight into the sale. CWC recommends four topics using the F.O.R.D. acronym: Family, Occupation, Recreation, and Dreams. Use open-ended questions to dive deeper into these topics and get the prospect to open up.

Lead with Liability

As agents, you can’t control the price of policies, but you can control the recommended coverages to protect a client’s assets. Let your prospect know what is at stake. That requires you to explore and understand their situation so you can recommend the appropriate liability coverage they need.

Customize the Policy

This is where you can talk through adding or removing coverages or features for the policy. Things like accident forgiveness, telematics, windshield protection, and other policy enhancements.

Discount Conversation

Ask them if they prefer to do a one-time payment or monthly, and whether they want to pay via check, ACH or credit, and reference any potential savings by an approximate percentage. You can do this as well with early signing, going paperless, and any other feature that might be available. The reason to get buy-in on these discounts now, is so that when you present your quote, you only need to present one option with all this figured in.

Quote All Policies Before Giving Rates

Find out everything that can be insured and run quotes for them all before giving the one final rate.

PRO-TIP: At some point in the conversation, you can ask the prospect to submit their current insurance information through your Canopy Connect link so you can see everything that is currently insured—autos, homes, boats, RVs, etc.

Close

Recap the liability conversation to remind them of what is at stake and review the recommendations you both discussed. Using an assumptive close and knowing their preferences from the Discount Conversation earlier, you can present the price, let them know you’ll handle canceling the policies with their current carriers, and ask for the bank routing number or credit card number to get this policy started.

Overcome Objections, then Re-Close

At this point, the prospect will either accept and provide the payment information, or give you a specific objection. Acknowledge and respond to the objection (CWC members get access to a library of objection handlers), recap the coverages and cost, and ask for the payment again.

The one-call close technique requires a level of persistence; you want to keep that prospect on the phone, because that next conversation may not happen again.

If you’re interested in additional training resources from Craig Wiggins Coaching and Consulting, you can access their on-demand training and use promo code: JPDiscount

4. Present Your Quotes Using Video

Many agents prefer a more advisory-based approach rather than rushed sales tactics. For those, video can be a powerful sales tool. It can awaken emotion, which promotes deeper connections. When prospects feel connected, they develop greater trust in you. Although video is often thought of as an early-stage attention-grabbing tool, it’s not often mentioned among impactful closing techniques.

Using video can help immensely with information processing. People don’t always have time to read through and make sense of an insurance quote, and they may not recall everything from a phone call. That’s why video offers an effective and efficient way to present and help digest information—building trust along the way.

Video content can breathe new life into your proposals. By pairing video with a screen share, your client can connect more deeply with the brand while having you there to answer immediate questions. This way, you can address comments and concerns that are fresh in your client’s mind.

Another benefit of using a video proposal, is that they buyer can replay it and share it with others involved in the decision. It’s a tall order to ask your prospect to repeat and convey the importance of having the right coverage to their spouse, who may have an entirely different set of concerns.

Canopy Connect Gets You The Information To Close Effectively

By developing solid closing techniques, you can significantly boost your quote conversion rates and pave the way to long-term success. Each technique relies on you being able to meet your prospect’s personal needs. But to do this, you must know what their needs are. This is where Canopy Connect can significantly set you apart from competitors.

Forget lengthy questionnaires and meetings to extract past insurance details from your prospects. It’s frustrating for both of you, and most of the time they don’t have all the information you need on hand.

Canopy Connect’s insurance verification solution for insurance agents gives you instant access to all your prospect’s current insurance data at the click of a button. There’s no need to wait days or weeks for them to source declaration pages, claim records, or vehicle details. With Canopy, you simply send your prospect a secure link via email, text, or QR code for their authorization. When the client clicks the link, they authorize the safe sharing of current insurance policy information with you. This lets you prepare a competitive quote that meets their needs.

You’ll know where they’re coming from and what price range you’re competing with. In addition, you can see and point out the cracks in their current policies and build them a better policy.

With all the information you need just a click away, you’re bound to nail that closing. Start a trial of Canopy Connect today to instantly maximize the potential of your closing techniques.