Cold calling is a great way to grow and expand your sales, but does cold calling for insurance work? The answer is YES, it’s extremely effective, and it can be used in three ways which we’ll get into in a few.
Cold calling for insurance is a great way to rapidly increase your sales because your target market widens, meaning you can be in one place (your office) and reach people in different towns, cities, states, and countries by using your phone.
When you make a cold call, you are essentially reaching out to someone who has no idea who you are, what your company does, and what services or products you offer.
The goal of a cold call is to introduce yourself and your company in hopes of getting the prospect interested enough to want to learn more about what it is you’re offering.
Later on, we’ll give you the best scripts for insurance brokers. For now, here are three very effective ways cold calling for insurance can work.
Table of Contents
Three Ways To Cold Call For Insurance
1) Cold calling to schedule meetings.
Cold calling for insurance is very effective when used this way. Find a list of leads that fit the criteria of your target market.
Start making calls and setting up appointments with the leads interested in learning more about what you offer. Let them know you’ll be in their area the following week and come up with a scheduled time for a meeting.
From there, you can give your face-to-face sales presentation and close a deal.
2) Cold calling to close a deal.
This is another excellent way of cold calling for insurance because you will be able to make more presentations vs. the time spent meeting prospects face-to-face.
In this process, you will find a list of leads that fit your target market, prospect and qualify those leads, and call them back to make a sale over the phone.
Since you’ve already qualified the lead, this will be a much easier sale to make over the phone. You’ll know what they’re interested in and can present them with a plan that perfectly fits their needs.
3) Cold Calling referrals.
This is more of a warm call vs. a cold call, but the concept is similar to the other two.
In this case, after closing a deal with your prospects, ask for referrals, tell them you will introduce yourself the same way you did with them, and call those referrals to repeat the same process and make more sales.
Cold calling for insurance with these three steps will help catapult your sales.
How Do I Start An Insurance Cold Call?
When cold calling for insurance, understand that everyone needs insurance, and if they currently have it, maybe you can offer them a less expensive and better plan. If they don’t have any, it’s necessary on many levels to start now.
This is the mindset you must have when cold calling for insurance.
Later in this article, we’ll go over the best scripts to use when cold calling for insurance, but first, it’s important to know what you’re going to say to your prospects.
Be prepared with a list of quick questions to ask your prospects, be ready to handle the most common sales objections, and be knowledgeable about the products you’re selling.
The best script for insurance will include an opening statement, qualifying questions, building rapport, and closing techniques.
In order to cold call like a pro, the best way to start an insurance presentation is with high energy and excitement.
Your prospect will feel your energy through the phone, and if you sound like you’re excited about what you’re selling, they will get excited too.
Again, let them know you have something that will greatly benefit them, and in one to two short sentences, explain what it is. From there, you can go into your qualifying questions.
Once you collect the information you need, ask when is a good time to get back to them. After this is done, you’ll be set to call back and make your entire sales pitch.
How Do I Get Insurance Leads Without Cold Calling?
Cold calling for insurance is not the only way to get leads. There are several ways to get highly qualified leads that will help your sales go through the roof.
Setting up a table.
You may have seen this before. This works by setting up a table in an area that best fits your target market. Have a sign above showing what you’re selling, and talk to people that walk past you.
For example, if you’re selling life insurance, you can set up a table in the middle of a carnival. By doing this, you would be surrounded by your target market of parents who care about their children and future.
Door knocking.
Door knocking, aka cold canvassing in an area of your target market, is another great way to get leads without cold calling.
You can go to an affluent neighborhood and introduce yourself as an insurance agent in the area.
Mailers.
Sending out mail is one of the most common and effective ways to generate leads without cold calling.
You can send out postcards, letters, or even do door hangers. This method is very effective because you’re directly going after your target market.
LinkedIn prospecting.
LinkedIn is a powerful tool and can be used for insurance prospecting. You can use LinkedIn to look up potential customers in your area and reach out to them with a message or connection request.
Cold calling for insurance works, but you should use every tool and option available to help increase your sales.
How Do You Approach A Client For Life Insurance?
Many sales reps tend to overthink how to go about asking a client for life insurance. Simply ask if they have life insurance.
You can ask them questions such as:
- Do you have life insurance?
- If they already have insurance, ask what kind.
- Once you find out, you can use your expertise to offer something that will be more beneficial for them.
- Do you have life insurance to protect your business?
- Do you have enough life insurance to cover your family if something were to happen to you?
- If they don’t have insurance, you can explain the importance of life insurance and how having it can benefit them.
- You can also offer a free consultation to review their options and find out the best fit for them.
- Do you know life insurance can be used as an investment as well?
These simple questions can open up a whole new conversation on life insurance and eventually get you a sale and referrals.
Benefits Of Cold Calling In Insurance
Cold calling is the best tool for covering a large area in a short amount of time. When cold calling for insurance, you can get in touch with many people you usually wouldn’t have been able to.
Some benefits of cold calling for insurance are:
- You have the opportunity to close more deals than being in the field.
- Instead of having a few face-to-face meetings in a day, you could make dozens of presentations in one day from cold calling.
- You can call and ask all of your clients for referrals in a single day vs. waiting to see your clients to ask face-to-face.
- You can create urgency in insurance sales with your clients by letting them know you only have a limited time to talk.
- You can track your progress and performance by recording your calls to know what works and what doesn’t.
What Is The Success Rate In Cold Calling For Insurance?
The success rate in cold calling for insurance is very similar, if not the same as cold calling for any other products from another industry.
The average closing rate for many salespeople is roughly ten percent. That means for every one hundred qualified calls you make, you should be able to close ten sales.
Of course, there are always things you can do to increase this number, but the average is about ten percent.
With that being said, now you know roughly how many leads you must qualify and how many presentations you must make to hit a certain number of sales and take your business to the next level.
Five Best Scripts For Insurance Brokers
When cold calling for insurance, the best way to succeed is to have a script and rebuttals that you can follow. This will help you stay on track and ensure you’re covering all the important points.
- Hello, this is ___ with ___ insurance, how’s it going? I work with individuals like yourself using insurance policies as an investment tool.
- Hey ____ this is ____ with ____ insurance. I specialize in working with business owners like yourself to protect their assets by using life insurance policies.
- “Hey ____, this is _____ with _____ Insurance, how’s it going? The reason for my call, I specialize in helping people like yourself find the best life insurance policy to fit your needs. What kind of policy do you currently have?
- “Hello, this is _____, and I’m an insurance agent with _____. The reason for my call today is to ask if you have life insurance.
- “Hi ____, my name is ____, and I work with _____ insurance. The reason for my call is to see if you’re happy with your current insurance policy?
Conclusion
Cold calling for insurance is a great tool for agents, but it’s important to use other methods to increase your chances of getting more sales and referrals.
When cold calling for insurance, just like anything else, stay disciplined, and the sky is the limit with how successful you can become in closing deals.
