Many agents are attracted to selling Medicare plans. However, they often fail to take the next step to sell Life Insurance. This can mean leaving a lot of money on the table!
The good news is that making the transition to selling Life Insurance is often easier than you would imagine. As long as you have a few basic skills, you can be successful. Keep reading for expert tips to help you master cross-selling Medicare and Life Insurance.
Why You Should Cross-Sell Medicare & Life Insurance
Before we focus on the steps to selling Life Insurance, let’s briefly look at some of the reasons why this is so important. The most obvious is that Life Insurance policies will generate more commission. But there is more to it than that.
Most agents are attracted to Medicare because of how easy it is to sell. The problem with this is that it is also easy to lose your business. This comes down to the lack of a relationship most agents have with their clients. Up-and-coming call centers can easily poach your clients. But when you add a Life Insurance policy, your clients will become much stickier.
The other problem is that the ‘best Medicare’ is a relative term. The perception of the value-added often depends on the way that it is presented. For example, one person might focus on out-of-pocket expenses. But another policy will give the client more extras like dental. As you can imagine, this leads to significant retention issues.
Now that we know some of the reasons why selling Life Insurance can be valuable to your business. Let’s look at the steps you need to accomplish this.
Start To Cross-Sell
One of the biggest problems that agents face is nerves. They worry about how the transition to Life Insurance will be received by their clients. Most agents at this point have become Medicare experts with a deep knowledge of their product. But they have never tried selling Life Insurance before.
The reality is, you just need to jump into and start selling the product. At first, you might fall on your face. But that’s okay! You are learning something new. You can’t let the risk of embarrassment hold you back. Often, the hardest thing to do will be to start the conversation for the first time.
Contact Your Warm Clients First
The way that I made the transition was by going after my warm market or in-book business first. There are a few reasons for this:
- You already have a relationship. Once you’ve established trust, it’s a lot easier to make future sales
- You have some information about their needs
- It’s okay if you fail with them. If you don’t do a good job, you’re still just checking on the client.
Starting with your existing clients will allow you to master your technique. You can identify the common concerns and come up with a way of overcoming them. The more of these calls you make, the easier it will be to work out the kinks. Additionally, each call will allow you to grow your confidence.
Leverage Their Medicare Savings Into A Life Insurance Policy
Once you are prepared to make your first call to a new client, there are a few steps that you will need to go through. First, you’ll want to talk about Medicare. This is the area that most agents are familiar with. During this time, you want to be taking notes about their current situation.
If they already have Medicare, think about the package that they have. If there is another option that better suits their needs, help them make the switch. As you are doing this, calculate the amount of money you have made them. At this point in the call, it’s best to keep this information to yourself.
Continue with the fact-finding part of the call. Once you have all the information you need, focus on switching to cross-selling Life Insurance. You can then use the savings that they stand to make as leverage, helping convince them to sign up for the policy. This makes getting the second sale a lot easier.
An Example
To help explain how this would work in practice, let’s look at an example. You are talking to someone, and they decide to move from an F to G policy. The only difference in coverage is a higher deductible, which is offset by the savings that the new plan provides. Based on the savings, let’s say they can also afford a $10,000 Final Expense policy.
The receptiveness to a pitch like this will be very high, with most clients willing to take both policies.
I should note that you should use this to transition into other types of policies too. For example, you might want to use this as a chance to discuss things like a DBH plan or an SSI policy. Once you have already established a good relationship with the client, they will be open to other suggested policies.
If you can get into the habit of going the extra mile like this, you will end up writing a lot more premiums over the long term.
Start Selling To Potential Clients
Once you have mastered your technique, it will be fairly easy to cross-sell from medical supplement insurance to Life Insurance. I have had a 70% success rate. There are a few reasons for this:
- Building trust with the client
- Fact-finding about the client. Learn what they are looking for. When done properly, the transition should be seamless, as you already have all the information you need to cross-sell the product.
- Their shields are down; this makes them more receptive to purchasing a new product.
Practice Makes Perfect
Hopefully, you now have a better idea of some winning strategies to use to cross-sell Life Insurance. The last step of the process is to put this plan into action.
The issue that most agents face is that they don’t even bring it up in conversation. This is usually due to a lack of confidence. The only way to overcome this is through regular practice. You need to get comfortable having the conversation. You’ll be surprised at the number of clients that will be receptive to your message!
Remember that, in many ways, insurance is a contact sport. If you are on the phone all day long, you might be doing 20 to 30 presentations. If you only manage to cross-sell one or two SSI policies, that’s still an extra five grand of premium a week. Some agents won’t be able to get that much in a month.
Watch my interview with Justin Brock on cross-selling Medicare & Life Insurance!
Final Thoughts
One of the easiest ways to boost your income is by learning to cross-sell Life Insurance when selling Medicare. Because of how simple these products are, it should be easy to make the transition.
If you need help with your sales, check out my training products here!