InsuranceLeads.com Blog by Insurance Agent

While getting a great source for leads is something that any insurance salesperson or broker needs in order to establish and improve a business, all the leads in the world won't matter much if sales skills themselves aren't present. This ability is one of the oldest, the most challenging, and the most potentially rewarding that a person can have, and while many people are downright afraid of selling, others thrive with it. Of course, if you're already selling insurance or you're thinking about breaking into brokering, you're probably well aware of the thrill of closing a sale, of creating a personal income based on your own initiative and talent, and you look at a selection of leads as an opportunity rather than a burden. I've met a lot of pretty incredible sales people over the years, both on my own as a customer and through professional networking, and many take a hard-selling approach that's difficult to resist.

I've tried this hard approach myself, but I've never had more than moderate success with it; in fact, conversion rates seem to be based more on the personality and other attributes of the prospect than on the sweep of my words or the persuasion in my actions. With the economy making front pages with bad news in just about every place in the country –and the world at large--, the hard-selling technique started to take a dip in efficacy, something I've noticed on my own and have also read through other agents' blogs. I first came across the concept of consultative selling, however, when I was looking through the tips and resources section of InsuranceLeads.com.

Consultative selling rejects many of the aspects of hard selling, and understands that a lot of prospects are instantly turned off once they've identified the fact that they're participating in a sales conversation. That's especially true with the financial downturn making anything that sounds like an added expense an instant red flag for consumers, whether it's auto insurance, vacuum cleaners, clothing, or anything else. Consultative selling takes a vastly different approach in that it allows the salesperson to form a more meaningful relationship with the prospect; one in which specific problems and needs are identified and solutions are gradually explored. There's obviously going to be an offer of sale at some point, but reaching this moment through the consultative method has vastly improved my conversion ratios.

When I buy leads from InsuranceLeads.com, I take a bit of time to think about their likely situation (the filtering options and thorough questionnaires that the site administers really come in handy during this process). When I contact a lead or receive one through a hot live transfer, I instantly develop a relaxed, friendly interview, discussing the various aspects of the prospect's input, getting a feel for how my products might specifically be seen as beneficial. From there, it's a simple feat to hand the prospect the ideal offer on a personalized platter. Still enjoyable from a sales perspective, this method takes the hard-selling strain out of my strategy.