By IAO Coach Kira Schnell-Harrison
Today, I want to talk about T&A. No, not that T&A… I’m talking about the words “Transactional” and “Accountability.”
First, Transactional
Let’s tackle “transactional selling” in our industry. A wise person once said, “The best coverage to have, is what you have in place when you need it.”
We live and breathe this when it comes to Life insurance. Making sure every customer, prospect, and human with a pulse knows they have the opportunity to get Life insurance is very important to us. We refuse to get a call from an insured’s family asking if they had Life insurance for their loved one, only to discover…
A) they didn’t;
B) or even worse, we never spoke with them about it!
So, how do you present Life insurance to every person you come in contact with? There are a couple of ways we accomplish this.
1. Every quote, every time.
Every single Property & Casualty quote we prepare also receives a Life insurance quote with the policy.
2. An offer on their account.
Anytime someone calls in for a service call, we say to them, “there’s an offer on your account for $XX in life insurance, it’s $XX per month… shall we get that started today?”
Both of these approaches have allowed my Agency to submit a large volume of applications each year. Are these high premium, huge commission sales? Absolutely not. But, they allow us to get our foot in the door with our insureds and de-mystify the myth that “Life insurance is extremely costly.”
It is also strategic in the effect that it allows us to have an ongoing conversation with the insured and can help them build their Life insurance portfolio over time.
Next, Accountability
Let’s talk about “Accountability” and how that is executed.
At my Agency, when there is a set of expectations in place we talk about them nearly non-stop, so they are “in our faces” at all times. In our morning huddles, we talk about all quoted households and what Life insurance policy was quoted. If a household closes and there is no Life insurance written, the person that closed the household has to explain why it wasn’t sold.
As a group, we briefly walk through the conversation that was had with the insured to see if as a team we can identify a different word track that could have been used to close the sale. We keep these conversations brief, and to the point.
With accountability, if you say you’re going to do something, it must be done. And if it’s not done, you have to be able to defend why you didn’t follow the process. It’s really pretty simple. People think being held accountable, especially in the workplace, is code for “you’re going to get fired”. In actuality, it’s code for “we want you to succeed.”
The challenge for you now: Allow (and set) more “T&A” in your lives. I promise, you will be happy, if not amazed at the results you’ll realize when you do.
