Have you asked yourself recently: What are the duties of licensed insurance professionals? What is MY duty?
Think back to life before getting into insurance. Think about what you did and what you were doing at that time.
What job did you have? What hobbies were you into? What was your life like?
Next, imagine receiving a call from your insurance agent about your car insurance policy and being told you need to increase your PIP coverage.
If you were like me back then, you have no idea what they are talking about. PIP coverage? What in the world is that?
The majority of our customers — and most people in general — who do not have an insurance background are not well-versed in the insurance world lingo. Generally, people don’t know what they are paying for. Insurance is not something people think about very often.
That is, until someone talks to them about it or something happens.
Licensed insurance professionals, have a duty to help customers with the following:
- To understand what they are paying for.
- Help them see potential gaps in their coverage.
We ensure the customer has the right coverage in place to be sufficiently protected against potential financial devastation.
You have been granted licenses from the state where you reside to sell insurance. Always remember that.
Your customers need you. They trust you to make sure they are properly protected.
This idea is forever engrained in my mindset because of the following experience I had two years ago on Christmas Eve.
It was a normal day in the office, nothing too crazy was happening, other than we were all anxious to get home to our families to enjoy Christmas Eve. That is, until the phone rang.
I answered the call. It was the mother of one of our customers. She began to tell me that her daughter and her husband were in a car accident that day and that the husband didn’t make it. He was survived by his wife and their little daughter.
I was speechless. I didn’t know what to say.
Looking at their account, I saw no sort of life insurance policy for the husband. I looked through the notes and saw no hint that we had talked to them about life insurance.
The mother on the phone didn’t ask if they had any life insurance coverage, but was just notifying us of the tragedy and told us they would get in contact with us to take care of the claim in due time.
As I left the office that day, I felt empty. I felt as though we had failed at our job. Did we have the life insurance conversation with them at some point? Maybe. I don’t know.
All I know is that since that experience, I have let that motivate me to have the life insurance conversation with all of my customers. I would much rather have to deal with a “no,” than receive another phone call like that knowing we could have done more.
Tip: Use our Life Insurance Scripts to overcome the 11 most common objections to life insurance.
It is each of our professional duty to educate our customers on the potential risks they face.
Have the conversation.
