As a health insurance consultant, your financial independence is heavily determined by your ability to close the sale. And if you’re looking to fully retire in just four years like you can as a consultant with United Advantage Agency, then you’ll want to ensure your closing skills are top-notch.
You can find vast information on the web on ‘How to Close the Sale’, but these four tips we’ll be sharing with you go outside the box and the status-quo for sales, ensuring you have more success than your competitors.
#1 Identify the Decision Maker
While this step is one you’ll find on other outlets for how to close the sale, we’re going to dive a bit deeper beyond just making sure you know who you’re speaking with. By now, you’re well aware that speaking with just anyone isn’t going to get you where you need. However, if you’re selling level-funded health benefits from UAA, there’s only one person you need to be sitting in front of.
The business owner.
Getting Past the Gatekeeper
So how do you do it? Practically every business, no matter how small, has a Gatekeeper these days. That person’s main focus is to answer the phone and divert those that ask for the owner to another department or even take the message themselves in an attempt to wrap things up.
While getting on the phone is still an option, there are much better and more viable solutions to meeting with the business owner out there. While you have the ability to make direct contact with owners via platforms like LinkedIn or using the online company directory to send an email directly to the owner, the best method is as old as time.
Introduce yourself in person. Use a phone call to the gatekeeper to determine what time of day the owner would be in, and then stop by. Face-to-face contact goes a long way in establishing a connection in our tech savvy world today where inboxes and screens are constantly flooded with advertisements and salespeople.
#2 Be Genuine and Helpful
Seems simple enough, right? But many salespeople forget that being genuine and offering quality customer service – before a sale has even been made – can mean the difference between you getting the sale or your competitor.
If the “they need me more than I need them” mentality has ever crossed your mind, you should leave it at the door from here on out. The truth is, you need each other equally. You gain financial benefits from closing the sale, and they gain quality coverage at an affordable rate.
So always go in with an open mind and a willingness to genuinely help them save money, experience better care, and obtain full control over their health benefits plan. The positive energy you give off in doing so will be noticed by them.
#3 Educate Your Prospective Client
While our health benefit plans seemingly sell themselves, it’s important that you look at yourself as a consultant or educator in the health benefits sector. Many small business owners are unaware the control they have the ability in gaining by switching to level-funded health benefits. They also aren’t aware of all the ways they can save on costs without losing quality coverages.
When meeting with a prospective client, you should spend more time kindly educating them in order to help them understand all their options. Even if you don’t make the sale right now, giving them the knowledge could wind up in them contacting you in the future to close the sale.
What’s the most important thing to educate them on? The fact that they can make the switch to level-funded health benefits at any time without having to wait on the enrollment period.
#4 Follow Up
This step is here for a reason. Most insurance consultants don’t consider the impact a simple follow-up can have. Set a reminder for two weeks after you meet with the business owner to follow up with them. Know that this follow up isn’t your standard check to see if they’d like to reconsider. Rather, this is a personal reminder of why you’d be the best consultant for them to work with.
Handwritten notes on a thank you card might seem like a tedious and time-consuming thing to do, but the gesture will go a long way, especially with another business owner who knows just how valuable your time really is.
Don’t mention anything about the services or products in your note. Simply say you appreciate them taking the time to meet with you and how much you enjoyed getting to talk with them. When you place customer service above everything else, you’ll find your sales will increase as well.