Ideas to Help You Sell More

When I started in the DI business 16 years ago, my mentors were relentless in their teaching that although quite rewarding and very lucrative, disability insurance simply doesn’t sell itself.  Unlike other insurance lines, selling DI requires unrivaled finesse, but most importantly persistence in an attempt to convince a prospective client that their body specifically is fallible and readily susceptible to disablement.  But most Americans have “Superman” complexes and are not true believers, so here are some proven approaches to help you along. 

Make disability insurance relatable.  Most working-age consumers don’t believe disablement can happen to them.  They don’t realize that they are three times more likely to become totally disabled than die during their career, and that a majority of home loan defaults in the U.S. arise due to the disablement of a family’s primary income earner.  Labor statistics paint a very harrowing picture of the reality of workforce disabilities in this country.  So how do you sincerely, but strongly relay that important message to your prospective clients?  Use real-life stories, the more personal the better, so the client can relate to the very candid possibility of suffering a life-altering disablement and losing his/her ability to make a living.  Don’t hesitate to borrow anecdotes and ideas from colleagues and organizations like the Council for Disability Awareness and Life Happens.

Exploit your own established book of business.  The greatest resource for prospecting new clients and new business opportunities is among your own existing files.  Your best chance of up-selling and expanding business is through the relationships you already have with loyal clientele.  Turn one individual DI case into a multi-life behemoth with huge and persistent commissions.  Guaranteed-issue DI (GSI) is one of the hottest trends in the market.  Your physician clients and attorney clients have colleagues that are either uninsured or underinsured and could prosper from a GSI policy that provides high-limit benefits with robust group discounts without having to succumb to an intrusive exam and blood/urine draw.  And much to the delight of executive boards and HR teams, GSI programs save on corporate dollars while providing substantial and important employee benefits with quick and easy group implementation through automation.

*Reprinted with permission from Advisor Today Magazine