How to Become an Expert Closer: Learn From the Best Agents

I was able to recently interview a friend of mine, who happens to be a P&C agent in Ohio, about how he is able to close a high percentage of his leads. He has ranked in the top 5 in his region and top 20 nationwide for a Fortune 100 insurance company and has a book of business with over 2500 customers.

Step 1: Make Sure they Know You Appreciate Them

To be able to consistently close sales as an insurance agent you need to make your potential clients feel like you are their number 1 most important priority. To do this you need to follow a few simple tips that will help make any potential sign up feel important:

• Make sure you build trust with them on the initial phone call. Don’t just try to sell them, get to know as much as you can about them.
• Make sure what you are offering to the client as the final package is actually what they need. If they feel like you are just trying to sell them some generic policy, they will be turned off very quickly.
• As with any call or face to face meeting, make sure that you are in a quiet environment, make sure they aren’t distracted, and make sure they have enough time to complete the sale. There is no sense in trying to close a person who is barely paying attention to you.
• Most of all, make sure you relay to the customer that you understand what their needs are and that you would never steer them toward a policy that didn’t meet those needs.

Building a solid groundwork and profiling your sales contact will allow you to close when the time comes.

Step 2: Stay Calm

Don’t get worked up during the conversation if you feel that you may be losing the sale or if the conversation is not taking the turn you thought it would. It is important to stay relaxed and keep your “eye on the prize” even if it sounds like they have no intention of signing with you.

I can’t tell you how many sales I thought I lost half way through the conversation, only to save it in the end and close the sale. I have had people literally half hang up on me, but I kept my calm and slipped in a personal or important point only to save the call at the last second.

Step 3: Be Personable

If you are meeting the customer face to face, maintain eye contact, call them by their name (possibly first name if they don’t mind) and listen very closely.

Listening might be the single must powerful sales tool you have. If you can pay close attention, not only will you learn vital information you can use to help close the sale, but the customer will notice and appreciate it.

Step 4: Test the Waters

Don’t be afraid to ask a few questions about how the customer feels, how they like what they have heard, or if they think they would be interested in certain products. You are not closing the sale at this point, you are simply testing the waters to see how the sales conversation is progressing.

Some example questions you may want to ask would be:

• “Do you have any concerns about the products we have discussed?”
• “Is there anything that you don’t feel comfortable with?”
• “Is there anything you would like more information about?”
• “Is it clear how our services meet your needs?”
• “How do you feel about the information I have given you so far?”

These questions need to come across as casual and not as asking for the sale. Try to mix them in to your sales pitch as you go along. This should give you a realistic idea of how serious your customer is about signing up. Its critical to the sale that you try to address all the concerns now, do not save them for your closing.

Step 5: What You Have Been Waiting for: Closing the Sale

If you are finally ready to close the sale, that means you have addressed all of the steps above and you are now ready to finalize the deal. If the prospect is still unsure about your products even after you have completely addressed all the information above, use these simple tips to help out:

• Make your offer sound like the best they will find: Knowing what your competition offers, knowing what other companies offer as far as alternative services, and knowing general pricing information can help you dissuade a client from choosing someone else. Know who you are competing against and know how to use their products/pricing against them.
• Set a deadline for them to respond: Tell them that your offer is only good for a certain period of time. After that the pricing will change and they will have to be re-quoted once again. This can be tricky, so only resort to this technique if you feel that the prospect is really on the fence and you may lose them regardless. This will differentiate the guaranteed losses from the people who are borderline.
• Tell them why its important to act now: This one is completely up to you as how to explain why they need to hurry. There are a variety of reasons like: what if there is an accident before they get coverage, what if they need to visit a doctor, what if there is a damaging storm ,etc… The key to this technique is not to come across as if you are pressuring them, just worried for their protection.
• Recognize when the customer is ready to buy: This may be a little difficult at first, but over time you will easily be able to identify the words, conversation patterns, inflection, and/or tone of a person who is ready to sign up. When you get these clues, you need to move quickly. Some common clues you will get is are questions like: “How long does it take to fill out paperwork?” “Would I have to come into your office to do this?” “When would my new policy start?” “When would my first payment be?” “Do I have to cancel my current policy now?”

The most important thing to remember from your perspective is that you need to close this sale to insure the profitability of your agency. Your bottom line is to sell insurance and to keep your customers for as long as possible. From the customer’s perspective they just wanted to be treated like a human being, offered a good price, and they want to understand what and why they are buying your services. The key is to walk the fine line between your needs and their needs and you will do just fine.

BONUS Step: Build a Referral Network

Back to what I was saying at the start of this article; I know an agent who literally never loses a sale. I asked him how, out of the thousands of agents in his company, he was able to stand out year after year. His most interesting answer was that he never loses a sale. Ever.

How can someone never lose a sale? Not losing a sale goes far beyond signing a contact up for insurance on the first try. When he says he never loses a sale, he means if he doesn’t sign them up, he gives them a list of friendly competing agents to call. All of these agents have a deal worked out with him, that if clients turn down a quote or choose to not renew, they will forward these clients to their other friendly agents. So, what he ends up doing is either closing them on day one or he eventually is able to get them in 6 months when they shop again or get referred back to him.

The idea is that he never loses a potential signup, because he will get them immediately or he will get another chance down the road. This goes back to one of my top rules of being an insurance agent: You must build relationships with other insurance agents if you want to make it to the top.

Share This