disability-insurance-salesIt’s already February. Are your goals 1/12 of the way completed? If you’re like many people, January zoomed by with a blur. However, it’s not too late to achieve your planned results. Follow these three steps to ensure you reach your goals.

1.  Set 90-day milestones

So, you want to increase your disability insurance production? It’s easy to say, but how do you get started? Start by developing an annual production goal. Then, break your goal down into 90-day milestones. 90 days is long enough to see some results and short enough to make corrections if you are not meeting your goals. We tend to invest a little extra push to reach our goals at the end of each year. Why not get the benefit of that extra push four times each year instead of once?

2.  Specify how you’ll reach your goals

Realizing any goal requires specific actions to make the idea a reality. A 90-day plan allows you to define the steps needed to achieve your ultimate goal. Reviewing and adjusting those steps along the way improves the chances of reaching your goal. Some steps you may want to incorporate into your action plan include:

a.  Identify the clients most likely to need disability insurance:

The majority of American workers no longer have access to disability insurance through their employers. Those who do have some employer-sponsored protection usually do not have enough and should really be offered a supplemental plan. Ask everyone you speak to about their paycheck protection strategies. Pay close attention to clients and prospects who are self-employed or business owners. Self-employed clients may be even more vulnerable to financial disaster when facing a disability. Business owners might benefit from a key-person disability income insurance plan. If you haven’t already done so, download our “Business Bonus Pack” which features three questions that can unlock your sales potential.

b.  Educate clients about the need for disability income insurance.

Once, you’ve identified the clients most likely to benefit from disability insurance, figure out the best way to approach them. Using an educational approach is key. Many people believe that most disabilities are the result of an injury. In fact, for income earners, the leading disability is musculoskeletal diseases, back and joint problems. The second most common cause of disability is cancer. Understanding what constitutes a disability and the probability of incurring a disability can move the client to wanting to learn more about ways to mitigate the financial impact.

Furthermore, 31 percent of people will feel the financial pinch within one week to one month of losing primary wage earner’s income (Source: 2014 Insurance Barometer LIMRA and LIFE Foundation). Educating your client about the financial realities of a disability can resonate with clients and can lead them to evaluate their financial position in the event of a disability without disability income insurance.

If you haven’t already done so, download our disability stat pack infographic and our five myths flier to use as mailers and presentation tools.

3.  Measure and correct

OK. You’ve set your goals and outlined the steps you need to take to achieve them. Measuring your progress and taking corrective action can almost guarantee success. Your 90-day plan should include a 30-day and 60-day review.

For example, let’s say that in the first 30 days you identified clients and prospects to target. How many clients did you identify and qualify? Are you on track? If not, identify where you’ve stalled then set small goals to get back on track. For the next 30 days, focus on approaching prospects through education.

Now you’ve reached the 60-day point of the goal-planning period. How many of the identified and qualified clients have you contacted? Did you call, email or mail them? Which methods resulted in a contact? How did they respond to your message? What follow-up questions did they have? The answers to those questions could be the topic of your next message. Use this 60-day review to adjust how you approach prospects, keeping tactics that were successful and replacing those that weren’t. Need a tried a proven sales script? Download The Wealth Preservation Plan. It’s changed many producers’ results and it can change yours too.

4.  Deploy your most effective resources

You’ve qualified your prospects and initiated the disability insurance conversation. Now you are on your way to closing the sale. Don’t go it alone! It’s time to call in the experts at DIS. We will help you define the best case design and prepare disability insurance quotes, from all the top carriers, for you to present to your prospects. We’ll even help you customize the policy for the client and guide the application through the underwriting process. Consider DIS your go-to, back-office support team. We’re here to help you succeed! Download our DI Opportunity Kit to learn more.

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