Adding one more expense to already strained budgets may be a difficult sale. Clients with the least amount of little financial wiggle room may be the most severely impacted if faced with a disability or illness that interrupts their income. Turn your disability insurance sales approach upside down and avoid these three common missteps.
Misstep #1: Leading with premium
Talking premium first provides the client with an immediate objection to income protection insurance. Establish the need first, focusing on the financial security paycheck protection offers. Clear another obstacle before discussing specifics. According to LIMRA’s “Every Excuse in the Book,” consumers often site lack of understanding as a reason to defer the decision to buy. Once you’ve explained how income protection insurance works, you’re ready for the next step.
Misstep #2: Quoting annual premium
Have you noticed that many car dealerships advertise a monthly car payment rather than the total purchase price? Retailers offer a $700 smartphone for 24 monthly payments of only $30. Use the same tactic to frame the affordability of income protection insurance by substituting the monthly premium for the annual premium. An annual premium of $2,500 becomes $208 monthly, or even better, talk in terms of the daily cost of $6.84.
Misstep #3: Recommending a monthly benefit
Rather than talking in terms of a monthly benefit, present the total value received for the recommended benefit period. Referring to a $5,000 monthly benefit under-represents the true value of disability insurance. Instead, shift your conversation to the total benefit the client stands to receive. For instance, the total benefit received for the typical claim period of 30 months would be $150,000 of tax-free income.
Which would you be more likely to buy?
Using a conventional sales approach, the client faces the decision to purchase a $5,000 monthly benefit for a $2,500 annual premium. To the uninitiated, this may not appear to be a very good value. But what if the client is deciding on a policy that offers $150,000 in benefits for a monthly premium of only $208. Both examples are for the same product, the same benefit amount and the same benefit period. Which one are you more likely to buy?
Download the DIS Sales Strategy #1 Quick Tip and our Wealth Preservation Plan Sales Script for more ideas to help you emphasize the benefit value relative to the daily premium.
DIS works with you the way you prefer to work. Check out our new DIS Concierge service, or prepare your own disability insurance quotes with our online quoting engine. And of course, you can always count on your DIS representative for whatever level of support you desire. Call us today.
