My husband and I are looking to buy a new car, which is both terrifying and exciting all at once. Terrifying because it’ll be our first time dealing with those monthly car payments and exciting because, for the first time, the car we’re looking at isn’t a 90s-era beater being sold by some stranger on Craigslist.
To prepare for the purchase we reached out to our insurance agent to get a quote on what our new premium might look like. He sent back one quote showing liability coverage of 25/50/25. I don’t know a lot about car insurance, but I do know that 25/50/25 is pretty minimal coverage, especially for a brand new car. We emailed back, asking for a quote that showed 100/300/100, which he sent over later that day. We’ve decided, based on the premium and the amount of coverage we want, we’ll be going with the higher coverage.
But what if we hadn’t asked for more coverage or another quote? What if we didn’t know that his first quote wasn’t the max coverage available or that we had other options to choose from?
Well, we wouldn’t have as much coverage as we might need, we wouldn’t have known we had other, possibly better coverage options, and the agent might have missed out on some commissions.
Regardless of the type of insurance you sell, don’t forget that you’re the expert who should, at all times, be educating your clients and providing them with all of their available options.
Just because your client asks for one thing, don’t assume that it’s because they know beyond all doubt that it’s what they want or need. We asked to see a quote to get an idea of what our new premium would look like, but he assumed we wanted to see a quote with the same coverage as the beat-up, 1998 Chevy that we’re replacing.
The same idea applies to other types of insurance. If your clients reach out for life insurance, don’t assume that it’s the only coverage they’re looking for, because they might not know which types of insurance are available or make sense for their financial situation. Maybe they could benefit from DI, LTCi or Critical Illness Insurance. If your clients reach out for disability insurance, don’t just send one quote with the smallest benefit amount because you assume they’ll want to see the lowest possible premium. AND, don’t just send over a quote for a policy with bells, whistles and the maximum benefit amount because you think they haven’t done their research on what they need in a DI contract.
The point is, don’t make assumptions about your clients or their needs. Give them options, educate them on what they’re purchasing and talk them through why you think they should take one policy over another. Don’t assume you know what they want, and don’t assume they know what they need. Besides, you know what they say about agents who assume….
Also, if anyone is looking to buy a 1998 Chevy that only opens from the outside, doesn’t have AC or heat and responds well to daily battery jumps, I’m willing to make a deal.
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