34 Insurance Agency Retention Strategies: The Ultimate Agent Resource

Retention is necessary to build and maintain a successful insurance agency.

Every agent knows that.

You know small boosts in retention will grow long term profit immensely.

You know it costs more to get new customers than to keep current ones.

And you probably know the pain of losing more policies than you wrote in a week.

You don�t hear as much about these two things:

1. Retention is a sales strategy � Every single thing you do to improve retention makes customers more likely to refer you.
2. Retention requires established processes �  Unless you decide exactly which methods in this article are going to work for you and establish formal procedures in your office to follow through, you will not see results.

I wrote this article so you couldn�t say, �I don�t know how to effect our retention.�

Here�s 34 ways to improve your insurance agency�s customer retention. No excuses, decide which retention strategies you like and take action!

1) More Customer Contacts

Don�t harrass your clients, but the more times they hear from you throughout the year the less likely they�ll consider shopping around.

The key to multiple touches throughout the year is to vary the method and make sure you�re always bringing value. The same email every month about why to buy life insurance doesn�t cut it.

Need ideas? Here�s a few: emails, phone calls, newsletters, postcards, seminars, policy reviews, holiday cards, birthday cards, text messages, surveys, handwritten letters, webinars, community events, recommendations, gifts, billing notices, customer appreciation parties.

2) Cross Sell More

It�s very simple: The more lines you sell someone, the higher their retention rate.

I used to work for a company that gave such a big discount on your auto insurance if you bought a renters policy it was usually cheaper to have both.

A lot of agents thought the company was crazy but I didn�t.

I know the retention rate for those clients went through the roof when we added that extra policy.

3) Annual Coverage Reviews

I could write a book about the value of providing coverage reviews for your clients but you�ve already heard it hundreds of times.

What holds most agents back is deciding they�re going to do it, developing a process, and following through.

Make it easy on yourself and start with a small goal of doing one coverage review a week (or even less) and only go after your best clients.

Remember that even when clients decline your offer to review coverage, they�ll still appreciate the gesture and won�t be able to use, �I never hear from my agent.� as an excuse to shop around.

4) Discount Reviews

Has a client ever left you to save 10% when you could have saved them 15% just by applying all the discounts they were entitled to?

Don�t lie.

It�s incredibly frustrating and I know a lot of agents that will blame the client for not calling you first. This is wrong.

Asking your clients a few questions every year to make sure they have every discount they�re entitled to will make them feel more confident they�re getting a fair price and they�ll be more endeared to your commitment to saving them money.

5) Strengthen Your �Onboarding� Process

Marriage is the most important and longest lasting commitment most people ever make and that�s why every culture makes such a big deal out of wedding ceremonies.

I know it sounds silly, but I encouarage agents to compare their new client onboarding processes to a wedding ceremony.

Do your new clients feel like they�ve just joined a family, or made a business transaction?

Unless Kim Kardashian is your client, the more your onboarding process resembles a wedding the longer they�ll stick with you.

By the way, this is a highly symbolic analogy so don�t toss rice or tie cans to their car.

6) Call Before Premium Increases

I know many agents prefer to �let the sleeping dog lie�, but when you know a client is going to receive a big premium increase I recommend being proactive about it.

If you�re open and honest, the good clients will appreciate it. You can also give people an opportunity to change coverages around or identify any additional discounts to reduce the effect.

Orient your conversation around what is causing the increase and what can be done to offset it if needed. Assume that leaving your agency is not an option.

7) Setup Automatic Payments

Clients on EFT payments renew their policies at a much higher rate than those who write a check and mail it every month.

It�s just too convenient to stay and too inconvenient to leave.

Getting your clients on automatic payments is a mini-sale within the sale and should be appreciated for its value.

Make sure your staff is aware how important it is and compensate them accordingly.

8) Get More Referrals

Every agent loves referrals and you can never have too many, but one value that often goes unappreciated is that clients who refer are more likely to renew.

It�s psychology� if I tell everyone you�re the best agent ever,

1. I�ll believe it more every time I say it aloud.
2. I�d feel stupid switching after saying you�re the best.

Read this article for more ideas on getting referrals

9) Shop Rates For Them

Obviously it won�t work for the captive agents but for the independent guys, sending your client comparison quotes with your other carriers once a year is a great way to keep them with your agency.

It doesn�t matter if you send quotes for the worst carriers, just seeing a few other numbers that are higher than what they�re paying is all most people need to stay put.

10) Pre-renewal Phone Calls

Simple idea: call your clients before the renewal to thank them for their continued loyalty and offer to answer any questions they may have.

If reaching out to your entire book sounds daunting, identify the most important clients and reach out to them. Or identify the �flight risks� and call them.

11) Pre-renewal Holiday Cards

This is a little twist for agents who send out Christmas cards.

Send clients a holiday card in the month before their renewal arrives. Each month you�ll have a new card for the holiday but it only goes out to your clients renewing the following month.

In February you send Valentines to the clients renewing in March and in March you send St. Patrick�s day cards to the clients renewing in April. (and so on)

It�d be about the same cost as Christmas cards, but more timely and more noticeable.

12) Remind Clients of Longevity Benefits

I used to be a claim adjuster and can honestly say that when a question arises about paying a claim, one of the first things looked at is the client�s longevity with the company.

A straightforward claim will not be affected but if it could go either way (and claims often can) a 10 year client will get coverage  at times that a first year client will not.

Don�t be afraid to remind your clients this. It�s true.

13) Educate Your Clients

The more your clients understand insurance, the more value they�ll see in your services.

On the other hand, when clients only understand price you�re 100% dispensable.

If you truly understand and believe that clients should stay with you regardless of price it�s your job to educate your clients as to why.

If you can�t do that, maybe you don�t really know the answer yourself.

14) Random Acts of Kindness

There�s a term in psychology called reciprocal altruism that says, �do something nice for someone, and there�s a better chance they�ll do something nice for you� (like renew their policy).

Sending clients an occasional handwritten note or personal email, giving their children balloons when they come into the office, or mentioning a client�s business on your Facebook page are just a few ideas.

The hand that gives, gathers.

15) Remember Clients� Children

It probably sounds silly, but when people I do business with remember my childrens� names and ask about them, I feel very respected and greatly appreciated.

If my insurance agent asked about my kids every time I saw him I would never leave.

This might be good information you can keep track of in your CRM.

You can pretty much always ask �How�s the family?� and manage your way through the conversation appearing to know a lot more than you do.

16) Anniversary Present

Earlier in this article, I likened the on-boarding process for new clients to that of a wedding ceremony. If you really want to take this analogy further send your clients an anniversary gift each year.

If you follow this schedule you won�t need to buy a diamond for 60 years.

You could also just send a �virtual� anniversary gift.  Email a picture of a gift and explain you�d like to buy it for them, if only the insurance regulators would allow it. 

17) Reward for Renewals

I�m sure there are others, but I know Allstate, Nationwide, and United Healthcare offer some sort of deductible reduction for each continued year of insurance.

As an insurance agent you can�t change the policy offerings but perhaps there are certain benefits you can offer your longtime clients so they feel more appreciated and like they�d be giving up an earned benefit by leaving.

I�m sure you can come up with better perks, but here�s a few to get you thinking. Give your longtime clients a special phone number, an appreciation party, access to your top customer service representative, a special customer service email address, or a special discount card that saves them money at other local businesses.

18) Birthday Cards or Letters

Face it, everybody likes getting birthday cards. It doesn�t matter who it�s from or how old you are, just knowing someone remembered and made the effort makes you feel good.

If you�re worried about the cost, time involved, or distraction, consider sending birthday cards to your top 10% of clients.

19) Exaggerate Your Sales Success

Your current clients want to see that you�re selling a lot of insurance.

When they think people are lining up to buy insurance from you every day of the week it proves that they still have a good price with a good company.

When you say things like, �we�re having a slow month,� your clients will hear, �No one wants to buy the product you�re currently paying for� time to shop around.�

20) Make Them Laugh

I guess this is more of a just a general customer service/experience tip, but every laugh you get from a client makes them a bit more of your friend and a bit less of your client.

When your clients are your friends they�re a lot more forgiving when the policy goes up at the next renewal.

21) Follow up with Claims

Customers who have had a claim in the last policy period are one of the most likely segments of your client base to non-renew.

Why?

Because claims suck.

I was a claim adjuster long ago and I know there are many great claim experiences but a very high percentage of them are very unpleasant.

But here�s the good news: As an agent, you can play an integral role in your clients� claim experiences. In order to do so, you need to establish a procedure to contact customers with claims and follow up regularly until the claim is complete.

When clients have a bad claims experience and they don�t tell you about it, they�ll think the only way to send a message to the company is by cancelling the policy.

Take the complaint, absorb it, apologize, and keep the client.

22) Attract Better Clients

Okay, I know that everyone would like better clients. Most agents are more than willing to take anyone with a heartbeat and I understand.

I guess my point is this, when you�re trying to determine where to spend your marketing dollars, keep in mind the lifetime value of each sale.

It may cost half as much to get clients from the wrong side of town, but if they leave your agency 3 times as often spend your marketing dollars elsewhere.

23) Remind Clients About Discounts

Insurance shoppers love discounts. And they hate not getting discounts.

When you remind your clients about every discount they get during every interaction, it does two things that help retention:

1. It reinforces the idea that they�re not paying too much.
2. It makes them less likely to go to another company without the same discounts.

Have you ever had a conversation like this?

Prospect: �Do you offer a discount for X?�

Agent: �Unfortunately no, but I�m confident we can save you money even without that discount.�

Prospect:  �Well, I can�t get past the fact that they reward me for X and you guys don�t even care.�

Wouldn�t you like your competitors to have that conversation if your clients ever call them?

24) Build Social Network Connections

I mentioned how important it is to �touch� your clients as frequently as possible. Connecting through social networks makes this even easier.

Each time you connect with a client virtually they�re making a bit more of a commitment toward you.

When clients connect with you, it�s like combining the recommendation benefit from #8 with the connection benefit in #7 and the increased number of contacts benefit of #1!

25) Take Ownership of Problems

Because we often want to make ourselves look better, when things go wrong with a customer it�s only natural to blame the problem on factors out of our control.

While this is the intuitive approach, it is not best for business.

When your client has a complaint and you blame forces outside your control they have no reason to stay with you.

The problem is likely to reoccur.

Blame yourself and explain why it won�t happen again and you�re far more likely to retain that upset customer.

26) New Client Follow-Up Schedule

Clients who have been with you for less than 2 years are the most likely to non-renew.

Develop a procedure for keeping in regular contact with them by phone, email, or snail mail.

It should be �contact-heavy� at the beginning and can ease off over time but should ramp up again during renewals and any other important times in the life of the policy.

For the first couple years, make sure your clients don�t get any surprises.

When their policy, declarations page, renewal, and any other paperwork comes in the mail they�ll be expecting it and already know what to do with it because you called them first.

27) Make Someone Responsible for Retention

When everyone is equally responsible for retention, no one is.

Put someone in charge of developing strategies to increase retention (they can probably just read this article) and pay them for delivering results.

Also, your other staff members may be more likely to support the goals of agency retention when it�s not being driven by the person who has the most to gain. (You)

28) Pay Staff on Retention

If you�re not paying your staff for customer retention, why should they care?

I believe one person should hold the lion�s share of the responsibility and the potential commissions for retention success but anyone else who can play a role in helping or hurting retention should have some skin in the game.

Your non-commissioned CSRs might be more important with retention that your producers.

29) Customer Surveys

When you ask clients for feedback about your agency it accomplishes a lot of things:

1. It gives unhappy clients a chance to show their unhappiness with words instead of actions.
2. It shows clients how committed you are to keeping them happy.
3. It reinforces positive thoughts about your agency for anyone that gives you top reviews.
4. It allows you to ask questions about things other than price, to remind customers that price is not the only consideration.
5. It�s another touch point. (See #1)

Need I say more?

30) Don�t Burn Bridges

This isn�t really a retention strategy as much as a re-acquisition strategy but I thought it belonged here somewhere.

When someone leaves your agency and there�s nothing you can do to retain them, make sure it�s as pleasant an experience as possible for them.

In this business, the grass is often not as green as it looks over there and many customers will come back if you let them leave with appreciation and respect.

31) Improve Your Customer Service

I guess I had to put this somewhere on the list, right?

Focusing too much on the retention strategies on this page when your customer service sucks is putting the cart in front of the horse.

For example, can customers use your agency�s website to handle the most common customer service issues? If not it�s time to call your web guy or get an insurance website you can update yourself.

32) Give Referrals to Your Clients

If you�re a regular source of referrals for clients that own small businesses or work in sales, they�ll never leave you.

When you can control connections of people within your community you�re offering an amazingly valuable service on top of insurance advice.

Make sure you get credit for every referral you give and consider making a table or bulletin board in your office somewhere for client promotional materials.

Just thinking they might get yanked off your �Wall of Recommended Businesses� could be enough to keep many people from leaving.

33) Promote Your Most Loyal Customers.

Social proof is a sales tool that involves showing prospects other customers who bought from you and are happy.

Video testimonials can be a great for new sales but they can also be used as a retention tool.

For example, get a video testimonial from one of your most loyal customers and find ways to show it to your current customers. Post it to Facebook, email it to your �flight risk� clients, play it on a monitor in your waiting room, etc.

34) Don�t Sell Only on Price

It�s tempting to sell on price, especially when you�ve got the lowest one.

Selling on price may work today but it kills retention.

If you can save a prospect money and you have the cheapest rate, move on to all the other benefits of your agency.

They won�t forget the savings, I promise.

In the insurance business, no honest company can have the cheapest rates forever.

Here�s What To Do Next

First - Click the Like button on this page so I know you want more content like this.

Second -  Share a link to this article with an agent or sales manager you trust and discuss the ideas that will work best for you.

Third - Develop a plan of attack for boosting retention and take action by the beginning of next week.

Retention is necessary to build and maintain a successful insurance agency.

How to Hire The Best Insurance Salespeople: 25 Hiring Tips

I�ve worked with hundreds of ridiculously successful insurance agents.

I�ve also worked with lots of bad ones.

For years, I struggled to find one unifying characteristic � one trait or skill that was shared by all the successful agents and absent in the others.

Every time I thought I found it I�d meet another agent who, by his success or failure, would disprove my latest theory.

Until I finally figured it out�

Every successful insurance agent is not a great marketer. They�re not all good conversationalists. They�re not all organized, interesting, or hard-working. They�re not all well-written, well-read, well-mannered or well-spoken.

They�re not even all well-groomed.

But every rich insurance agent I�ve ever met was great at finding, hiring, and keeping great employees.

I�d like you to be rich too.

That�s why I put together 25 of my favorite tips for helping agents hire the best producers on planet earth.

1) Hire Young For Affordable Superstars

Someone fresh out of school or just entering the job market is an obvious gamble, but it might be the only way to get a high-quality employee at an affordable cost.

Face it, most of the top-tier licensed and experienced producers are either happy where they are, too expensive for you, or they�ve already become an agent themselves.

If you can�t afford the sales rock star with a proven track-record you might have to build them yourself.

Look for someone you could see owning their own agency in 7-10 years.

That�s plenty of time for you to make a lot of money getting him or her ready.

2) The Best Sales Personality is Not What You Think

The gregarious and extroverted personality most people think is ideal for selling insurance is not.

Based on some cool research by Adam Grant of the University of Pennsylvania (only geniuses go there), salespeople that fall in the middle of the extraversion scale are the most successful.

It still pays to know lots of people, but today�s consumer wants to work with someone who will listen and respond to their concerns instead of someone who can�t wait for their next turn to talk.

3) Don�t Hire for a License

The biggest mistake I�ve seen agents make is limiting their employee candidate pool down to only those who are already licensed.

That means 99% of all great employees are off the table for you.

You shouldn�t need to pay someone to go to insurance school for 2 weeks. Today, you can study for licensing exams at home on your own time and if someone is really motivated they�ll be able to pass the test on their own.

4) Hire Close to The Agency

When deciding who to hire, one thing you might overlook is how far someone needs to commute to get to your agency.

If they live 45 minutes away:

1. They won�t know as many local people, who are probably the best prospects.
2. They�ll be less likely to work a local community event.
3. They�ll be less likely to stay late to close a sale.
4. They�ll need more money to pay for the extra gas and vehicle maintenance.
5. They�ll be more likely to miss work because of weather.
6. They�ll be more stressed.
7. They�ll be more likely to look for a job closer to home.
8. They�ll be more likely to leave you.

It�s not all gloom and doom, but it�s worth considering.

5) Try Before You Buy

Bringing on a new employee is a HUGE commitment.

It�s such a gigantic decision that I seriously doubt most agents� ability to make the right choice after only a couple interviews. Plus, everybody acts different on a job interview and for the first few months at a new job.

Before making a full-time hire, bring people on for a temporary project, or pay them as an independent contractor.

At the beginning they�ll work hard to impress you and you can always compare their results from that time period to future production to be sure they�re always pushing hard.

6) Ask My Favorite Interview Question

�What�s the last sales or self-improvement book you read?�

I love this question because it tells you one of two things:

1. Is the prospect actually interested in being successful and willing to do something about it?
2. Or, are they really good at making up believable answers when they don�t have a good one?

Either way, a good salesperson will shine through this question and a wannabe will fumble miserably.

If you don�t believe me, ask people you already know!

7) Pay as Close to 100% Commission as Possible

Yes, it�s hard to attract people with a 100% commission pay structure, but somehow it worked for you, right?

Even if you need to inflate commissions to levels higher than what you�re making, the closer you can tie your producer�s pay to their production the better you�ll both be.

And if a prospective salesperson is terrified of a commission-reliant paycheck, you might be talking to the wrong person.

8) Match Your Producers� Commission Structure to Yours

If selling a certain policy makes you three times the commission as another, make sure your producers get paid three times as much too.

Generally speaking, the higher the commissions the harder the sale and the lower the easier.

If you don�t pay more for the harder sales your producers are going to naturally go after the less profitable (and easier to sell) business.

Make sure you�re all on the same page going after the same goals.

9) Beware Producers Who Ask for More Base and Less Commission

If you really want to be successful in this business, you�re going to need to have superstar salespeople on your team.

Superstars don�t ask for more cushion and less opportunity. They want the opposite.

When someone negotiates for a higher base salary I recommend countering with a lower base and much higher commissions.

A sales rockstar will take it. A loafer will go somewhere else.

10) Be on the Lookout � Everywhere

A job interview is a horrible place to determine whether someone is a good employee.

If you really want the truth, you have to see them in action while they�re working. That�s why it�s easy to identify great employees that you encounter while they�re working at their job!

I know one very successful agent who gets all his producers from fast food restaurants!

He figures if they can stand on their feet all day, deal with rude customers beside a team of poor employees and maintain a positive contagious attitude they�d make great additions to his team.

Could your current producers do it?

11) Hire Part-Timers Working Somewhere Else

If you�re looking to get some more action into the agency, consider bringing on part time employees that are currently working somwhere else but want to make some side money.

You no longer need to leave work for two weeks to attend a licensing class. In most states you can study online to earn your license in your spare time.

It helps if they have a related job like a real estate broker or an accountant, but anyone willing to pass the test on their own and learn your system can be selling for you on the nights and weekends.

If you had a team of 6 people who could each bring in 3-4 policies a month for your agency that would be an extra 250 policies this year!

12) Beware the Agency Jumpers

If you�re actively looking to hire an insurance producer, you�re sure to run into plenty of what I call,  �agency jumpers�.

You�ll recognize them because their resume has 5 different agencies in the past 3 years.

They�re usually very good at interviewing and always have valid explanations for the history but it�s always the same story:

First, they work very well for 3-4 months.

Then they start getting bored, surf the internet more, and start openly disagreeing with the way you run your business.

At 7 months they spend most of their time looking for a new job until they do it all again.

13) Ask Everyone You Know

If you�re in the market for a great employee, make sure everyone knows about it.

Referrals generally result in the best hires because people won�t usually recommend a bad applicant. You can also use the referring person as a filter if you frame the situation properly.

Don�t say, �I�m looking to hire someone, do you know anyone that needs a job?�.

Instead say something like this, �I�m looking for a hard worker that can learn fast and wants a career, not just a job. If you know anyone with a lot of ambition let me know.�

14) Hire Locals

Whether they were the class president or least popular kid in school doesn�t matter, if you�re choosing between someone born and raised in your community and a transplant, hire the local.

Whoever knows the most people will, by default, sell the most insurance.

This always becomes painfully obvious to me when I visit my hometown in Syracuse, NY and can�t go to the mall, out to eat, or pump gas without running into someone I grew up with.

And with social media today, people are even more connected to their high school classmates than ever before.

15) Craigslist Ads Are Free

Unless you live in a few major markets, you can post job ads to Craigslist for free.

There�s no harm other than the time it takes you or your office manager to post an ad every week or two.

Even if you�re not actively hiring you can build up a list of strong prospects and can always offer 100% commission jobs to the right candidates.

I�m not a fan of scaring people to increase output, but it�ll also keep your current staff on their toes if they know there�s always someone waiting on the bench ready to play.

16) Always Be Hiring

Even if you already have more employees than you can handle, you can always take someone on at 100% commission.

And who knows, if you�re always looking for new employees you might stumble into greatness at a time you wouldn�t have expected it.

Put a sign in your office somewhere visible asking for only the most honest, customer-focused, and hard-working applicants.

As an added benefit, customers who see this will have a higher regard for your current employees.

17) You�re Not Buying, You�re Selling

I�ve watched a lot of insurance agents interview potential employees with the completely wrong attitude.

Most agents think its the applicant�s job to sell themselves to the agent and the agent�s job to screen out all the weak people.

This is wrong.

The best producers don�t need to put on a show to win you over. The producers you need can walk into a room and everybody knows it.

Great producers choose who they will sell for and its your job to make them want to choose you!

When you�re talking to the right applicant, you�ll be the salesman and they�ll be the buyer. If it�s the other way around, you�re talking to the wrong person.

I�m sorry if that interferes with the enjoyment of crossing your arms, furrowing your brow, and watching people sweat under pressure.

18) Tell Them No

This interview technique comes from a book I listened to a few years back called,The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes. (It�s a decent book and there�s some good ideas in there about hiring too.)

At some point in the interview process, tell the applicant you have doubts about whether they fully have what it takes to be successful. You�re basically saying �no� but in a polite way that leaves the door open for them to overcome your objection.

Some agents like this idea because it identifies the ability to overcome objections but I believe there is an even larger benefit.

By putting applicants in a position where the job is taken away from them you�ll get a true glimpse into how badly they want it.

If someone�s just looking for a job they�ll accept your opinion. If they�re starving for your opportunity they�re not going to let it slip through their fingers.

And when you get an applicant to sell themselves into the position they�re more likely to be successful later on.

19) Test Computer Skills

FACT #1: A lack of basic computer skills like typing, using a spreadsheet, finding information on a webpage, and using email is a major handicap to being a successful insurance producer.

FACT #2: Computer skills are like STDs � You can�t tell who has them just by looking� or even asking!

I�ve worked with so many agents who fell in love with a new employee only to find out afterward that even the simplest tasks took hours because of technical ineptitude.

Create a basic test that includes recreating a word document, a simple spreadsheet, and finding answers to questions from a website. You could create something for this in 15 minutes and it could save you a HUGE mistake.

And just because you suck at computers don�t give potential applicants a break.  More people who can�t open an email attachment will only amplify your weakness.

20) Look For Non-Insurance Salespeople

There are plenty of very talented people selling knives, consumer electronics, and used cars that could be great additions to your agency.

Pay attention to people you interact with in other sales positions like the guy at Jiffy Lube that upsells synthetic oil and transmission flushes.

There are top-tier, proven salespeople that would blossom in your agency and view it as the opportunity of a lifetime.

21) Multilingual Is Usually Good

Producers who can speak a second or third language can be a real benefit to the agency.

Customers who speak in a foreign language with your staff are often more loyal and can be better referral sources if there�s a large enough group of other people from their culture in your community.

Take the good with the bad though.

Building your business on customers that speak a language you can�t speak requires a good amount of trust. You won�t always know what your producers are saying and if they leave, your business will soon leave too.

22) Use LinkedIn To Announce You�re Hiring

Just like Craigslist, posting an available job position on LinkedIn is free and you never know what may come of it.

If nothing else, announcing from time to time that you�re hiring on LinkedIn just makes you look successful.

People may be more likely to forward information about a job opening from within LinkedIn than anywhere else simply because it�s the professional social network.

23) Research Applicants on Social Media

It�s usually pretty easy to find someone on Facebook just by typing into Google, �Facebook Firstname Lastname�. If that doesn�t work, add the city and/or state.

Not only do you get a clearer idea of who they are as a person, you can also see how many friends they have.

The average person has around 150 Facebook friends. A well connected person would probably have more than that, right?

Just realized I have under 150 friends� What a Loser!

24) Watch Out for Movers

I�m not sure it�s all that prevalent, but I�ll mention it because I�ve seen it happen a few times.

If someone from far away is moving to your area and looking for a job be careful.

Don�t get me wrong, they might be great. But there�s a decent chance their main priority is moving and your job is just their safety net.

As soon as they get to town the real job search will begin, on your dime!

25) Ask for the Stars in Job Postings

If you advertise a job as $25,000/year plus commission you�re going to get applicants who are worth $28,000.

Ask for hard-working applicants willing to do what it takes to make $80,000 and you�ll get a whole different group of people.

A better group.

Use your advertisement to weed out the mediocre. Your hiring decision is too important to waste time on them.

And if you�re not hiring now�

But you know�

• Another agent that�s hiring,
• A sales manager who helps agents hire,
• Someone looking for a job in insurance,
• Or anyone else who may be interested,

Would you do me a favor and send them a link to this article?

And if you find this resource valuable please click �Like� so I can continue to gauge what content my readers most appreciate.

Thanks, and GOOD LUCK!

How to Help Prospects See the Value of Life Insurance: 22 Tips

Selling life insurance is hard.

It�s also necessary.  Because unlike other lines of insurance people are required to buy�

Life insurance must be sold.

People won�t buy it on their own and a website or an 800 number can�t replace an agent.

A lot of agents tell me prospects don�t see the value in life insurance. They don�t want to talk about it. They don�t want to hear about it.

Of course they don�t!

Nobody wants to think about dying! Our brains are hardwired against it.

But it�s your job to make prospects think about it so they can make smart decisions to protect their family before it�s too late.

I don�t have any magic bullets for you.

Sorry, but there�s no secret tips here to make people love life insurance because I don�t live in a fairy tale and neither do you.

However, you will find a bunch of sales ideas to help you get prospects in the right frame of mind to understand the value of life insurance and feel good about paying money for something that is a lot easier to just ignore.

None of these ideas will make your job simple and you�re probably already doing many of them.

But if there�s one or two ideas in this list that can help you sell more life insurance then I�ll sleep well tonight knowing we helped make more families safe.

Here�s 22 ways to help prospects see the value of life insurance:

1) Strike At The Right Time

There are a few times in someone�s life that they�re particularly open to having a discussion about life insurance.

If you find prospects based on their current life situation you don�t have to work as hard at selling the value of insurance.

Think about creative ways to find people who:

1. Just got married or engaged.
2. Just had a baby
3. Just bought a house
4. Just lost a friend or loved one
5. Just had a significant birthday 40,50,65�
6. Just changed jobs.

2) Don�t Call it Life Insurance

Call it mortgage protection, or something else like income protection, family coverage, tuition guarantees�  Whatever.

The point is that people have a typical reaction to hearing the word life insurance, and if you want to get their attention you need to use words they�re not as familiar with.

Also, it�s great to emphasize what�s being actually being insured. After all, life insurance doesn�t really do much to protect your own life!

3) Let the Math Tell a Story

Have prospects figure out how much money their family would have to live off each month if they didn�t have life insurance.

How much money would be coming in if you died and there were no insurance?

Exactly how much?

Could the bills be paid? Could your family stay in the same house? Eat the same food? Drive the same car?

Let the story unfold.

The key thing is getting the prospect to answer these questions themselves. If you feed the answers they won�t internalize the value of life insurance.

Three years salary doesn�t sound too good when you do the math, does it?

4) Tell a Story

Tell prospects a story about a family that needed life insurance and didn�t have it, or maybe a story about a family that did have coverage and how important it was.

The better you tell the story, the easier it is for your prospect to see the value in the coverage.

If you�re telling a story about a particular family and you can show a picture of them (with permission of course) it can make your story much more impactful.

Don�t make up a story though� you don�t need to.

5) Have Someone Else Tell a Story

Even if you�re a good story teller, you won�t be able to tell someone else�s story better than they can.

You can find tons of videos online of people explaining how life insurance either saved their family or the lack of it destroyed them.

Check out The Life Foundation�s YouTube channel. I was at a conference where they had a young girl speak about losing her parents and the difficulties it placed on them and I swear there wasn�t a dry eye in the house.

I cried like a baby.

Think about creative ways to share videos like this. Can you email them to prospects? Make a video that runs in your waiting room? Post them to social media?

6) Talk to the Whole Family

It�s a whole lot easier getting Dad to see the value of life insurance when you�re talking to him about it with Mom.

Think about ways to get more meetings with multiple members of the family instead of just one.

How many times have you talked about life insurance with the only person on earth who won�t benefit from the policy?

7) Talk About The Kids

Everybody loves talking about their kids and it�s also a great way to build rapport.

But what you might not always consider is that the more you talk with a prospect about their kids, the more you�re firing the neurons in their brain associated with taking care of their family.

Neurons that are highly charged from lots of conversation like this will play a stronger role in the decision process.

If you talk, at length, about everything related to your prospect�s kids you won�t even need to mention how the life insurance effects them. 

8) Talk About What They Do For Their Family

I love talking about all the things I do for my kids.

Did I say talking? I should have said complaining�

Pick �em up here, drop �em off  there, do the laundry, clean up, help with homework, coach the team, fix their bike, etc. etc. etc.

A conversation about the things your prospect does for their kids accomplishes lots of things:

• It activates the �parental protector� part of their brain that makes decisions based on family security.
• It shows prospects all the things their kids would miss out on if they weren�t around.
• It reminds prospects they somehow get enjoyment from doing unpleasant things for their loved ones (like paying for insurance they�ll never benefit from)

9) Use Assumptive Conversation

Talk to prospects about life insurance the way you would talk to them about buying milk.

The question is not whether or not to buy it. The questions are what kind do you want, and how much?

When you assume that all responsible adults in your prospect�s situation buy life insurance they will too.

10) Put the Prices Out There

When it comes to young healthy people, life insurance really isn�t that expensive when you consider the potential payout.

Make sure your prospects know how cheap some policies can be.

It probably wouldn�t hurt to compare the cost of a perfectly healthy young adult with that of an average middle aged adult to demonstrate importance of buying young.

11) Letter From a Dying Person

I wish I had this for you but I don�t so I�ll just describe it.

I was in an agency about 5-6 years ago and they had a letter posted for visitors to read.

The personal information had been blacked out but the letter  came from a person who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and was requesting a pre-payment of her life insurance.

The letter was short but emotionally gripping and it made the thought of living with a terminal illness very real to me.

Five years later and I can still remember holding it in my hand.

I�m not sure if you have any letters like that available, but if you do it can be a very powerful tool for helping people appreciate the value of life insurance.

12) Ask About the Last Funeral They Attended

One of the reasons people don�t see the value of life insurance is because our brains are hardwired to ignore the possibility of us dying.

Think about it. I will die, you will die, everyone you know and their great great great grandchildren will all die someday and yet few of us are really bothered by it.

That�s our brain working hard to ignore the things that won�t help us live longer and reproduce more.

When you ask someone about the last funeral they attended it immediately activates the part of their brain that understands and accepts that death is going to happen, and maybe a lot sooner than we expect.

When was the last funeral you attended? How did it make you feel? Would you want a similar funeral?

13) Don�t Use Ignorable Statistics

Don�t use statistics that suck.

Sucky statistics are those that people can�t relate to.

I don�t care that 8.78 out of 1,000 people die each year. I don�t care that 155,000 people die every day.

I can�t relate to these numbers. They mean nothing to me.

So I have a 1 in 12 chance of catching a disease with a 30% treatment rate over the next 5 years�

Whatever.

14) Use Emotion-Rendering Statistics

If you�re going to use statistics, make sure they effect your prospect in a deeply emotional way.

Tell me how much it costs to bury me. And don�t just quote some statistics, show me some invoices from local funeral homes.

Tell me what percent of widows have to go back to work or pick up another job after losing their spouse. And then ask me what my spouse does for a living.

Tell me what percentage of children who lose a parent go to college versus the normal rate.

No I don�t have numbers for you here� Do I have to do everything?

15) Use Social Proof Statistics

Don�t tell prospects that 3 in 10 homes in the US don�t have life insurance.

That just gives them an excuse to join the club.

You want to make people think that everyone IS buying insurance, not the other way around.

Tell your prospect that 19 out of 20 homes with six-figure  incomes have life insurance and they better join the in-crowd. (I made that stat up so don�t quote me)

And there�s nothing wrong with developing your own statistics based on your own book of business (as long as you explain that).

In fact it�s probably better because your book is more representative of your prospect than national statistics.

16) Talk About Surprising Deaths

A few days ago James Gandolfini, the actor who played the main character in �The Sopranos�, died.

He was 51 years old and while he wasn�t exactly the picture of health, it was nonetheless very surprising to just about everyone because of his age.

Talking with your prospects about a recent death in the news or in your local community is a good non-confrontational way to remind your prospect that �hey, you never know�

Gandolfini�s case is particularly effective for a situation like this because he died of natural causes and that is easy for anyone to relate to. I don�t think you�d get the same effect with a drug overdose or wreckless behavior.

17) Associate Life Insurance With Being an Adult

If your prospect is a young adult who has never had life insurance don�t forget that the feeling of being a responsible adult is a powerful benefit to them.

Make sure you emphasize it.

Tell them you�re impressed with such a high level of maturity at such a young age.

18) Segue From Conversations About Other Lines

When you�re selling another line of insurance like auto, home, health, etc. use examples and tell stories that include death.

�If you�re killed in a car accident this is how much your insurance will pay out��

�Is that going to be enough? What else do you have in place?�

19) Associate Life Insurance With Wealth/Social Status

Let�s be honest, everyone can�t afford life insurance.

It some ways it really is a luxury product. I don�t have any stats but I�m very certain there�s a direct relationship between wealth and amount of life insurance.

Make sure you remember that during the sales process.

Are you treating your life insurance prospects the way they�d be treated at a luxury car dealership? Or like they�re getting their phone fixed at the Sprint Wireless store.

20) Stop Selling �Peace of Mind�

Okay, I�ll probably take some heat for this but I can�t stand when agents tell people to buy life insurance for �peace of mind�.

I get it and I understand what it means, but it�s such a cliched and BS term that it�s come to mean nothing at all. (in my opinion)

Do people really stay up at night worrying about not having life insurance?

I don�t think so.

I think people buy life insurance because society says its the responsible thing to do and because it feels good.

That�s why I did.

I guess this is really  just my opinion, but I have plenty of life insurance and to be honest, I�d get more �peace of mind� having the extra money in my wallet.

21) Tell the Story of Your First Death Claim

Most experienced agents have a story about the first time they delivered life insurance benefits.

It�s obviously not pleasant to think or talk about, but your job as a life insurance salesperson is to make people think about and prepare for something they�d prefer to ignore.

If you don�t have a story to tell yet, you will. It�s the inevitable consequence of being good at your job.

And I promise  the person who receives that check won�t mind if you used every idea in this article to sell their policy.

22) Don�t Ever Forget Why

It�s way too easy in sales to get wrapped up in all the techniques, quotas, close ratios, contests, commissions and everything else your carriers throw at you.

Don�t ever forget why you�re selling life insurance.

To protect families.

Everyone needs life insurance but most people won�t buy it without your help.

It�s not glamorous. But it is noble.

Don�t ever forget that.

Here�s what to do next:

1. Make a short list of the ideas here you can add to your selling process and keep it handy.
2. Review your list after each sales interaction this week and evaluate whether you used every opportunity to help your prospect see the value.
3. Build sales Karma by sharing this article with one agent or sales manager you think would appreciate it.
4. And please click the �Like� button so I know if you want more material like this.

I hope this helps you protect more families,

Can You Be Denied Auto Insurance if Convicted of a Moving Violation?

A moving violation can be a serious mistake or a minor one. In many situations, your auto insurance provider is there to help you through mistakes you might make. However, there are some situations where it can become difficult to obtain auto insurance. If you are labeled a high risk driver, it may be hard to obtain car insurance or affordable plans. There are several things to keep in mind in this situation.

Can You Be Denied?

Most states have requirements that those who operate a motor vehicle (or own one) must have auto insurance in place. This is required for nearly all drivers. However, car insurance providers are able to deny individuals coverage if the driver is too high of a risk to insure. It can be hard to obtain insurance if you have such a label because the risk of another mistake, accident or moving violation is high.

By definition, a high risk driver is someone who has a higher potential of filing a claim at some time in the future. Insurers view these individuals as high risk and costly, therefore charging a significant amount more to cover individuals, or simply denying coverage altogether. There are many reasons for this outcome, including a DUI/DWI conviction, illegal street racing, excessive speeding, reckless driving, driving without licensing and traffic violations in which a person died or got seriously injured.

What Should You Do?

If you are a high risk driver, you will need to work to minimize such risks going forward. More so, if you find a policy that offers coverage to you, be sure to do everything you can to reduce your points. In some cases, you may be able to take a driving course to reduce your points. You may need to obtain an SR-22 as well, which generally is a requirement by the department of motor vehicles. Most people can find a policy available to them, though it can be expensive and hard to do without the help of an independent insurance agent. The right auto insurance provider is likely available even for high risk drivers.

Wal-Mart and Insurance: How Can The Local Agency Compete?

Owning an independent insurance agency isn�t what it used to be; you already have to compete with major carriers like Allstate and Progressive, but some recent news indicates that the competition is going to heat up even more.

 
Walmart, already the world�s biggest retailer by a huge margin, has plans to get into the auto insurance business, through an alliance with autoinsurance.com. 200 stores already have a partnership with Metlife selling term life policies, and they want to expand their insurance interests. But this could only be the beginning as new research shows that this may soon become a trend for big business. According to a study published earlier this year by Accenture, 67 percent of insurance customers are open to buying insurance from places other than insurers, and 23 percent say they would seriously consider buying from a non-traditional source like Google or Amazon.
With these new developments, it�s become more important than ever to highlight the advantages of your independent agency. Here are some tips to retain current clients and garner new business.

1. Highlight the personal touch- This seems like an obvious thing, but it�s one of the things that sets you apart!  It�s simple, but remember to always answer the phone or respond to email requests promptly. An independent agency is the only place you can talk to a real person about insurance that�s not in a call center.
2. Explain the difference an independent provider can make � chances are corporate giants like Walmart and Amazon don�t have the choice of providers that your agency does. You can find different combinations of coverage and price and save customers money, so let them know!
3. Review your customer�s coverage from time to time. When a few years have gone by, many of your customers may need an update, so periodically go through and make sure everyone is up �to-date. This will show your customers that you�re constantly looking out for their best interests.
4. Make the most of every interaction. Think of everyone you talk to as a potential new client and share your experience with them. Everyone who walks in should be able to experience the difference made by an independent agency.

With huge corporations controlling more and more of the business landscape, it�s going to be increasingly more difficult for companies without billions of dollars behind them. As an independent agency, you�ve got to recognize the added competition and prepare for it. There are still lots of consumers out there who want the personalized service and local feel that you have to offer, so it�s time to show them what you can do!

This Is What Happens To Your Body When You Eat Garlic And Honey On An Empty Stomach

A standout amongst the most broadly used fixings in almost every food around the globe is garlic. It�s so famous because of its fantastic taste, it offers flavor to each dish and it is wellbeing valuable.
Eating crude garlic can help you with a considerable measure of wellbeing conditions and even specialists incline toward it. It can help you diminish hypertension and cholesterol, anticipate coronary illness and heart assault.
It�s likewise extremely compelling in limiting the impacts of atherosclerosis.
Just a single garlic clove can help you with ordinary medical problems like roughage fever, explorer�s looseness of the bowels, icy, influenza, bug nibbles and parasitic contaminations. Garlic can likewise be advantageous for side effects, for example, osteoarthritis, diabetes, and an amplified prostate. It�s an astonishing resistant framework enhancer and can give you a full body detox. Besides, in the event that you join it with onion and ginger it can facilitate the chemo reactions.

Under-25s are more likely to be defrauded on the phone than older generations � here's how to stay safe and the scams to watch out for

Under 25s are 75 per cent more likely to have been scammed in 2017 than those aged over 55, according to figures from call-blocking firm Truecaller.

Younger generations tend to trust technology more than their elders, making them particularly susceptible to fraud. Furthermore scammers are increasingly turning from targeting landlines - more commonly used by older generations - to mobiles - used by younger people.

The true scale of financial fraud is also hard to nail down as the research shows that as many as two-thirds of people who have been stung are too embarrassed to report it.

As a result, This is Money � which launched its Beat the Scammers page in 2016 � along with Truecaller have come together to offer hints and tips for millennials to watch out for when it comes to fraud.

It is a must read for a generation who have grown up trusting technology and at time when the typical Briton receives seven nuisance calls and three spam texts a month, according to its research of more than 2,000 people.

Truecaller say that nuisance calls and scams have traditionally targeted the elderly, with pension pots plundered by fraudsters preying on so-called easy targets, but now younger people are increasingly in their sights.

In the wake of a ban on cold calls targeting pensioners, Truecaller say the Government has missed one of the scammers' main targets - tech-loving youngsters.

Furthermore, its research shows that of those who have been defrauded, 25�34 year olds lose the most amount of money from phone scams compared with over 55s who lose the least.

Fraudsters are moving from direct cold calls on landlines to robocalls, texts and WhatsApp messages via mobile and tablet devices.

In 2018 this is set to get worse, especially as only 54 per cent of people are savvy enough to never answer calls or text messages if they do not recognise the sender.

Nick Larsson, head of growth and partnerships at Truecaller, said: 'Millennials trust technology from an early age.

'From conversing with friends and family to using their smartphones for mobile banking, 18-24 year olds explicitly put trust in their pocket.

'But with our research showing that they are the most targeted group when it comes to scams and spam � this trust and familiarity with technology can sometimes be misplaced.

'The elderly therefore aren't necessarily the priority for educating on scams and spam.

'In fact it is the younger generation who use smartphones all day, every day, who need to wake up to the dangers of being so well connected by technology - even if it is just answering an unknown number.'

HOW TO STAY SAFE

Mobile phones stand as much more than a platform for social media apps, texts, calls and e-mails - they are sadly now a hunting ground for identity thieves.

The information people unwittingly put online can be used by scammers in fraud attempts to steal money or identities.

Truecaller and This is Money have compiled the below top tips for staying safe when using your mobile phone:

1. Think twice

Always be cautious when receiving text messages from unknown numbers.

Pay extra attention to if the country code is from abroad.

However, caution is required even when text messages appear to be from known senders.

Fraudsters can make texts appear as if they have come from banks, even appearing in genuine text message threads. 

These can contain links to malware or include phone numbers of fraudsters.

2. Ask for verification

If you receive a suspicious call or text message, always ask the person to verify themselves and get them to send more details over e-mail.

You can also contact an official representative of the company to verify the information.

It is better to be safe than sorry - do not be pressured on the telephone.

Remember that fraudsters may try to make you panic or flustered on the phone to increase the chance of you making a mistake.

3. Keep up to date

Ensure you regularly update your apps and phone software as they have the latest security features.

It may also be worth considering installing anti-virus software onto your mobile phone. Many will do this with their laptop, but not think there is a need for a phone.

Think twice about what you share and who you answer too, and avoid posting information that makes it easier for fraudsters to replicate your data and online persona.

4. Online dating

Beware of who you are speaking with when using popular dating websites and apps.

Scammers use the platform to groom victims into long-distance relationships using e-mails, instant messaging, texting and phone calls.

Once they've gained your trust, they are able to gain information that allows them to answer security questions as you.

5. Never share sensitive information

Your bank will never require you to share sensitive information like account details or passwords over the phone.

If in doubt, hang-up and ring the number on the back of your debit card from a different phone - fraudsters can stay on the line.

You can also pop into your local branch with any concerns (if it hasn't been closed).


6. Suspect a phone scam?

Hang up and never ring back the number.

There's a type of scam that is called one-ring scam where fraudsters play on your curiosity and give you a missed call - and when you call back you'll be charged a crazy amount of money.

Suspect an e-mail scam? Same rules apply, don't reply to it or click on any of the links, pictures or attachments.

7. Wi-fi warning

Increasing numbers of locations offer complimentary wi-fi.

However, be warned the next time you online shop, bank and enter passwords, a wi-fi attack on an open network can take less than two seconds.

Keep wi-fi activity to surfing the net and leave the important stuff to when you're home on a secure network.

8. False job listings

As the largest generation in the workforce, young people can be easy prey for fraudsters.

False job listings can appear as seemingly legit job posts and recruiter messages.

Before accepting a LinkedIn request, or messaging back a recruiter, dig a little deeper and look for warning signs such as an incomplete profile, low connections and foreign email addresses.

Research the sender's name to ensure they exist and are who they say they are.

9. Use strong secure passwords

Use a password that's strong and secure - something like the first letters of a line of your favourite song, just make sure you include a mix of cases and numbers.

Always use a different password for each platform. If you use the same for a number of different accounts, fraudsters can quickly attack in a variety of ways.

10. Don't suffer in silence

Speak out to spread awareness of scams. The more it's spoken about the more we can protect against fraudsters.

If you have fallen victim to fraud, you can get in touch with This is Money: lee.boyce@thisismoney.co.uk

You should also log it with Action Fraud UK - any trends that can be spotted may help prevent future victims from making the same mistake.