According to reports, 2022 is shaping up to be a good year for insurance sales, and insurers are buckling up for anticipated growth.
However, this doesn’t mean that it’s all smooth sailing, especially if your core focus is final expense sales. Final expense insurance is a notoriously tricky insurance type to sell.
What’s more, covering final expenses is one of the least cited financial concerns among consumers this year.
Does this mean you shouldn’t focus on final expense? No, it simply means you need to work smarter to close on those final expense leads.
Closing can be one of the most daunting areas of insurance sales for agents. However, it doesn’t have to be this way. If you employ the right strategies, closing can become one of the easiest, most friction-free points in the insurance sales process.
Continue reading to find out our best tips for closing those final expense leads like a pro.
Lay the Groundwork Thorough Lead Nurturing
One of the first tips for successfully closing final expense leads is to lay the groundwork for a smooth close. The more you focus on lead nurturing, the easier it will be to close leads.
By the time leads reach the closing stage, they’ll be ready to buy. If you don’t practice thorough lead nurturing and lead qualifying, you’ll encounter far more issues at closing.
Instead of being ripe to buy, your final expense leads might still have doubts and reservations. This might cause them to pull out at the last minute. Or, they might go through with the closing, only to lapse later.
Lapsed policies aren’t fun, and they can be very detrimental to your commission streams. The key to avoiding all this is to thoroughly qualify your leads before moving forward with closing.
You can even start further back in the process by pre-qualifying leads during lead generation. Pre-qualified leads are far more likely to convert than leads that don’t match up with your target client profile.
If you want to maximize your time, don’t pitch to people who aren’t qualified. If you do, you might rope poorly-qualified leads into your pipeline, leads that are harder to close.
If you are purchasing leads, make sure you only buy final expense leads that are truly qualified.
Give Clients Three Options
One of the most famous closing techniques is the “Good, Better, Best” strategy. In this strategy, you give clients three product options to choose from.
These options should all be a good match for your lead, and range a little in price. Out of the three options, you can also recommend one as being the best choice.
If you’re trying to picture how this plays out in real life, here is how you could present this close to final expense leads:
“Based on your needs, here are three good options. Option X costs $50 per month, option Y costs $65, and option Z costs $78 per month. Option Z is the best out of all three for your requirements, but all of them are good options.”
Pro Tip: If you want to encourage the lead to go for the higher-priced option, here’s a simple technique you can implement. Instead of listing the products in order of premium value, place the highest-priced premium in the middle. When faced with different options, many people are drawn to the middle option in a list.
Apply the Premium Close Strategy
Another strong closing technique you can try is the premium close strategy. In this technique, sales agents begin the close by qualifying what premium final expense sales leads can afford.
Once they have clarified this condition, they move forward with the application by asking the leads further questions and filling in the application form with the provided info.
Once the agent has completed the form, they have basically closed the sale, unless the lead backs out of it at the last minute.
Although this places less decision-making in the hands of the lead, it can be a very effective way to close a sale.
One of the reasons for this is that a lot of final expense leads assume that coverage costs more than it actually does.
By verifying if a premium amount is acceptable to a lead, and then moving on with the application, agents can get the biggest question out of the way right in the beginning. After this, a lot of leads are happy to go with the option you recommend for them.
Once again, if you have thoroughly nurtured your leads, they will be more likely to respond well to this technique. If you haven’t they’ll be more prone to backing out of the close.
Apply a Hybrid Strategy
If you like the sound of both of the above strategies, you can also choose to apply a hybrid approach.
In a hybrid approach, you would start by qualifying the premium final expense leads are comfortable paying. Once that’s out of the way, you can move forward with the “Good, Better, Best” technique where you present leads with three premium options to pick from that fall close to their stipulated budget.
Pick the Right Closing Strategy for Your Nature
One of the best tips for closing final expense leads is to pick a closing strategy that aligns well with your nature. For instance, if you aren’t naturally an assumptive person, then this strategy might not sit well with you, and you’ll have trouble carrying it out effectively.
On the other hand, if you are by nature an assumptive personality who can confidently spearhead decisions for others, then you might be perfectly equipped to effectively conduct an assumptive closing strategy.
On the other hand, perhaps you like to verify things with leads, and double-check they are comfortable and happy with a certain coverage option. If so, then you might want to try out the “Good, Better, Best” approach, or combine it with the premium close technique.
Ultimately, you’ll get the best results if you play to your strengths and do what comes naturally to you, while still employing tested closing techniques.
Emphasize Why the Options You’re Offering Are the Best Fit
Another valuable tip for closing final expense leads is to re-emphasize why the options you’re offering are a good fit.
Why do you need to do this? The majority of leads go through a specific set of emotions leading up to and during closing.
Before closing, leads are interested and often even excited to find out more about coverage options. They are making inquiries and figuring out what they can get for what they can afford.
As the process goes on towards closing, leads get closer to the point where they have to make a final decision and make good on the financial commitment that comes with it.
Once a lead chooses a policy, there is no going back. Of course, they can choose to withdraw and let the policy lapse, but that will result in money down the drain.
Instead, they want to make the best decision from the get-go. Therefore, it’s very important that you re-emphasize and go over the advantages of the plan (or plans) you have recommended. This can allay fears, warm up cold feet, and give the lead the confidence boost they need to proceed with the closing.
Avoid Aggressive Closes
Last but not least, we’d recommend you steer clear of aggressive closes.
Aggressive sales techniques are outdated and don’t sit well with leads. Heavy-handed closing tactics make leads feel uncomfortable, rushed, and even bullied.
These kinds of sales techniques can also be very draining for agents. Instead of feeling like you’re truly helping your final expense leads to find the right insurance product, you’ll feel like you’re fighting a battle for every close you make.
What’s more, aggressive sales and closing techniques aren’t always that effective in the long run. In some cases, they might scare away certain types of leads altogether.
In a lot of cases, however, aggressive sales tactics do work in the short term, simply because you are pushing leads into closing. However, agents that employ heavy-handed closing tactics are far more likely to see high lapse rates.
If clients aren’t happy with a product or feel like they were rushed into a premium that’s too high for them, there’s a high chance they’ll let the policy lapse.
Are You Looking for Final Expense Leads?
If you nurture your leads and qualify them thoroughly, closing should be one of the easiest parts of insurance sales. If you also employ the right closing strategies, you’ll be bound to see your closing rate rise.
One of the biggest secrets to closing final expense leads is to focus on pre-qualified leads from the get-go. However, generating your own leads can take a lot of time and resources, especially if you are just getting started with insurance sales.
This is where we come in. Final Expense Sales Leads is one of the best places to buy final expense leads. Along with exclusive final expense leads, you can also buy Medicare supplement leads and mortgage protection leads.
All of our leads are qualified and come with proof of quality. Check out our range of final expense and medicare supplement leads today.