"With a new year comes new goals – maybe your goal is to sell more insurance, gain more loyal clients, or improve your selling skills. Regardless of what you aspire to work on, we have 5 tips to help start off your new year right! Listen to Your Customers Let your customer do the talking so you can figure out exactly what insurance product they are looking for. The more your customer discusses their insurance needs with you, the more insight you have to choose the best insurance products for them. As your customer provides information, you can ask specific questions rather than general to help speed up the quote. Your customer will appreciate you listening to their concerns and asking the right questions! Many insurance agents don’t listen closely enough to their customers, and in turn are not providing the best customer experience they can be. Listening is easy for you to do and adds personalization to the exchange, something your customers will remember when they return to you for more products or refer you to their friends. Focus on Value When it comes to insurance, value is everything. In this case, value is not referring to price, but the bundle you get between price, product, coverage and support. When a customer says they want to pay as little as possible for a policy, explain to them the importance of value over price. A great example of this is personal auto insurance – a customer may want to only purchase the state minimum required coverage. Let’s say the customer lives in Florida – their auto insurance minimums are 10/20/10. Despite the legal minimums, CNN Money and insurance professionals recommend $300,000 in bodily injury and $100,000 in property damage. Explain to your customer that in the event of a serious accident, those state minimums are most likely not going to cover all of the damage and the customer will need to pay out of pocket. Medical expenses can be very pricy, and the $300,000 limit should keep them safe in a serious accident. The higher coverages will cost more for the policy, but the value is much higher. Learn from Each and Every Customer – and Other Agents Every customer will give you a chance to learn something new. A customer might be buying a certain coverage level for a reason you wouldn’t right away think of. They might be adding umbrella coverage because a teenage driver was added to the policy. Whatever their reasons may be, an agent can certainly learn from them to suggest reasons to add additional coverages in the future. You may have a customer later on who is adding a teenage driver to their auto insurance policy who may not know umbrella insurance existed. Remember that every customer is different. You can also learn from other agents, whether it be through in person or online. Many independent agents publish articles on their experiences and offering advice. The more you can learn from others, the better of an agent you will be. Create Connections with your Customers Your customers are the most important part of your business! You need to be able to create connections and relationships with them rather than just beelining to the sale. Take the time for introductions. Take the time to listen to them. Ask the right questions. Give your customers all of their options and emphasize the value in them. You will have a satisfied customer who has the insurance coverage they were looking for. Tell your customers you will follow up and actually follow up. Show your customer that they are important to you and earn their trust by following through. Fix any issues that arise during the follow up to show your customer you are still there for them even after the sale. Providing great customer service will lead to referrals! Set Goals for Yourself Setting achievable goals is an easy way to gain motivation. You’re motivated to not only meet your target, but to exceed it. Setting weekly goals, such as quoting 10 customers or issuing 8 policies is a great way to make sure you are ready to take on the day. You’ll be pushing yourself to meet your goals and feel accomplished when you do, giving yourself more motivation to see just how many policies you could sell. Use these tips to help make 2017 a great year for you! Superior Access can help you meet your insurance goals this year. Learn more at https://www.superioraccess.com/why-choose-us/. Superior technology. Superior agents. Superior Access."