There isn’t a broker out there who doesn’t have clients who require more coverage – but how do you convince them? One broker has a tried-and-true solution that works every time.
“It is very hard to sell over the phone, because you sound just like another salesman,” says Allen McCulloch, principal broker at McCulloch Insurance in Espanola, Ont. “You have to sit down with the client and show them on paper what coverage they need. It is a tough sell no matter what, when they are underinsured. But if they are sitting in front of me, it is a lot easier.”
Underinsured drivers constitute a large group of clients who should increase coverage but choose not to. The reasons are many, says McCulloch.
“People pay a lot of money for insurance, so they are set in their ways and averse to paying more. That’s understandable,” McCulloch told Insurance Business. “It is easier to explain the differentiations and the coverages in person, and explain to them why they are underinsured. That is the only way around it, the physical contact.”
If a client doesn’t have the $1.1 million medical rehab, the $1.72 million attendant care and expenses in their auto policy, they are underinsured, McCulloch points out. It is up to a broker to explain to the client that the coverage is really a necessity.
“They have no idea – what is attendant care? What is medical rehab?” he says. “It is not just about customer service – it is about having knowledge of the product, and explaining the differences between coverages. Just because the client has the benefits, they should also ask if they have the coverage. Encourage clients to check their benefits; have them talk to their health provider company.” (continued.)
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For many, it is often a case of too little, too late once a client is involved in a serious accident, and only then discovers that their policy doesn’t properly provide for lost wages or long-term care.
“Too many times a client will say, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize I should have bought accident forgiveness,’ or they wish they had purchased the ‘$800 a week out of work’ coverage,” says McCulloch. “If the brokers are aware of the coverages, they should be able to make the client understand, especially with the increased medical rehabilitation and care, death and funeral. Being able to make the client understand how important these are, if they don’t have those benefits existing. I think that is the hardest part.”
Although emails and social media have facilitated the interaction between brokers and clients, that very technology has also numbed people due to the sheer volume of information that arrives on our computer screens and smart phones.
“We are inundated every day with emails, with offers, discounts, and coverages from all sorts of different things,” says McCulloch. “People are starting to get their backs up more and more about this stuff. It is hard to get the good coverages that people need, and make them understand that. Eventually your brain gets engineered so you shut off and say ‘I don’t want any of it; I can’t be bothered.’” (continued.)
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But that same technology can open the door for that face-to-face conversation with a client, McCulloch points out, as people usually turn to the internet first to learn about insurance products by searching the internet – providing an opening for a broker to step in and explain in detail what coverages will be of best benefit.
“They can look that up (on the internet) – I don’t advise it, but they have the capability to educate themselves,” he says. “I would say 70 per cent of our clients are a lot more educated than they were 10 years ago, with the media coverage of flood insurance, and how most people do not have that coverage. The information spreads much more quickly, and it is more available. They just need to know how it affects them, and that is where a broker can explain it better.
“It is like diagnosing yourself on the internet – we’ve all done it. You have a cold and look up your symptoms on the internet, and wind up thinking you are twice as bad. But you are not a professional,” says McCulloch. “But if you deal with a professional, you have the personal touch and the professionalism you wouldn’t get with, say, a call centre.”
