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The insurance broking business is alive and well in Canada. It’s one of the key insurance markets in the world where the majority still turn to intermediaries for advice and sales. As such, it’s vital for Canadian brokers to stay on top of their sales game and find ways to differentiate themselves in a busy marketplace.
Like all sales people, insurance brokers face some common challenges and pain points. Successful prospecting, lead generation and business qualification never come easy … but there are a few simple ways for brokers to break down barriers in the sales process.
“Insurance brokers are just like every other sales person with regards to the pain points they face when trying to grow their business,” said Tim Rooney, managing partner at Rooney, Earl & Partners. “The first problem every broker faces at some point in their career is not getting face time with enough new prospects. Why aren’t they getting in front of enough new prospects? Perhaps they haven’t differentiated themselves, or they have but aren’t able to articulate that differentiation. That’s a major problem in sales.
“If an insurance brokerage is trying to grow its business, the job of the sales people is to go out and hunt. Hunting would be: define the target market, approach the target, make cold calls, interact, send them mail, do whatever you have to do to get them engaged. Once the prospect is listening, what are you going to say? This is where your elevator pitch is critical to your success. Everybody has insurance, so what is it about your brokerage and your expertise that makes your offering different? The 30-second elevator pitch has to jump out at the prospect.”
A second major pain point for insurance brokers is finding the right balance between “pay time” and “no pay time,” according to Rooney. As a commission-based role, it can be tempting for brokers to chase “pay time” and overlook “no pay time”. For an insurance broker, “pay time” is when you’re prospecting and actively bringing in new business. Any other activities – things like: filling out expense forms, doing research, going to training courses – are all “no pay time”.
“Sales is well and truly a numbers game, but it’s important for brokers to find the right balance,” Rooney told Insurance Business. “Those who neglect ‘no pay time’ activities like research and training might get loads of prospects in front of them but they can’t necessarily close all of that business. They don’t have the sales process to be able to qualify the prospects, and they end up behaving like Jojo the Monkey. Some try to qualify business without properly qualifying themselves.
“There’s a popular sales mantra out there, which says: ‘Always be closing.’ I disagree with that. Rather I would advise: ‘Always be qualifying.’ Not every prospect is meant to be a customer. If you disagree, you won’t be able to prove otherwise unless you properly qualify your leads.”
