Learn five additional ways to get referrals - that are out of the norm - and start expanding your book of business.
New sales, customer retention, and referrals is the lifeblood of a life insurance professionals business. Without these elements it can either cost an agent a fortune in efforts to acquire new business, or it can just be an outright daily grind to survive.
So how do we get more referrals, to lighten our front end load? When can we reach out throughout the year to get more deal flow through out pipeline? How can we attract more referrals? And, how can we systematize the process so that we are not slowed down?
Throughout this article we will answer these questions and share 5 ideas out side of birthdays and holidays, that will up your retention, that will also lead to customers referring more opportunities to you.
So let's jump in. I know this may seem obvious, but "great" customer service, leads to more referrals. You may notice that the word great is in quotations. That because good customer service , is not good enough. When our customer experience is organized, well thought out, prepared for, and professional, people love working with people and organizations who make customer experience seamless and painless. Have you ever called in for customer service and the representative, couldn't find your case, or asked you a lot of the same basic questions over again, or they couldn't even remember what they said and got the details wrong. Yeah - terrible customer experience. Not only are they looking to find the door, instead of referring new opportunities to you, their completing in the head who has the furthest reach Google or Facebook - so that this negative review I'm about to write has the biggest impact. Not good. So yes, having a CRM is a good, but keeping up to date with files, conversation notes, reminders, and promises with great record keeping leads to an organized and successful customer experience - that can eventually lead to referrals.
So once our organization and recordkeeping are in good order. We as life Insurance professional can start to be proactive in prompting retention and referral opportunities. How you might ask, well that's a great question. Let's answer that by comparing the difference average producing life insurance agents, and high producing life insurance agents. Outside of automated birthday and holiday email blasts, how often does an average agent reach out to an existing customer? Maybe once a year, during an annual review? Maybe? Now, a high producing agent reaches out a minimum 8 times outside of the automated email blasts. Quarterly, Bi-annually, Annually, Anniversaries, Special occasions like a graduation or a baby shower, and at least 3 times with so-called random "thinking of you" calls through a year period. Nothing with high producers is random, they plan, and systematize success. They look at their calendar as 52 weeks in a year instead of just 1 year, and they plan accordingly. Out of the two groups of life insurance professionals, is it a mystery that there is a clear difference in the sales production? So, if you can't beat join. Book you calendar, set reminders, and even set alarms. Take follow up retention serious, and deals and referrals begin to flow.
"The heart grows fond, overtime time..." but " the one following up, stay top of mind." When genuinely care about of customer, we reach out, we check in, we give and share, and relationship, and connection is built. There's an ancient proverb, "there is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving." Not to bad, for being so old. But the foundation of these timeless words, still ring true. Share listening, share concern, share knowledge, share support. If this becomes the foundation of who you are - referrals are a natural result of being a professional and a stand up individual. If your like yourself, and people like you, you get more deals.
Now at this point, you might be saying, "yeah this all sounds good - but its a lot of work." So, How can we systematize the process so that we are not slowed down? It was briefly touched on earlier, the answer is leverage the free productivity tools available to us. Scheduling out our follow up activity on our calendar ahead of time, makes making the call easier. Setting reminders, and allowing them to direct the next call at the appropriate time. Adding Customer anniversaries to or CRM but also our calendar- a call is free, and maybe even send a coffee card or dinner card. The small things go a long way. so when a life Insurance professional takes advantage of free resources in an organized way, it leads to a leveraged result. We keep keep discipline in these basics, referrals come.
So Enlighten Financial group teaches an online sales master course on "Life Insurance Inbound "Tele-Sales" System" which is a full sales system and the course has a whole module on retention and referrals. If you would like to learn more you can watch a free 5 minute webinar, and decide if you can benefit, and increase your news sales, retention, and referrals.
So Here are the 5 referral touchpoints outside of the norm, that leads to more deal
Quarterly, Bi annually, and Annually (Week 12, Week 24, Week 52)
Thinking of you calls ( Week 6, Week 18, week 30 )
Anniversary, Graduation, Baby Shower and special events
Happy Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall
Any Special Updates That Improves & Benefit Them (company or product)
Scale "her" to the moon!