Life insurance is a cut-throat industry. Simply having the right product and targeting the right client isn’t enough to successfully close a sale.
Even though technology has automated many menial tasks and made the lives of insurance agents much easier, the principles of the classic sales pitch continue to make all the difference.
Let’s examine how to craft the best sales pitch for life insurance.
What is Life Insurance?
Life insurance is a contract between an insurer and the policyholder. In the event of the policyholder’s death, the insurer will pay a designated sum of money to the policyholder’s designated beneficiary or beneficiaries. This is often a spouse, children, or family member.
Between these two parties are the agents who sell life insurance policies and receive commissions on every sale they make.
A crucial part of any life insurance sales pitch is communicating the benefits of taking out a policy to a potential client. Never assume that a prospect has already settled on purchasing a life insurance policy.
Types of Life Insurance Policies
Not all life insurance policies work in the same way. When figuring out how to present life insurance to a potential client, brokers must be aware of the various types of life insurance policies available so they can inform their clients accurately.
Choosing the best policy to meet the needs of each specific client will increase the chances of making a successful sale.
All life insurance policies fall under two main categories:
Term Life Insurance – These policies last for a specific time period. If the policyholder does not die within the lifespan of the policy, there is no payout.
Permanent Life Insurance – Permanent policies last for the policyholder’s entire life. They typically include a cash value component that can be borrowed or withdrawn during the policyholder’s lifespan.
Not all brokers will specialize in selling every type of policy under these two umbrellas. Policy options change all the time, which is why clients often feel overwhelmed when selecting the right life insurance for their needs.
Policies can vary from basic term and whole life policies to more complex universal and variable life policies.
Familiarize yourself with the pros and cons of each type of policy when preparing and include them in your life insurance presentation outline.
Life Insurance Selling Points
As a broker, it’s not enough to understand what each policy does. You need to break down the main life insurance selling points to your clients, allowing them to make an informed decision.
Successfully communicating each policy’s benefits as part of your life insurance sales presentation is critical to closing a sale.
So, what are the main selling points of life insurance?
- Provide financial security after a loved one passes away
- Cover funeral and burial expenses
- Pay off debts
- Build up cash value with whole life policies
- Coverage is extremely affordable
- Offer peace of mind
Naturally, different policies will have their own unique selling points. Agents should be aware of the nuances of each policy before making a life insurance sales pitch.
Life Insurance Sales Presentation Tips
How do you compile the best sales pitch for life insurance?
There are no silver bullets, and there is no single life insurance presentation script that will close the sale every single time. Each client’s needs will be different. However, certain principles should be included in every life insurance presentation.
Here are a few tips and life insurance presentation ideas for a successful pitch.
Know Your Target Client
Ordinary cold calling no longer works in the modern era. Brokers must put themselves in the shoes of their ideal customers. That means understanding who they are, what their needs are, and what they want to accomplish.
It’s also important to be aware of the factors preventing your clients from purchasing a policy or what concerns may be holding them back.
By understanding your client and what they want from a policy, any life insurance presentation can be tweaked according to each prospect to provide them with what they need.
Whether it is life insurance or not, the key to success with any sales pitch is personalizing it. Make every client feel unique and heard, and never make it seem like your pitch is being read word-for-word from a script.
Turn Criticism Into Opportunity
Novice brokers often struggle in the face of adversity. If a client raises concerns or objections, less experienced agents tend to wilt and give up — accepting that the sale is lost.
Make criticism an opportunity for change. A client who counters your suggestions is providing a vital learning opportunity. Their objections can provide valuable insight into their needs and the obstacles preventing them from purchasing a policy. If this client is experiencing these concerns, chances are your other clients may have the same concerns.
Utilize Visuals in Your Pitch
Visuals should be at the core of any life insurance sales pitch. As humans, we’re more likely to respond to images and visual representations of information because they’re simpler to digest.
Data should always be presented visually rather than as a list of numbers and statistics. Science backs up this approach as studies have shown that the human brain processes visuals 60,000 faster than the spoken or written word. Use graphs, charts, and infographics to communicate the benefits of a life insurance policy, and your clients are sure to respond. The goal is to keep things simple, and including visuals in your life insurance presentation will do just that.
Work to Solve a Problem
Are you selling a product, or are you selling a solution?
The best sales pitch for life insurance will view policies as a solution to your client’s problem rather than an insurance product. By viewing the process of pitching through this lens, it becomes much clearer which policy would suit your client’s specific needs.
Throughout your presentation, work to highlight the benefits of each policy as a solution to your client’s unique concerns. Highlight how that policy specifically solves the client’s pain points.
Here are two life insurance sales pitch examples brokers might use to convince a client to purchase a policy:
1. “Our insurance broker has been providing peace of mind to our clients for 125 years.”
2. “By choosing a whole life policy, your family receives a guaranteed payout.”
The first example can help ease a client’s skepticism about a provider by building authority around the legacy of their company. People value businesses that have been around for a long time, as they have extensive experience and expertise serving people for (in this case) over a century. The second example makes no mention of the broker, and it reminds the client of why they’re getting a life insurance policy in the first place — to guarantee financial security for their family.
Mention Competitors
People often make purchasing decisions through comparison. In a world where competitor comparison websites are extremely common, this is how most people finalize their purchases.
For this reason, never be afraid to mention a competitor. Describe them and their services, then show how you can offer a better solution. Pro-tip: consider your client’s specific pain points when describing how you can offer a better solution than your competitors. It proves that you listened to your client’s concerns and that you’ve taken them into account.
It shows honesty, builds trust, and positions your brand as the “go-to” option.
Maintain Brand Consistency
Businesses often talk about branding without truly understanding what it means. Branding is much more than a professional logo and a professionally made website.
Agents must work on maintaining consistency across their brand. Visually, it could involve a company logo, or it could be something as subtle as a certain color scheme. However, one of the most important aspects of branding is maintaining a consistent brand voice. If your brand is light-hearted and friendly, maintain that voice in your presentation. If it’s more educational and serious, communicate that instead.
Inconsistent branding confuses clients, and it’s one of the biggest mistakes agents make when determining how to present life insurance. Keep in mind that clients likely picked you based on your brand voice, so don’t drive them away by changing it.
The iLife platform enables you to create a brand and maintain consistency across channels easily.
Follow Up After Each Presentation
Purchasing life insurance is a big decision. Many clients like to talk it over and compare products from other brokers before choosing the product that’s right for them.
Never give up just because a sale fails to materialize immediately after the presentation. Follow up and keep those lines of communication open.
Show how much the client matters by getting in touch within 72 hours after the presentation. Simply leave a message or send a brief email that includes any additional information or an offer to answer any further questions.
Life Insurance Sales Pitch Examples
When preparing a life insurance presentation script, examine what has worked for others in the past. Looking at life insurance sales pitch examples can inspire a quality pitch and transform the face of your brokerage.
Step One – Start with the Hook
Understand that there is no one life insurance presentation script to live by, only principles. Every life insurance sales pitch should be adapted to the client, but the general structure remains the same.
The first step is to start with the hook.
Your goal is to get the client to agree to receive a quote. The easiest way to begin your pitch is to get them to say “yes” at least three times within the first 20 seconds of the call. This prevents them from immediately hanging up early in the pitch.
Ask some simple questions to get them to say “yes,” such as:
- Is this your correct date of birth?
- Are you currently insured with…?
- Is this your vehicle registration number?
You likely already hold this information and already know the answers, but the whole point is to get the client to engage with affirmations.
Keep in mind that starting a call with, “Do you have a few minutes to talk about life insurance?” may solicit a “yes,” but it will rarely get you more than ten seconds of time with the person on the other end.
Step Two – Build Value into the Proposition
Avoid insurance jargon when building value into the proposition. Focus on the common pain points of insurance in step two. Chances are they already experience these problems with their current carrier, and their frustration with those pain points is your foot in the door.
Tell stories about how your current clientele has benefitted from purchasing life insurance through your brokerage. Personal anecdotes and success stories are what sell. Reeling off a bunch of boring facts and figures says very little and does nothing to appeal to your client.
Step Three – Approaching Cost
After a prospect has been engaged and is showing interest, approach the issue of cost. Avoid any pre-prepared quotes and never make cost the main selling point. Never reveal the price until the presentation has built value and you’ve got them seriously considering your services.
Here’s an example of how to present life insurance prices:
“The current price of this type of life insurance policy is $X, but this is before I add in discounts. Since you are under the age of X and have no pre-existing conditions, the price has dropped from $X to $X.”
Even if this isn’t actually a deal, it makes the client believe they’re getting something special.
Pro-tip: You should always quote your prices in terms of the monthly expense rather than the annual figure. Monthly costs are easier to swallow than a hefty annual sum.
For example, trying to sell a policy of $1,200 per year is much harder than selling a policy that costs just $100 per month.
Step Four – Ask for the Sale
Your prospect now has everything they need to know about the policy and the price. Yet this is where many agents talk themselves out of a sale.
Ask for the sale and then say nothing. That uncomfortable silence may be awkward, but it puts the client under pressure to make a decision.
Agents who continue trying to sell come off as pushy and may even raise more issues the client never thought of, thus delaying the sale or driving them away entirely. The client has more opportunities to end the call because they want to “think about it.”
The prospect may have additional questions that you should answer as quickly and clearly as possible, but there’s no need to introduce new information that can add wrinkles or create doubt. Most of the time, a client who has made it this far will give you their payment information, and you can begin the onboarding process.
How iLife Makes Selling Life Insurance Easier
Selling life insurance through traditional means is archaic and old-fashioned. You need a digital solution that automates menial tasks and lets you spend more of your time selling and upselling.
iLife is a user-friendly digital dashboard that makes the whole process of selling life insurance easier.
Here are some features of the iLife platform that can transform your business:
- Give your clients an easy-to-use, browsable experience
- Create consistent branding with an iLife digital storefront
- Quickly bring up client data to personalize your pitches
- Go paperless, automate form filling, and spend more time pitching
- Ditch cold calling and use the trackable iLife link to bring prospects to you
- Overcome a cumbersome selling process by using the all-encompassing iLife life insurance purchasing and comparison platform
iLife is all about making the process simpler for agents and brokers to sell their products. This revolutionary life insurance sales platform is designed to tackle the most common frustrations both agents and customers have about life insurance, allowing sellers and prospects to connect over a shared goal.
Make the iLife solution a part of your best sales pitch for life insurance and supercharge your brokerage’s growth.
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To learn more about iLife and how it can support your business, contact the team today!
