Four of The Biggest Challenges with Inbound Marketing

Will Erdmann August 24, 2018

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The insurance sales and marketing landscape has changed dramatically over the past 5-10 years. As people become increasingly reliant on the Internet to research the products and services that can address their needs, inbound sales has developed into a crucial aspect of any successful agency's success.

In many ways, inbound sales calls/leads offer you with significant advantages compared with outbound sales leads generated by strategies such as “cold calling.” In particular, you are benefiting from the fact that these people made the effort to contact you. As a result, it is likely that these individuals already have some degree of interest in the services or products you provide.

But this initial interest doesn’t necessarily make it easier to convert this consumer into a bound policy. In all likelihood, you are not the only agency this person has evaluated during their research process. If your producers cannot make a compelling case for why your services are the best option to address the prospect’s needs, they may just move on and speak to the next company on their list.

These are four challenges that must be addressed in order to successfully close inbound phone leads:

Determine how to qualify which leads are the highest quality and which are most likely to convert

Just because a consumer fits into what you would consider "high quality" does not necessarily mean they are more likely to convert. Sometimes we see consumers who have grown out of their "sub-standard" or "standard" ranking, get sent to a producer with a very high likelihood to close just to get hung up on by a producer, and submitted for credit, due to the fact that they previously were with a Standard or Independent carrier. Even worse, the agency owner has no idea that their producer is turning down business! Could you imagine one of your staff members actively turning down new business for your agency?! It happens more than it should, and that is the first challenge to any agency owner: to grow your book of business, you have to look at EVERY inbound call as someone who could potentially CLOSE not just those who fit the mold that a carrier pines over.

Building instant trust and rapport with a person you are speaking with for the first time

Challenge number two comes from the fact that you need to portray your enthusiasm over the phone. If you are just asking questions, and not making "small talk", you leave an opportunity on the table as many times that chit chat is what gets more information about additional insurable interests, as well as builds loyalty.

Understanding each prospect’s unique pain points so that you can cater your conversation to address their needs

Challenge number 3 comes off the back of our previous point, as the majority of people will tell you what they need to be sold. If you don't address these issues, you will lose the business; maybe not immediately, however without that rapport and knowing the consumers pain points, you won't have a roadmap to success!

Having a thorough enough understanding of your products or services to know which options are likely to appeal to a particular consumer and to demonstrate how they will benefit the prospect’s unique needs.

This one is kind of a no-brainer. You will never be good at your job if you don't know your products and services. The same goes for every member of your team. When your staff is working together and everyone has the same knowledge base, you'll be amazed at how quickly they will be able to effectively close more business, and not sweat the details. Confidence grows due to this, not only internally, but can resonate with consumers looking to your team as their trusted advisers.

Tell us what you think! What have some of your challenges been and how have you dealt with them?