Agency owners often play an important role in helping their producers close sales with clients who have very specific insurance needs. This is a big part of the value many agents provide. Here are a few tips for honing your producers skills in this area.

Bring Documentation 

Sales tools such as case studies or information packets that are tailored to the type of client your producer is meeting with can be enormously helpful in making a sale. If it’s right for the meeting, bring documentation that highlights specific case studies and loss scenarios, coverage structures and comparisons, and other information that will give the customer the information they need to make a decision.

Listen Carefully

No matter how prepared you are with the right documentation, the right information, and an in-depth knowledge of the usual barriers to purchase, the prospect may have concerns that you haven’t anticipated. Sometimes, the best thing to do is slow down the sales process and take time to ask questions that demonstrate you understand the prospect’s needs and the pressures they’re faced with. Often times this can make a huge difference!

Be the Expert Resource

At times, your producer will reach out to you for help on their sales meetings when they need more specialized expertise in a certain line of coverage than they can offer themselves. Your role is to answer the insured’s questions in a way that gives them confidence in the coverage. To that end, it’s important to be prepared.

Know the Barriers to Sale

 If the producer is bringing you in on a sale to serve as an expert resource on a new line of insurance, you may have a better understanding of the reasons why decision-makers don’t buy this type of insurance. Be prepared to provide the information needed to address these barriers and counter the objections the decision-maker may have.

Agency owners are often an important partner for their producers in making sales. The more you contribute to the sales process, the more you demonstrate your value to your team of producers. Come prepared with documentation that provides information the prospect needs in a concise, easy-to-digest format. Be aware of your place in the sales process as an expert resource, and know the barriers to purchase so you can address them. Take the time to listen to the prospects concerns, and you’re likely to be a very effective sales partner.

Tell us what you think! Have you had times where your team reached out to you?  What tips do you have as a successful agency owner?