Have you noticed fewer people enquiring about mortgages recently? Or have you found that those who do enquire are holding off making decisions whilst they wait to see what happens next with interest rates?
Quite a few of the mortgage advisers I’ve spoken to since the mortgage market was thrown into turmoil by the mini-budget have said they’re struggling with this. And I suspect that’s why more and more advisers are asking me for some tips on how to sell more protection policies instead.
Now, the truth is that you shouldn’t wait for the mortgage market to get tricky before you start trying to sell more protection. Selling protection is good for your clients and good for your bank balance too - so it’s a win-win!
And that’s why, for a long while now, I’ve been giving my private coaching clients tips on how to sell more protection policies.
But, as this issue is coming to the top of more advisers’ agendas now, I thought I’d share my top five tips for how to sell more protection policies.
1. Go niche
I’m sure you’ve heard me talking about niching in the context of mortgages, but the same advice will help you sell more life insurance, critical illness, and income protection policies too - especially if you want to bring in new clients from Google rather than just relying on cross-selling protection to your existing mortgage clients.
Every day, thousands of people search on Google for life insurance. But the cost per click on Google Ads is very high and most people searching for life insurance online are purely price-driven. They just want to go to a comparison site and get the cheapest cover they can find.
But if you go niche - for example by targeting people who are searching for life insurance for people with a particular health condition - then it’s a different story.
Now you’ll find the cost per click is lower as you have less competition.
Plus, the prospects you attract will be less concerned about price and more interested in getting good advice and finding the right cover.
2. Focus on income protection
Way too many advisers still think that protection is just about selling someone life insurance (and maybe critical illness) to ensure that their mortgage debt is repaid if they die or get one of a small number of serious illnesses.
But if you take that view, you are limiting your market to only those people who have a mortgage.
What about the people who are renting - either because they’re not ready to buy yet or because they don’t meet the criteria for the size mortgage they need?
They still need money to pay the rent and all the other bills and would therefore be in a right mess (to use the technical term) if they couldn’t work due to illness.
So if you focus on income protection you have a product you can sell to virtually everyone you speak to. And, unlike life insurance, it’s a product people can more easily see themselves benefitting from at some point - so it’s an easier sale.
3. Get some training
Sometimes the reason that mortgage brokers and financial advisers don’t sell as many protection policies as they could is because they shy away from doing so - either because they think it’s too complicated or they don’t know enough about the products.
If that sounds familiar then you really owe it to yourself and your clients, to brush up your product knowledge.
Your network and/or the insurance companies will have all sorts of guides and brochures they can share with you, plus free online training you can access. If you’re not sure what’s available, talk to your contact at your network or have a word with the BDMs from the major insurance providers.
And, to get you started, here’s a video you can watch that will give you some free training on how to sell more protection.
4. Put policies in trust
As I’m sure you’ll know, there are various reasons why it’s good for your clients if you put their life insurance in trust.
It can reduce inheritance tax. The money can get paid out quicker. Etc etc.
But there’s a benefit for you as well.
Every trust that you set up will require some trustees. And each of these trustees is someone you can speak to in order to explain their role as a trustee and to potentially arrange some protection policies for them as well.
5. Start selling business protection
This is another area that a lot of advisers are wary about getting involved in - because they think it’s more complicated than it really is or because they don’t feel comfortable dealing with business clients.
Well, the truth is that you probably deal with business clients already. For example, how many self-employed mortgages have to arranged lately? A lot of these will have been for people who are actually the directors of small limited companies.
So you’re already dealing with the clients. You just need to take the opportunity to sell to their businesses instead of to them personally - with products such as relevant life insurance, executive income protection plans, and keyperson insurance.
Selling protection to businesses very often results in higher income for a lower amount of work.
This is because:
- You often get two sales (or more) for the price of one - for example, if a business has three directors, you may well be able to meet with all three of them at once and sell a relevant life policy to each one of them
- People are less price conscious when they are buying something through their business because they don’t see it as “their money” - so the premium is less likely to put people off taking out cover
- Policies purchased by a business tend to be stickier and less prone to cancellation - especially if it’s a policy which is being used to provide cover such as death-in-service or PMI that is part of the company’s agreed package of employee benefits
If you want to know more about how to break into the lucrative world of business protection and you’re a member of The Predictable Pipeline Programme then make sure you check out the recording of the special training we ran a few months ago. Click here for details.
I hope this article has given you some ideas for how you can increase the number of protection policies you sell. If you’d like some more individual advice, feel free to schedule a call with me.
