Covid-19 has changed our landscape forever. How many times have you heard, "things will never be the same again?" Unfortunately, this is the truth. Our personal lives from shopping, to going to church, to meeting with prospects will never be like it once was.

Covid-19 has affected everything, including insurance sales. Prospects and agents are hesitant to meet face to face. So what changes have to be made to continue to make sales and grow your insurance business?

Overcome Objections Before They Come Up

Great salespeople have always had scripts and rebuttals to handle the common objections that always come up in the course of a sales presentation. Well, we have a few new objections that we are going to have to start dealing with.

People are going to be much more leery of meeting with folks face to face. So one thing we need to do is let people know, ahead of time, how meetings will be handled and put their minds at ease. When you show up at someone's door, make sure you're wearing a mask and gloves.

At the door: "Hey Mary? Hi, my name is Josh with Senior Benefits. I've got that information you requested about ______. My job is just to get you the information you're eligible to receive. Won't take but a couple minutes. Do you want me to leave my mask on while we sit down and chat?"

This is a great question to ask. Rather than handling the obvious rejection objection of not wanting to meet with any salesperson, we have redirected all their thoughts into answering the question we asked.

Whether they say yes or no, we're in the door!

Over the phone: "Hey Mary? Hi, my name is Josh with Life Benefits. (no pause) I received the form you recently filled out requesting info about the ____________ benefits you qualify for, (no pause) you put down your favorite hobby as ________, correct?"

"Great, so my job is to get you the info you're eligible to receive. What you do with that is entirely up to you. I was actually meeting with a couple of your neighbors tomorrow, and they already asked, yes, I will be wearing my mask and gloves, but I only needed to set aside a couple minutes to drop this info off.

Are mornings or afternoons usually better for you?"

Now you've put their mind at ease and made them feel more comfortable. They might have had this concern and knowing their "neighbors" did as well and that you had already covered how you would handle it will help them loosen up and schedule an appointment with you.

Conduct Phone Sales

You need to be able to make sales by phone. While this used to be an option, it is now a necessity. You never know when your local, state, or federal government might lock you down or prevent in home sales presentations.

Additionally, some prospects will be completely uncomfortable with face to face meetings. You need to have a system in place to quickly convert these leads/clients into virtual sales calls.

You do NOT want to try to do this on the fly. You must have a system in place that includes a phone sales presentation, online quoting, text and/or voice signature application processes, and a way to call through leads and/or clients quickly and efficiently.

Make sure you have been trained properly in phone sales. It is not too dissimilar from face to face sales, but you will spend much more time building trust, credibility, and rapport. Assume that you will be chatting with them for 30+ minutes before you ever give them a quote.

Having an auto-dialer system will be a Godsend, whether you're trying to set appointments by phone or complete the sale 100% over the phone, it will cut your dial time in half and help you to be much more productive.

Organization is going to become much more important in the post-Covid world. So integrating pipeline management tools and a CRM will help you know where every prospect is at in the sales process and will continue to keep you organized at the office or when you're in the field.

Use Alternate Forms of Communication

Because prospects are less likely to answer an unsolicited door knock, you need to be prepared to make more dials. Because every prospect is being dialed more often by salespeople of all stripes, you need more forms of communication to reach out to your prospects.

Email and texting are going to be key.

Sure, emails may only have a 10-20% open rate, but it is still one of the best lists to cultivate and use. It costs next to nothing to build this list and drip on your prospects until they respond.

While email open rates are low, studies show that up to 93% of texts are being read. That blows emails out of the water. If you are not taking advantage of text marketing to schedule appointments, follow-up, and for client retention, then you are missing the boat!

Now be careful, make sure you are always using compliant double opt in lead sources. Especially if you are using an automated system.

Did you know that the FCC considers your cell phone an automated dialer? So, make sure you know what you've done your due diligence!

Covid-19 has affected our insurance business. We need to overcome and adapt our business process to deal with new world we find ourselves in.

Now let's get out there and close some deals!