Why selling life insurance matters
Looking back at five of the most valuable lessons learned about selling life insurance throughout the Protect and Provide workshop series
As the Unisure and Dean Mannix 10-part ‘Protect and Provide’ webinar series draws to a close, it’s never been clearer that deciding to take out individual life insurance could be one of the most important decisions a person ever makes for their family.
Hosted by Unisure and presented by Dean Mannix, the international best-selling author of Protect and Provide, our 10-part series of online workshops have focused on all phases of the life insurance purchasing journey, with a particular emphasis throughout on selling ethically and helping customers understand the dangers of being underinsured or not insured at all.
Here are 5 of the most valuable lessons Dean shared throughout the series:
Lesson 1: It’s not about the cost, it’s about the protection that cover affords
In the very first workshop1 of the series, Dean makes it clear that we’re not in the business of selling insurance. “We’re educating people on the reason why they need to buy insurance,” he emphasises, before explaining the importance of shifting the conversation away from ‘How much will this cost?’ and towards ‘Why protecting your family financially is so important’ as quickly as possible.
As Dean writes in his 21 Laws of Closing More Life Insurance Sales2, “The longer you spend with the customer on helping them define all the problems their loved ones will face, the more value you’ll create in the conversation and the relationship. Stop quoting and start educating and helping people buy the right amount of cover.”
Lesson 2: Customer-centricity wins every time
Dean’s passion for insurance stems not only from his personal experiences as a child when his father passed away and his family lost their home, but also from his investment in his clients’ best interests, particularly in the face of the ever-widening underinsurance gap in numerous countries around the world.
According to the 2022 Insurance Barometer Study3, 42% of respondents say they are “somewhat or not at all knowledgeable about life insurance” and 44% say it would take “less than six months to feel financial hardship if this happened to their family”.
“When you approach your insurance conversations, your motivation needs to flow from a genuine concern about the risk the people that depend on them are exposed to as a result of their indecision,” Dean2 explains. “You need to remind yourself that people who are ‘thinking about’ purchasing can and do die without the right cover in place…The more emotional you become about this, the more confident you’ll become in using ethically persuasive closing strategies aimed at helping customers make decisions.”
Lesson 3: Context is everything
In the second workshop of the series, Dean1 shares his hard-earned experience that focusing on purely delivering a quote is a sure-fire way to lose a potential client.
“You need to take control of and change the context, starting by explaining that life insurance is really only about three things,” Dean1 advises. “It’s about the debt that’s often left behind when someone passes away. It’s about the loss of income and the impact that that has on people’s lifestyles. And it’s about whether or not you want to leave a legacy.”
“I guarantee that if you start the conversation using those three concepts, you’re going to be significantly more effective in getting customers to participate in your meetings, share the right information, and understand why they need to be protecting and providing for their family.”
Lesson 4: Your goal should be a decision, not a sale
Following on from his lesson about the importance of setting the right context, Dean explains that one’s primary goal should always be to secure a decision on whether the customer wants to and can afford to buy the ideal amount of cover to protect their family’s financial future. “Once you gain that decision,” he2 writes, “more people will buy the ideal amount of cover and those that can’t, are more likely to voluntarily purchase the cover they can afford.”
As Dean1 concludes in workshop 8, “In an ideal sale, the customer buys rather than you needing to sell.”
Lesson 5: Ethical influence is possible and necessary
“I always say insurance is a noble profession, because life insurance doesn’t have an immediate need nor a desired need,” Dean1 says in his opening introduction to workshop 6. “A huge part of being successful in this industry is setting people up to make smarter decisions.”
And that’s exactly where Dean’s 10th rule in his 21 Laws of Closing More Life Insurance Sales2 strikes a chord: “People are subconsciously biased towards not purchasing insurance and even when they do, the amount of cover they purchase generally has little correlation to their real needs,” he writes.
“When you commit to protecting and providing, you’re also committing to protecting people from all the biases and psychological conditions that stop people buying the right cover.”
Want to know more?
The Protect and Provide series has been incredibly well received by brokers, clients, and colleagues, and we’re delighted to have been able to host such a valuable series from a truly passionate expert in his field, Dean Mannix.
For more information on the Protect and Provide webinar series and to request access to the portal of recordings and presentations, please email us at Marketing@unisuregroup.com.
For more information on The Unisure Group’s Life Solutions, visit https://www.unisuregroup.com/individual-life/.
For more information on Dean Mannix, visit https://deanmannix.com/.
Sources:
- Dean Mannix and Unisure, Protect and Protect 10-part webinar series, 11 November 2021 – 8 September 2022
- Dean Mannix, 21 Laws of Closing More Life Insurance Sales
- 2022 Insurance Barometer Study, conducted jointly by non-profit industry trade associations LIMRA and Life Happens,https://lifehappens.org/press/2022-insurance-barometer-study-reveals-the-secret-to-financial-security-is-owning-life-insurance/; https://lifehappens.org/research/owning-life-insurance-provides-a-clear-path-to-financial-security/;
https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-life-insurance