If you’re an insurance sales professional, follow up is – or should be – an essential part of your routine. Follow-ups can help you build long-lasting client relationships. They are important to turn leads into actual sales. And, of course, they can help you generate referrals, promote loyalty, and drive increased revenue.
Below are five tips to help you master your follow up.
5 Sales Follow Up Tips for Success
1: Establish a routine for follow up – including ongoing communications.
Any leads should be followed up on promptly. But what is promptly? The key is adopting a schedule that shows your commitment to service and ensures prospects and clients feel valued. Your response technique should fit with their method of outreach. If they call you, you should feel comfortable calling them back. If they send an email, their preferred response method may be a return email. If their outreach is via social media, you may want to respond via social media – or by email or phone if they’ve given you their information. All leads should be responded to within three days. Calls returned within one business day. Your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform can help you with automating ongoing communications and creating auto-responses to inquiries via your website.
2: Embrace personalization in your follow-up efforts.
As much as we encourage brokers to use CRM to automate processes and streamline communications, it’s equally – or some would say, more – important to tailor communications to your target recipient. Use what information you have to develop a response that demonstrates your interest in delivering a solution that addresses your prospect’s or client’s needs and situation. Talk about your expertise and experience in helping others, and your commitment to finding a resolution that is both affordable and addresses their needs as well as those of their employees. Reiterate your Unique Seling Proposition and what makes you and your recommended solution better than what others might advocate.
3: If your efforts fall shot, consider a different approach.
If you’ve sent several emails or called a few times without results, try something different in your next effort. Remember that what works for some doesn’t always work for others. If you’ve been reaching out by phone, try an email. Or vice versa. Remember, too, that subject lines matter. Keep it short and get to the point (whether you’re sending an email or calling). If reaching out by email, you have a lot of competition in their email box. Maybe a handwritten message sent by direct mail will make more of an impression.
4: If there’s still no response, know when to stop.
You don’t want to earn a reputation as a quitter, but you also want to avoid being labeled as super-aggressive or pushy.
It’s often said that 80% of successful sales typically require an average of five follow up calls after initial contact. While persistence pays, you need to know when to stop. Six or seven might be the limit. You might consider what’s been called a “break up email” giving your prospect one last chance to say yes. If that doesn’t lead to them reconnecting with you, put them on your inactive list and reach out with a re-engagement message in six months – or when you have something new that might merit their new or further consideration.
Taking a multi-channel approach can help you engage more prospects. Emails, phone calls, social media, and messaging apps all should have a place in your marketing arsenal.
5: Lure them in with valuable content.
Effectively – and regularly – communicating the value of your expertise on the insurance industry and new products and services is vital. Again, your CRM platform and website can help you. Include links in your messages and elsewhere online about relevant industry-related articles or blog posts (yours and trusted authorities). The upcoming changes in Washington, DC, are stirring a lot of interest – and some wild speculation – about what to expect in 2025 and beyond. Don’t be too political, though. You need to be balanced in your approach. Always be professional and prioritize your prospects’ and clients’ best interests over all else. If you share useful information, that will keep readers engaged and coming back.
More ideas are discussed in Sales Follow Ups: A Complete Guide to Increasing Your Close Rates, published by Close.com. It includes seven types of follow up to close more deals, suggestions on when to follow up, and seven strategies and best practices.
Word & Brown will continue to share tips to help you build strong client relationships in future posts. Bookmark our Insurance Broker Blog and check back often.
