To be successful in today’s competitive insurance marketplace, it’s important you nurture positive relations with prospects and existing clients. You need to make the most of your time management and communications, including your Zoom meetings and phone calls.
Here are our suggested seven steps:
1: Prioritize, Prepare, and Have an Agenda: As noted in prior blog posts, regularly reaching out to clients and prospects – by phone, online, and in person – is essential to nurturing positive relations.
Start by prioritizing those you want to contact. This will probably occur as part of your monthly, weekly, or daily calendar as you review your customer and prospect database for follow up and outreach.
For existing customers, in-person conversations are mandatory at least once annually. For prospects and non-renewal discussions, scheduling a check in via phone or Zoom can be effective. After you develop your contact list, it’s important to prepare an agenda for your discussion. Your topics for a discovery call will differ from a status, quarterly review, post-enrollment review, or other type of meeting or conversation.
For a call, you may not want to or feel the need to share your agenda, but for Zoom meetings, it’s a good idea to include one in your reminder message before meeting. (See item 5 below.) By doing so, your client or prospect will know how to prepare on their end (if necessary).
2: Invest in Yourself: Something that some people fail to do when preparing for a Zoom call is to do a thorough pre-meeting check. This includes a lighting, sound, background, visuals, camera, and clothing check. You may have noticed when watching TV that even the most professional organizations sometimes fall short when it comes to camera-angles, backgrounds, audio, and wardrobe. Check your app’s background and filters. Test possible filters that could improve your appearance or display.
A “waiting room” can improve your meeting’s privacy because you have the ability to approve each participant before joining your call.
Consider using a custom background that fits in with your other agency or organization branding. Forget the beach, skyscraper, or other generic backdrop. If you don’t have a Zoom profile picture, add one and be sure you’re identified (captioned) when presenting. Beyond the background options from Zoom, there are a lot of online resources like How to Create and Use Virtual Backgrounds in Zoom.
3: Be Personable and Conversational: It’s critical to develop rapport with your prospects and clients. Share small talk at the beginning of your conversation. Express your appreciation for the call or meeting. Ask about their day, share how you think your conversation can help them – and how you have helped others in similar circumstances. To the extent possible, avoid overuse of insurance jargon (our industry is known for it). As your conversation proceeds, be sure you explain terms your customers or prospects might not readily understand.
If your prospect is not sold on the advantages of offering employee benefits, remind them of how the right benefits can help them attract and retain valuable employees. There’s also the tax deductibility of health insurance premiums and how benefits can help employees stay healthy – reducing absenteeism and helping employees stay ahead of potential issues.
Listen – and focus only on your call/meeting. Ask questions and be aware of what’s shared (and what is not). Use your customer’s name throughout the conversation. Recap as appropriate to be your client/prospect understands and you are both on the same page. Watch for visual signs or body language that you’re losing your audience. Make tone and presentations adjustments as needed.
4: Prep Beforehand: It is often said that “practice makes perfect” – and preparing for calls and Zoom meetings is no different. Rehearse your script or questions in advance. Practice with a colleague or friend. As we mentioned before, make sure your equipment, lighting, presentation, etc. are engaging and easy to follow. This extra effort on your part shows your commitment to sharing information of interest.
5: Send a Reminder – and Include a P.S.: Plan to send an email or text reminder a day or so before your scheduled call or meeting. Your message should confirm the date and time of your appointment and highlight the agenda. A “P.S.” could reference a shared article about health care costs or another topic you plan to discuss.
6: Share Your Screen: You may have important information to share during your call/meeting. Again, evaluate your graphics to see how they look – and consider whether they will be easily understood. Don’t put too much information on any single slide.
7: Take Notes and Follow Up: In your post-call/meeting follow up, reinforce the topics and actions items discussed. Set the stage for an in-person meeting if warranted. If your client/prospect needs to submit a census or other paperwork, remind them of the timeline for doing so. Mention your flexibility in scheduling another call to discuss any questions that may have come up since your initial call/meeting. Be sure your clients and prospects know they can reach out to you by email, social media, telephone, or text.
For more ideas, you may want to read 19 Zoom tips and tricks for better video meetings, an informative post from Zapier published in 2023.
Making the most of your calls and Zoom meetings is important to building a strong connection with your clients and prospects. Both can help you attract and earn new business as well as drive increased retention and referrals. Talk with your Word & Brown rep about how we can help – with our tech, product and service portfolio, and pledge to deliver “Service of Unequalled Excellence.” If you are not yet working with us, it’s easy to get started. Complete our online form or call us at 800-869-6989.
