Building and maintaining strong relationships with prospects and clients is crucial for your business’s success. These connections foster trust and loyalty while creating opportunities for collaboration and feedback. By engaging with clients and understanding their needs, you can tailor your services to better meet their expectations, leading to increased satisfaction and long-term partnerships. Investing time in these relationships can yield significant returns and support sustainable growth for your business. Here are five tips to help you.
Insurance Sales Tips on Building Relationships
1: Communicate effectively and often.
You need to be in regular contact with your prospects and clients. If you’re not already using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool, now’s the time to consider it. A good CRM platform can help you easily organize client and prospect information. It can also provide insights into your past successes and opportunities for future sales. Most importantly, it keeps your name and contact information front and center, so prospects and customers know you’re available to help them when a need arises, or when a question comes up.
2: Listen more and follow up.
Judge Judith Sheindlin (aka Judge Judy) frequently reminds those in her courtroom that it’s important to listen twice as much as you speak. “You have two ears and one mouth for a reason,” she often says.
Pay attention to what your prospects and clients say. Give them your undivided attention. Demonstrate that you are listening by letting their comments sink in before you respond. You might consider rephrasing and reiterating what they share to confirm your understanding. “What I’m hearing is that . . . “
Focus your conversation on the challenges your client is facing and how your expertise can help them find the right solution(s).
If you don’t close in your initial meeting, be sure to follow up. After your meeting, if your prospect or client reaches out for clarification or with a question about something new, be sure you respond promptly. Doing so will help you build trust. It will also reinforce your role as a professional on whom they can rely.
3: Speak clearly, avoid acronyms.
Use simple language in your conversations and in written materials. Be clear in answering questions. If you must use industry jargon, which is sometimes unavoidable, explain in more understandable words what the industry terms mean. Demonstrate your expertise, but don’t overwhelm your client. You want to educate but not lecture them.
4: Encourage questions – and ask questions, too.
Create an open dialogue. Put your clients at ease by encouraging them to ask questions. Make sure they know why your solution is the right solution and how you can help them, their businesses, and their employees.
On your end, do not take anything for granted. Ask questions. Confirm what your client is saying . . . and what obstacles might stand in the way of their adopting your solution. If they say yes, talk about what happens next, the enrollment process, etc.
5: Schedule a follow-up, celebrate successes.
Ahead of your semi-annual and annual client reviews, make plans for a check-in to ensure things are going well. You want to set the stage for your future renewal and, potentially, ask if there are ways you might be able to help others they know.
Maybe they have employees approaching retirement who would be interested in Medicare Advantage products (if you’re in that market, too). If not, maybe you can refer those leads to others in your office or brokers who specialize in other area like IFP or investments.
If you develop a long-term relationship with one of your customers, don’t overlook the opportunity to celebrate a five-year, 10-year, or longer anniversary of doing business together. Your client will appreciate you remembering.
For other tips, consider Customer Communications: 8 Tips to Build an Effective Strategy published this year on the Zendesk blog. Or read Customer Communication Strategy: 6 Effective Techniques {+ Best Practices] on the Tidio blog.
Ask your Word & Brown rep about their suggested communications tips, too. They can discuss W&B marketing tools to further set you apart from your competition. If you’re not already doing business with Word & Brown, call 800-869-6989 or register online to get started.
