The Advisor Approach: Cross-Selling by Fact-Finding

No one wants a pizza with sauce and cheese on only half of the pie, just like no one wants insurance that only satisfies a portion of their needs.

Cross-selling is an essential opportunity to complete your clients’ insurance coverage, as even first-rate plans can have coverage gaps.

Taking the advisor approach can increase your value as an agent and open doors for new cross-selling opportunities!

Why Take on the Advisory Role?

Few prospects meet with insurance agents because they want to buy something. What they really want is sound advice they can trust and to feel comfortable having their questions answered. By walking into meetings with the mindset of an advisor, your clients won’t feel like they’re being pressured to buy a thing.

Your focus should always be on building a good relationship with your client while fact-finding to discover their needs.

Once your clients look to you as a trusted advisor, you’ll find plenty of opportunities for additional sales. Never force the sale, though. Often, it’s as simple as mentioning a product and coming back to it at a future appointment. Your focus should always be on building a good relationship with your client while fact-finding to discover their needs.

How Can You Implement This Cross-Selling Insurance Sales Strategy?

Open the Conversation

Often, it’s preferable to talk face –to face, especially while you’re still building a relationship. Meeting in person when a sale is not imminent goes a long way.

But in this day and age, technology reigns supreme so a phone call can be effective and professional when done appropriately.

Sometimes, it can be awkward or daunting to start cross-selling conversations. Don’t sweat it —we’ve developed three call scripts you can utilize to help get the ball rolling. You can find these at the end of this post!

Do Your Homework

Prepare a list of questions prior to meeting your client and know what answers will open doors to what sales. Asking about their family history of cancer or heart disease could lead to the sale of a critical illness plan. Similarly, asking about concerns related to funeral costs could bring about a final expense policy sale.

In addition to knowing your clientele, you also need to know what you’re offering! Get to know your ancillary and life products inside and out. You don’t want to lose a sale over a flimsy sales pitch. If you’re confident about the product, your client will sense that and likely feel confident in it too.

If you’re confident about the product, your client can be too.

Ritter can help you grow and strengthen your ancillary knowledge with:

• Comprehensive agent support and training
• On-demand product and carrier trainings on the Ritter Docs More than Medicare page*
• Our library of free guides and eBooks that feature ancillary-related knowledge and selling tips
• Knight School’s selection of educational modules covering cross-selling, the basics of Medicare, and more!

*Log in to RitterIM.com is required to access.

Listen Attentively

To make a truly informed recommendation to your client, you need to know as many facts about them as possible. When your client is comfortable with you, they’ll be far more open about their feelings on key decisions and common concerns.

As your relationship grows with clients, you’ll find that cross-selling opportunities will present themselves. Ask yourself what their main concerns are. Costs left to family members if they pass? Depleting savings should they be confined to a nursing home? Picking up on subtle cues will help you identify which products your client is most likely to be interested in.

Focus on Satisfying Needs

Rather than laser-focusing on the product you want to sell, hold the conversation around the relevant needs that product would satisfy your client.

For example, “So, you want to make sure your family isn’t left with unexpected costs when you pass away. If they received $10,000, do you think that would cover any funeral costs?”

It might seem like an insignificant distinction but wording it this way keeps the consultative tone of an advisor.

Don’t Have the Solution?

Seek Opportunity

Ancillary and life insurance products can be sold all year, so you aren’t pigeonholed into a specific enrollment period. This leaves seeking out the opportunity to sell these products up to you. Fact finding is a great strategy for cross-selling.

You can’t fill coverage gaps or needs you don’t know exist. Follow-up appointments with both Medicare and ACA enrollees are a great opportunity to examine coverage and bring up the conversations that can lead to cross-sales.

Crossing-selling and timing can go hand in hand.

It’s beneficial to know which months highlight a specific ancillary-product-related awareness or association. By doing so, you can work in a pitch for the coverage in your outreach to clients. This gives a more sincere start to the conversation rather than, “Hey, I am contracted to sell dental, vision, and hearing insurance. Want to buy a plan?”

Here are some of the different month’s highlights:

February — American Heart Association Month
September — Life Insurance Awareness Month
October — National Critical Illness Awareness Month and Breast Cancer Awareness Month
November — National Long-Term Care Awareness Month

Additionally, it’s important to remember the ancillary and life insurance policies tucked into your portfolio during AEP! Cross-selling and timing can go hand in hand.

During a follow-up Medicare sales meeting, you can further examine your clients’ insurance coverage needs and wants. If you notice a coverage gap or the client has mentioned an insurance need you can satisfy, present clients with their options.

Contract

The best time to contract with new Medicare carriers is before the rush of the busy season. This can also be true for contracting with new ancillary and life insurance products. It’s always a good idea to allow enough time for contract processing, as it can vary from carrier to carrier and time of year.

Ritter offers contracting with nearly 50 ancillary and life insurance carriers, and our fast and convenient online contracting system, Contract Now, makes accessing and successfully submitting contracting an easy task. Become a Ritter agent for free and speak with your sales specialist to unlock Contract Now!

Refer

You might not have all the answers and that’s OK. Remember that if you’re not qualified to give the advice your client is seeking, don’t offer it. Instead, reach out to local business partners. It’s always wise to have a local financial advisor to whom you can refer clients to.

Be diligent with your referrals!

Just do your research and make sure the company treats their clients properly. Be diligent with your referrals because the quality of their services will come back on you. And if you send enough business their way, chances are, they’ll be more than happy to return the favor.

Go Forth and Advise!

Now that you have all the tools you need to act as an advisor, put these recommendations to the test. Focus on building a great relationship with your clients while fact-finding to discover their needs. Cross-selling success is simply the natural result.

Cross-Selling Phone Scripts

Generic Coverage Review Cross-Selling Script

Hi, this is name. Do you have a brief moment to chat, or should I try to reach out some other time?

Yes — proceed with the script. No — Plan to call back and end call.

I hope you’ve been well. I was just looking over your current coverage and wanted to reach out to see how your Medicare or ACA plan is working for you.

I noticed you don’t have a coverage type plan. It’s important to me that you have all of the health insurance you want and need. Is coverage type something you are interested in having? If so, we can examine the plan options and your budget to make it happen.

Yes — proceed with the script. No — thank them for their time and end call.

Let’s schedule a time to meet. I’ll be sending you a Scope of Appointment to complete prior to our meeting. I can’t wait to connect with you on confirm meeting date, time, and location.

Focus Month Cross-Selling Script

Hi, this is name. Do you have a brief moment to chat, or should I try to reach out some other time?

Yes — proceed with the script. No — Plan to call back and end call.

I hope you’ve been well. I’m calling because it’s month highlight month. I was just looking over your current coverage and noticed you don’t have a month highlight coverage type plan.

It’s important to me that you have all of the health insurance you want and need. Is this type of coverage something you are interested in having? If so, we can examine the plan options and your budget to make it happen.

Yes — proceed with the script. No — thank them for their time and end call.

Let’s schedule a time to meet. I’ll be sending you a Scope of Appointment to complete prior to our meeting. I can’t wait to connect with you on confirm meeting date, time, and location.

AEP Cross-Selling Script

Hi, this is name. Do you have a brief moment to chat, or should I try to reach out some other time?

Yes — proceed with the script. No — Plan to call back and end call.

As I am sure you’re aware, we are in the Annual Enrollment Period. I am reaching out to see how your Medicare plan is working for you.

While I was reviewing your coverage, I noticed you don’t have a coverage type plan and your Medicare plan might not satisfy this coverage need to its fullest.

It’s important to me that you have all of the health insurance you want and need. If you’d be interested, we can set up a time to meet to examine some plan options and your budget.

Yes — proceed with the script. No — thank them for their time and end call.

I’ll be sending you a Scope of Appointment to complete prior to our meeting. I can’t wait to connect with you on confirm meeting date, time, and location.

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