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Not all insurance agents recognize the massive advantages of cross-selling insurance. Perfecting cross-selling can lower costs, deepen relationships, and drive revenue into your operation. Even though effective cross-selling takes a bit more planning on your end, technology makes it easier than ever to boost cross-selling with only a little extra work.
Looking for ways to enhance your cross-selling efforts and lift sales? We’ve picked out five secrets to effectively cross-selling services.
Why You Need to Learn to Cross-Sell Effectively
Whether you realize it or not, teaching yourself to effectively cross-sell can provide major benefits. Here are a few ways cross-selling insurance and other services can catapult your success:
Drive More Revenue
Because you’re selling to clients who already trust your guidance, cross-selling can dramatically increase your insurance revenue. In fact, one McKinsey study found that a focus on cross-selling can lift sales by 20 percent. If you capitalize on cross-sell opportunities, you can achieve recurring revenue that can quickly grow your insurance business’ bottom line.
Maintain Long-Term Clients
By cross-selling insurance, you can deepen relationships with existing clients. In turn, you can encourage these clients to stick with you long-term. A separate McKinsey report found that companies that cross-sold to around a third of customers had lower customer churn rates than competitors. Ultimately, cross-selling can strengthen client interactions and turn your insurance business into a one-stop shop for all of your client's insurance needs.
Save Time and Money
Cross-selling doesn’t just bring in more cash—it also helps you save time and money. Whenever you have to reach out to potential clients, it takes time from your day and dollars from your marketing budget. By selling to clients you’ve already built relationships with, you can increase revenue without needing to spend resources on finding and reaching new prospects.
White Wing services you can cross-sell within your existing client base
- Payroll service (Harmony Roze)
- PNC insurance (Tague Alliance)
- Mental Health (Full Circle Insurance)
- pet insurance (Spot Pet)
5 Tips for Cross-Selling More Effectively
1. Understand Your Clients
Strong relationships are etched into the heart of insurance sales. In order to land more cross-selling opportunities, you need to understand as much about your clients as possible.
How?
Review your clients and their risks, and ask yourself if you have a potential solution to address their needs. Frame yourself as offering total asset protection—including personal health, employee benefits, property risks, life insurance, and more. By listening to client needs and matching up those needs with opportunities, you can forge relationships that spark more cross-selling.
2. Analyze Data and Coverage
By analyzing client data and mapping out coverage options, you can spot the cross-selling opportunities that will result in loyal clients.
This starts with taking advantage of your White Wing back office system CRM that gathers and organizes client information. From there, you can analyze your customers’ data and compare it to information from customers of similar ages, genders, zip codes, and so on. You may find that you’re able to cross-sell based on information that is readily available to you.
3. Communicate With Clients Frequently
Communication is the backbone that holds insurance relationships together. That is why frequent communication is so critical to increasing cross-sell opportunities. To improve cross-selling, be sure to implement tools—such as SMS messaging and automated emails—that make it easy to keep lines of communication open. It is also a good idea to block off time for regular client check-ins and to encourage yourself to keep up with clients on a consistent basis. As you increase communication with clients, cross-selling opportunities will often rise to the surface naturally.
4. Access Marketing Automation
Insurance CRMs and automated marketing emails make it easy to flesh out cross-sell opportunities without putting extra pressure on your daily routine.
Many—if not most—of your email subscribers are likely current clients. Use email to stay in touch with them and build awareness of lesser-known lines of insurance, such as:
Identity theft coverage: Attached to homeowners or renters insurance.
Short-term health: Ensures medical coverage between jobs.
Business interruption insurance: Used to keep a business running in the event of a principal’s death or disability.
When crafting messages, communicate your value to prospects and customers as an ongoing consultant for their changing needs. You can also build out automated email campaigns based on particular behaviors that make your customers candidates for cross-selling.
5. Ask About Insurance Needs
Boosting cross-selling takes persistence and keen listening skills. Insurance agents can uncover the best cross-sell opportunities by simply asking clients about their insurance needs.
Just remember, a cross-sale attempt won’t always work the first, or second, or even the third time you bring it up with a client. Although it may not happen this year, it could happen next year. In order to lift sales, successful agents should keep cross-selling in mind, but always keep the best interests of their clients at the forefront. After all, if agents come across as just trying to get more money and not actually trying to help their clients, it can undermine relationships.
When gathering information in your initial contact, ask more questions about your client’s current insurance policies and needs. Understanding your client’s situation and circumstances will help your future cross-selling efforts.
Learn How Cross-Selling Tools Can Help Lift your Insurance Sales
Insurance technology can make it easier for you to spot and land cross-selling opportunities without adding extra responsibilities to your plates. The White Wing back office software is designed specifically to help insurance businesses grow sales and increase profit.
About White Wing
White Wing is a world-class multicultural team of experts focusing on helping people secure their financial future by reducing risk. Through innovative digital access, White Wing agents make over 4,000 product options available to clients, delivering peace of mind to clients. White Wing is built on a strong foundation to help clients to get their financial house in order, by providing objective advice and creating comprehensive plans.
Phone +1(310) 620-7971 White Wing Insurance Solutions, LLC License #0L11386
8549 Wilshire Blvd. #1084, Beverly Hills, CA 90211