This may seem counterintuitive. How can offering more products to clients generate more referrals? Simple, you are providing more solutions to problems or issues before they become financial drains to a client.
Agents tend to shy away from cross selling for numerous reasons:
- They don’t want to seem pushy
- They are not comfortable with the product
- They are avoiding rejection
- And various other reason
While some of these may be valid reasons, what good is this doing your clients? When they are sitting with you and reviewing Medicare Supplements, Medicare Advantage, and/or Part D plans, you are simply meeting their expectations. This is what is supposed to happen. Your clients may not be aware of any additional costs Medicare or their plan may not cover, until they have a bill in hand they are required to pay out of pocket.
For instance, let’s say your client buys a Medicare Supplement Plan F and a Part D plan. They have heard from their friends and family it covers everything. They meet with you and are informed Plan F covers everything a Medicare Supplement can cover 100%. What about dental? What about services or costs that go along with treatments that Medicare does not cover? Do your clients know these costs?
“Thank you so much for not telling me about dental coverage. My crown cost me $1,000 rather than $500 if I would have had coverage.” This is one thank you will never receive, or you may in the most sarcastic tone ever.
Now reverse the above. Your client is talking to their friends and/or family about going to the dentist. They explain they got a crown but it was only half as much since they have coverage. Their friends and family ask how they received coverage. This is where you come in…” talk to my agent.” There is your referral.
You may be thinking “but my clients really like me and I saved them $X per month.” That is great, but when they are having coffee with friends and talking about going to the doctor, most do not ask how they paid for the visit. It is assumed they have coverage. Your Medicare Supplement sale will not come up. However, when they talk about going across the state for cancer treatment and having funds to do so from their cancer plan will come up. That is not the normal, which is why clients will talk about it.
What this means for you:
Offering your clients solutions to problems they may not have faced is being proactive. Being reactive in the insurance field usually results in a client not being insurable. Your clients more than likely have spent their whole lives choosing additional coverage from their group plans. You can replicate this process by letting them know what is available and letting them decide what is important to them.
