70% of prospective customers said they were MORE confused about what insurance to buy, following discussions with an adviser.

This statistic comes from the LIMRA website and I brought it up because it really drives an important point: we need to simplify the insurance conversation if people are going to feel comfortable buying the right cover. It’s a scary statistic, think about it, 7 out of 10 people leaving a conversation with an adviser or insurance salesperson—who can’t provide advice—telling us that fundamentally after that conversation they are more confused about what to buy and how much to buy than they were before they chatted to the insurance professional. Now, that’s a real problem. That means that all of us need to really think about are we simplifying our insurance conversations.

Three things you can do to simplify that conversation and make it more likely that customer will take action and buy a cover. That’s my big point here, it’s not let’s sell more insurance, it’s confused people don’t buy the right cover. That means while they’re thinking about things and being confused, they’re uncovered. And we know what happens if an accident occurs, they don’t get a second chance.

So here are three things you need to do to simplify the insurance conversation so that people can simplify their decision making.

1. Spend more time on the ‘why’, and less time on the ‘what’

Focus your conversation on why they should be considering buying a cover. What debts they should be covering, what expenses their family have that need to be covered after they die to maintain the lifestyle, whether they want to leave a legacy for their children or partner—focus the conversation on those things and people will be more likely to understand the ‘why’ of the product. Once they’ve got that, they’ll do the effort required to figure out the technical stuff that you need to get in with them.

2. Use questions to educate

When you ask a person a question, they’re much more likely to understand something rather than when you’re telling them lots of details. Move away from telling, you need to question. People will actually educate themselves and understand things much more effectively.

3. One cover at a time

I know that many of you will be selling multiple covers, but if you can focus on the life insurance aspect first, get that right and make sure they really understand it. Let them make the decision on how much cover they should be taking before you move on to things like income protection and other insurances. You’ll find that that simplifies the decision-making process.

 
The easier it is to understand the solution and the right cover they should be buying, the easier it’s going to be for them to make decisions and buy from you. So it’s worthwhile taking the time out to simplify your insurance conversations.