Cover More, Sell Smarter: The Art of Cross-Selling Life Insurance
According to McKinsey, cross-selling increases sales by 20% and profits by 30%. That’s reason enough to develop a plan to cross-sell life insurance to your existing customers. Life insurance complements other types of insurance policies. Yet, it’s often overlooked: even though most people need it!
The 2024 Insurance Barometer Study from LIMRA and Life Happens shows that 42% of American adults say they need life insurance. This percentage represents 102 million adults. The study also breaks down the percentages of Hispanics, Blacks, women, younger generations, and households earning less than $50,000 per year. The results showed that 45% to 56% of people said they needed life insurance in every category.
These statistics prove that the target market for cross-selling life insurance is quite broad.
Your existing customers likely came to you when they needed health, auto, or home insurance. They may not be aware that you are also licensed to sell life insurance. While part of the agent’s motivation is to increase sales and commissions, the more rewarding part of cross-selling life insurance is offering your customers the best insurance products for their needs.
Shortcuts:
Understanding Cross-Selling in Life Insurance
Identifying the Right Opportunities
Techniques and Best Practices for Cross-Selling
Tools and Resources to Support Cross-Selling
Overcoming Common Challenges and Objections
Putting Cross-Selling Into Action
Understanding Cross-Selling in Life Insurance
Cross-selling is a powerful strategy in the insurance industry because it allows you to deepen relationships with existing clients and boost revenue in the process. Customers feel more comfortable working with an agent they know they can rely on if something bad happens.
Cross-selling life insurance gives you opportunities to do the following:
- Build trust
- Strengthen relationships
- Simplify protection
- Provide comprehensive insurance protection
These are solid reasons for customers to stay on your books long term.
What is cross-selling? It’s the practice of offering your customers additional products to enhance the value of their original purchase.
Cross-selling is different from upselling. Upselling is persuading clients to buy a more expensive version of a product. The goal of cross-selling is to sell an existing customer a product that complements other products you have already sold them.
Clients may overlook buying life insurance because they prioritize home, auto, or health policies. The LIMRA study also showed the following three reasons people procrastinate with buying life insurance:
- It’s too expensive.
- They have other financial priorities.
- They don’t know how much to buy or which policy to get.
As an insurance agent or broker, you can help your clients overcome these obstacles by learning more about them, educating them about their options, and helping them apply for coverage.
Financial Uncertainty Is a Huge Concern for Clients
The 2025 Planning & Progress Study by Northwestern Mutual highlights just how worried your clients may be about their financial security. It showed that 70% of Americans said they felt depressed and anxious because of economic uncertainty. On the flip side, 76% of Americans using a financial advisor classified themselves as having strong finances.
Life insurance provides the financial foundation that protects families against the unexpected. By cross-selling life insurance, you can put their minds at ease about finances. You can’t put a price on peace of mind.
Beyond fostering long-term relationships and retention, cross-selling life insurance gives your clients the convenience of having all their insurance policies with one person or agency. Clients will appreciate the convenience of having one trusted advisor who can handle multiple insurance needs for them.
Some clients will be more receptive to buying life insurance than others. For some clients, buying a life policy might be a matter of timing.
Identifying the Right Opportunities
Relevance is often a key to successful cross-selling of life insurance when having discussions with clients. Successful agents and brokers look for life situations that naturally segue the conversation toward a conversation about life insurance.
Whether you initially sold them a personal insurance policy, a commercial policy, health insurance, or financial products, you can look for an opening to talk about life insurance.
Here are some ways to pinpoint natural entry points for a life insurance discussion:
- Home and auto policies: Your customers may be looking for a way to safeguard their assets and protect their families.
- Commercial policies: Key person insurance or buy-sell agreements are essential for small business owners.
- Health insurance policies: Life insurance complements health coverage by protecting the rest of the family if the insured dies unexpectedly.
- Financial planning services: Certain types of life insurance policies can be an important part of a long-term financial strategy that offers financial security or extra cash.
Leveraging the Right Timing with Marketing
An updated CRM is a gold mine of information. It can help you spot coverage gaps and identify life changes that may signal a good time to talk about life insurance.
The following life events can be used as triggers to send clients timely information about life insurance:
- Buying a home
- Getting married
- Having children
- Children achieving adulthood
- Changing careers
- Taking on significant debt
- Starting a business
- Planning a will
- Caring for aging parents
As situations open up for opportunities to cross-sell life insurance, you’ll want to brush up on the techniques and best practices for life insurance marketing.
Pro Tip: With CrankWheel, you can integrate your CRM with our screen-sharing solution, making reaching out and engaging with your customers through video a seamless (and profitable) experience.
Techniques and Best Practices for Cross-Selling
While you may understand how important it is for a client to purchase life insurance, it may not be top-of-mind for them. The last thing you want is to turn clients off to the idea of life insurance before they have a chance to understand why they need it.
The best approach to cross-selling life insurance is to educate people about what life insurance can do for them. You need to make the case for buying life insurance in ways that make them receptive to learning more about it.
Educate: Don’t Push
A hard sell will likely be a turn-off because clients are generally wary of sales pitches.
A better sales engagement strategy is to frame the conversation around the protection of their family. A good way to do this is by using stories, illustrations, and real-life scenarios.
Think about your own story of why you purchased life insurance. Sharing that story with your clients may speak volumes. Learn more with our article on How to Utilize Storytelling When Selling Final Expense Insurance.
Here are some other questions that may invoke some feelings about why a client may need life insurance:
- Do you know of someone who unexpectedly died young?
- Do you know of someone who had to change their lifestyle significantly after the death of a spouse?
- Do you know someone who inherited a debt after a loved one died?
- Do you know of a family that didn’t have funds for a funeral service?
These kinds of probing questions may spark interest in buying a life insurance policy.
A soft-sell approach is about educating clients, identifying their needs, and offering solutions that protect what matters most to them.
Timing and Context
Once you have solved the client’s primary need by selling them a different type of needed insurance, they should be on your radar to cross-sell life insurance to them.
In an earlier section, we highlighted some triggers that may indicate a client’s need for life insurance. While those milestones may open clients up to the need for life insurance, you can introduce the concept of life insurance at any time.
The question is, when is the right time? Introducing the topic of life insurance too early may overwhelm the client. If you wait too long, you could miss an opportunity to sell a policy.
You will likely have regular interactions with your clients. Adding a small bit of information about life insurance at the end of an email may prompt them to call you about it. When conversing over the phone, you might interject about the importance of life insurance near the end of the call.
Whatever your sales strategy, avoid overwhelming the client with too many offers in quick succession.
Listening and Customization
Questions like “Can I tell you about life insurance?” or “Have you considered buying a life insurance policy?” are straightforward questions to open a conversation about life insurance, yet they’re not always effective.
You’ll find that “no” is an easy answer to yes or no questions like these.
A better approach is to ask open-ended questions that give you more information about their families, goals, and financial worries.
For example, you might ask how your spouse could financially support the family if you died, leaving them without your income.
Open-ended questions force customers to share their needs with you. Listen carefully to their answers and make mental notes of how to tailor your recommendations for a life insurance policy that meets their needs, budget, and risk tolerance.
Tools and Resources to Support Cross-Selling
When setting your sights on cross-selling, technology is your friend. The right systems will make cross-selling easy and efficient.
Here are some of the most important tools to support a cross-selling strategy to build your book of life insurance clients:
- CRM: For tracking client interactions, highlighting life events, and flagging opportunities for cross-selling.
- Quoting and illustration software: To provide quick comparisons, highlight features, and show pricing.
- Screen sharing software: To give a visual representation of policies side-by-side.
- Needs-analysis calculators: To quantify coverage gaps and demonstrate the consequences of not having life insurance.
- Sales training programs: To educate agents and brokers on the best practices of cross-selling.
- Product knowledge resources: To thoroughly educate agents and brokers about the life insurance products they sell.
These tools combined should give you the full set of tools and resources for a successful cross-selling campaign.
Overcoming Common Challenges and Objections
In opening up dialogue about the prospect of buying life insurance, you’re bound to face some objections. Listen carefully to your client’s answers to open-ended questions. Be prepared to give professional responses to overcome their objections to delay buying life insurance.
Here are some of the common objections clients have for not wanting to buy life insurance, and what you can do to overcome them:
- “I already have insurance through work.” Explain that the limits may not be high enough, and they may not be able to take the policy with them if they leave their employer.
- “I can’t afford another policy.” Use your screen-sharing tool to show life policies that are within their budget.
- “I don’t need it right now.” Explain the risk of waiting, including increased premiums as they age, and the risk of acquiring health concerns that may affect underwriting and pricing.
By addressing each concern proactively and showing how life insurance protects their family and supports their long-term goals, you will guide them toward the best decision, while building trust along the way.
Putting Cross-Selling Into Action
Cross-selling is more than a sales strategy. It’s an art – one that you can hone and perfect throughout your career. This technique expands your business opportunities and increases revenue. Clients who learn they can trust your expertise will stay on your books long-term, perhaps, for a lifetime.
Many clients initially approach agents for health, auto, or home insurance, but may not realize how life insurance can secure their long-term financial well-being. You have the knowledge and skill to shed light on the importance of having life insurance. The right life insurance policy could make a world of difference for a family.
Use tools and technology to streamline your cross-selling strategy and enhance your presentation by giving clients thought-provoking visuals of how life insurance can make a significant difference in their lives.
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