Effective Cross-Selling Techniques in Insurance Sales

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Cross-selling is one of many sales tactics you can use to increase revenue while serving customers. It’s easier and less costly to sell to existing customers than new ones.Cross-selling in insurance refers to an agent or broker suggesting a customer buy one or more additional insurance products to get more coverage to protect themselves. Customers see cross-selling as adding value to your relationship. For that reason, they become increasingly loyal and stickier, while providing more revenue.

To become good at cross-selling insurance products, you’ll need to communicate how complementary products fulfill their needs. In this post, we’ll define cross-selling, give you some distinct strategies for perfecting the art of cross-selling, and provide examples of complementary cross-selling strategies. 

Shortcuts:

Understanding the Basics of Cross-Selling in Insurance

Key Cross-Selling Techniques in Insurance Sales

  1. Know Your Customer (KYC)
  2. Leverage Data and Technology
  3. Educating Clients on Relevant Insurance Products
  4. Offering Bundling or Other Discounts for Better Value
  5. Timing and Personalization
  6. Build Trust Through Relationship Management

Case Studies/Examples of Successful Cross-Selling in Insurance

Cross-Selling Leads to Long-Term Success in Insurance Sales

Understanding the Basics of Cross-Selling in Insurance

In this section, we’ll explore what cross-selling in insurance is and how it differs from upselling. We’ll also look at the advantages of cross-selling and the challenges of using this strategy. 

Cross-Selling in Insurance: What Does It Mean?

Most everyone needs one or more insurance policies. That’s what makes selling any type of insurance such a lucrative career. 

Consider the many types of insurance agents sell:

  • Home, tenant, landlord
  • Auto
  • Flood
  • Personal articles floater
  • Umbrella
  • Motorcycle, ATV, RV, boat, snowmobile
  • Business
  • Life
  • Health
  • Disability
  • Long-term care
  • Pet, travel, event

Most homeowners and tenants also need auto insurance. They may also need any or all of the other types of insurance we listed.  Looking at the big picture helps give you a customer-centric mindset. 

Considering these are warm leads, your clients may appreciate the opportunity for a quick virtual sales appointment. 

Of course, your clients can choose to purchase the insurance policies you recommend or not. Nonetheless, they may miss an opportunity to cover something important to them if you don’t take the time to educate them about why they may need a specific type of policy.

For example, a client who owns a home, has more than one car, and has children is probably a good candidate for umbrella insurance. Consider the following risks that a family of three or more could face without the proper insurance coverage:

  • A car accident
  • Home, theft, fire, frozen pipe, flood
  • Child’s friend gets hurt on their property
  • Animal bites or injures a guest in their home
  • A guest gets injured on a trampoline in the yard
  • Someone drowns in their swimming pool

Hint: This is a good list to put on a slide presentation.

The proper insurance policy protects individuals and families from the worst-case scenarios. If they have a life-changing claim, they’ll be glad you recommended the right policy to protect them. 

Difference Between Cross-Selling and Upselling

Cross-selling and upselling are both sales strategies, yet they aren’t the same thing. 

While cross-selling is selling one or more complementary policies (e.g., home, auto, umbrella), upselling is convincing a client to buy higher limits or more coverage than they have or think they need. 

Seasoned brokers and agents understand the advantages of using both strategies to build their book of business. One or both methods may be appropriate depending on the circumstances. 

Benefits of Cross-Selling

When you cross-sell according to the customer’s needs, it benefits the customer and agent alike. 

Anticipating a customer’s needs and caring enough to reach out to them tells your clients that you have their best interests at heart. By considering the entire scope of your client’s insurance needs, they will think of you every time they worry that a disaster will negatively impact their lives. 

Essentially, you create a relationship where clients feel comfortable enough to contact you whenever they feel unsure about an insurance question. That’s a good place for you to be. Long-term customer relationships will naturally lead to cross-selling and upselling opportunities.

Customers who feel confident in your ability to protect them will reward you by staying loyal and not shopping around when they receive their renewal notices.  

Obviously, the longer customers stay on your books, the more money you can expect in commissions. 

They’ll also be happy to refer other family members and friends to you, allowing you to expand your book of business even larger.  

Key Cross-Selling Techniques in Insurance Sales

Fortunately, you can do several things to set yourself up for successful cross-selling. 

Here’s how to do it:

1. Know Your Customer (KYC)

Seasoned salespeople are generally familiar with an approach called “Know Your Customer.” This approach entails actively engaging with clients to understand their lifestyles and personal and financial needs. 

You can accomplish this by gathering information such as:

  • Age 
  • Family structure
  • Occupation
  • Income level
  • Health status
  • Long-term goals

This and other information will enable you to build a clear customer profile. By keeping it updated throughout various stages of life, you’ll be able to offer the right insurance products at just the right time. 

For example, you may have a single individual with one car who rents an apartment. When that person calls to tell you they’re getting married, having a child, or buying a house, they’ll be happy to know you’re there to help them get the proper insurance. 

2. Leverage Data and Technology

Data and technology are good friends when it comes to cross-selling. 

Your CRM can be a goldmine of information for tracking customer behavior and identifying cross-selling opportunities. 

Regularly evaluating your clients’ demographics, purchase history, and life events will shine a light on the insurance products at just the right time to suggest them. 

AI tools and machine learning can help you segment your customer lists to streamline follow-ups. 

3. Educating Clients on Relevant Insurance Products

With every life stage, you have opportunities to educate your clients on the insurance products they need.  

Most younger people will not be aware of the range of insurance products that are available to them or how those products can protect them. 

Take a proactive stance on educating your clients about the value of certain insurance products at certain milestones (e.g., marriage, children, divorce) or making a major purchase (e.g., expensive car or home, antiques, jewelry, boat).

Other circumstances, like parents moving in with them or vice versa, are another chance to help clients get the right coverage. 

There are lots of ways to educate clients – client reviews, newsletters, webinars, and more. 

4. Offering Bundling or Other Discounts for Better Value

Everyone likes a bargain, but your clients may not automatically connect insurance with discounts. 

The fact is that clients can often get a discount for bundling two or more policies. You can also offer other applicable discounts for alarms, car or home features, good health, and more. 

By proactively giving them discounts they qualify for, you’ll put a smile on their faces while strengthening customer loyalty and improving retention.

5. Timing and Personalization

When looking for cross-sell opportunities, timing and personalization can make all the difference. 

A client is apt to respond positively to a sales pitch about an insurance product when you deliver at their exact time of need. 

For example, if a client tells you their child is engaged, it opens up opportunities to have conversations about event insurance and changes to their auto insurance. 

Life changes also open up a new opportunity to insure the new couple’s home or apartment and auto. Later on, the couple may need an umbrella policy, life insurance, or both. 

In this way, you could position yourself as the family insurance agent for generations to come. 

6. Build Trust Through Relationship Management

You should follow up with clients in the weeks or months before every renewal. 

Unfortunately, many agents and brokers fail to see the value in taking this step. 

By regularly keeping in touch with clients, you make them feel understood and valued. In reaching out, it may prompt them to ask you those nagging questions that have been on their minds. 

In learning what’s on their minds, you have opportunities to provide guidance and solve their problems quickly.

Your diligence will foster deeper trust in your client relationships. 

Overcoming Objections and Challenges in Cross-Selling

There are two parts to addressing the challenges you’re bound to face when cross-selling – identifying them and finding a strategy for overcoming the objections. 

Common Client Objections

When recommending additional insurance policies to your clients, you may catch them off guard. Most people lead busy lives. Unless they have a premium due, insurance may be the last thing on their mind. 

Try to anticipate your client’s response to a cross-sell pitch. Here are some possible objections:

  • “Thanks, but I don’t need it.”
  • “It costs too much.”
  • “I’m happy with what I have.”
  • “I’ll get back to you if I want it.”
  • “Don’t I already have that coverage?”
  • “Let me check with my spouse/partner first.”

Take note of other objections you receive. You may receive them again in the future. 

Consider what is holding them back from purchasing when considering a strategy to overcome their objections.

Strategies for Overcoming Objections

Dealing with customer reluctance is always a challenge for insurance salespeople. Let’s face it – insurance salespeople get a bad rap for being forceful, whether it’s true or not. 

When you suggest buying another insurance policy to your customers, they may think you are putting your commissions before their well-being. The challenge lies in overcoming their perceptions about pushy salespeople. 

To overcome this challenge, it’s important to identify the right opportunities for cross-selling and being honest about the coverage you feel they need. More importantly, be honest about the coverage they don’t need. 

For example, a tenant with no assets other than an older car doesn’t need an umbrella policy. They would appreciate you being honest that they don’t need it. You can still plant the seed about a future time of life when they might need one. 

Be sure to address their objections with clear, customer-centric value propositions. For example, you could share a testimonial of how a life insurance policy you sold saved another of your clients from financial devastation (without divulging the other customer’s information).

Case Studies/Examples of Successful Cross-Selling in Insurance

Due to the inherent nature of individuals’ and families’ desires to protect themselves, insurance naturally lends itself to cross-selling. That works in your favor in an insurance career. 

As you advance in your insurance career, you will identify many opportunities to cross-sell insurance. 

We’re giving you a few examples of ways to cross-sell insurance to get you thinking along these lines. 

Example 1: A Personal Lines and Business

Clients who own their own businesses may be in the market for commercial insurance. Be sure to get their commercial insurance policy renewal date. 

Example 2: Home and Personal Articles

You can’t know whether your clients have expensive jewelry, sports memorabilia, fine arts, or other valuable items unless you ask. In your conversations with clients, you may be able to cross-sell a personal articles floater policy or add blanket coverage onto their home insurance policy. 

The more assets your clients have, the more they will need an umbrella policy, which is yet another opportunity to cross-sell.

Example 3: Home and Term Life

A home is most people’s largest investment. If the family breadwinner should pass away, it could place the rest of the family under significant financial hardship. Your clients’ homes are worth protecting. A simple inquiry about whether they have life insurance could lead to a 30-year term life insurance policy to cover their mortgage. 

Cross-Selling Leads to Long-Term Success in Insurance Sales

Cross-selling gives you the chance to deepen client relationships as they recognize you are continually looking for ways to provide them with comprehensive protection tailored to their needs.  

In pursuing cross-selling, you will be working with warm leads that are more likely to result in a sale. Cross-selling is a worthwhile task that will ultimately pay off in customer loyalty and higher commissions. 

CrankWheel’s screen-sharing tool makes cross-selling easier by allowing you to create personalized slides that depict how your insurance products can protect risks your clients haven’t yet thought about. Try CrankWheel for free to see how easy it is to customize your slides.