Using Psychology to Overcome Objections In Life Insurance Sales

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Objections are bound to come your way during a sales presentation, and the psychology of selling can help you overcome them. 

Psychology is the science behind what we think and how we behave. By understanding more about consumer behavior and what motivates someone to make a purchase, you can better prepare for a successful life insurance appointment. 

We can easily talk ourselves into or out of something. With a little knowledge about social psychology sales techniques, you can influence your prospect’s thoughts to help them choose the best life insurance policy for them and their family. 

Shortcuts:

What Is Psychology?

How to Use Psychology to Overcome Objections in Life Insurance Sales

Using Psychology in Sales to Address Specific Objections

Psychology in Sales: Repeat Text and Images for Memory Retention

View a Sales Appointment from the Other Side

What Is Psychology?

Researchers have been studying psychology for over a century to learn more about how our brains work and how our thoughts impact our behavior. 

Salespeople can be more effective at their craft when they understand how people process information, prompting their decisions about what to buy or not to buy.

Psychology involves various facets of behavioral science, including social science, decision science, and consumer science. Let’s take a closer look at each of them.

Social Science

Social science is the study of people and how they behave as individuals and in society. It can be divided into other fields, such as economics, education, law, and political science. 

The field of social science explores our attitudes and how they shape our relationships and motivate our social behavior. 

As a life insurance salesperson, you play a role in shaping prospects’ attitudes about why they need life insurance. 

Decision Science

Decision science, not to be confused with data science, involves analyzing risks, decisions, cost-benefits, and cost-effectiveness. 

This field centers around how our decisions affect real-world decision-making. As with social science, decision science studies the role our attitudes play in making decisions about what we buy. 

Considering decision science, buyers make decisions based on the information they have. Knowing this, you have opportunities to inform your prospects in every stage of the sales funnel. 

Consumer Science

Consumer science is also known as the psychology of marketing. Marketers and advertisers rely heavily on consumer science to get people to purchase goods and services. 

Marketers know that rewards drive human behavior. When people buy something they want, their brains release a hormone called dopamine. Dopamine is often called the “feel-good hormone” because it makes us feel content and happy. 

When you sell a life insurance policy, you want people to feel good about it. You want to leave them with the impression that a life insurance policy gives them the peace of mind of knowing that their loved ones can carry on in their absence if they pass away. 

By understanding consumer science, you can craft the most effective messages and tailor your marketing campaigns toward the life insurance products that will suit them best. 

Overall, the sciences can be helpful in using psychology in sales for an effective presentation.

How to Use Psychology in Sales to Overcome Objections in Life Insurance Sales

Handling objections is a necessary skill for every salesperson, yet it’s not generally a life insurance agent’s favorite part of the job. 

Some insurance agents handle objections by beating around the bush and never answering the prospect’s question. Others fumble around, not knowing what to say. Even worse, some insurance agents brush off objections and focus on what they want the prospect to know. 

Prospects are likely to see right through these tactics, causing buyer hesitation. That’s not the response that would motivate someone to buy anything.

Consider that prospects will likely have some biases at the start of the appointment. They may already have preconceived notions about life insurance based on what they already know, and they may be looking for new information that supports their existing beliefs about it. 

Nonetheless, with every objection, you have an opportunity to show how a life insurance policy can solve your prospect’s problems. In doing so, you can build trust with a prospect quickly. 

We’ve put together some social psychology sales techniques to put prospects in the buying mood and overcome objections. 

Create a Comprehensive Customer Profile

With every interaction, you have an opportunity to learn more about a prospect. Use this information to create a detailed customer profile. Collect information such as:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Marital and family status
  • Occupation and income level
  • Financial 
  • Hobbies and interests
  • Social media activities
  • Buying habits (price, value, etc.)
  • Preferred method of contact
  • Lead date and source
  • Information on current life insurance policies
  • Concerns and objections

Reviewing this data before interacting with prospects allows you to personalize conversations and make the best recommendations. The psychology of selling requires you to express empathy to appeal to their psychological need to feel cared for. 

Place a Greater Focus on Value vs. Price

Price is a common objective life insurance salespeople encounter during a presentation. People are often more inclined to favor value over the lowest price. 

Your challenge is to penetrate their psyche and help them see how a particular life insurance policy will improve their lives. When they see the value in a life insurance policy, the cost becomes less of an issue. 

Prospects will be impressed by your willingness to serve their needs over their desire for the lowest cost, which is an effective psychology in sales strategy. 

Uncover the Reason They’re Delaying a Life Insurance Decision

When pursuing leads, you’ll commonly get a “no thank you” the first time around. That doesn’t mean a prospect isn’t interested in buying life insurance. It may mean that they’re not ready to purchase it yet. You must build resilience in overcoming rejection.

As defeating as a “no” response can be, learn to anticipate it and dig a little deeper to find out why they’re not interested. Use the information you learn to better understand why the prospect feels like they do and determine how to leverage that information in future interactions. 

Rather than make an educated guess as to why someone isn’t ready to buy life insurance, express genuine interest in their reasons. In this way, they’re bound to see you as an ally rather than a fast-talking salesperson. 

Play Up Benefits vs. Features

A common mistake life insurance agents make is to play up a particular life insurance policy’s features. Why? Because a policy’s features may not benefit the prospect. 

For example, a life insurance policy that offers a spousal rider and child rider won’t appeal to a single person with no children. A prospect who already has a group accidental death policy won’t be impressed by a policy that includes an accidental death rider. 

You have a better chance of getting the sale when you can show a prospect how a life insurance policy will improve their life. When you do it successfully, the prospect can envision a brighter future. Their brain will release dopamine, and they’ll experience that “feel good” feeling. 

It’s psychology in sales at its finest. 

Anticipate and Solve Pain Points

This task involves collecting as much information as possible about your prospects and using it to determine prospects’ needs and objections. 

Ask your prospect questions and clarify misperceptions during the relationship-building process. Once you learn more about their needs, you will learn more about their pain points and can change your messaging to target them.  

With each interaction, prospects will gain a greater sense of your willingness to help them protect their families. In this way, prospects will begin to see that you have their back, and that’s a great feeling to have. 

Using Psychology in Sales to Address Specific Objections

When a prospect blurts out an objection, what they really want you to do is help them see how a life insurance policy can overcome whatever is bothering them. When you can meet the objection head-on, you are one step closer to closing the deal. 

A good way to turn an objection around in a prospect’s head is to turn the statement into a request. We’re outlining some of the most common objections to life insurance sales and how to address them as pain points. 

Price

For example, if they say they believe that life insurance is too costly or won’t fit into their budget, you can help them understand the different types of affordable life insurance plans that are available. 

Term life policies or policies with lower face amounts might fit better into their budgets than they first thought. They might also be willing to find a way to fit the cost of a permanent life insurance policy into their budget if you can demonstrate the great value. 

Have Enough Coverage

Perhaps your prospect has told you they don’t need a life insurance policy because they have an inexpensive group life insurance policy through an employer they’ve worked for more than 30 years. 

You can address this objection by telling them their coverage will end when they leave the company for any reason or retire (unless it’s a portable policy). By purchasing a standalone life insurance policy, they’ll have coverage until the end of the term or whenever they cancel their policy. 

Young and Healthy

Life insurance doesn’t seem like much of a priority when a prospect is young and healthy. They have their whole lives ahead of them, so they’re inclined to wait.

Your challenge is to help them see that life as they know it can change in an instant, regardless of their age. Storytelling is an excellent way to drive home the fact that people can die at any age, even if they live a healthy lifestyle.

A good way to overcome this objection is to help them recognize that financial protection is essential at every stage of life. And, the sooner they purchase, the lower the cost will be. 

Have Investments to Cover

While you’re highlighting the features and benefits of life policies, a prospect might tell you that they’ve built up sufficient investments to ensure their families have protection. 

As an insurance expert, you can offer them a review of their financial plan. You may be able to identify gaps that a life insurance policy could fill. 

Too Complicated to Understand

Without a doubt, life insurance is a complex topic. Additionally, it’s not a topic people think about very often.  

There is much to understand about life insurance policies considering the various types of policies, including term, whole life, universal life, indexed life, and annuities. The insurance industry also has many terms that aren’t familiar or easy for the general public to understand. 

The confusion can force prospects into a state of indecision. Yet, this objection gives you an opportunity to explain the need for professional advice and guidance in this area. 

Can’t Think About Mortality

No one likes to think about dying, yet the day will come for everyone at some point. When that time comes, they will feel more comfortable knowing they haven’t left their finances to chance. 

Empathize with your prospects, explaining that they’ll have greater peace of mind in knowing that a life insurance policy will protect their loved ones now and in the future. 

Psychology in Sales:  Repeat Text and Images for Memory Retention

One of the challenges in giving a sales presentation is holding the audience’s interest. 

Research shows that people have a limited capacity to retain information in their working memory. People only tend to hold onto information for about 30 seconds. 

They will remember a few of the most important parts, but then new information replaces some of what they’ve learned. 

For this reason, it’s wise to repeat the main points of a presentation several times to keep the concept alive in their minds. The best way to accomplish this is through a slide presentation displayed using a quality screen-sharing tool. 

A screen-sharing tool will allow you to bring up different parts of the presentation as the discussion evolves. 

View a Sales Appointment from the Other Side

You don’t have to be a therapist to use psychology to overcome the objections you will face during a life insurance sales appointment. 

What you need to do is to view the need for a life insurance policy from the prospect’s perspective. Given the same situation, how would you feel, and what would you think?

By considering their thoughts and feelings, you can effectively address and overcome any sales objection that comes your way. 

Be sure to check out our article on Mirroring and Psychology in Sales to learn more. 

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