12 Top Skills Every Insurance Agents Need to be Successful

Insurance Agent is not a simple sales job. Selling insurance is a very specific job in the financial industry that requires you to be a trusted partner to your clients.

“To be successful as an insurance agent, you’ll need to genuinely love to help your friends, neighbors, and community feel secure and protect what’s important.”

Says Robert Johnson, 17 years in Insurance.

Selling insurance is one of the most attractive high-paying jobs that don’t require a degree.

With high-paying commissions and a high degree of autonomy with flexible work hours, working as an insurance agent can be very fulfilling.

However, it is not an easy job.

High rate of customer rejection, stress, and dealing with the unexpected is common.

But all good insurance agents share some similar skills that make them successful. These skills are divided into two basic categories.

1. Interpersonal Skills
2. Professional Skills

Recommended: Story of a couple who lose 95% of their savings but retired early!

Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal skills allow you to build trust and rapport with your clients. It is by far the most important aspect when doing sales and achieving success as an insurance agent.

The good news?

Interpersonal skills can be nurtured or learned from attending courses available online or reading self-help books.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to recognize people’s emotions. Hailed as the most important form of intelligence when selling insurance.

A person with a good EQ can identify different feelings and label them appropriately.

You can use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior to a positive outcome.

Nurturing your ability to read, relate and respond to human emotions will help you to win more new business than any other skill currently known.

A good agent is tactful and knows how to help your client to understand the importance of protecting the things important to them.

Empathy

Empathy is a wonderful characteristic that good insurance agents possess and nurture.

Empathy is the ability to show that you care for your client and understand where they are coming from.

The feeling to being understood helps to build trust and rapport.

You are not just there to make a sale, you are there to help fulfill a need, a want, or a wish that your client aims to achieve.

Sometimes, you can provide a personal example to show a client that you know what they want.

This technique will help you to convince a hesitant client to buy a product you’re certain will help them in the long run.

Honesty

Honesty is BIG!

Perhaps the most important attribute if you want to build a career as an insurance agent.

Honesty builds trust and this is the pre-requisite to building one of the most important professional skills; networking.

A good insurance agent knows that in order to win over clients, you have to be honest upfront.

Whatever you’ve promise, you must deliver.

A career as an insurance agent is built through repeat business and referrals, which requires the element of honesty.

Loyalty

Loyalty is the ability to put your customer’s interest before your own. When people buy insurance from you, they count on you to help ensure that they are best protected from any unexpected events.

As an insurance agent, you are the knight in the shiny armor that help protect your client from financial disaster, or crisis that may cause them distress, or harm.

Focus on putting your client’s best interest.

Do it well, and you’ll have a client for life.

Persistence

Persistence separates dreamers from achievers.

A good insurance agent has to be persistent in driving results.

Each clients are earn one at a time.

Often, you won’t earn a lot in the first few years of your career. But as time flows, you gain more clients and your earnings will grow as well.

Similar to compound interest, you grow your client base and become successful over time.

Be Optimistic

Rejection is a feeling you will experience on a daily basis. An insurance agent must be able to handle rejection. And more importantly, do it with a smile.

A good insurance agent is not forceful and understand that each “no” only brings them closer to a “yes”.

Selling insurance is not only selling a product, but you are selling an opportunity to your clients to protect things that are important to them.

A “no” is not a rejection of you, but a rejection of the product you are selling. If your product does not meet your client’s needs, don’t force a sale.

Professional Skills

Professional skills are skills essential for you to perform your job. These are skills that are learnable and can be developed through attending courses available online or reading self-help books.

Communication Skills

The ability to pitch a complex idea in simple terms is an essential skill for this position.

Communication is the basis of human interaction. Insurance agents don’t just sell insurance but grow relationships with their clients.

Clear and easy-to-understand communication skills will help your clients to navigate important life topics.

Although not everyone is a great communicator, in the beginning, there are a lot of courses available online. These courses can help you to be an amazing communicator.

To become an effective communicator, you can take up a public speaking course. This can greatly help you on improving your presentation and communication skills.

Communicate on the Phone

Talking on the phone is unlike any form of communication.

A written message allows you to take your time to craft the perfect response.

A face-to-face meeting, allows you to observe their facial expression and respond accordingly.

The Mehrabian’s 7-38-55 Rule of communication states:

• 7% of the words you speak will be remembered.
• 38% of the tone of your voice will impact your outcome.
• 55% of the non-verbal body language will be what determine the final outcome.

Communicating on the phone is probably the hardest yet the most essential skill you’ll need to have to become a successful insurance agent.

Although most sales occur during the face-to-face meeting with your client. Learning how to communicate on the phone helps you to put a foot in the door.

During a phone conversation, your prospect is listening to your every word, every tone, and every sign of a red flag.

Your client will want to be sure that you are the right person as their insurance provider.

Build a Network with fellow Agents

Referrals will almost always be your primary source of new clients. All successful insurance agents have a strong network that they can tap into for new business.

Although building a network is not easy, there are ways that can help.

Here are a few simple yet effective methods for building a referral partnership:

1. Build a good relationship with your potential referral partners over a cup of coffee.
2. Attend alumni or any other events to support their cause..
3. Send potential partners a referral without expecting any reciprocation.

My Takeaway?

Be a giver and not a taker.

Technical Knowledge

Knowledge is the one thing that you must have in order to serve your clients well.

Learn about your product as much as possible; health insurance, financial products, home insurance, etc.

Although an insurance agent doesn’t require a college degree or be an expert in financial planning. Honing your skills in writing and math skills are necessary to become a financial planner.

Getting a broad education always helps to develop your character. This helps you to better able to relate to a more diverse group of people.

Getting a CPA and becoming a financial advisor may not be your goal, but life insurance agents often sell insurance and retirement products. Which required you to have some knowledge of annuities, Roth IRAs, etc.

Continuous education and taking courses in finance are always helpful.

Customer Service

Customer service is the most important element that differentiates you from the other thousands of insurance agents.

Every single interaction of you with your prospect is part of the customer service:

• The way you dress.
• The way you act.
• The way you speak.
• The quality of response.
• The timeliness of your response.
• The message you sent.
• The after-sale service you’ve provided.

The customer service you’ve provided adds to the customer experience.

A good customer experience will always lead to referrals and long-term business.

Know “How” and “When” to ask the right questions

Probably the hardest part of being an insurance agent is to know “how” and “when” to ask the right questions.

Knowing this skills will help you save time and improve your success rate as an insurance agent.

Asking the right question will help you build rapport with your client, but when the question was asked at the wrong time, it will break all rapport you’ve built.

• All questions asked should be logical and follow the right order that won’t be too intrusive. Questions asked at the right time will help to increase your rapport.
• Asking targeted questions, helps you to understand your prospects, and better advise them on a product that can solve their challenges.

When the right questions are asked at the right time, it will lead to increased sales.

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Your next step?

Learn how to increase your chances of getting a high-paying job without a degree. 

We’ve one question…

Did we miss out on any critical skills needed to become a good insurance agent?

Let us know in the comments below!

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