The art of selling final expense insurance

Final expense insurance has been around for a long time and will continue to be sold for a long time to come. Although the product itself is simplistic and easy to learn and use, there is definitely an art to selling final expense insurance.

Selling burial insurance is a process that requires an agent to create a need, a want, and a desire for the product. Like any life insurance, everyone needs it, but no one really wants to buy it and pay for it. As with other things in life that we should have, if it were free, everyone would definitely have it. The problem is… it’s not free, so we need to create that need that they can’t live without. So how do you do that?

First, the customer needs to see the value of having a policy and protecting the people they care about. Any life insurance I have I see as an asset and not as a monthly expense every time I pay a premium. It is important that you speak in terms of the client creating an instant asset for his family and not an expense.

The second thing that is very important in helping your client is not to tell them they need final expense insurance, but to tell them to you. This is one of the biggest mistakes agents make when selling absolutely everything. A successful agent doesn’t tell a customer that he needs the product, a successful agent makes the customer tell him why she needs and wants it.

It is very important to ask probing questions to get the customer to tell you. This is where most agents fail. Agents generally tend to be the ones who count in the sales process and by telling the customer instead of him telling you, in the end the customer doesn’t make the sale and the sale is lost.

“Ms. Jones, do you consider planning your final expenses to be your responsibility or do you consider it your children’s responsibility?” The follow-up question after Mrs. Jones answers that it is her responsibility would be “Why? Why do you think this is your responsibility and why would you not want to put this on your children?” Sit back and listen to her tell you why she needs to buy your final expense product. These types of questions make the customer take ownership and make the sale for you.

To be successful at final expense selling, you need to create a need for your product, as not many customers actually want to buy what you have. The way to create that need is by asking questions that make your customer sell and take ownership. Don’t make the mistake that 99% of all agents make and that is telling your client why they need final expense insurance.