Final Expense Telesales Scripting [The Importance and 5 Key Tips]
Posted in Agent Training last updated on April 11, 2019
Outside of a streamlined system with technology built to keep you dialing and closing sales, you still need a few other key pieces to take your final expense telesales to the next level.
Sure, you need high-quality interested leads and access to the proper carriers, but you also need a proper mindset and a solid script to tie everything together. Without a strong mindset and a script/outline to follow in the beginning, you could be losing more sales than you think or want to believe.
Building rapport and trust and in the final expense telesales market is critical to have the ability to make the sale. Scripts give you the control to run your conversation your way and to maintain power and control of the call.
At Digital Senior Benefits, we understand the importance of scripting and having all the other tools we previously mentioned at your fingertips.
That’s why we take the time to develop our own proven scripts, training, and technology. We want you to succeed and want you to have the ultimate turnkey platform to succeed with.
Here are 5 essential tips and the core areas we train our final expense telesales agents on. This is specifically related to your final expense telesales script and should help to take you to the next level.
Tip #1 Don’t Quote Until You’re At Least 25 Minutes into the Presentation
Rapport is the most crucial factor of successfully selling final expense life insurance over the phone. Rapport also takes time to build with your prospects.
You shouldn’t have to force this too much. It should be possible to build rapport naturally with your prospects. Especially if you are following a script or some form of an outline during the call.
You should never or at least very seldom be attempting to present product recommendations to your prospect without being about 25-30 minutes into the call.
To effectively cover 1.) Who you are and 2.) Go over the prospects true needs through a proper needs analysis.
Without those 25 minutes on the call, it’s tough ever to build any form of bond or trust.
Trying to close too early will result in a waste of 15 minutes as opposed to building more trust for a few minutes and potentially closing the deal.
Spending the additional time when making on your call will show later when reviewing your sales percentages.
Additionally, taking the time to build trust with your client is going to result in fewer sales falling off the books a few months down the road.
Tip #2- Always Assume and Take Control of The Call
Taking control of the call is not being pushy. It’s showing confidence to your prospect that you know what you are doing, and you believe you have recommended a product that can truly benefit their lives.
However, there is a big difference between taking control of the call and sounding desperate. If your prospect can even get the slightest whiff that you are desperate or being “needy”, you will begin feeling the pushback and lose the sale.
Use words such as “today” as often as possible. You can use phrases such as “Bob, I’m glad we covered all this information, and I’m happy to help get this application started for you TODAY.”
This is also going to allow you to begin gauging their reactions to phrases with urgency placed on them without sounding pushy.
If you get a substantial amount of resistance or kickback when using these phrases, you know that you simply need to build more rapport to finish the sale.
If you have little to no resistance, you know you are close to entering the application phase of the call.
Tip #3- Use Take Away Language with Your Prospect
Take away language has always been around. It’s worked great in the past and still works great today.
Instead of trying to flow right into an application and allowing your prospect to smell the commission breath emitting from you, use takeaway language that sparks some curiosity. Phrases such as the following can work great.
- “If you can qualify”
- “I’m not sure if you can qualify but if you can.”
- “I’m not aware of all your health conditions but let me see what we can do for you.”
- “well, let’s just see if we can you qualified.”
These phrases are less threatening to your prospects and sparks some curiosity. Everyone wants to know if they can qualify. It can help inch you a few steps closer to the sale without sounding desperate or needy throughout the process.
#4- Use Trial Closes Throughout Your Call
Trial closes are fantastic for a few reasons. First, they allow you as the agent to gauge your progress through the call and to get a feel for if your prospect is near the biting point on the application. Trying to get at least 3 trial closes in during the call is ideal. You can use examples such as the following.
“does that make sense?”
“are you with me so far?”
“would that amount of coverage work for you?”
“How do you feel about what we have discussed so far?”
When you begin dropping these trial closes in throughout the call, you can begin getting your prospect into a rhythm with you and use to agreeing and saying “yes” to your questions which is what we are ultimately aiming for in the end, isn’t it?
#5- Listen, Acknowledge and Praise Your Prospect
This could perhaps be considered the most important tip we have laid out for you in this post. This circles back into rapport building but it’s a huge piece that final expense telesales agents often miss.
Take the time to listen to your prospects. Don’t constantly interject with sales related or product related discussions. Acknowledge what your prospects are telling you and give them praise where it fits.
Phrases such as “Bob, your battle with cancer was Brave and Impressive” is an excellent example of this if you have a client discussing their medical history with you.
Continue to use these methods throughout the call to build trust with your prospect and further build the rapport. Remember, objections are smokescreens and often only arise because of a lack of trust. If you can effectively drop their guard during the call, you can begin closing way more sales.
The more you can get your prospect to share with you, the better. This indicates that you have built a stronger bond and better rapport with your prospect and likely have already earned their trust, or you’re getting very close to earning it.
Hang in there and remain patient and finish strong.
Final Word. Final Expense Telesales Takes Patience, Rapport and Listening to Close the Sale
At the end of the day, patience is likely the most significant takeaway and a key to final expense telesales.
It takes time to build the bond and trust with your clients searching for final expense insurance. They don’t give you their trust as quickly as other demographics, and they also are less transactional than other age groups that you may have sold life insurance to in the past.
They want to chat, and they want you to listen and acknowledge. These 5 tips should give you a solid foundation towards improving your final expense telesales numbers but if you are still looking for further information be sure to email us at info@digitalseniorbenefits.com for more information.
We would love to share with you information about our proprietary technology, training, and leads.
Additionally, if you are interested in contracting with Digital Senior Benefits be sure to see our related post about why our recommended carriers can explode your final expense telesales business. You can view that below.
