How Can I Increase My Life Insurance Sales [25 Tips + More Income]

Agents selling life insurance often find themselves in a rut every now and then. It can become difficult at times to remain motivated. Finding clever ways to increase sales and keep the pipeline bursting at the seams is always the primary goal.

The questions that agents have often when attempting to sell final expense life insurance comes down to finding new methods and new techniques to boosting sales, driving income and creating a full-blown life insurance business. It’s also the goal to do this while working from home and completing all sales digitally over the phone and over the internet.

So, how can you increase your life insurance sales in the final expense market? Increasing your life insurance sales in the final expense market comes down to the total activity you put in. Additionally, working quality leads, implementing creative strategies and streamlining the process can boost your sales quickly with final expense telesales.

I have put together my top 25 tips that I believe all remote final expense agents or life insurance agents, in general, should be implemented if you genuinely want to see your income hit 6 figures or more and begin creating the digital life insurance agency you are looking for.

25 Tips for Boosting Your Life Insurance Sales in The Final Expense Market

#1 Make More Outbound Calls

This is simple. Produce more activity to produce more income. Agents often take full advantage of the perks that are offered with working from home. I understand I’ve been in the exact same situation. It’s what one of the benefits of selling final expense insurance that makes this career “sexy” in a way. It’s what makes any remote position desirable.

Don’t fall into this trap. If you have quality leads, you need to be calling them. No worries, we will cover quality leads shortly. The more calls you make, the more money that follows. I’m sure this phrase has been beaten to death over the past few decades, but it’s absolutely 100% true.

I noticed that every day, week or month that I had a lower volume of outbound calls, I shockingly made fewer sales and made less money. It’s not very odd how that works out in the end.

With automated systems and a high performing CRM (Customer Relationship Manager), you should quickly and easily be making 150 calls per day or more.

If This is The Only Tip You Follow, Your Sales Will Still Increase Immediately

This is assuming you have lead flow to hit these numbers. Following this tip and skipping the other 24 I have laid out for you will boost your sales by itself. Trust me. I sold life insurance for several years face to face in both the final expense market and traditional life insurance markets.

I never believed I was losing money until I realized how much time can be saved working digitally. To give you a rough number, I went from a modest income face to face to 6 figures or close to it my first year selling digitally, and I honestly didn’t know much about what I was doing.

In the beginning.

However, I made the calls and was lucky enough to have help and learn under some of the best in the industry. Learning, activity and work ethic will take you further than may realize.

#2- Continue to Follow Up Diligently with Your Leads and Prospects

This falls right back into keeping your activity levels as high as possible. I understand the feeling of getting bogged down or having back to back days with frustrating calls. What most agents don’t realize is how much this sets the table for the rest of the week, month and even for the year.

Leads often don’t buy on call number 1. Sure, they will buy on call #1 but not always. Tracking data and call information as well as dispositions for your leads is critical. Some days can feel like a bust but a day with 150 dials and a solid set of information gathered and follow-ups set can line you up to have a huge next few days or even week.

A Pipeline Doesn’t Always Consist of Pending Sales. Activity Is Everything

A pipeline isn’t always pending sales in underwriting. A solid pipeline busting at the seams also consist of follow-ups with individuals you have already begun building rapport with, learned their children’s names and taken an active interest in helping.

In some cases, a lead can be called up to 12 times over several days without answering. However, call # 12 can often be the sale and when you finally catch them at a good time to discuss final expense policies.

Don’t give up or let interested prospects go to waste to start producing more sales in the final expense life insurance market.

#3-Get Creative with Contact Attempts, Text Messaging, Emails, Mailers

It’s 2019. It’s time to get creative and use channels to communicate where you can find your prospects. Individuals are not only sitting at home near a landline telephone anymore. Even in the final expense demographic, more and more individuals are texting, getting on social media and are active email users.

Digital communications with clients selling final expense life insurance much easier than you may think.

This is a tremendous wasted opportunity in this market by final expense agents. You need to get creative and realize that individuals between the ages of 45-85 are absolutely using technology to communicate and prefer to do so in most situations.

Find A Way to Communicate on Different Channels One Way or Another

Either use a CRM built to streamline this process or do it manually on your own. The point is simple and clear. Text prospects, email prospects and use another streamlined process such as a company like Send Out Cards to stay in contact with your current clients or even your follow-ups you have been working for months.

Send out Cards, emails and text accounted for roughly half the business I wrote in 2018. All these platforms may run you a total of 30.00 per month and will have you staying relevant and fresh in your prospects and current client’s minds.

I am in no way an affiliate for someone like Send out Cards so have no reason to recommend using these methods except for the pure fact that they work and will return your money to you quickly by increasing your sales.

A personal touch can go a long way in the final expense market and begin generating referral business.

#4- Be Open to Criticism and Coaching, Perfect Your Pitch

Improve. Every day. Every chance you get. That’s the name of the game. Work with an Agency that offers coaching or some form of training. Many agents think that they are seasoned pros on the phone or the next Grant Cordone. Maybe this is true, but in most circumstances, it’s not. A few small tweaks could be the game changer you have been desperately searching for.

Learn to discover and press on pain points with prospects in the final expense market. Learn and use a proven script from an Agency that implements the same script with success. Learning the fundamentals is one of the first steps you should be attempting to perfect.

A proven script, with patience and the ability to build rapport, can instantly increase your life insurance sales in the final expense market.

#5- Learn Patience and The Importance of Building Rapport

This ties directly into tip #4. This is so essential when selling final expense life insurance over the phone. Individuals in this age range looking to purchase final expense life insurance are looking for someone they trust. This isn’t as transactional as selling term life insurance.

They want to tell you stories, and they want you to care and listen. You should. Not only to make a sale but this is the ethical and professional way to conduct in this business. Learning to ride out phone calls past the 20-30-minute mark and listening first before recommending products could drastically change your closing percentage.

Not to mention the fact that if you are this kind of agent and actively care about your clients and build their trust during the call, the business is much more likely to stick not causing you those pesky reversals and lapsed policies.

#6- Begin Understanding Lead Sources and Taking Advantage of Them

A significant part about entering the world of remote final expense life insurance sales comes down to learning the processes and how the marketing works. This doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with learning how to market final expense life insurance on your own.

You need to understand how these leads are developed and how they become interested. If you know what your prospects are thinking and where a lead was initially created, it gives you a substantial advantage when you make the initial call.

Where Did Your Final Expense Lead Come from and Why?

For example, merely knowing that a lead you are calling came from a website that specializes in final expense life insurance for someone with health conditions can not only help you understand the best products to recommend but also give you a free pain point to use during the call.

This ultimately makes building rapport much faster and more natural.

Any reputable Agency will help you by providing this information to you before you decide even to purchase leads. Great agencies will also feed this information directly into your CRM, so it’s always at your fingertips making the entire process streamlined and easy to navigate.

The more you put into learning in the final expense life insurance market, the more success you will have. Period.

#7- Work Your Old Clients and Old Book of Business

Sadly, this often is ignored by final expense life insurance agents as well. Heck, even I ignored it until a mentor advised me that I’m missing opportunities. Don’t overlook the gold mine that you have already worked hard to create.

When you begin selling final expense life insurance over the phone, you will be talking to more clients at rapid paces. This means you are making more sales quickly, but it also means you will have more clients being declined coverage or falling through the cracks from time to time.

This is okay, and it does happen. What happens naturally when we get busy, is we forget about old prospects and continue calling new clients. Calling new clients is fantastic and essential to growth. However, don’t forget about the former clients along the way.

Do Your Job, Cycle Back Through Prospects and Find a New Solution

You have money sitting directly in front of you. You need to begin calling all your clients who have been declined previously. Why not call them and offer them a Guaranteed Issue product with a company such as Gerber Life Insurance or AIG?

Maybe you even have some term clients that you have had declined. Why not call them back and offer accidental death coverage? Perhaps you also have a small portion of your book of business that your originally sold no-exam life insurance coverage too.

Reach out to these individuals and offer a fully-underwritten policy so they can lower their monthly premiums. A client who trusted you once and has kept the policy for 12 months is likely to trust you again. The only thing stopping you from making more final expense sales is you and your mindset.

Pick up the phone and find your clients a new solution or save them money. It’s your job and happens to boost your income in the process.

#8- Gain More Knowledge on The Best Final Expense Carriers to Use

Understanding the best final expense life insurance carriers to contract with maybe a top 3 most important tip on this entire list. Without effectively contracting with the correct carriers, you can’t offer the best solutions to your clients.

Additionally, having great final expense carriers that are built for remote sales over the phone and that utilize electronic applications and fast approvals are the key to boosting your income and makes you look like a true expert and professional to your client. Don’t just contract freely with every carrier under the sun.

You are not likely to use every carrier, and you are wasting your Agencies time and resources when you do this. Take a few hours on a Sunday to learn about what makes some final expense life insurance carriers unique or exceptional.

Not only for your clients and being approved for coverage but how can these carriers help you produce more sales and income.

Binge watching the latest season of Lost can wait. Do some homework and be proactive to take your final expense sales to the next level.

#9- Become an Expert at One Thing, Not a Jack of All Trades

Becoming an expert at one thing or a select few things in the final expense market can really make you thrive in this industry. Maybe you are fantastic when it comes to placing clients with Mutual of Omaha or Royal Neighbors of America.

Maybe you are the King of selling final expense insurance to men between the ages of 60-70 and perhaps you dominate selling to individuals with a health history. Whatever the case may be, you need to pay attention and be alert when these trends are taking place.

For me, I always did exceptionally well with individuals between the ages of 50 and 60. I especially did well with individuals with children because I have one of my own and took the time to build a rapport. Whatever your secret sauce may be, you need to understand it, improve at it and zone in.

Jacks of all trades are never the best life insurance agents. Especially when working remotely or selling over the phone. Clients in the final expense market are already somewhat leery about purchasing over the phone so now is the time to show your true expertise and professionalism.

Don’t just be a bargain hunter for your clients. Price is not always the most important thing you can offer prospects in the final expense market. A huge misconception that nearly 95% of agents believe.

#10- Begin Building Your Own Marketing Channels and Continue to Learn

This tip comes later in the process when you are first starting out in final expense telesales. Learning is always an essential piece of the puzzle. As you continue to work quality leads, learn about the sources and where they are coming from. Take an active interest in discovering your own marketing channels.

This could mean taking the time to start your own life insurance blog or learning how to use social media more effectively to develop your own leads. Leads will always be the lifeblood of your final expense business. It will also always remain one of your most significant business expenses (or at least it should).

If you can take the time and put in the effort to learning the marketing skills required to make your own leads, you can begin to eliminate some cost in the future slowly. Take 1 hour per day and invest it towards nothing but learning. Additionally, make sure you work with an agency which provides information on these topics.

This tip and developing your marketing takes times and patience, but when you begin generating and having your own leads hit your CRM that you created, it will all be worth it.

#11- Evaluate Your Work Ethic

Sometimes our sales are suffering for no reason except of our own work ethic. Maybe working from home is beginning to get to the best of you. That’s okay. Many individuals fall victim to this. The key is finding a way to bounce make and making the necessary change to get back on track.

Often you need to try to eliminate distractions, set strict callings times and adhere to a calling schedule. Working from home can be fantastic if you can treat it like a business and work hard to continue growing your business. The freedom and time control are in your hands.

If you are struggling to get your sales to the next level with final expense, you may just need a reality check and more time spent on the phones. Plain and simple.

#12- Find Your Reason Why and Find Additional Motivation and Drive

This goes back to tip #11 and ultimately comes backs around to your work ethic. If you want to make 6 figures selling final expense life insurance, you will need a reason to do so. “Just Because” doesn’t usually create 6 figure producers in the final expense industry.

Especially when you factor in working from home and having complete control. Learn to set some milestones and goals. The idea here is to boost your sales and income. Not to make the same amount of money you were making at your previous job.

In most cases, top producers have a strong reason that’s pushing them. Perhaps they are trying to build a large agency or eventually allow their spouse to stay home as well. Whatever the case may be, dig slightly more in-depth and find a reason to produce the big bucks and you will.

This leads us directly into a conversation about the importance of goal setting.

#13- Set Production Goals by Day Instead of Weekly and Monthly

When is setting goals not important? It’s important to get in better physical shape, it’s essential for athletes, and it’s essential for final expense sales over the phone. Setting goals gives you a precise number to aim for.

For me, what always worked best was to avoid broad goals. When I switched my goals up to become hyper-specific selling final expense life insurance over the phone, I started catching some fire and getting into a groove.

Break your goals down into categories and avoid long term goals such as monthly or yearly. They are more difficult for you to track. Stick to something such as daily goals. For examples, I enjoyed ending my calling on Fridays around 3pm. This was always reserved for family time. To do this, I needed to hit a number and reward myself along the way.

Reward Yourself Along the Way

If I could either hit my 10th application for the week on Friday or 3 applications for the day on Friday, my reward was ending the day early at 3pm. However, I did get back up on Saturdays and hit the phones again for a few hours.

Here’s the kicker. I had a goal for Saturday. My personal goal on Saturday was to either get 1 new sale with a client or to fill my week up with follow up appointments. This is much more productive than you may think with Final Expense Telesales.

No, not everyone you speak to or set an appointment becomes a sale but think of it like this. If you can spend 2-3 hours on the phones on a Saturday, set 5-10 follow-ups for the week, you have basically already set the table to eat well the following week.

It’s all about diligence, belief and grinding in the final expense telesales market. Going back to the first tips we discussed, if you make the calls, you will make the sales. I know this to be 100% true. I also know that if you don’t’ make the calls, you won’t make the sales. It works both ways.

#14- Become an Underwriting Ninja with Health Conditions and Application Processes

This can be huge when selling final expense over the phone. If you can begin learning the final expense carriers and specific underwriting criteria that they will approve cases for, you can become the expert with your clients.

This not only instantly begins building more rapport and trust but begins allowing you to make fantastic recommendations to your clients that can truly serve their needs. This took me quite some time to start honing in.

What helped me learn this quickly was to spend 15-20 minutes a day reading underwriting guidelines for the primary final expense carriers that I enjoyed selling or offering to my clients the most. It may seem like information overload when you are in the moment, taking in the information.

However, you will be surprised at how much of the information sticks in your brain. This and once again, more phone calls are how you develop this skill. After you speak to enough individuals with the same health issues, it becomes muscle memory and second nature to understand the best options for your clients.

Many individuals suffer from the same medical impairments. Whether it’s COPD, previous heart issues or medications that you need to navigate effectively, options do usually exist, and some carriers are much better for your clients in these situations than others.

Take an active interest in building this skill, and your sales will naturally increase along the way.

#15- Work with an Agency Who is Willing to Help and Cares About Your Success

Working with the correct Agency or Brokerage can make or break your success in this industry. Especially if you are working for a Captive Company currently. You need an Agency who invest in your progress and your development.

This can entail a wide variety of topics. Developing and offering high-quality leads at cost, providing the best final expense carrier contracts and offering any form of coaching and mentoring is a great place to start.

When you work with the wrong agency, you begin profiting your agency when purchasing leads, work with sub-par technology and don’t have a helping hand to turn to when things get tough or when you are looking for advice or a new strategy to boost your final expense sales. Be careful and selective when choosing an agency.

It makes a big difference.

#16- Focus on Selling Life Insurance Only, The Rest is Only Outside Noise

This can circle back to working with the correct Agency. You need always to be laser-focused on making more sales. Calling new prospects and keeping your pipeline full. The more distractions and other busy work you can eliminate along the way makes a huge difference.

For example, Digital Senior Benefits utilizes a “conservation team” that will call your lapsed policies or pending lapsed policies to help keep your business on the books. With any other Agency, this would be your responsibility unless you are okay with that client creating a commission reversal.

Not to mention, the final expense market is known to lapse and have issues with policies once in force and active more than other markets such as traditional term life insurance.

This is a substantial benefit. If you can let those smaller tasks fall to the back of your mind and know they are being handled, all you need to do is make the next call in your CRM and keep shoving new clients and new sales in.

This alone can help boost your sales in the final expense market.

#17-Automate Your Processes and Become Streamlined

This is a mega game changer anytime you are selling final expense life insurance over the phone. You need a CRM that can feed you real-time leads. You also need a CRM built to integrate other forms of communications such as text messages and emails automatically sent at certain contact intervals.

I can’t even tell you how many additional sales I made because of this selling life insurance over the phone. Additionally, you want the ability to track your remaining leads, total pipeline value and potential return on investment for those said leads.

Digital Senior Benefits has perhaps the best CRM I’ve seen for this form of streamlined processes to help boost your sales. Additionally, they currently offer this for free when you are working leads, making sales with them as your Agency.

The more cost you can eliminate and the more cash flow you can keep free, the better. Trust me.

#18- Eliminate Distractions and Regain Focus

Distractions happen to all of us. Sometimes they are work-related and sometimes they are family related. Whatever the case may be, it’s important to stay motivated, stay focused and eliminate distractions.

I found a mixture of goal setting and calendar control worked best for me. While controlling your calendar is a fantastic perk of working remotely and selling final expense life insurance over the phone, it can also be the silent killer.

You have to have set days and times for specific actions. Your CRM will help you stay focused for the most part because it’s feeding you the next best step to take at all times. However, what your CRM can’t do is set aside time to learn and develop yourself.

You need that hour a day to advance your skills at items we have previously discussed. Perfecting your script, developing a knowledge of the best final expense carriers and simply always striving to get better. While these aren’t 100% necessary to make a living in final expense telesales, they are absolutely essential to make a big-time living.

Stay hungry and stay focused and don’t beat yourself up if you get thrown off track from time to time. It happens to everyone.

#19- Continue to Adapt and Roll with The Punches

This is one of the hardest things to overcome for new final expense agents selling life insurance over the phone. The market is always changing. Final expense carriers will change up an e-application process from time to time. What worked well last week may not work the best this week.

At one point when I first started, I remember feeling so overwhelmed the first 48 hours with information overload that I didn’t know what to do. I felt like giving up, that’s for sure. Well, that 48 hours passed, I realized and I realized I needed to take a breathe, relax and learn these systems. Not just for me but my family.

If you aren’t prepared for this, you can get thrown off your game. Understand that the life insurance market is quickly switching to digital platforms and changes will come at you almost every day. If you are prepared, you can embrace the change and use it to your advantage.

If you are to set in your old ways and habits, it could throw you off substantially.

#20- Scale and Manage Cash Flow Effectively Along the Way

When you first begin selling final expense life insurance over the phone, you will have some cost that may seem scary in the beginning. Likely, you are going to license in multiple states.

Additionally, you will need leads to work. Managing your cash flow is the name of the game and will allow you to scale when you are ready. Or you can be like me and scale in month 2. While I don’t regret it, I’m sure some would say I was off to the races a little too quickly and needed to relax.

What can I say, I saw the potential and I was ready to strike. I don’t have an MBA or advanced knowledge in the accounting side of running a brand new business. All I could see was potential for profit and wanted more of it.

While this is great motivating mindset, relax and evaluate the situation. Scale but scale with precision and careful planning.

As you earn, you need to be set aside this money to be ready for the next round of leads and to continue building your business. One strong month does you no good if you spend those commissions on personal expenditures.

However, a solid year followed by another solid year has now built you’re a business that will last, and you can begin innovating new ways to grow and scale. Manage cash flow carefully and effectively to really take your final expense game to the next level.

#21- Never Stop Developing, Follow Trends and Stay Ahead of The Competition

Learning and finding ways to grow will always be crucial when you work in a competitive market such as selling life insurance. This entails everything from product knowledge, marketing skills and just how to sell life insurance over the phone more effectively.

Don’t get too comfortable and don’t settle for the income you are currently producing. Always try and push to that next level. There is still room for improvement. Continue to work on your technique and calls or welcome coaching and criticism about your methods and call structure.

Keep using that 1 hour per day we have referenced several times to stay ahead of the competition and reach elite levels.

#22- Don’t Allow Others to Abuse the Freedom of Working Remotely

This can become an issue for some agents. Especially when you have a family or a highly demanding personal schedule. Often, family members struggle to take this seriously in the beginning. Especially before you are placing any real money in the bank account.

The catch is that if they don’t take it seriously and you allow them to abuse the freedom of working remotely and having full control over your calendar, you will never place money in your bank account. This truly is a career where you can reach 6 figures or should reach 6 figures without a considerable level of resistance.

It’s the simple things such as this that set you back and never allow you to reach your full potential selling life insurance over the phone. Control and command your schedule and time and this role seriously. Remain patient, and you will undoubtedly increase your income.

#23- Never Forget, this is a Business. Treat it Like a Business or Failure Will Occur

This is another big tip I want to leave you with. You have to treat your business as a business. This includes the cash flow management we have discussed and merely investing in yourself. Attend conference’s or masterminds.

Network with other individuals that are in the trenches doing the same work as you. You never know what relationships and partnerships can be formed through these events. Yes, they cost money to attend, but again, you are running a business.

Write the expenses off on your taxes at the end of the year. Failing to treat this as a business likely means you are treating selling final expense life insurance as more of a hobby compared to a career. I promise you that when you do this, the chances of hitting big incomes are slim to none.

#24- Ride Momentum and Strike While the Iron is Hot

I love this tip. When you sell life insurance over the phone, sometimes things pick up steam and get hot in a hurry. This is when this career can be a ton of fun. However, you have to be careful in these situations. Many agents fall into the trap that things are going so well, that it’s time to take a vacation or make some unnecessary purchases.

Don’t do this. Keep hitting the phone when things are catching fire. You will have months where you can sell to nearly everyone you speak to and months that are much more difficult. When it’s going well, double up and really bust your pipeline out. You never know when a slow month may be lurking.

The only thing you can do is control what you do today. Make more calls, set more appointments and make more sales. As time passes on, you may be shocked at your end of the year results and total production when you learn to keep pushing when things are hot and going well.

I had no idea how much I produced the first year selling life insurance over the phone until completing my taxes. I didn’t want to know because I was learning and getting in a groove.

I can tell you that 6 figures is 100% possible I’m telling you from experience. Sure, I had expenses like any business would but the sales are waiting for you. You just need to believe it.

#25- Find a Mentor and Attempt to Learn from The Best of The Best

We discussed how attending conference’s or masterminds can be a big boost. It can form partnerships, friendships and lead you down paths you least expected. These relationships can be significant for you in the future. Make sure to continue to build this relationship and bounce ideas off other individuals in this career field.

If you are struggling, find a mentor or learn from individuals who have been in your shoes and have found a way to be super successful. None of us know everything, and each and every one of us can teach each other something that the other individual didn’t know.

Find a mentor and be willing to ask for help when you are struggling to reach a breakthrough. People are more willing to help you in tough situations than you realize.

However, they can’t help you if you don’t ask.

Final Word, these 25 Tips Will Begin Boosting Your Final Expense Sales and Boost Your Income

At the end of the day, these 25 tips are nothing more than that. They are just tips, and my personal recommendations for what I know will help you succeed in this career. I’ve been there and done what you are attempting to do.

It’s how you decide to implement these tips or take the advice that will ultimately change your financial forecast and chances at success. If you are struggling to find the opportunity you have been looking for, be sure to email us at info@digitalseniorbenefits.com for more information.

We have a turnkey platform for final expense life insurance agents looking to sell remotely and over the phone. We would love to show you our technology and explain how this could be a game changer for your career and overall success.