10 Ideas to Cross-Sell More Insurance to Current Clients

Sometimes cross-sales fall in your lap.

“Do you guys also do life insurance?”

Beautiful thing, huh?

Most of the time though, you have to work hard to make it happen.

I’ll assume you’re already good with the ones that fall in your lap, today I want to give you a bunch of ideas for making cross-sales happen.

So I did a little “brain-dump” and came up with 29 different ways you can cross-sell more in your insurance agency.

If you get an idea or two please share this resource with a colleague and if you have ideas to add let me know in the comments below.

1) Know the Two Types

Did you know there are two distinct types of Cross Selling situations?

Prospects who already own the product - These people already bought the coverage from a competitor but you’re trying to get the business with your agency.

The key with them is repetition, collecting the x date, good follow-up and selling the benefits of your agency.

Prospects who DO NOT already own the product - These people don’t currently have the type of coverage you’re trying to sell them.

The key with them is product awareness, education, creating a need, identifying interest, and then selling.

These aren’t complete opposites, but they do require different approaches and sales tactics.

If you’re currently treating all cross-sale prospects the same, take a few moments to think about how each one requires a different approach and how you can address it best.

2) Develop an Established Cross-Selling System

It’s great if you read my articles and get a few ideas to implement here. That’s why I write the darn things.

The trouble is that most agents “think” they’re going to use a few new ideas, some of them really do, but very few make changes to the procedures and systems they use in their agency to make process improvements last.

The only way to create lasting success is to establish formal systems for processes in your agency like cross selling.

And this article is the perfect resource to help you put something like that together. Use it and do it!

You don’t have to write a manual, just make a list of what you want to do in each of the most common situations and share it with your staff.

3) Identify the Target Product(s) For Each Customer

Assuming your agency doesn’t specialize in specific lines of insurance, there are probably at least 4 different products that each of your customers could also buy from you.

And there are probably a bunch more that aren’t even relevant to each client.

Find a way to prioritize the best products to cross-sell each client and get this information front and center for your sales and customer service folks.

4) Establish a Tracking System

If your plan is to remember which products are the best cross-sale opportunities for each client, or to just always cross-sell the same one or two lines to everyone you’re not cross-selling efficiently.

Ideally, you’d be able to pull up any of your client’s accounts and see, at a glance, what products are the best cross sale opportunities for them. Having information like this top of mind when you’re looking at a client’s account will make a huge impact in how often your salespeople bring up the cross sale conversation.

In addition, it’s also great if you could pull up a list of all the clients who are prospects for each type of insurance. This is helpful for email, direct mail, or other campaigns that are oriented around awareness of your different product lines.

While we’re at it, you’re also going to need a way to keep track of X-dates for each month.

5) Handle Immediate Needs First

Be careful not to push cross-sales too hard during an initial sale.

It’s fine to plant seeds, but your prospects aren’t remotely interested in buying a second product from you until they know you can take care of the first one.

I’ve witnessed a lot of agents pushing too hard for additional lines when it’s clearly obvious the prospect only has one thing on their mind.

Respect your prospect, listen to your prospect, and put their immediate needs first.

6) Designate a Cross-Selling Leader

Pick one person in your agency and put them in charge of getting everyone to cross-sell more.

That way someone will always be paying attention to the goings-on in the agency and what could be done to boost cross-sales.

There’s also the possibility that your producers will embrace the concept more if it’s not coming from you.

This doesn’t even need to be a salesperson. In fact, the person who answers your phones might be the best one!

You can give them a little extra commission for all cross sales the agency makes and the first thing they should do is read this article!

7) Follow Up For It

I understand many agents have the philosophy of “I want to sell every policy I possibly can while I have this person’s attention”

I get it and I think it can work for some prospects and for some salespeople.

But I personally think it sends the wrong signals to push too hard for additional lines during an initial sale and I think it’s better to focus on providing an amazing purchasing experience.

It’s a judgement call and you have to do what you’re comfortable with, but remember that once they become your customer, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to follow up for that cross-sale.

8) Don’t Raise The Price Too Much Today

There’s a reason the Super Jumbo Monster popcorn only costs $.35 more than the kid’s size at the movie theater.

People’s minds get set on paying one amount and they’re just not going to dip too much further into their wallet in one purchasing event.

So if your life depends on making a cross-sale today, remember you’re far more likely to upsell them a renter’s policy than a life insurance policy.

9) Everything We Sell Sheet

InsuranceSplash readers have all heard this one before because I mention it all the time.

Create a one-page flyer that shows all the different products you sell. It doesn’t have to be “salesy” it can just be a checklist.

Take every new client through it and use it to guide your policy review conversations.

A nice added bonus is that you’ll get more referrals when all your customers know everything you sell!

Bonus Tip: Create a page on your insurance agency’s website that serves as the online version of your “everything we sell” sheet. This way you have something to email customers and share on social media.

10) Get X-Dates

X-Dates, (or expiration dates) are insurance slang for the date when a client’s policy with another carrier or agency is set to expire.

The idea is, “if I can’t quote your home policy today let me know when it renews and I’ll reach out to you beforehand”.

I see many agents that are so head-over-heels-in-love with quotes, they miss out on cross-sale opportunities being over-aggressive for the quote when they should just be asking for an x-date.

To me, asking someone who’s not interested to let you quote them is the equivalent of saying, “please let me try to sell you something that you’re not interested in because it’s important to me.”

Asking for an X-Date is like saying, “I understand you probably only care about your home insurance once a year, and I’m willing to respect your feelings and wait.”