Selling disability insurance should be easy. After all, a person’s paycheck is often their greatest asset, so it makes sense to protect it with disability insurance. Nevertheless, many disability insurance sales are lost to price objections, procrastination and common misconceptions. By fine-tuning your disability insurance sales process, you can overcome these challenges and make more sales.
Show the Value of Disability Insurance
If you ask someone to identify their most valuable asset, they might say it’s their house – but they’re probably overlooking something. According to The Motley Fool, the average home price in the U.S. is $420,400 as of 2024. That’s a good chunk of change, but it’s nothing compared to a person’s earning potential. If you work for 40 years and earn an average of $75,000 a year, you can expect to make $3,000,000. When you look at it this way, it’s clear that a person’s paycheck is their most valuable asset.
People spend a lot of money to protect their homes. Nerdwallet says the average cost of homeowners insurance is $1,915 for $300,000 worth of dwelling coverage in 2025. You’d think people would also be willing to pay for paycheck protection, but price objections to disability insurance are common.
You can overcome price objections by using proven disability insurance sales strategies. For example, the high-low method is a simple presentation technique that can overcome price objections. The unit selling method is another to showcase the cost of disability insurance in another way to overcome price objections.
Leverage Both Statics and Storytelling
The Social Security Administration says that one in four 20-year-olds will become disabled before reaching retirement age. With statistics like that, it’s easy to make a compelling case for disability insurance.
However, even people who pride themselves on being analytical often use emotions to make decisions. It’s hard for people to relate to large numbers, no matter how scary those numbers are. That’s why news stories about widespread natural disasters often include a personal story about one individual victim. Most people have an easier time relating to that single individual.
You can use a similar tactic in your disability insurance sales process. In addition to providing eye-opening statistics that make the case for paycheck protection, also provide compelling personal stories that highlight the individual impact.
Also ask your clients to think about the people in their lives – most people know someone who has experienced a heart attack, cancer diagnosis, stroke, or injury and had their life upended as a result.
Ask Thought-Provoking Questions
Speaking of questions, it’s easy to tell your prospects why they should buy disability insurance, but it can be more effective to ask questions that prompt them to realize the need for coverage on their own. People often don’t like to be told what to think or do – especially when they know someone’s trying to sell them something – and they may not trust the claims that other people make. If you can help them draw their own conclusions about the need for paycheck protection, you can open the door to sales.
The right questions can help you overcome common objections, including when people object to the cost of coverage or think they don’t need individual disability insurance because they already have group disability insurance.
Customize Coverage for Your Prospects
One of the key advantages of individual disability insurance over group disability insurance is that it can be customized to fit the policyholder’s needs. However, if you don’t take the time to learn about each prospect’s needs and then offer customized quotes, you’re not taking full advantage of this advantage, and you could be losing sales as a result.
Two crucial questions can help you zero in on the perfect coverage:
- What is your prospective client’s budget? You may think that it’s worth the costs to add more robust coverage terms, but your clients may disagree. It’s important to understand and respect your client’s budget. For example, own-occupation disability insurance provides a great level of protection, but not everyone needs it, and it can raise the cost. If you’re offering own-occupation disability insurance to everyone, you could be sabotaging your sales.
- What are your prospective client’s biggest concerns? Once you understand your client’s biggest worries, you can customize coverage with terms that address those worries. For example, if your client is worried about inflation, you can offer a COLA rider. If your client is worried about saving for retirement, you can offer a retirement protection rider.
Your Disability Insurance Sales Process Checklist
A strong disability insurance sales pitch involves a lot of moving parts. The following disability insurance sales process checklist can help you make sure you’re not forgetting anything.
Here’s what you need:
- An Attention-Grabbing Sales Script. You want to get every sales pitch off to a strong start, and a proven disability insurance sales script can help you do so. The DIS sales script also comes with a pre-approach sales letter and additional tools to help you make a good impression and close the deal.
- Eye-Opening Client Handouts. You can never have too many disability insurance client handouts. You can send them to clients before meetings, provide them during meetings, or send them as a way to follow-up. Some can focus on shocking statistics, while others can use compelling storytelling to make the case. There are also handouts for specific audiences, like women or doctors. DIS offers many handouts that you can download.
- A Thorough Needs Analysis. The more information you have about a client’s coverage needs and budget, the easier it will be to provide irresistible quotes. The DI Needs Analysis Form can help you gather the information you need.
- Multiple Tailor-Made Quotes. Once you know what your client wants and needs from disability insurance, you can secure some quotes. Note the use of the plural – quotes. It’s smart to provide multiple options, including a budget option, a robust option and a middle-of-the-road option. Use the DIS quote engine to make the quote process easy.
- Follow-Up to Seal the Deal. When you provide the quotes to your client, schedule some time to follow up. Disability insurance terms can be confusing, and your clients may not understand the differences between options. A confused mind doesn’t buy! Clear up any confusion so you can close the deal. The Anatomy of a DI Policy infographic can be useful when comparing disability insurance quotes.
- A Waiver of Liability. If your client still hesitates to buy disability insurance, you have one more option – have your client sign a waiver of liability form. First and foremost, this form protects you against future liability. Let’s say you’re a financial advisor, and you’ve recommended disability insurance to a client, but the client declines coverage. A year later, the client experiences a financially devastating disability and hits you with an errors and omission lawsuit for failing to provide protection. A signed waiver of liability form creates a paper trail to show that you did your job. As an added bonus, some clients might rethink their decision if they have to sign a form, so you could rescue some sales.
Although it might take some work to fine-tune your disability insurance sales process, once you have it down, disability insurance sales can be highly rewarding. You’ll be helping clients protect their incomes while earning excellent commissions. Learn more about why you should sell disability insurance.