As an industry, we sure don’t make it easy for consumers to understand disability insurance and why they need it. Industry studies tell us many people have little understanding of disability insurance, and even less understanding about the common conditions that lead to an interrupted paycheck. Last year, Met Life conducted a study to uncover better ways to hold a successful disability insurance conversation. Here are some insights from Met Life’s Words that Work Playbook.
Talk about income protection rather than disability insurance.
Making a small shift in the words you choose makes a big difference with consumers. Introduce disability insurance as income protection. The name, “disability insurance,” infers that one is protecting against a possible disability. Instead, focus on income. Income is the asset that is most at risk and the end-benefit that disability insurance provides.
Position disability insurance relative to life insurance.
Consumers believe that disability insurance should be a part of or a follow up to the life insurance conversation. After all, disability insurance is really the other side of the same coin. Life insurance provides a benefit when the insured is not here to provide income others depend on; the disability insurance benefit sustains the income while the insured is unable to. Aligning life insurance with disability insurance leads the client through the same what-if thinking about covering living expenses.
Ditch the scare tactics.
Clients respond more favorably to messages about maintaining their financial stability than they do to one of financial disaster without the product you recommend. In fact, recognizing their foresight to purchase a life insurance policy affirms the wisdom of other financial decisions the client made and highlights your role as financial professional guiding them through the steps to financial security.
Now that your client is interested in an income protection policy, it’s time to call DIS. We’ll help you every step of the way, from providing disability insurance quotes from top carriers, through underwriting, and policy placement.
Want to know other effective presentation techniques? Download our most popular DI sales script, The Wealth Preservation Plan.