How are you doing with your New Year resolutions? Just about this time every year, our resolve to adopt better habits begins to dissolve. It is much easier to fall back into our old habits, usually because we forget WHY we wanted to make a change in the first place. Whether you made resolutions this year or not, below are three reasons to resolve to write more long-term care and disability insurance in 2015.
1. Insurance income isn’t what it used to be. If you sell personal lines, you know that some carriers reduced agent compensation during the hard market. If you sell commercial lines, you know that rates are flattening fast. And, if you sell health insurance, it’s been a rocky reform road and your income may have already been impacted.
The bottom line: With ever-changing market conditions, it’s smart to proactively cross-sell and augment your income with new products, such as disability and long-term care insurance. While selling long-term care and disability insurance takes a little more time, and a greater degree of relationship building, than some P&C products, the compensation more than covers the added time investment. But more importantly, you will have deepened the relationship with the client, significantly increasing loyalty and the opportunity to assist with other risk management issues in the future.
2. Competitors are coming out of the woodwork. Your competitors, other agencies, retailers like Costco, aggregators and direct carriers are all targeting your clients. Even Google wants to get into the auto insurance market. More and more, agencies differentiate through specialization. Roughly 35 percent of small agencies and 80 percent of large agencies incorporate specialization in their practices
Specialization in the long-term care and disability insurance markets sets you apart from most agents. Today, fewer employers include disability insurance in employee benefit packages. And with a record-setting number of Americans holding down two or more jobs to make ends meet, protecting that paycheck is a necessity, not a luxury.
3. You know DIS will make it easy. Entering a new market can have its challenges such as learning new products and how to quote them; acquiring new carriers; and developing market expertise. Fortunately, DIS helps you easily overcome those challenges. Our dedicated representatives will walk you through the terms you need to know to become acquainted with disability income insurance products. We’ll do the quoting for you. And you won’t have to market yourself to carriers. We have access to all the top DI carriers; we’ll provide you quotes from the carriers with the best match for the client you are quoting. Our compensation plan is generous too.
You’ve got at least three reasons to add DI to your 2015 sales plan. Don’t procrastinate any longer. Call DIS today or download our DI Boot Camp report to get started. Are you a larger agency looking for an outsourcing partner? Download our “Why Outsource” guide.
By the way, who says resolutions have to happen January 1? It’s never too to set or revise your insurance production goals. Next week we’ll look at other practices that lead to increased disability insurance sales.