4 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Heading to a Client Meeting

Meeting up with potential clients and convincing them to buy insurance is at the top of every insurance agent's priority list. After all, if you attract new customers, your business will surely grow in no time, hence the importance of your first client meeting.

However, many insurance agents underestimate the importance of the first client meeting. Preparing well for that meeting is a crucial step in the sales process, as first impressions can either make or break the deal. If your client is satisfied and engaging, you know you've done an excellent job.

To help you prepare for that meeting and impress the client, here are four essential questions you must ask yourself before heading to a client meeting.

Question #1: What are the most important concepts or ideas I would like to leave my client with? How can I get them across in as little time as possible?

This is a fundamental question before heading to a client meeting. A good and qualified agent should be knowledgeable about the company's different insurance policies and be ready to answer any potential questions the client might have. There are general questions that you should be prepared to answer, such as:

• What insurance plan do you think best fits my business?

• What am I not covered if I sign up for this insurance plan?

• How does my insurance plan renew?

• How much does each type of insurance plan cost?

Failing to answer any of these queries might immediately raise a red flag in the client's mind.

Additionally, you want to show up to your client meeting with a clear meeting agenda. Know which information to start with first, and make sure that you are presenting it in a clear and accessible way. You don't want your clients to feel uncomfortable with the excessive insurance jargon. Interestingly, your clients can immediately tell whether or not you are well-prepared for the meeting, and first impressions make or break the deal. The client may not feel comfortable enough to trust your services if you don't come across as a confident, well-spoken, and knowledgeable insurance broker. 

Finally, it would be best to remember that you'll discuss lots of information with the client during the meeting, and the client might have difficulty remembering it in the future. You might want to summarize everything discussed during the session and check with your client if there are any details that you might have missed. Before you leave for the client meeting, ask yourself, "How can I summarize everything in one minute or less?" Thinking of a way to answer that question during the meeting makes the client feel at ease and helps them trust you faster.

Question #2: How can I engage my client in the conversation? Can I rely on any visual aid, such as a flip chart or a PowerPoint presentation? What previous client experiences can I use to gain the customer?

Working as an insurance agent requires a lot of people and public speaking skills since you spend most of your time attracting new customers and meeting up with old ones. One of your main goals is to persuade the client to sign up for one of your insurance policies and gain a new customer. Granted, this is not an easy job, and communicating verbally with your clients on its own may not be enough to win them over. 

So, to complement your impressive persuasion skills, you can use a striking visual aid such as a flip chart or a PowerPoint presentation during your client meeting. Spend some time preparing a presentation in which you focus on the following aspects:

• Background information about your company, especially since this is a new customer you are trying to gain

• The different insurance plans that you offer, accompanied by their respective characteristics and detailed overview

• Facts and statistics that might affect the client's perspective and convince them to sign up for any of your plans

You might also choose to share other customers' experiences with your services. You can highlight these customers' problems and how your insurance plans helped fix them. This increases your credibility and allows you to connect with the client on a personal level.

Clients will remember the images and statistics you showed them during the meeting. They might forget some of the information you mentioned, but the crucial bits highlighted in your presentation will stick with them even after the meeting and, most probably, sway them in your favor. 

Question #3: Do I clearly understand my client's needs? Do I have a definite answer to all of them?

As an insurance agent, you deal with lots of people daily. As a result, you are bound to meet people with different personalities and, even more importantly, different needs. Understanding these needs and knowing which insurance plan best answers them are essential points for you to consider before your client meeting. After all, finding a solution to these problems is why the client is contacting you in the first place, and you don't want to disappoint them by promising them services that you don't offer.

To start building a trusting relationship between you and your potential clients, you might ask them to provide you with information about themselves and their businesses before the meeting. By doing that, you're not only showing them that you're actively preparing for the meeting, hence displaying professionalism, but you're also letting them know that you care about their needs and want to do your best to answer them. This helps the clients trust you more and, eventually, invest in one of your policies.

Question #4: What questions do I need to ask my client during the meeting?

Now that you have your meeting agenda, visual aid, and necessary background information ready, you need to prepare the questions that you are going to ask your client during the meeting. You don't want to come up to the discussion and come up with questions on the spot, and you can easily come up with them thanks to the information you previously requested from the customer. Such questions may include the following:

• What are some of the problems that you are currently facing?

• What budget do you have for the insurance policy?

• What type of business do you run, and how many employees do you have?

• Are you interested in investing in income protection plans?

The purpose of these questions is for you to know which insurance policy best fits the client. You can take some time to show the client all the available plans that check the criteria mentioned above. You don't want to offer them an insurance plan that does not fit them or their business. If you do so, the client will not be willing to work with you nor renew the insurance policy when it ends, which takes its toll on your business. The situation might worsen if this act is repeated since your reputation will be significantly affected, and very few people will choose to invest in your services in the future.

The takeaway

Meeting up with a potential client is always an exciting experience in the journey of an insurance agent. Yet, wanting to make an excellent first impression on the clients should not wait for the client meeting. Instead, it would be best to ask yourself a series of questions before you head to that meeting to ensure everything's in place.

Knowing what the client might need, understanding their concerns, and having the correct answers to their problems are great ways to impress them. Finally, don't forget to have a series of questions ready to gather all the necessary information from your client.

Attracting a potential customer begins even before you meet up with them. Make sure you show them how much of a professional and reliable insurance agent you are, and win that client meeting!