Why You Should Pre-Qualify Your Life Insurance Clients (+ Strategies)

insurance agent pre qualifies older couple for insurance76771000 The process of selling life insurance can be long, especially as you help your clients navigate the details of specific policies you offer and identify the right plan for their unique needs.

As an insurance agent, you want to go above and beyond to delight your client base while hitting your sales goals and driving revenue for your business. Client satisfaction and retention is especially important to independent insurance agencies that are expanding their offerings.

Life insurance pre-qualification can be incredibly helpful when it comes to helping your clients see the value of their life insurance options, which can include term life insurance and whole life insurance.

Let’s dive into why pre-qualification is a must for your life insurance clients and cover some tips on how to help your clients get the most value out of their policy.

What Is Life Insurance Underwriting?

When you’re helping clients find the best policy for life insurance, this is the obvious first step. The process of insurance underwriting assesses the level of risk associated with your agency covering your client, which informs your client’s eligibility and their premium.

In terms of life insurance policies, there are several factors to consider, including your client’s age, health, lifestyle, financial stability, family medical history, and occupation. In the context of underwriting life insurance policies, you’re essentially calculating when you think your client will pass away.

While this can seem morbid, it is an important step in helping your clients get pre-qualified.

What Does It Mean to Pre-Qualify for Life Insurance?

Simply put, pre-qualification for life insurance means that your client can get some policy recommendations without formally submitting an application with you. When your clients request pre-qualification, as their agency, you’re able to shop around to find the best life insurance policies for them.

The process gives you a head start on finding the right coverage for your client with minimal input from the client. While your life insurance pre-qualification process might include gathering medical records and getting approval to share a client’s medical data with insurance carriers, it expedites the process of getting your client covered.

Why You Should Pre-Quality Your Life Insurance Clients

There are many advantages for independent insurance agents to pre-qualify life insurance clients. The most notable benefits include the following:

Help Your Clients Get a Preview of Their Quotes

Clients want to know the financial commitment upfront. If you’re able to provide this estimate without having them submit applications, you can start the relationship on the right foot with a detailed list of the best insurance options.

The process of pre-qualification is essential for rapport building. Use it as an opportunity to demonstrate that you have your client’s best interest in mind. You can learn more about their unique needs and provide personalized recommendations based on what you find as you shop around for the best options.

Demonstrate Your Expertise and Credibility

When you’re able to walk clients through the pre-qualification process, you’re deepening the relationship you have with them. You’re equipped with the information you need to impress your client with some options that are great fits.

Clients appreciate when their broker listens to their goals and their needs and then presents good policy options that fit their budget. This is why communication is an essential soft skill for agents — you can use pre-qualification as an opportunity to walk them through a few life insurance policies and describe specifics about each program.

For example, if a client is younger and wants to get a good policy that locks them into an affordable premium and if they want to focus on growing their money, provide them with some whole life insurance options. They often appreciate being educated on the benefits of specifics related to term life insurance and whole life insurance options.

How You Can Help Pre-Qualify Your Life Insurance Clients

As life insurance sales continue to grow, competition is heating up. The faster you work toward pre-qualifying clients for life insurance policies, the faster your client can take action and purchase the best option for themselves.

Unfortunately, pre-qualification can take time, but there are several strategies you can implement to ensure you are talking to good-fit prospects, which can increase close rates and other key metrics.

Define What Makes a Pre-Qualified Lead

Start by clarifying exactly what a pre-qualified life insurance lead looks like. Without a clear definition, it’s difficult to fully understand who to target when reaching out to potential life insurance clients.

With a clear definition in place, you will know what types of policies fit specific kinds of leads in their pipeline. This gives you a better understanding of who to prioritize during outreach.

List Qualifying Questions to Ask Upfront

Communication is key for you to close new deals. Lead with confidence and transparency. A list of qualifying questions is an essential part of having sales conversations with your prospects and being upfront.

These qualifying questions should be focused on levels of coverage they want, information about their current policies, and budget specifications. Ultimately, you should know if a person is a good fit for the life insurance policies you carry if your list of questions is direct.

If a prospect doesn't have the budget for your offerings, you can focus on other contacts. But if they’re shopping for a specific policy that includes riders you offer, you can tailor their engagement to emphasize specific features that resonate with the prospect.

Hone Your Marketing Messaging

Paid advertising. Event marketing. Email marketing, Content marketing.

There are so many different channels you can use to effectively engage your ideal life insurance clients, but you won’t get far without impactful messaging in place. You need to know how to position each life insurance product when connecting through a variety of channels.

Your messaging should set the standard for the clients you want. For example, when positioning your whole life insurance plans, you can adopt an angle related to growing financial assets. This will generate interest from good-fit clients who are shopping for policies that offer cash value accounts that can grow.

ELCO Mutual proudly supports agents with marketing resources that help them sell quality life insurance policies. We provide a dedicated support staff, consistent product training, and continuing education opportunities to ensure agents are equipped with the knowledge and resources they need to drive revenue for their agency.

Contact the ELCO team to learn more about our life insurance products and see how we help agents delight their clients.