Look for Gold in Your Backyard

You may already have the new clients you want.

By Tommy Doolittle, CLU, ChFC

In my three-dozen years of working in marketing with top producers, I’ve been able to see advisors put into action many good ideas that help them sell more. One area involves prospecting for business within their existing client base. Here are ways advisors can find gold right in their own files.

First, contact your insureds and get an appointment to update their beneficiary designations. It’s a really good service and a chance to get in front of them and look for other needs they might have that insurance and other financial products can address.

Second, most companies have an accelerated death-benefit rider that could be added to a policy at no cost. This is another good reason to contact insureds—discussing how to add this rider to their existing policies. While you’re there, find out what’s going on in their lives and see how you can help.

Third, check your files for clients who have purchased insurance on their children and maintained it over the years. If the child is an adult, talk with the client about letting the child take over the policy. The child can demonstrate responsibility by taking over the policy, which frees up money that might be put to another use. The parents can readdress some of their own needs or, if they are grandparents now, can choose to purchase insurance on their grandchildren the same way they did on their children.

This is almost a natural lead-in into those adult children’s own homes. Meet with them and talk about whatever insurance needs they might have. If you’re a multiline agent, providing property and casualty coverage as well is a natural. Then follow up when they experience life changes—marry, have children, and so on. The trail is almost endless.

Tommy Doolittle, CLU, ChFC is an advisor with Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Co. in Jackson, Miss. and a member of NAIFA-Jackson.