Business Development Strategies for Niche Markets
Selling to Life Insurance Businesses
It takes a unique combination of innovation and hard work to close sales with life insurance businesses. Product quality, price and customer service are all important considerations – so businesses that sell to life insurance businesses need to review their delivery model.
Technology and technique are important. But in a B2B sales environment, they may be less important than other critical resources.
What could be more rewarding than selling life insurance?
If selling to life insurance businesses is your core business, the likelihood of conversion improves dramatically when you incorporate a few proven resources and techniques into the selling process.
Message First, Targets Second
Messaging is a critical weapon in your company's battle to capture market share. Confused messaging dilutes the sales cycle and makes it difficult for prospective customers to discern the value of your products.
Whenever possible, the identification of key messaging should be incorporated into a comprehensive planning process that combines sales and marketing into a coherent strategy.
The next step is to reduce your contact list to the contacts who are most likely to respond to your messaging. Although there is more than one way to capture lead contacts, lead lists can be a useful resource for generating a list of prospects that are receptive to your messaging. Vendors like Experian specialize in providing targeted lists of life insurance businesses that can be tailored to meet geographic and demographic criteria.
How to Evaluate Sales Staff
Regular sales force reviews are necessary for companies that sell in this industry. Businesses that achieve significant market share hire top-end producers and routinely evaluate them against performance goals and benchmarks.
Although annual reviews may be enough for other business units, sales units should be evaluated quarterly with monthly or weekly reviews of sales totals. Training, coaching and sales incentives can be useful for increasing sales volumes and individual achievement. In some instances, it may be appropriate to team underperforming sales reps with reps that have more experience selling to life insurance businesses.
Aggressive Recruiting
Profitable returns begin with aggressive recruiting tactics. Your company can't afford to field sub-par sales reps.
Companies that sell to life insurance businesses should be looking for energetic sales professionals with a self-directed work background. At the same time, you need to make sure your sales hires are team players. Individuals who lack the ability to sell in a team environment will ultimately hamper your sales efforts, no matter how good they look on paper.
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