Final Expense Insurance falls under the category of whole life insurance.

The difference is that these policies generally have a small death benefit and sell at lower costs making it more affordable compared to normal life insurance. The small death benefit is designed to cover expenses after the insured has passed (i.e. funeral or memorial service, embalming and casket, etc.). The beneficiaries of these plans are not restricted to using this benefit solely on these expenses, they are free to use it on anything they choose; from paying other debts to even investing in a house or car.

There are 3 key components for selling Final Expense Life Insurance.

Building rapport means building trust. In a short 30-90 minute window, whether it be over the phone or face-to-face, you have to figure out what your client needs and get them to trust that you have their best interests in mind.  Some practices of small talk and mirroring will do wonders here. Small talk is a valuable skill that should be practiced as it increases sales.  You’re showing your client that you care about them…that they’re not just your 5th call that morning or your 3rd client of the week. Mirroring is a technique that shows the client what they’re doing – it also can help a client feel heard. For instance, take a new widow who needs to make sure her family is protected since her husband of 35 years passed away last week. Are you going to be bubbly and excited? Are you going to be somber? How will address this situation? Follow your client’s lead.

Another major element of trust and building rapport is knowing why your client filled out that lead card / took your call / is on the line right now! What do they need? Why/how can you help them? Do they even need life insurance? Do they need someone to help guide them that they can trust while they’re overwhelmed by a traumatic event?  You make a sale based on solving your clients needs. If your client wants to make sure that their family is taken care of, in listening you will find out if you should sell them an $85/month Guaranteed Issue plan or a $115/month Standard plan. You’re there to help them.

After listening to your client’s needs, you must now start the underwriting process.  Important information that must be included are age, sex, height, weight, any medication they are prescribed and any medical conditions they have.  Underwriting can be done through automated and non-automated means, but, regardless of the means, it’s imperative to underwrite, and accurate underwriting is the key to selling. If you have the solution to someone’s problem, wouldn’t you tell them about it? Underwriting is determining what the solution to your client’s problem is!  Your goal is to sell, but what are you going to sell? All the sales techniques at your disposal can only do so much without the right product to sell.

During these quick consultations, underwriting can take up the majority of your time with your client. This is especially true if you have a lot of carriers that requires you to be mindful of their medical conditions and medication restrictions. Traditionally, you would have to carry around several versions of cheat sheets, documents, quick reference guides, and more to play a scavenger hunt to ensure your client even qualifies for certain plans. This process could take twenty minutes or more for complicated cases.

Imagine that your client has 10 medications, would you write guaranteed issue for them instead of checking each one individually? How would you feel if your mother, sister, brother, or father were trying to get insurance and they could qualify for day one coverage, but instead get put into a guaranteed issue waiting list because the agent didn’t want to take the time to look up the generics for 10 medications? Forget about selling any other products to that person or other potential clients that they could’ve referred to you. The rapport and trust will be gone when the find out. Now, there are proper times to write someone into GI instead of day-one coverage, but if this is done due to time limits,  rushing to close the sale can be something that will destroy the relationship.

You cannot automate building rapport or listening, but you can automate underwriting.

You have a lot to worry about when meeting with clients.  You only have a small window to get to know them while being empathetic and sensitive to their needs and current situation.  With a focus on Best Plan Pro, there are tools that will tell you all the health-profile based plans that your client qualifies for and will organize them based on their actual health profile and monthly cost (there are more features as well such as quoting based on budget, face amount, determining replacement options, generic checking, and more…look at the features page for more info).

If you’re not ready for automation, here’s what you need to do to optimize time in the house:

1. Use a quick-reference checklist (what are the important meds you need to ask about).  Here’s a free one: finalexpensechecklist.com
2. Organize your documents.
3. Optimize your workflow by having a quick-reference sheet with links to eApps, build knockouts, state restrictions (don’t forget to make sure that, if your client qualifies for graded, that graded is available in their state for their age/sex!), and maybe carrier niches that you’ve discovered.

There’s plenty on your plate when selling. Why do you need to add underwriting? Focus on the close, the budget, and the sale…not what products will even take your client.

Learn more about Best Plan Pro including why producers who use it as their automated health-based prequalifying tool place 15% more business on average when using Best Plan Pro than without.