The top 10 insurance brokers in Australia are all vastly different when it comes to their personal backgrounds, but they all share some common traits.
In order to succeed in this business, some abilities are more valuable than others.
While some people are naturally born with the necessary traits, you can cultivate them yourself with a bit of effort and determination.
Read on to learn which traits and skills are key for succeeding as an insurance broker.
Personality Traits
Passion
In order to succeed in just about any business, you need to have passion for what you are doing.
Particularly when it comes to being an insurance broker, you need to believe in what you are selling.
If you don’t have confidence in your product, it will show to your customers. How can you expect them to believe that they need your products if you do not believe it yourself?
To grow your passion, take some time each day to remind yourself why you got into the insurance business in the first place. Think about the people and businesses your services have helped over the years.
Don’t forget the importance of taking breaks too.
Sometimes all you need is a good holiday to renew your focus on your career and to remind yourself why you are doing it.
Compassion
You’ll also need to have compassion for your clients in order to succeed in this industry.
For your clients to get the most out of your services, you need to put their needs first.
While you may believe that a particular product is the best, it may not necessarily be the best for a particular client.
You’ll need to look at things from their perspective in order to make the best possible recommendations.
Remember that a big part of insurance is preparing for worst-case scenarios, so you’ll need to be prepared to be there for your clients when they are at their lowest moments.
In some cases, this can mean putting up with some yelling or offering a comforting ear to clients who need to cry.
Your compassion can go a long way towards gaining future business. Your clients will remember that you were there for them and recommend your services to their friends and colleagues.
Compassion is something that you should practice in both your personal and your professional life.
Try to be empathetic and really feel what others are feeling. Don’t brush it off when a friend or client seems upset.
The more you try to look at things from others’ perspectives, the more it will become second nature for you.
Persistence
As an insurance broker, you will have to deal with a lot of rejection over the course of your career.
It is important to have a thick skin and not take these rejections personally or let them discourage you too much.
Remember, when a potential new client turns down your offer, it most likely has nothing to do with you as a person (unless you were particularly rude).
More often than not, the client simply has not made a decision yet about acquiring new insurance and is still exploring various options.
Be persistent and keep working hard to attract new clients. You can do this through traditional advertising, or you can follow the current trend towards inbound marketing.
This way, new clients will come to you for information, rather than you having to seek them out all the time.
At times, you may have to really push yourself to keep going in the face of discouragement.
However, the more you practice, the easier it will be.
Keep reminding yourself of your goals and your passion for your career to help you find the motivation to push forward.
Honesty
Honesty is one of the most important traits for insurance brokers to have.
Your clients are trusting you with their business, and it will quickly come out if you are utilizing dishonest tactics to get clients to sign with you.
With the exploding growth of social media, your past clients have a platform to air their grievances and expose your dishonesty to others who may be interested in your services in the future.
Thinking that prospective clients do not seek out reviews of your business is akin to hiding your head under a rock.
Online reviews and social media are not going away any time soon, so you need to be sure that you and your business are acting in a way that will not make you the target of negative reviews.
Your online reputation is just as important as your personal reputation.
Not only can dishonesty harm your chances with future clients, it can also sometimes be illegal and can open you up to lawsuits from disgruntled former clients. This could bankrupt you and your business, or even land you in prison.
Honesty is not something that you should need to practice. In dealing with your clients, give them straightforward facts and do not withhold information. This is a good tactic not just for your insurance brokerage, but for your personal life as well.
Flexibility
Insurance crises can arise at any time of the day or night, and your clients will need your assistance during those times, so it is important to be flexible with your working hours.
While it may seem tempting to pull the covers over your head and go back to sleep, it is better to take the call and help your clients as best you can.
Even though it may be inconvenient for you, your clients will appreciate your efforts in going above and beyond for them. This added value to your service is key in keeping your clients over the long term and to getting recommendations for new clients.
Do your best to respond to phone calls or emails as quickly as possible, even if it is the weekend. The better you serve your clients in their time of need, the better chance you have of retaining that client in the future.
This is not to say that you need to be available 24/7, but do the best you can to be as readily available as possible.
It can also help to have an assistant or other colleagues who can take messages and offer advice to clients when you are unavailable.
Abilities and Skills
Time Management
As an insurance broker, you have a wide variety of different tasks to handle throughout the day, ranging from discussing insurance options with prospective clients, handling issues for current clients, administrative tasks around the office and marketing your business, to name a few.
It is crucial that you are able to manage your time well in order to accomplish everything you need to get done each day.
It can help to schedule times for each activity each day but don’t forget to schedule time for breaks as well.
Your brain needs time to refresh, particularly on busy days.
If you find that you are getting overwhelmed with too many things to do, think about which tasks need to be handled by you personally and which ones can be delegated to someone else.
There is no need to do everything yourself.
It will only result in you being exhausted and burnt out.
To improve your time management skills, start by keeping track of the amount of time you spend on each task throughout the day. Then, look at your schedule and find areas where your time could be spent more efficiently.
Create a new schedule for yourself and do your best to stick to it or adjust it as needed so that it works best for you.
Decision Making
You’ll have to make loads of decisions each day, some of them major and some of them trivial.
For small decisions, like what to eat for lunch, do your best to just make a decision quickly so that you can move on with your day.
For larger decisions, however, it is important to take the time to gather the information you need to guide your choice.
Do some research and discuss your options with others, but don’t let yourself get so bogged down in the details that you end up putting off making the decision for longer than you need to.
Once you have made a decision, try not to second guess yourself.
You gathered the information you needed and made an educated decision.
Constantly agonising over that choice is only going to distract you from your other duties.
Depth of Knowledge
Particularly in the insurance business, it is important to have knowledge of your industry.
To be one of the top 10 insurance brokers in Australia, it is not enough to simply learn the state of the industry once. Laws and regulations change, as do the offerings of various insurance providers. You’ll have to make a concerted effort to stay at the forefront of your industry.
Your customers are counting on you to provide them with sound advice about their insurance options and to guide them in making the best choices for themselves or their businesses.
Your lack of knowledge is not an excuse when something goes wrong with a client’s policy or that policy does not cover something that you thought it did.
You have a responsibility to your clients to make a concerted effort to maintain and expand your knowledge constantly.
Subscribe to trade magazines or industry blogs, and attend conferences to stay on top of changes in the industry.
Keep an eye on what your competitors are doing as well so that you can stay ahead of the curve.
Communication
Since you are the go-between for your clients and the insurance companies you represent, you need to have good communication skills.
You’ll need to be able to break down complex topics for your clients to understand and clearly convey to the insurance companies any issues your client is experiencing.
Verbal communication is important, but you need to have skills in written communication as well.
It doesn’t look very professional if your email correspondence lacks a good command of English spelling and grammar.
Written communication skills come in handy in marketing your business as well. Blogs are one of the most powerful tools your business has at its disposal to attract new clients.
You should maintain a blog and post to it regularly to get the greatest benefits.
Organisation
With so many tasks to juggle each day, organisation is an invaluable skill.
Develop a filing system for important documents and client records, and make sure to use it. The best system in the world won’t do you any good if you don’t utilize it well.
If you are feeling overwhelmed in trying to get your office organised, choose one small area to work on each day rather than looking at the entire office as a whole.
Once you get started, you’ll likely find that it is much easier to keep going.
The same goes for your digital files. Keeping files on your computer organised is the key to finding the document you need quickly when you need it.
When naming your documents, including all relevant information, like the date, client’s name, insurance company’s name, or topic.
Don’t simply name files things like “letter,” “report,” or “email draft.”
You need to be specific so that you know exactly what a file is without needing to open it.
Once you get everything organised in the first place, you’ll find it much quicker and easier to maintain.
Getting your organizational system set up in the first place is the hard part.
Goal Setting
Being an insurance broker can be stressful at times, particularly after a long string of client rejections.
Setting clear goals for your future can help you stay on track and keep your motivation levels up even on the hardest days.
Your goals can be professional or personal, but they need to be measurable. Otherwise, you will not be able to tell when you have achieved your goal.
For example, “make more money” is not measurable, while “gain three new clients to increase revenue” is.
Set goals for the short-, medium- and long-term. The short-term goals will keep you motivated as you accomplish them, and the long-term goals will provide overall guidance for your business. The mid-range goals can help you stay on track towards the long-term goals.
Conclusion
Now that you know what it takes to become one of the top 10 insurance brokers in Australia, it’s time to start growing your business.
That means bringing in new clients.