Are you looking for ways to do more business and strengthen your relationships with clients? Selling ancillary products is a great way to accomplish both of these goals. They can enhance your clients’ benefits and help you retain valued customers.
There are plenty of businesses that still aren’t offering their employees insurance coverage outside of their standard health insurance. Some are trying to cut costs, but some just don’t know enough about them. As an agent, you can educate your clients and help them find what is best for their business and their employees.
Keep reading for just a few reasons why we think all insurance agents should take advantage of this easily accessible market and sell ancillary insurance products.
What are ancillary products
Ancillary products are coverage options offered in addition to the main insurance you’ve sold to a client. Often, health coverage is the primary plan you’ve helped the client obtain. Dental and life insurance are examples of common ancillary products sold in addition to health insurance.
Ancillary insurance products are the same as supplemental insurance products and are used to supplement existing benefits. Ancillary insurance is a common product agents use when cross-selling Medicare or Group Benefits.
It’s relatively easy to make the additional sale because you’ve already completed a previous sale with your client. You’ve built a relationship with these clients, now you need to pinpoint their problems, or the gaps in their coverage, and present ancillary products as the solution.
Why sell ancillary products
Other than being a fairly simple add on, there are plenty of reasons you should be selling ancillary products. In short, ancillary products benefit your clients and they benefit you. Here’s how:
They’re better for your clients
Strong relationships: Building strong relationships is great for both you and your client. It’s particularly good for your clients because when you have a connection with them, there’s a sense of mutual trust. They can rely on you to have their best interest in mind, which means they’ll keep coming back to you.
Employee retention: Ancillary insurance is also great for your client’s employee retention. Many people these days are looking for more than just health insurance and a good-paying job from an employer. They not only want the 401(k) and the PTO, they also want insurance coverage that’s going to supplement what they’re not getting from health insurance. The better the benefits the happier employees will be and the longer they are likely to stay at that company. Happier employees can often mean more productive employees, as well.
Lower medical premiums: The great thing about bundling in any industry is the chance to save money. Many insurance providers give incentives to groups who add ancillary coverage to their medical plans. This may include a lower cost for premiums.
They’re better for your business
Commissions: We can’t discuss the benefits of selling ancillary products for agents without discussing the actual business of it. Just like with selling anything else, the more business you do, the more money you can make. It’s as simple as that.
Client retention: Similar to employee retention for companies, selling ancillary products to employers makes those clients more likely to stay with you. The less they have to shop around for additional coverage, the less likely they are to switch to another agent in the future. Being a one-stop-shop for employers is good for them and great for you.
Expanded client base: By providing basic healthcare coverage alone, your lead pool is going to be limited to companies that just need that basic insurance. However, adding ancillary products to your repertoire also opens you up to employers who are looking for those products on top of health insurance.
Develop stickiness: This is very similar to client retention and expanding your client base, but we thought it worth mentioning because every aspect of your business is related to stickiness. Briefly, this can mean how well you resonate with clients and how much your clients “stick” with you. Everything from your marketing messages to your networking strategies should be done with stickiness in mind. You can also do this with ancillary products. By offering ancillary insurance you are adding more value to you and your business and therefore, as previously mentioned, are more likely to retain clients and have a wider pool of potential clients.
The advantages of offering ancillary products far outweigh any disadvantages. Your clients will benefit from additional insurance products, and your relationship will strengthen all the more, which in turn, will help your business.
AgentLink is here to help you provide the best service to your clients. If you want more information on selling ancillary products, we’ve created a guide to selling ancillary products to employers.
Of course, there are a wide variety of clients who can benefit from ancillary products. Ready to sell more ancillary products? Our team can help. Let’s talk!
