How to Sell Car Insurance

Getting Licensed

Check your state’s requirements. While most states don’t impose rigorous qualifications to obtain a license to sell insurance, there are always prerequisites of some type. Since licensing is done on a state by state basis and not a national basis, each state gets to decide which licensing requirements apply within its borders. Nonetheless, there are some typical requirements you should prepare to meet if you want to begin a career selling insurance. You should: Be over the age of 18. Have a high school diploma or GED. Have completed a pre-licensing course recognized by your state.

Consider brokerage versus agency. Insurance salespeople fall into two categories, brokers and agents. While a broker can sell insurance from any insurer, an agent works for one insurer and only sells their products. In most states, brokers and agents will take different classes and sit for different exams. Brokers typically hire other salespeople to work for their brokerage and start their own businesses. In some states, brokers will need to have a certain amount of experience before they can sit for the broker’s exam, although this isn’t a universal rule. In all cases, an entrepreneurial spirit is key to finding success as a broker. Agents (specifically “captive agents”) work for one insurer exclusively. There are never experience requirements for becoming an insurance agent, and financial barriers to entry are low, so agency is often the point of entry for those looking to get into insurance sales.

Take a pre-licensing course. Once you’ve decided if you’d like to sell it through a brokerage of your own or as a captive agent, you’ll need to take an appropriate pre-licensing course in order to get licensed. The type of subject matter (or line) or insurance your course should cover is Property and Casualty, which includes auto insurance. Although the specific number of instructional hours each state mandates varies, it’s usually somewhere between thirty and sixty. Make sure your state accepts a particular course by checking with the state insurance commissioner. Most state insurance commissioners’ websites will list acceptable courses and schools, but if yours doesn’t, just contact them to make sure before you register with one. The cost for a course is going to vary considerably based on format and setting, but you should expect to spend at least $100 on a course. The content and administrator of the actual exam you take will be dependent upon the state you’re applying to sell insurance in. Your pre-licensing course will prepare you for the test you’ll take.

Getting Started

Put your resume in order. Before you begin your job search in earnest, you’ll need to make sure your resume is suited to getting a job selling insurance. While many jobs in insurance sales won’t require prior experience, you should still try to highlight your work experience relevant to the job you’re looking to get. In order to succeed in insurance sales, you’ll need to both be personable and persuasive, while also possessing a great deal of initiative. Make sure to showcase experience that displays an entrepreneurial inclination, including jobs that required you to operate without close supervision and jobs requiring you to develop a quick rapport with customers.

Find a job. As with any job, you’re going to need to scan classified ads, cold-call local agencies, and network with those connected to the industry. Focus on making an overall good impression on your prospective employers above all else, because they can and frequently do hire persons with little experience. Make sure to research the reputation of the insurer you apply with, as being associated with an insurer with a bad reputation can harm your own.

Keep a side gig. Insurance sales can be a fulfilling and financially rewarding career—eventually. Since insurance sales are commission-based, it requires access to customers. Access to customers requires a lot of networking, and that takes time. Since networks can’t be built overnight, most insurance salespeople don’t make much at all in the first few years. About 70% of insurance salespeople make less than $30,000 in their first two years, and 30% make less than $15,000. By the fifth year, 80% of new agents have quit the business. Nonetheless, after a few years in the business, incomes begin to rise dramatically. Since insurance salespeople have a great deal of control over their schedules, you should keep a side job while you get your start in the insurance business.

Be persistent. Persistence is the most important quality in an insurance salesperson. There are a lot of long hours (especially in the beginning), but they pay off in the form of residuals (ongoing commission payments) from your long term clients.

Honing Your Sales Skills

Dress sharp, but not slick. Insurance is a serious business. Insurers deal with accidents, thefts, and financial loss, and people want their insurance agents to be serious people. In order to convey seriousness, you need to dress professionally. First impressions count, and if you look professional, you'll get treated professionally. What you don't want to do is come across as slick or dishonest, and if you overdo it with flashy accessories (tie pins, bright colors, jewelry) that's exactly how you'll come across. People are suspicious of salespeople even in the best of cases, so don't do anything to heighten that perception.

Mirror your clients. While you don't want to adopt any fake accents or blatantly copy a client's mannerisms, do be aware of your clients' body language, vocabulary, and volume. People who talk quietly are usually ill at ease around loud, boisterous, types. People who speak in simple, direct sentences may be put off by long-winded, flowery speech; customers who have a large bubble of personal space will be uncomfortable with a close talker. The idea is simple: notice these habits and act accordingly. While you don't have to mimic your customers, don't act at odds with them either.

Lean on your co-workers' experience. As a new agent, you may encounter customers who doubt you because of your lack of experience. You can assuage those fears by referring back to your colleagues' experience. Your supervisors are responsible for your mistakes, so they want to avoid them. Say something like "I may have only been doing this for a year, but the other folks in the office have decades of experience. They look over everything I do to make sure there are no errors. When you work with me, you're not only working with me, you're working with all of us."

Sell value and not price. When a person buys anything, they buy it because they think the value of the product outweighs the cost of the product. Many customers will start off a conversation with a salesperson by talking about the price of what they're buying, but that's because they have more information about price than quality. You need to show them why price--even if your price is lowest--is secondary to the value you provide.

Listen to your customers. It's easy to fall into a habit of giving a canned pitch to a potential customer. Don't let yourself be that salesperson. While each customer needs insurance, they each need insurance for different reasons, and you need to be sensitive to that. Tailor your approach to their needs, and not what other people's needs have been. The way to get yourself in the habit of listening is by asking them questions, and then only answering questions they ask you.