3 Ways to Avoid Insurance Salesmen Who Will Sell You the Wrong Product

Having worked in the insurance sales industry I quickly observed that many insurance salesmen focus on the art of selling much more than actually selecting the proper product for a client’s situation. Even though it may seem like customization and flexibility help you as the insurance consumer, they actually make the insurance contract more difficult for both you and your insurance agent to understand. Moreover, insurance salesman know that the more insurance they sell you with the more attached options the more commissions they will collect. If you want to get insurance that actually makes sense for your situation, follow these three steps:

Insist on working with an experienced insurance salesman when buying insurance

Typically the very best and most successful insurance salesmen are pure salesmen at heart. Most of them probably believe in what they sell, but all of them have the ability to make you believe you need what they are selling. The only way to get an insurance salesman who is truly versed in all of the options available is to find someone with 10 years or more experience.

Salespeople tend to focus on the people aspect of their product instead of the actual product intricacies. From what I have seen the most important tell for how much an insurance salesman actually knows about the different products they are selling is the amount of time they have been selling them. That means that if you are approached by a fledgling insurance salesman you had better make sure that a veteran salesman comes with him/her at your initial planning meeting and subsequent meetings.

Finding an experienced insurance agent is not as easy as you would think if you don’t have a high net worth and are not looking to buy a lot of insurance. More established insurance salesmen are looking to weed out small accounts from their book and add larger, better paying clients. If you are a smaller client they will try to pawn you off on a less experienced agent so he/she can experiment on you (in other words, you are simply not as important to the experienced agent as someone who has a lot of money). It may not work every time, but if you insist on working with the experienced salesman chances are you will eventually find one willing to work with you.

Ask your insurance agent pointed questions about the contract to gain perspective on their understanding of the insurance they are trying to sell you

Asking pointed questions is a great way to test whether your insurance agent knows what he/she is talking about. Watch out for insurance salesmen trying to answer the question without actually knowing the answer or for them trying to brush it off. The best answer they can give if they don’t know is to tell you that they don’t know and that they will find out for you; however, if they give this answer too many times you should probably avoid working with them because they don’t have the experience you are looking for.

Do your own research on the insurance company and the insurance products that are right for you

The problem with dealing with experienced insurance salesmen is that they are probably much better at up-selling than their less experienced colleagues. That means that your own knowledge of the insurance you are trying to buy needs to be good enough to avoid things that you don’t actually need. To get an idea of how much insurance you should buy and/or what types of insurance you need check out How Much Life Insurance Do I Need and What Types of Insurance do I Need to Buy.

Even if you’re personal friends with someone selling insurance, you need to make sure that they know their stuff before buying it from them. Insurance is complex and it typically takes many years to become familiar with all of the plan options and intricacies. That’s why you need to make sure you are working with an insurance salesman that has the ability to pick the right insurance products for your situation.

Features: