Whether you’re new to the insurance industry or a decades-long veteran, one thing is certain: The learning never stops.
While every agent is taught about their carrier’s products, computer systems, how to quote, etc., few are taught about the most important aspects of the business: sales, business development, and strategy planning for long-term growth. These subjects, while crucial to success, are typically left for agents to figure out themselves.
Luckily, there are resources available to help. We spoke with Vlad Cherchenko, founder of Insurance Sales Lab, to get his take on the best books on selling (insurance or anything else!) and business development to read for 2021. Each of these books—including some of the best selling sales books of all time—has something to teach that’s highly relevant to insurance agents, and will help you build a more successful business.
10 Best Books For Insurance Agents on Selling & Business Development
This book explains how to break that cycle. You’ll learn how to think from a systems standpoint, which will help you build a franchise-prototype business that can be duplicated an unlimited number of times and operated as if you are running every single one. The bonus: You don’t actually have to be there to do it!
This book is valuable for agents who want to move from the day-to-day grind and toward financial freedom. It gives pointers on how to “work less, earn more, pay less in taxes, and learn to become financially free.”
This must-read provides a framework for how to build a business where you’re guaranteed to hit your goals. It walks readers through the importance of having the right infrastructure for setting goals, how to break goals into bite-size pieces to facilitate hitting them, and why accountability for goals is important. For new and veteran agents looking to grow their businesses, this book offers theory and strategy on how to set goals and follow through.
Hiring the best people is one of the most difficult aspects of being an insurance agency owner, which is why I can’t recommend this book enough. It teaches agents how to hire the best players and pair them with a solid business infrastructure. Two practical reasons I recommend this book:
One final note: Don’t be scared off by reading about some of the high-level people the book mentions; its lessons are incredibly valuable for businesses of all sizes.
In this book, agents will learn three practical secrets about how to lead others and why these techniques work so well. It’s useful for agents who want to reinforce good behaviors, as well as learn how to guide lower-performing team members in a positive way.
The insurance business is all about retention. If you provide a good experience for your customers, you’ll have decent retention; but if you want an extremely high retention rate, you need to go above and beyond. This book provides real-life examples of what your customer service team can do to ensure your agency provides exceptional experience every single time. It’s an eye-opening look at how paying attention to the details of a customer’s experience can transform your agency’s growth.
This is a fun and easy read about how to sell anything and achieve long-term success, written by someone you may be familiar with. (Hint: think real estate and reality TV.)
For insurance agents, this must-read underscores the importance of psychology: how people think and make decisions. When it comes to insurance, what your scripts say is important, but that’s not nearly as important as being able to read people and influence them with just a few choice words.
This motivational book centers on perseverance.. The author helps readers shift their perspective, from thinking of sales as a job to thinking of it as a lifestyle. Not only will this attitude change help you learn how to sell more insurance, but it will also help you in other areas—everything from recruiting potential job candidates to hitting growth goals to persuading team members and clients.
Bonus Resource: Insurance Sales Lab by Vlad Cherchenko
It’s not a book, but this free webinar gives you important sales scripts to use (literally the word-for-word language to use with a prospect) so you can close a sale on the first call. Top agents across the U.S. use this exact script and process to close more business. You’ll learn:
- The hook (exactly what to say in the first 20 seconds of a phone call so the prospect agrees to a quote)
- How to building value vs. selling on price
- Multi-lining policies
- Compelling cost presentation
- How to ask for the sale (and close on the first call)
- The sale wrap-up that persuades your new and existing clients to give more referrals more often
Simply put, these resources will give you the biggest impact with the least amount of time commitment. And if you’re an audiobook listener, it’s even easier to fill up the empty time in your day with something that will edify you and help you become the agency leader you want to be, all by reallocating time you were already spending somehow. These books can give you business development, sales, and customer service approaches to implement in your organization immediately, all for a small investment of time and money, and instead of you having to “live and learn” some of these things on your own.
What books would you add to this list?