HOW A CSR CAN ASK CLIENTS ABOUT LIFE INSURANCE
A group of Los Angeles gang members recently were taken rafting on the Colorado river. Street-smart toughs suddenly became timid boys fearful of the water, the howling of coyotes, even the chirp of crickets. Their hardened exteriors cracked to reveal overwhelming anxiety in the face of the new. A similar fear of the unknown (although perhaps not as overwhelming) confronts CSRs who are asked to generate Life leads for producers.
Many CSRs, confident when it comes to Property and Casualty insurance, suddenly freeze with fear when confronted by Life products.
It's no cause for shame. Anxiety about the unknown is natural; after all, when CSRs are in the Twilight Zone of uncertainty, they have by definition left their 'comfort zones' behind.
CSRs must combat this paralysis. It not only strangles the income of their agencies, but threatens their growth as insurance professionals. Here are four steps to take to overcome the fear of Life:
1. Get to the root of your fear. What exactly is holding you back? Only after recognizing the source of anxiety can a CSR deal with it rationally. Often the sheer act of identifying a fear diminishes it: The child stops fearing the monster in the closet once a light is turned on. The best way to nurture a fear is to keep it in the dark.
For example, some CSRs are afraid of appearing stupid. This fear is understandable, generally speaking - but how true is it in an insurance agency? If you're new to the business, rest assured that the people you work with know the difference between ignorance (which is temporary) and stupidity (which is incurable). If you're a seasoned CSR, think back to when you were still a greenhorn about P/C lines. Were you made to feel horribly stupid then? Most likely, people understood that you were still in training, and you emerged from that period with a minimum of embarrassment. And even if you had to endure a lot of shame, you survived it, didn't you?
Armed with these thoughts, face your new situation with a plan. Make sure that the appropriate people understand that you are in training and that you will be asking a lot of questions. Forewarned, they will cut you some slack. Far from believing you to be stupid, their respect for you will probably increase, the way your respect increases for someone who has decided to go back to college.
Suppose the root of your anxiety is a fear of rejection. Explore that issue. Who is likely to be rejecting you? Your job is to supply Life leads to producers - so if anyone is rejected, it will be them, not you.
If you fear that producers will reject your leads, think again. If some of the leads don't pan out, the producers will probably ask for more, not less, of them. As a CSR, you are the producers' life support. They will no sooner scorn you than an emphysema patient will tear a respirator from his nose.
2. Put the change you want to make into perspective. In the movie Hoosiers, a small-town basketball team makes it to the championship finals. As the team of kids enters the arena where they are to play their final game, they balk at the scale of it all: The hugeness of the auditorium, the rows and rows of bleachers. Very sensibly, their coach puts the game in perspective for them. He gets a couple of the kids to measure the basketball court, the height of the baskets from the ground, and so forth - and proves to his team that the distances and heights are exactly the same as on the courts they are used to playing. The kids realize that though the trappings are different, the game is the same.
So it is with the P/C CSR who starts generating Life leads. The process of getting leads is the same as ever, and only some of the information is new. The game is the same; the CSR is simply learning a few new moves.
3. Recognize that a certain amount of fear is good. In fact, people who enter a new arena with total confidence are probably too blithe for their own good. The actor who doesn't have stage fright also lacks the adrenaline it takes to give a great performance.
4. Fight fear with fear. Sometimes it takes strong medicine to kill a severe ill. If the three steps just mentioned aren't enough to quell the fear of adding Life to your job description, summon up a bigger fear. Ask yourself, 'What will happen if I don't expand my client services?'
The insurance industry is in upheaval. Agencies are struggling to survive. Automation is becoming more and more complex. Producers are scratching harder for a living. Some people are even predicting that insurance will someday become a subsidiary of larger financial institutions, such as banks and stock brokerages. Your survival depends on adaptability. If you think your fear of Life is insurmountable, compare it with your fear of unemployment.
Conclusion
There's nothing wrong with fear; we all feel it at various points in our lives. It becomes a vice only when it impedes growth. Recognizing and overcoming our fears, however, is a positive accomplishment - and such victories start the momentum that propels us toward even greater achievement.