Top Tips Selling Travel Insurance
Travel Insurance is a vital part of any overseas trip. It is important that when anyone is travelling abroad that they have a valid and comprehensive travel insurance policy in place. In recent years, international travellers have also seen inflation in overseas medical costs of up to 13%; a rise in airport and airline strikes and who can forget the eruption of that unpronounceable Icelandic volcano, whose ash cloud caused havoc in European airspace! As your clients’ travel professional, there is no reason why they should not be buying their travel insurance from you. If your client is not buying it from you then they are buying it elsewhere and that represents lost income to your company. The following tips, if implemented by you, will help you maximise your insurance revenue and have already been proven to work.
1 Confidence Be confident in the insurance product that you are selling. Make sure you have up to date sales training from your insurance supplier and that all staff are confident in selling the product. Feedback given to us has shown that the main reason for a drop off in sales is down to the sales agents’ attitude in selling travel insurance and ‘lack of confidence or knowledge’ in how to sell it. Agents who have received training and improved their knowledge and attitude on insurance product have seen a rise in insurance sales and more income for their respective businesses.
2 The Travel Insurance product Familiarise yourself with the travel Insurance product that you sell. Make sure your sales staff have continuous training from your insurance provider so that they are familiar with the key terms and different cover levels of your preferred insurance policy. Top Tip: Knowledge leads to confidence and confidence leads to sales.
3 Health check procedure Be sure to familiarise yourself with the Health Check procedure on the travel insurance policy your company is selling. Each client must be advised of the Health Check procedure at the time of sale and most commonly this will involve a medical screening facility or in some cases, a fit to fly option where a letter needs to be signed by a GP.
4 Additional covers Offer all clients the option of adding additional covers at the time of booking. Most insurance policies will have additional covers like Travel Disruption, Cruise Connection and Excess Waiver to make the basic policy more comprehensive.
Top tips suggested by Jason Whelan CIP, Blue Insurance
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These additional covers not only provide more protection to your client but also generate additional revenue for your company. Top Tip: Be sure to make families aware that any excess deducted will usually be for each person named on the policy. If a family of 5 are making a cancellation claim for example, they could lose out on 5 times the excess.
5 Personal details Always enter client’s full details on the insurance certificate and not the details of the company. Full details will normally include: • • • • •
Name Age Address Email Home or mobile number.
Top Tip: Entering the clients email address will usually mean the client will receive confirmation of cover straight away, along with the policy document and validation certificate. This is a record that all documents went to the client and will be of benefit to your company.
6 Handling objections You may have clients advise you that they have their own travel insurance and it is important to confirm with them what cover they have. As their travel professional, you should be aware that the likes of EHIC (previously the E111) and Private Health Insurance plans are not sufficient Travel Insurance policies and will not be as comprehensive as a dedicated travel insurance policy. You want your client to be fully protected so be sure they are.