This month marks the start of the holidays. ‘Tis the season for stress and overspending (as well as joy and charity and all the rest, I suppose). When the holidays begin, preneed insurance agents and final expense insurance agents find their sales numbers going down. Avoid the downhill trend by using the holidays to your advantage—and start now, it’ll be the New Year before you know it!
Marketing
The reflective final expense and/or preneed insurance agent knows that he has to consider his target market and what their lives are like during this busy season to understand why his numbers drop so drastically around Turkey Day. A different season calls for a different marketing strategy, and we have some suggestions for you.
Keep up with your social media posts, but change your tone and theme. Try something new, find some topical connection in which people will be interested. The thing about the holidays and social media is that everyone wants to talk about the holidays on social media. Stick with the theme—how can you connect Christmas and caskets? What is the common thread between Thanksgiving and talking about funeral plans?
Give the opportunity to give. People are looking for an opportunity to serve each other and spread the holiday spirit in these winter months. Host a canned food drive at your location, donate a Christmas tree to a homeless shelter or orphanage, sponsor a winter celebration at your local elementary school. The holidays create great community spirit and camaraderie: use these feelings to your advantage!
Time Constraints
One of the reasons sales drop in December is because everyone (including you) gets so over-scheduled. Prepare for this inevitability by carefully planning out your time in the next few months. Do extra work up front to avoid being busy during the holidays. If you try and schedule meetings, interviews, chats, what have you during the thick of the season, you won’t have much luck with people’s availability. Be strategic with your plan of attack during this time of year and do the meet ups and face to face stuff earlier. Spend time on the paperwork, marketing, networking, etc. in December when everyone is crazy busy.
Procrastination
The reality is, many people are less inclined to take risks or make big decisions during the dark days of winter. Your marketing plan has to counteract these tendencies without pushing people too far. As many final expense insurance agents and preneed insurance agents have noticed, lots of people put off big decisions until the New Year. This does not help your monthly quota in November or December. As we know, putting off decisions to commit to long term insurance (or whatever you’re selling) ultimately means they will never commit. Strike when the iron is hot! This means active and determined follow-through, creative offers and signing bonuses, and new or collaborative ideas.
Don’t lose focus and determination as a result of all the distractions of the holiday season. Create an incentive for yourself in order to keep your sales numbers high in the next couple of months. Rewards are motivating any time of the year!
