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Success Story: Giovanna Lovelace

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Fran Majidi November 4, 2020
Giovanna Lovelace

Giovnna Lovelace is having some success as an agent, but she hasn't been selling insurance for very long, only a couple of years. Prior to becoming an agent, she sold advertising to auto dealers for 20 years. She decided she wanted to do something different, something that didn’t require so much travel. When her husband told her about friends that opened a Farmer’s agency in Florida she looked into it. The rest happened very quickly. She got her insurance license and got connected with her district.

“I learned sales from the best,” says Lovelace. “Dealers are master negotiators and master sales people. A lot of the work I was doing before helped me get ahead in the insurance game.” What Lovelace did is she took all her work experience and turned it into an opportunity to educate customers. Because for most people, insurance is all about price until something happens. To circumvent selling on price, Lovelace takes her time to really explain how insurance works, using real life examples of when it works and when it can go wrong.

Lovelace has also begun using live transfer calls from SmartFinancial to grow her business. Her district leaders weren’t very keen on leads at first so it took a while before she gave it a try for herself about nine months ago.

“I am not as interested in data leads as I am in the calls because they don’t give me the opportunity to bond with the customer right away. I buy the home calls, and I don’t think I’ve had one where I only get the home. I usually sell the full package auto, home and earthquake. Most of the leads I’ve sold have been complete insurance packages.”

Lovelace loves the live transfers because they allow her to begin building a relationship with the customer right away. In fact, she just closed a deal from one of SmartFinancial’s calls. She’d been working on this customer for weeks. He was unsure about switching and didn’t understand his coverages. After his discounts were applied, his savings were a wash so he wasn’t going to buy. After many conversations, he finally decided to switch -- but only after Lovelace had a chance to teach him a thing or two about his coverage.

“I pointed out that his earthquake insurance didn’t cover everything. It was my thoroughness that made him switch. I also sold him on service, which is so important if a customer ever needs to need to file a claim. He ended up switching and paying even more on earthquake insurance.”

5 Golden Tips from Giovanna Lovelace

1. First impressions are everything, especially with the live transfer calls. I sell myself and the concepts behind insurance with real life scenarios.

2. Shift the conversation from price to individual coverages and what happens when a claim is filed. I even compare snapshots of reviews from my carriers and the prospect’s current insurer. I talk about the ‘what ifs’ in case something were to happen.

3. Be consistent and follow up. Listen to the customer’s needs. How can you set yourself apart from the other agents contacting them? It sometimes just takes being observant and offering what the customer needs and wants.

4. What is important to the customer? Hone in on their experience. What don’t they like about their current insurance company? How was the claims process, if there was one? Do they have children? Would they be able to live elsewhere with their coverage if their home became uninhabitable? I do a lot of value selling. Sometimes it takes a couple of weeks. I’m usually the only agent left standing when I make the sale. I’m the only one who’s looked at other quotes for them. The other agents simply aren’t following up.

5. I create excel sheets with pros and cons and scenarios of what they’d pay elsewhere, what they’d pay with us, what they are paying for and what they are getting. Often customers have no grievances with their current company because they haven’t had to file a claim yet. Because an insurance carrier holds no value until something happens, I send them the 2 star and 3 star reviews for claims with they’re current carrier.