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Qualifying your prospects allows you to devote the majority of your sales efforts to your best potential clients—the ones who have a demonstrated need for the type of insurance you sell, buying authority and the budget behind it, and who are ready to buy.

Asking the right questions at the beginning of the sales process can help you determine what the prospect’s buying pattern is, their existing concerns about insurance, their satisfaction with their current provider, and whether they’re worth selling to. Here are a few questions that can help you narrow down your field.

Why are you looking for new insurance options now? It’s quite possible something triggered their interest in buying new insurance. Maybe the prospect’s company had a dispute with their existing agent over a claim—or their business is changing and they now need more specialized risk management solutions. Knowing how urgent their need is—and why they need to make this switch—can help you judge whether the timing is right or they’re just kicking tires.

Are there reasons you couldn’t start working with a new agent? Maybe you can deliver significant cost savings or better coverage than the agent your prospect is currently working with. But if that agent is your prospect’s brother-in-law, they probably won’t switch anyway. Some people periodically talk to other agents in order to check the pricing on their insurance and be sure they’re getting a good rate; you don’t want to spend time on these prospects.

Who else has a say in the decision-making process? Sometimes the person you’re meeting with doesn’t make the final purchasing decision. They might be the gatekeeper—but there’s a higher-up or even a committee involved in making the purchase. Ask the prospect to walk you through the decision-making process.

Have you presented other insurance options to the decision-maker before? What was their response? This will tell you how aggressively the prospect’s company is searching for new insurance options, the deal-breaker concerns that the company’s decision-makers have, and the likelihood that your offering will be successful.

To be worthwhile, a sales opportunity needs to fulfill four requirements—budget, authority, need, and timing. These questions will help you determine whether it’s the right time, whether your prospect has decision-making power, how urgent the need is, and whether money is a primary concern. Hopefully, you’ll be able to identify your most likely prospects—and spend less time on those that aren't likely to convert.