DBL Center’s new Group Marketing Sales Coordinator Louis Ortiz shares his success secrets

As The DBL Center, your insurance wholesaler, continues to expand, industry veteran Louis Ortiz joins our team as the Group Marketing Sales Coordinator. Ortiz began his insurance career with CIGNA. He moved on to Reliance Standard and, most recently, worked with Principal Financial Group as a senior sales representative where he was responsible for the implementation of the following Group Products: Life, LTD, STD, Dental, Vision and Voluntary Worksite programs.

A natural communicator who thrives on building relationships, Ortiz has always been called to the marketing side of business. “In insurance, there are always some marketing efforts that take place in line with sales, so there’s always been overlap in my experience,” he said.

In his new role, Ortiz will assist in maintaining The DBL Center’s small group, under 50 life book of DBL with top insurance carriers Standard Security Life, Shelterpoint and Arch, while cross selling ancillary employee benefits via their brokerage distribution base.

Ortiz will work closely with DBL Center sales representatives Lisa Indelli, DBL Licensing, Commission/Processing Inquiries and Bill Quinn, Senior Relationship Consultant for Group Benefits at DBL Center.

“I’m a big fan of collaboration, so I wanted an atmosphere where I could be part of a team,” Ortiz said of his new insurance marketing and sales role.

As one of his first collaborations with The DBL Center team, Ortiz shared his four best insurance marketing tips that many insurance brokers may not have considered.

Keep It Simple

The technical aspects can get convoluted when insurance brokers are speaking to an audience of CFOs, CEOs, HR professionals and, in some cases, employees, Ortiz pointed out. “Keeping it simple is critical,” he said. “Talk about real-life examples where insurance has been a solution to a program. If you think about it realistically, insurance brokers – at the heart – are here to assist people with solving problems related to their financial future.”

Get Personal

His next point is an extension of the first tip and some solid insight on how to approach conversations related to benefits. “It’s very important that an insurance broker has an open dialogue with clients. If you’ve been in the business 30 years, you must have plenty of stories you can share about situations where your insurance coverage was useful to you.”

Noting that insurance is “unrelatable” to most people, Ortiz says that telling real-life stories and personal examples drives home the point that insurance can save lives, reduce stress, and help protect families, financially, if a worker is recovering from an injury, surgery, or serious illness.

Don’t Just Sell Insurance – Solve Problems

CFOs and other executives are often concerned about the bottom line. To close sales, it’s important to show the c-suite, company benefits coordinators, or HR team how you can help by taking work off their plates. “A broker should act almost as an extension of their company,” Ortiz said. “You have to be clear about what you’re doing for your client, how you’ll help employees understand their benefits, and how you’ll offer money- and time-saving solutions.”

Know Your Audience

“In instances where sales are lost, it’s often because brokers are emphasizing the wrong things for that client,” Ortiz said. That means every client will have different needs, pain points, and problems to solve. Understanding this can help you not only put together the right benefits package for a business, but understand what aspects to emphasize during sales meetings.

“Of course a CEO or CFO wants to understand the details and the financials. But at the heart of the matter, we’re all people,” Ortiz said. “The aspect of reaching someone’s heart is more important than reaching into their pocket. If you can find a way to get there, you are setting yourself up for success.”