Prompt Engineering For Insurance Sales Scripts: How To Turn “Let Me Think About It” Into “Let’s Do It”

A few weeks ago at a coffee shop in Mount Pleasant, an agent leaned across the table and said, “Look, I tried using AI for my insurance scripts… and it spit out this cheesy, corporate thing I’d never actually say to a real person.”

I laughed because I’ve seen that same look in Charleston, Columbia, even over Zoom with a team up in Raleigh. You open ChatGPT or whatever tool you’re using… type “write an insurance sales script”… and it gives you something that sounds like a robot in a suit.

But here’s the twist: the problem usually isn’t the AI. It’s the prompt.

That’s where prompt engineering for insurance sales scripts comes in. And no, you don’t need to be a tech person to get this working for you.

Let’s Get Honest For A Second

Selling insurance is already hard. You’re dealing with:

People who “just want a quote” but never call back
Folks who had a bad experience with another agent
Leads that go cold because life got busy
Prospects who don’t understand what they’re buying (but won’t say that out loud)

Now mix in AI scripts that sound nothing like you. That’s a recipe for awkward calls and ghosted follow-ups.

So here’s the truth: AI can absolutely help you close more policies, but only if you learn how to talk to it the way you wish your leads talked to you.

Let’s Make This Simple: What Is Prompt Engineering?

Forget the fancy term for a second.

Prompt engineering is just:

Learning how to ask your AI tool for exactly what you want, in a clear, specific way.

That’s it.

If you say:

“Write an insurance sales script.”

you’ll get generic fluff.

But if you say:

“You are a friendly, no-pressure insurance agent in Greenville, SC who focuses on young families buying their first home. Write a short, casual phone script for a first call. The tone should be warm, simple, and clear. Avoid big jargon. Include 2 good questions to uncover their main concern.”

Now the AI has something to work with. Tone. Audience. Location. Goal. Style.

Same tool. Completely different output.

Here’s Why This Matters For Insurance Sales

When you get good at prompt engineering for insurance sales scripts, you can:

Create custom scripts for different products: auto, home, life, commercial, benefits
Match your personality (so you don’t sound like some national ad)
Tweak scripts for Charleston vs Charlotte vs Wilmington, etc.
Build quick variations: phone, text, email, voicemail, social DMs
Train your team faster with ready-to-go templates

The wild part is, this can turn one good script into ten targeted ones in like 10–15 minutes.

Let’s Break This Down: A Simple Prompt Formula

I don’t know everything, but I’ve seen a simple pattern that works really well with agents.

Use this basic formula when you write a prompt:

Role + Audience + Situation + Tone + Structure + Constraints

1. Role

Tell the AI who it is pretending to be.

Examples:

“You are a senior life insurance agent with 15 years of experience.”
“You are a patient, educational commercial insurance rep.”
“You are a friendly local agent in Charleston, SC who hates pushy sales tactics.”

2. Audience

Who are you talking to?

“Talking to a 32-year-old married father of two, first-time homebuyer.”
“Talking to a small HVAC business owner with 5–10 employees.”
“Talking to a retired couple on a fixed income.”

3. Situation

What’s going on in the conversation?

“First discovery call after they requested a quote online.”
“Follow-up call after sending a life quote 3 days ago.”
“Handling the ‘I need to think about it’ objection on a home and auto bundle.”

4. Tone

How should it sound?

“Warm, casual, and human.”
“Direct but kind.”
“Simple, 6th-grade reading level, no jargon.”

5. Structure

What format do you want?

“Give me a 10-line phone script.”
“Write a short text message sequence: 3 messages max.”
“Create a 5-part email follow-up sequence.”

6. Constraints

What should it avoid or limit?

“Avoid sounding salesy or desperate.”
“No more than 60 words.”
“Use my first name, ‘Jason,’ in the greeting.”

Here’s The Fun Part: Example Prompts You Can Steal

Example 1: First Call For Home & Auto

Try this in your AI tool:

You are a helpful, low-pressure insurance agent in North Charleston, SC. You’re calling a lead who requested a quote for home and auto on your website yesterday. They’re in their early 30s, married, with one child.

Write a short phone script for the first 60 seconds of the call.

Goals:
– Make them feel comfortable
– Confirm a few details
– Get permission to ask a few questions

Tone: friendly, straightforward, and human.
Reading level: 6th grade.
Avoid jargon. No more than 12 lines.

Example 2: “I Need To Think About It” Objection

You are a patient, educational life insurance agent talking to a 45-year-old prospect in Greenville, SC. You’ve already explained a term life policy and shared the price. They say, “I just need to think about it.”

Write a short response I can say on the phone that:
– Respects their need to think
– Gently uncovers what they’re worried about
– Keeps the door open for a decision

Tone: calm, empathetic, and respectful.
5–7 sentences. Avoid any pressure or scare tactics.

Example 3: Follow-Up Text After Quote

You are a friendly local insurance agent in Charlotte, NC. I sent a home and auto quote 3 days ago and haven’t heard back.

Write 3 follow-up text messages I can send over 7 days.

Each message should:
– Be under 30 words
– Feel casual and not pushy
– Offer help or a quick question

Avoid emojis. Use first name “Sarah” in the first text.

A Quick Reality Check: Where Most Agents Get Stuck

Here’s what I keep seeing with agents from Columbia to Wilmington:

They ask the AI once, don’t like the answer, and quit.
They use scripts straight from the AI with zero edits (so it doesn’t sound like them).
They never test different versions to see what actually works.

Real talk: the first draft from AI is usually “pretty good,” not perfect.

Your job is to:

Ask for changes: “Shorter.” “Simpler.” “More casual.” “Less salesy.”
Paste your version back in and say: “Make this smoother but keep my style.”
Test on real calls and tweak again.

It’s like training a new team member. The more you give feedback, the better it gets.

A Story You’ll Relate To

Let me paint the picture.

I was working with a small independent agency just outside Spartanburg. Three producers. One CSR. About 1,200 policies on the books. They were drowning in quotes and follow-ups.

One of the producers, we’ll call him Mike, hated scripts. He said, “I’m better when I wing it.” Which, honestly, was half true. He was great when he was “on.” But on busy days? Calls got sloppy. Follow-ups slipped.

We sat down (virtually) and built a set of prompts together. Here’s one we used for life insurance cross-sells on existing auto clients:

You are a casual, friendly insurance agent in Spartanburg, SC. You’re talking to an existing auto client in their late 30s during a quick policy review call.

Write a short script (8–10 lines) to smoothly introduce the idea of term life insurance to protect their family.

Tone: conversational and zero pressure.
Keep the language simple. No scare tactics. No statistics. Just a simple, human explanation and one clear question to see if they’re open to a quote.

We got a decent script. Tweaked it. Shortened it. Added one phrase Mike liked to say: “I don’t want to be dramatic here, but…”

He started using it on review calls. Nothing aggressive, just part of the conversation.

In 60 days, he’d written 7 new term policies from that one prompt-driven script. Not crazy “guru” numbers. Just steady, real-world wins.

That’s when it clicked for him. “Okay… this is actually saving me time, not making me sound like a robot.”

The Part No One Talks About

Something you’ve probably felt too: a lot of insurance training scripts feel… old. Like they were written in 2003 and just photocopied a thousand times.

Prompt engineering lets you:

Tailor scripts to your city (mention Charleston traffic, Charlotte neighborhoods, Raleigh schools)
Match your age group or personality
Experiment with new angles without writing everything from scratch

And get this: you can even paste in your current script and say:

“Here’s my current script. Rewrite this to sound more conversational and less salesy. Keep the same key points.”

It’s like having a writing coach sitting next to you at Kudu Coffee downtown.

What You Can Do Next (Simple Start)

If all of this feels like a lot, don’t build 20 scripts right away. Start with one.

Here’s a simple 3-step plan:

Pick one situation.
First call? Follow-up text? Objection response? Just choose the one that bugs you the most right now.
Use the formula.
Role + Audience + Situation + Tone + Structure + Constraints.
Type it into your AI tool and get a first draft.
Test it for a week.
Use it on real calls. Make notes. Then go back and say, “Update this script based on this feedback…” and list what you noticed.

If You Only Remember One Thing…

Prompt engineering for insurance sales scripts isn’t about being perfect with tech. It’s about asking better questions so you get better words.

The AI is your assistant, not your replacement.

You bring the real stories, the empathy, the local flavor. It brings the speed and ideas.

So next time you sit down at your desk in Charleston or your kitchen table in Wilmington, try writing one clear, detailed prompt instead of “write an insurance script” and see what happens.

Try it on your very next call and tweak from there. That’s where the magic really shows up.