October 20, 2016
Most independent insurance agents represent multiple insurance carriers, the carriers they represent may cover virtually every market niche or segment. This gives independent insurance agents, especially P&C agents who focus on writing home and auto insurance business, the ability to write (and be competitive) with a broad spectrum of consumers. While this gives them one competitive advantage, the fact that they are going against many well known and established brands, they must work extra hard to overcome this disadvantage to build their agency and book of business.
The following are 10 sales and marketing tips for successfully growing your independent insurance agency and book of business. As an independent insurance agent you should try to utilize/implement as many of these tips as possible.
1. Develop a business plan or budget. Independent insurance agents should have a plan or budget for the number of sales they want to achieve each day, week and month. This budget should be broken down by insurance type. With this budget, independent agents can then come up with a specific plan on how to achieve these sales. The plan will need to be detailed in terms of the number of insurance leads to buy, staffing, commission, etc. Plans should include as much detail as possible.
2. Allocate marketing budget and stick to it. Often insurance agents will cut their marketing and lead budget if they are seeing lower than expected revenues or higher expenses. This is a mistake. Without home and auto insurance leads, it would be impossible to achieve your budget or plan for new auto or home policies. It becomes a vicious circle of not hitting target and further cutting leads and/or marketing if you do this.
3. Split your time between both service and sales activities. Many independent insurance agents will spent a majority of their time on what they like to do, rather than making a conscious effort to split their time appropriately between maintaining clients and growing new business.
4. Use pay for performance marketing. Independent insurance agents should limit the amount of marketing they spend on activities which do not generate specific activity that will result in sales. Spending your marketing on branding activities will yield a very low return on your investment. Buying home and auto insurance leads and calls will yield a very high ROI.
5. Establish processes; use a CRM. Agents that use a CRM have a higher close ratio and ROI. Using a CRM to manage your client and prospect interactions will make sure that opportunities do not slip through the cracks and become wasted. A CRM allows you to automate the process of quoting, nurturing and following-up with your prospects. There are many good cloud based CRMs that won’t require a significant monthly expenditure.
6. Build a strong reputation. As an independent agent, you are competing against agencies with long established brands. These brands spend millions every year to build and maintain their brand. To counter this, independent agents need to do everything possible to build and maintain a strong online and offline reputation. More and more people will search a company online before they do business with them for the first time. A strong reputation among your clients will also lead to more referrals and new policies.
7. Hire the right staff and provide regular training. Hiring strong sales people who are proven closers is a strategy that will help you grow your book of business. Some independent agency owners will hire friends and family with little or no experience. This is a mistake. It is important to hire the right staff and provide ongoing training to continuously improve their skills.
8. Periodically ‘re-shop’ client’s business. Once you win a prospect's business, you need to periodically re-shop their coverage to see if you can either provide a higher level of coverage for the same price or the same level of coverage for a lower price. When you are an independent agent, without strong brand loyalty, your clients may periodically look elsewhere to obtain insurance. If you show your clients you are providing them with an extra benefit or higher level of service, they will be more likely to stay with you and refer other insurance buyers.
9. Buy home and auto insurance leads and calls without filters. When you buy insurance calls and leads without filters, you have a greater opportunity to get enough leads or calls to meet your targeted sales goal. Filters limit the number of opportunities you have to quote and write policies. You should buy leads and calls for all the states you are licensed to write policies in. The larger the geography you buy leads from, the great opportunity you will have to write business.
10. Build a diverse book of business. Some independent insurance agents target a very specific type of business, geographic location and will sometimes place it all with one carrier. This is a mistake. It is essential to build a varied portfolio of business so you will be well positioned if one or more carriers change their underwriting standards, prices or a host of things that can impact your ability to generate renewal commissions and write new business.
Agent Ethan Kosmin Generated over $200,000 in premiums during first year in business thanks to Contact Concierge.
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