As best as I know, there are three ways to land a new account: You can get an Agent of Record letter and take the account, which has nothing to do with the x-date; go to battle with one or two other agents and win the account with your best proposal; or offer a bid for the prospect's business, which he or she may or may not accept.

Let's walk through two scenarios.

1. Bid: Often we are lured into providing bids to prospects. It's important that you are able to identify when you are bidding work. Does the prospect:

• Ask you to participate in his or her renewal

• Use the term “bid”

• Want an “apples-to-apples” quote

• Say it is “first come, first served” regarding markets you can go to or gives you the leftovers in the marketplace

• Fail to give you the meetings you request, the information and time that you need?

Outcome: You present your bid to the person tasked with acquiring bids (who may or may not be the decision maker). At your presentation:

• You perform a coverage analysis and put your findings of your perceived coverage shortcomings and overlaps in your bid

• You put in your bid a presentation on your company and a list of provided services

• You provide a pricing summary page showing “apples to apples” and perhaps an optional pricing page showing the additional costs or cost savings of the options you disclosed.

After your presentation, you learn that the firm has decided to stay with the incumbent agent or it has selected another agency. Welcome to the world of bidding. You just got skinned!