Sick of just surviving? Want to expand your business? Here are some issues to consider when you are serious about growing your agency or your personal revenues.
Define your sales process. Identify the strengths, weaknesses and what is and isn't working, and modify along the way. Measure and know the suspect-to-prospect ratio, conversion rate from prospect-to-diagnostic appointment, and sales success rate with full presentations to prospects. Know these numbers and the average targeted revenue per account. This makes annual production, sales activity management and pipeline flow predictable.
Define your agency culture. Prospects need to be qualified, so approach every client contact as an opportunity for revenue (cross sale, referral, up sale). The commoditization of personal auto and small business insurance means you must approach insurance holistically. Manage insurance and risk avoidance programs. Don't simply serve as a vendor and don't accept “call in” business opportunities without diligent qualifying.
Go deeper with less. Smart agents know they must raise the revenue per account, eliminate competition and deepen client relationships with less people. Their revenue increases because they sell six to nine lines of coverage that most preferred customers are buying. This agency is more efficient, more profitable and has better carrier relationships. Insurance vendors spent $6 billion last year advertising against you, but they'll never have the time or the talent to become a trusted advisor providing individual, specialized risk management guidance.
Use structured customer contact. The average P&C customer lives on your shelf for seven years. They leave because you ignore them. Contact the top 10% once a month, top 20% once per quarter, and the mid-range accounts at renewal and mid-term. Assign the bottom 10% to 15% to agencies in your community that are vendors looking to quote business.
Cross-selling budget and revenue target is a must. You need resources to “grow what you have.” The average producer could double her revenues if only she sold every product to which she had access. You can tell the professional salesperson from the order taker by measuring the number of lines of business per account. Having a weekly, monthly and annual budget of the revenues generated from cross-selling and tracking that separate from the new business number assures a focus on this segment of the agency revenue lifeline.
Become an expert in two or three classes of business. Identify mentors who can teach you their business. Build relationships and trust, which will generate referrals.
Target market focus. Develop in-depth knowledge of specific industries or socioeconomic ranges to create a holistic approach to maximizing relationships.
Add talent. Successful agencies diversify with both young and experienced talent.
Partner with carriers that fit your marketing strategy. Focus on their appetite guides and becoming efficient in writing the classes they want, to accelerate your agency development and growth.
Understand we are about to enter the fastest environmental change we have ever seen. We have seen business models change for travel agents and real estate, and we are seeing the beginnings of it in the independent agent model. There has never been a better opportunity for the strong to get stronger and the willing to get better.
Attracting the Young Set
Young talent brings the modern approach to technology, the use of social media and the ability to solicit a wide variety of buyers. You need the resources, budget, training acumen, and financial wherewithal to attract and retain new talent. Our industry is aging, but there are significant opportunities to bring in new talent. If you haven't considered it, maybe it's time to look at strong organic-driven new growth.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
