What should you do after an insured fires your agency or a new prospect fails to buy? Get mad, get even, or get information.

The first two choices fulfill an immediate emotional need, but in terms of business, they are counterproductive. Instead, invest your energy on finding out why the person or business made a conscious decision to not to do business with you.

Use “exit surveys” to find out why personal and commercial insureds left you and why your commercial proposals failed to close. Read More...

All consumers love discounts; they always have and always will. So, promote them creatively by self-publishing a PDF booklet entitled, “How to Save on Your Homeowners Insurance… A quick guide to popular homeowners policy discounts.”

It's easy. We predesigned the core of it for you. Its 10 pages include an attractive cover, an index, and a back page that encourages individuals to “Get every homeowners insurance discount to which you are entitled.” The inside pages highlight discounts on seven common credits: fire extinguishers, deadbolts, smoke and other alarms, the paid in full discount, the multi-policy credit, the mature person discount, plus new home and home renovation discounts. Read More...

Virtually every agency needs a steady stream of young, inexperienced producers. These young people are not only the future of your business and the source of your retirement, they are also the future of our industry.

Therefore, it’s vital that you make every effort to secure the right individual and teach him or her how to be a success. Your actions and attitude are critical in this process. Bring him along carefully, giving him real attention and assistance. Regular meetings help to create the feeling that your new producer is important to the agency -- and that he or she is worthy of your valuable time.

Benefit from our “Hiring & Managing Inexperienced Producers™ guidebook and software set. Read More...

Cross-selling is “Survival 101” for every agency. So, when extra coverages aren’t routinely offered to existing insureds, the fault lies with management and not with the staff. Principals and supervisors must do more than just encourage account rounding; they must also systematize it.

One way to accomplish this is to require CSRs and producers to complete a detailed action report on each account they service. These brief histories help managers to examine accounts from the extra sales perspective, a viewpoint that’s seldom explored in detail. Read More...

In many instances, life, financial planning, and allied lines, are additional revenues that are within a relatively easy reach. It makes good business sense to explore ways to cross-sell these policies and services. But to do this efficiently, you need to determine which insureds can generate the easiest sales. Promptly identifying trigger events helps to guide the way. CSRs are the ideal point people to uncover them since they interact with clients every day. Read More...

Retro is “in” for multiple reasons. The main motivation is nostalgia, felt by the 77 million baby boomers (born 1946-1964) who make up this nation’s largest generation.

Younger insurance buyers also enjoy retro, but do so with a much different viewpoint. They see yesterday’s technology as amusingly archaic, making them thrilled to be born in the age of the Internet. Either way it generates interest, and it’s why retro is worth using in an agency marketing campaign. Plus, it displays a telling photogenic view of recent history. Read More...

The economic travails of recent times have caused a surge in apartment rentals. Home foreclosures and job layoffs have driven more and more people to become tenants instead of property owners. And it's likely that a good chunk of these renters don't carry tenants' policies.

So if you are into personal lines, go after this business. Read More...

Approaches for closing coverage gaps vary by urgency and by insured. For larger clients, your only viable choice is a personal call or visit. For others, it might be adequate to employ an attention-getting device such as a "Coverage Caution" insert.

This 5” x 8.5” document concentrates a client’s attention on a single concern. Its oversized photo and brief message informs clients about a specific uninsured exposure, a missing policy or endorsement, or other cautionary consideration.

Attached to a client mailing, physically, by email attachment, or as a Twitter "photo (after first converting it from a "doc" file to a "jpg")," they literally illustrate the fact that you have real concerns. Read More...

Quick quotes are a staple of our industry. Virtually every jumbo personal lines marketer offers them via the Web and by phone. Local agencies interested in competing for this class of business must similarly offer speed quotes. Still, there are ways to slow down impatient shoppers, including taking a few moments to recap the person’s PC-generated rate printout on a manually completed summary page. Or, you can use an I’ll Switch My Policy If… form. They require prospects to buy on-the-spot, if you meet a list of their pre-agreed quote conditions.

Full-service personal lines prospects function under a different set of requirements. These individuals appreciate the difference between price and value. A tailored, well thought out personal lines proposal, delivered face-to-face (or discussed voice-to-voice), is the way to go. To help, we have designed 10 personal lines proposal elements you can use... Read More...

Agency Ideas® Marketing Projection / Planner™ software helps producers and managers to project marketing numbers and to author simplified personal and commercial lines action plans.  The planner requires Excel.

Every agency wants to write more business, but only some know how they are going to accomplish it. These offices develop detailed business plans that outline their future expectations, complete with marketing and sales sections that guide the overall process. The projections that result disclose how the agency expects to expand its book. They also reveal everyone’s individual roles in the process.

The perceived complexity of creating an agency plan is what stops many offices from building one. Others forego written predictions as a way to duck the disappointment associated with a missed sales goal. This way, if they avoid putting numbers down in writing, then any new sale appears to be an achievement. Thoughts like these tend to inhibit the overall planning process. It’s a major mistake to work without a blueprint. Ask any architect. Read More...

Business executives today, especially in small-to-medium-sized firms, are work-weary, fighting hard to stay in operation. They are also frightened, fearing that economic and other events outside of their control, may drag their company under, as has happened to so many others. Help them in their battle to survive with an imaginary “Insurance Flaw Finder“ (IFF).

Our 3-piece "IFF" tool set marries marketing to your insurance proposal. The "insurance flaw finder" is a make believe machine that adds an element of fun to the classic problem-solution approach to sales. Read More...

Agencies need to make specific inquiries to learn more about their potential new clients. Insisting that swamped reps ask ancillary questions to everyone who requests a personal lines quote is one way to gather this extra information, but it is impractical.

A better method is to employ a short but inquisitive agency questionnaire and ask the applicant, not the CSR, to optionally complete it as part of the quote process. This client-completed approach is not new. Virtually every physician’s office requires such forms before they’ll grant you an appointment. Many attorneys, accountants, and other professionals employ them as well. P&C insurance agents are wise to follow this simple pathway to supplemental facts. Any complete or partial information that you can collect aids you in understanding the factors that drove the prospect to your door, what he values (or doesn’t value) about insurance, plus the person’s commission potential and servicing demands. Read More...