50 Ways to grow your Insurance Agency Today

Winners Keep Score, track your sold policies, chargebacks, and make monthly goals

Create a personal relationship with your insured as much as possible utilizing your CMS system

Build stellar carrier relationships see episode 42

Go niche-allows your agency to be experts in your field and brings confidence to your agents and csr's

Create an ecosystem of support for your customers-going niche helps you create this ecosystem as well

Provide prompt servicing of your insureds

Lower overhead by utilizing technology and automation

Cross selling by gaining additional markets-www.Becomeaninsurancepro.com is a place to get access to additional markets, no monthly fees, you own your book 100%

Commercial agents- cross sell easily by including a BOR form for your agents to fill out when sending out your bind documents

Providing top notch customer service to your insureds

Commercial agents-know your carriers timeline when processing endorsements and relay that to your insureds on the time changes will happen

Agencies-keep a centralized list of "how to's" on your agencies processes ensuring everyone is providing the same service and answers to your insureds and prospects

Advertise using non-conventional methods such as social media, Linked In, Alignable, Angies List, Next Door etc.

Create a referral program-create this with other businesses, insureds, or prospects

Activity breeds activity-If you have a slow time of year, create an agency wide cross sale campaign, cold call campaign etc

Create an agency bonus structure to make sure your entire agency is engaged such as a (pooled daily, weekly, or monthly bonus program)

Organize your agency according to how your carriers operate-Dig deep into the carriers you operate with, find out their processing times, communication methods, bonus structure etc

For policies your insureds or prospects have with other agencies, find out the approximate renewal date on those policies, set a task to reach out 60 days prior to the renewals of those

Stimulate your mind by taking a break or vacation

Keep the same business hours daily so that your insureds and prospects know what to expect

Find a way to get inbound call traffic for your agency such as utilizing signs, online presence, attending events

After your insureds leave a message or send an email, promptly reply (within 24 hours with an update)

Organize your agency to process tasks in bulk-quicker and less distracting

Have a service desk with no phone where your agents knock out their serving tasks daily then go back to sales & marketing etc.

Follow up on the quotes you send out once a week for 30 days, 3rd times a charm for following up

Call current insureds at least 30 days before their renewal to touch base and make sure they are going to continue their coverage

For midsize to large Commercial agencies- have one person doing each bulk task such as Quotes & Binds

Call your missed calls even if they don't leave a voicemail-catch every opportunity

Make sure your staff is fully trained with the carriers on how to easily answer coverage questions or knowledge to direct your insureds to find the answer, make sure agency wide that everyone is giving the same answers to your insured's

Take every opportunity to speak to your insureds about additional policies you can offer them such as when they call in to make a payment, make sure your entire staff is doing this

Ask for the sale, train your agents on the best way to ask for the sale and close

Divide your agencies calls by new business, renewal, follow ups and cross sale to make sure all get done daily

Have a person within your agency that handles all things carrier related to try and pull as much off your selling agents as possible, giving your agents as much time as possible to only sell

Make sure all your staff knows how to lead a call and keep your insureds on the right track when selling a policy, taking down quotes etc., create a model for this

Make sure you are not doing anything unnecessary, if your carriers are direct bill let them send out the notices, once your insured is closer to the date they need to make their payment is the best time to call them

New agencies should be doing at least 4 hours of advertising daily their first year or 2

New agencies want to be calling at least between 30-60 prospects daily

Market to the type of customers you relate best with, do you relate best with business owners? Your everyday Joe?

Remember that Lower cost advertising will increase your time investments-decide which you want

Higher cost advertising such as Google, Bing, social media, and lead purchasing will decrease your time investment

Create an advertising plan and implement it

Utilize websites that allow you to be on them for free as an online presence tool such as Google, Bing, Yahoo

Always have at least 7 marketing and advertising campaigns at any given time active and running

Utilize as many low-cost online tools to help manage your agency such as, Phone Burner, Smartfax (get rid of your fax machine), Docusign, Text alert systems for insured's that opt in

Make sure all your products are listed on your website and have an FAQ section

Create an "agency schedule" make sure each of your agents and staff have their own "schedule" of tasks that they do at the same time daily, keeping your workflow consistent and predictable

Create a "phone buddy" that your agency uses that has all the answers to frequently asked questions of your insureds (be sure the phone buddy includes an "actions performed" so that your agents and staff know how to properly handle your clients calling in

Create a website where prospects or insureds can submit to get a quote from you

Have a professional email address

Keep access to your carriers by quoting and binding business with them, make sure you are following the carriers’ guidelines on what they like to see for new and renewal business