If you're in Insurance Soup's private Facebook group, you get to see that Mike and Taylor are always popping on to talk about ways to help agents with whatever they need to make the most of their careers as agents. And if you follow any of the brands under the Insurance Soup umbrella, you know that Mike, Taylor, Brian, Matt and CJ are always talking about how important systems and processes are to creating a successful agency.
Last week, we posted a quick video of Taylor's tips for making the most of your work day but we want to give you all the details here. Check out how Taylor spends his day in the office and what he recommends to agents as the most productive way to structure their days. Most agents let their day control them instead of controlling their day What does that mean? When you are constantly being reactive, you have no control. You can not go through your day trying to squeeze in production time. It will drive you into a stage of being stagnant or to where your production starts to actually decline. It only takes a few small tweaks to gain that control back. Structure your day down to every valuable minute. That doesn’t mean you have to be insane with it, but don’t let time be wasted. STEP 1: Show up an hour early - this time is when you can accomplish twice as much because you have zero distractions. No email, no voicemails, no social media, nothing other than prepping quotes for the day. STEP 2: The next 2 hours focus ONLY on selling. No answering phones, no email, no social media. This may sound crazy to some but if you were in a very important meeting for 2 hours, you would not being doing any of those things either. Anyone who called during this time, it’s easy to overcome it. “Hi Mrs. Jones, I apologize I missed your call earlier. I was in a very important meeting but I’m working on your X now...” STEP 3: After that, get a sheet of paper and make two columns. Left side urgent, right side non-urgent. Go through emails and voicemails and put them in the appropriate column. The urgent gets done right away for the next 30-60 minutes. Not after lunch, not later, but right then. STEP4: By now, it should be around 11am for most people. Use the next 30-60 minutes to call who you didn’t reach during the first round or to set appointments for the afternoon/next day. QUICK LUNCH. STEP 5: When you return, back in sales mode for the next 2 hours. Only focus on selling. STEP 6: The next hour, work the non urgent items. STEP 7: It’s now around 3:30pm and back to production mode until normal closing hours. LASTLY: Your day isn’t done. Stay an extra hour to wrap up any loose ends. Dont put it off until tomorrow. Do them and get them done. This schedule won’t work for everyone but if you’re currently in “reactive mode”, this will make a massive difference. You just took control of your day! You dedicated 6 hours of your day to being in production mode and 3 hours to service. By showing up an hour early and staying an hour late, you just opened up 25% more time if you were only working 8 hour days. That’s an extra work day a week you just opened up. That’s 4 extra days a month and 48 extra days a year you created. Once you control your day, you control your production.
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This post originally ran on SmartFInancial.
Did you ever wonder what really successful agents do that other people don’t? Do you want to establish a set of new habits, especially as the new year approaches? We’ve rounded up the 12 habits that top insurance agents utilize to sell more policies and retain a loyal base of clients. We hope these tips will rub off on you, too! Creating Daily Routine The best insurance agents don’t wing it. They have a set schedule and they stick to it. You can’t just take calls in the middle of playing golf. You need to be writing emails and texts, making follow up calls, buying leads and forging new relationships while nurturing existing ones. That means setting some regular hours to work-related tasks. You can’t watch television hoping that the lead you called last week will call you back. Get back to your desk and make the call. Keeping regular office hours will keep you organized and busy. Setting Self Assessment Meetings Whether you do this weekly, biweekly or monthly, it has to be done. Check in with yourself to see how you’re doing in comparison with last month, last quarter and last year. The more metrics you use the better, because you’ll see more of the big picture. Measure everything, from your closing rate and website traffic to your ROI on the leads you bought from SmartFinancial. Aim for progress by replicating your successes. But also look at your failures. Can you reflect on why certain deals didn’t work out? Can you learn from your mistakes to improve sales next week and next month? The best insurance agents learn from failures and tweak their approach along the way. Always Learning The insurance industry is always shifting and changing. Good insurance agents follow the trends in order to succeed. Future trends inform agents about changes they should make agency-wide based on shifts in the market. But insurance isn’t the only thing the best insurance agents are learning about. The finance sector is something else to follow. Some agents even go on to become financial planners. The more you know about finance and insurance, the better you’ll be able to manage your clients’ policies. Surrounding Yourself with Other Successful People Success is truly contagious. They say that if you surround yourself with successful people, you’ll probably end up achieving more success yourself. If you surround yourself with couch potatoes, you probably won’t be as driven. It’s natural that we compete with those around us, even if our successful friends have vastly different careers. We try to keep up, and that is a good thing. It only makes sense that motivation is something we glean from those close to us, so make successful friends. Giving Everything Your All If you’re a people pleaser, you’ll do well in insurance sales. If you have a habit of trying to help people, you’ll gain the trust of prospects. A genuine desire to fix situations and prevent disasters will give you an edge on the competition because many agents are only out to make a commission. Prospects will sense your earnestness and gravitate towards you. The more thorough you are, the more likely you will retain your well-protected clients too. Always Available Are you the agent who never answers the phone or do you pick up, even when you’re on another call? If you’re the latter, you’ll do a great job in making as much contact as possible and making every client feel like they matter. No one wants to be in business with someone whose gatekeepers keep them at an arm’s length at all times. You should be accessible to your clients and available to chat, even if it’s to set a later appointment. Answer all emails within 24 hours or much sooner when possible. If a client doesn’t feel like a priority, they will be more tempted to switch for a better price. Conveying Value If you’re not in the habit of justifying the prices your carrier(s) charge for the insurance products you’re selling, you’ll have a hard time. The most successful agents touch upon value in their elevator pitch and set aside time later to express why their product is superior to cheaper ones out there. Explaining the claims process, albeit briefly, and explaining why it is important to go with a trusted carrier is essential. Willingness to Fail Do you put yourself out there even when the chances of succeeding seem slim? Then you’ll be great at talking to people who weren’t necessarily looking to switch or buy insurance. You have to be willing to risk failing by approaching people who are hesitant or don’t want to be bothered. You have to keep calling even when it’s not clear that you will have a sale with the prospect. You have to keep trying, be willing to fail and to get up and try again when you do. A failed sale may be a success as an ex-date at renewal! Build bridges, even when you don’t get exactly what you want. Constantly Active Successful insurance agents are wizards at multitasking and juggling many clients at once. Your job is to form relationships, deep and lasting ones, if you want to retain customers. This means putting in the time. Just as you do with friends, you have to be there when things go wrong or if there are changes in a client’s circumstances. If your schedule doesn’t seem double-booked you’re not engaging your clients actively enough. Mentorship and Delegation The best agents have a knack at taking raw talent and polishing producers into great sales people. If you like to train young people on how to sell insurance, you can do so by buying shared leads in bulk. Delegating work is a must, especially if you hope to grow. You’ll want your business to be busting at the seams, and you’ll need help servicing all the policies you sell. The best insurance agents and business people know how to delegate responsibilities and mentor the right people into managerial positions. Persistence The best trait in an insurance agent is persistence, the best habit is incessantly trying. A no really means not right now. Try again at renewal time. If you’re really persistent, you may even want to consider convincing the prospects that it’s not too late to change their minds. Keep pushing, even when people are not responsive. It often takes a while to get a lead to let his or her guard down. The more persistent you, the more likely you are to forge a relationship with this person, and that’s the first step towards success. Time Management We’ve already covered how you need to constantly be checking in on existing clients, looking into discounts, writing emails all while nurturing leads. You’ll be making calls and having Zoom meetings, so you’ll be very busy and time management will be most important. There’s nothing worse than not calling when you say you will or not being at the Zoom meeting you set up! Of course, having a CRM that alerts you to when it’s time to follow up can be helpful. And that brings us to our final habit, using technology to your advantage. See below. Technologically Savvy If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that spending one’s entire marketing budget on leads is not such a bad idea. Some agents have even found buying SmartFinancial leads to be more successful than past marketing campaigns of their own. Unless you’re capable of running digital marketing campaigns that will generate leads, you’ll have a hard time binding new business when people are not going out unless they have to. Their reliance on convenient methods of buying insurance, and just about anything, will carry over even when the pandemic is long gone. Using the right tools, having the right CRM to stay organized While cold-calling is probably your least favorite part of being an insurance agent, if you're spending your hard-earned dollars on purchasing lists of leads, you dang well want to make sure you're doing all you can to turn those leads into clients. Sadly, in their haste to take the information on those lists and run with them, lots of agents make some very common mistakes that can leave many of those new leads wasted.
YOU'RE NOT CHECKING YOUR LIST TWICE Not to get all Santa on you, but you need to check your list before you start reaching out. You need to verify that the leads on your list are real people. Lists are generically generated and can give you people who aren't qualified to speak to you, who aren't financially able to buy from you and who aren't interested in buying what you have to sell even if they were able to. Be sure that the list you have is filled with leads who have been specifically targeted to your audience. YOU'RE NOT RESEARCHING YOUR LEADS The quickest way to lose a lead is to ask a question that makes you look unprepared to speak with them. You can't always trust that leads are going to be perfect for your product until you've taken the time to get some background. Before making a call, make sure you can pronounce the lead's name. Nothing is worse than someone stammering over a name they can't pronounce and it's a dead giveaway that you're cold calling. Also, It's also extremely important to make sure you're asking questions that show you know the lead's background will make you appear prepared going in. YOU'RE NOT WARMING YOUR LEAD UP There's an art to cold-calling and a lot of agents aren't artists. No one wants to pick up a phone to an "aggressive" sales call. They. need to be eased into the pitch. Luckily for everyone involved, sales scripts are great for thoughtfully leading agents through calls so they don't hear a dial tone before the call even gets under way. There's plenty of great script software for agents to use. Do your research on which sales scripts would be best for you and start making calls the right way. YOU'RE MAKING IT ABOUT YOU Not to be rude, but your lead is a perfect stranger and they don't want to know your life's story. You can introduce yourself but then the focus needs to be on the lead and asking the right questions to keep them on the line. What is important to them? What problems or issues would they like to solve? Let them guide the conversation. Use the cold call as a way to learn more about your prospect rather than pushing your product. YOU'RE NOT TAKING NO FOR AN ANSWER No one likes to hear the word NO and learning how to respond to a NO on the other end of a cold call isn't always easy for some agents. If you're asked the right questions, you'll know whether or not your product is right for the lead you're speaking to. Sure, some objections can be overcome, but sometimes, you have to walk away gracefully and not push the lead to the point of no return. You always want to be able to return to a lead some day down the line and unless you deal with their rejection properly, there will be no hope for that. Learning how to cold call properly can take some time. You have to refine your sales style to be able to work with different leads in different ways. Our general rule of thumb is to always picture yourself on the other end of the line and make sure you're not treating the lead in a way you wouldn't want to be treated if you were getting the same call. Give yourself time to learn how to finesse leads where you can or to walk away gracefully when it isn't meant to be. This post originally ran on Insureon.com.
American recreational marijuana use has doubled in the last 10 years, according to a new study from Jama Psychiatry, as reported by CNN. Considering that 23 states allow medical marijuana use and four of those states permit recreational use, maybe that increase isn't as surprising as the study's authors would have you believe. Any way you cut it, attitudes toward pot are changing, and the laws of the land are following suit. And that shift has some implications for the business insurance world, too. 1. Pot and product liability So here's a first for the marijuana industry: LA Times reports that Brandan Flores, a medicinal pot user, is suing the Colorado grower LivWell Inc. for using the fungicide Eagle 20 on its pot products. The report states the fungicide contains myclobutanil, a nasty little chemical that produces hydrogen cyanide gas when burned – not ideal for those toking up. This product liability case brings up a bevy of insurance issues: will insurance cover the lawsuit? And if so, what policy? Insurers have had their eye on the pot industry for a while, but they've been slow to warm up to legal recreational marijuana. However, in states where recreational pot use is legal, it is possible to find specialized insurance for pot shops and growers. In fact, Insurance Journal reports that product liability insurance is required for all recreational operations in Washington and Colorado. Product liability insurance, typically part of a general liability insurance policy, can address lawsuits over defective goods that harm customers. It may help pay for:
2. High risk in the office Claims Journal reports that about 20 percent of surveyed small businesses are cool with their workers using medicinal marijuana at work, and 42 percent don't have a written policy that prohibits employees from being under the influence of marijuana at work. But if your employees are allowed to use medical marijuana and are high at work, they could injure themselves. Workers' compensation insurance typically doesn't cover medical expenses for injuries that happen while an employee is under the influence, but that application gets tricky when medication is involved. As a general rule, if medicinal drug use was the proximate cause of an on-the-job injury, workers' comp benefits may not apply, according to a report by Business Insurance. Whether or not your business allows employees to use marijuana in a medicinal capacity at work, be sure your company policy makes employees aware their use might affect their workers' comp benefits. But what about weed used to treat occupational injuries? Does workers' comp cover that? Property Casualty 360 notes that most states require workers' compensation to cover treatment that is:
It reports that most insurance companies currently don't think medical marijuana is an effective treatment because it's not FDA-approved. However, that may not be true in all cases. For instance, pot used to stimulate an employee's appetite if they have work-related cancer might be a necessary part of treatment and covered by workers' comp. However, case law is still ironing out those details. 3. Stone(d) cold cyber liability The pot industry has considerable cyber liability exposure, especially for medical marijuana dispensaries that follow a "wellness center" model. According to the Colorado Health Care Law Blog, these centers likely store patients’ protected health information (PHI) rather than simply checking their medical marijuana cards, so they can be held liable for HIPAA fines if patient-customer information is stolen or exposed. Cyber liability insurance could be a smart investment for these businesses because it may cover the cost of:
Some policies offer coverage for regulatory fines that follow a breach, too, but that depends on the provider. Again, ask your insurance agent for the whole scoop on your policy so you know what it does and doesn't address. No matter the amount of training we've had before starting out in the insurance industry, things don't always go as planned for every agent. Sometimes the pieces of the puzzle just aren't going to fit together and other times, pieces will be missing altogether. You can watch all the webinars and take all the courses but at some point, you're going to drop the ball. There's no way to really know until you've taken the field and given it your own personal best shot.
With that said, knowing that there will be times when you're going to fail as an agent, the best remedy is to stay aware of the most common pitfalls so that you can avoid them. Many times agents believe they're doing everything they can, and they're doing it the right way, but there can be other things at play for an agent that can begin to steer them off track. Check out a few of the most common below. ALL BUSINESS AND NO HEART Agents are in sales. The job is to sell policies. It would seem that an agent charging hard to meet their monthly goals, focused only on the bottom line, is on the right track. That's the end game after all, right? Well, yes. But also, not exactly. If an agent is focused solely on their commission, then the way that they serve their client will suffer. If you get into a cab in Manhattan with a taxi driver who doesn't speak to you, doesn't answer any of your questions and swerves all over the road, making wrong turns and gets you to your destination late, but then holds out his hand for his tip, are you really going to tip him? It's the same with your clients. If you write a policy for them and are then careless with the way you serve them over the life of that policy, you'll lose that client and any hope for renewal. For an agent to have long-term success, the focus on serving their clients the best way possible needs to be as important, IF NOT MORE IMPORTANT, than the commissions that will be coming in. PUTTING AN "I" IN TEAM The best and most successful people in business, agents especially, are self-starters. You're going to get the most done when you take the reins and steer your agency the way you see the most fit. However, this can sometimes be to an agent's detriment if not properly balanced out with the right staff. Choosing who will be running your agency alongside you is a massively important piece of the puzzle that many agents overlook because they're not properly focused on getting the right kind of support from other team members and mentors. Successful agents need solid, well directed staff, but new agents need these things from the jump. Having the right team to fall back on as well as the right mentors to look up to will make all the difference. EXPECTATIONS TOO GREAT This is a tough one since lots of agents choose insurance because they've seen others achieve a certain level of success that they expect to attain right off the bat. As a new insurance agent, you're basically a startup business and all startups take time to see profits. For some agents, the waiting is too hard and they quit during the uphill climb before things really get rolling. Some of the things that make being an agent so attractive can also lead to an agent's downfall. Making their own hours, and taking too much time out of the office when there's admin and customer service work that needs to be done can be enticing and can derail an agent at the same time. Being a successful agent, especially starting out, is all about the slow and steady pace it takes to figure out the best ways to run your agency while keeping clients happy. If agents don't take the time to get things done right, there won't be much of a career in the insurance industry for them in the long run. This post originally ran on American Strategic.
Now more than ever young employees value a vibrant company culture — so much that it is greatly affecting company turnover rates and employee retention. One of the biggest industries that fail to create a culture that retains great employees is insurance, but why? And what can agencies do about it? Over the coming months and years, more millennials will begin to enter the workforce at a time when many experienced insurance agents will be retiring. In the past, insurance has focused largely on sales growth, which has led many younger generations to view the industry as boring and traditional. Now, cultivating a fun and engaging company culture can benefit insurance agents of all ages and backgrounds. Here are a few key tips your agency should consider in order to build a brand that is both meaningful and full of growth potential. 1. Start at the beginning: the people you hire. As appealing as it can be to offer your open job positions to those who have the most experience over those who have the right attitude, this could be the source of your problems. Don’t mistake a positive mindset or an upbeat personality for an inexperienced or unproductive worker. Sometimes the biggest factors in creating a more lively company culture start with your hiring process. Look for individuals who have good moral in the beginning, rather than regretting your decision down the road when you have to let go of someone who isn’t a good culture fit. 2. Define your culture and place it at the core of your agency’s values. If your agency has been too heavily focused on boosting sales to write up a list of values, you may want to take a step back to do so before continuing down a path without clear goals. Although every agency hopes to increase profits as much as possible, it is first important to make sure you’ll put money toward what will keep your company growing internally. When companies value money over people, employees notice. Whether you have a meeting between your management and leader teams or you invite everyone at your agency to participate, have a discussion about what your culture should look and feel like. Put your culture into words and write out values that center around this culture. 3. Live and breathe your culture, day in and day out. It can be easy to form a definition of your agency’s values on paper and soon forget about them if not put into practice. Have the culture you’ve imagined play a role in your daily or weekly meetings, adjust your office’s decor and set up to emulate your culture, survey your employees every quarter or ask your agents informally about their workplace experiences whenever possible. The key is to make sure you are practicing what you preach. 4. Reward and empower your team regularly. One of the most important and simple ways to make your employees feel more satisfied with the work they do is to make them feel appreciated. Whether you have specific rewards for your office’s achievements or you verbally tell your team positive and supportive messages each day, your employees will be more likely to stay loyal to your agency and more motivated to work hard every time they come into the office if you show admiration for them. 5. Bring gifts or surprises, just because. It is fairly common for many companies to give employees gifts around the holidays each year, but what stands out the most to people are the little surprises they didn’t expect. Try getting creative by scheduling a secret activity one Friday at the end of the day, bringing in a free meal or handing out other small gifts as a token of your gratitude for their hard work. 6. Provide opportunities for growth and furthering education. Are there classes your agents could take that would benefit your agency’s marketing tactics? Are there books you found inspiring that your employees may enjoy having a copy of? Do you offer opportunities for your agents to grow with your company, such as management roles or leadership positions? These are all examples of ways your agency can create a culture that shows support for growing with your company and for furthering their education. 7. Gather and listen to feedback. Possibly the most important part of this process to building an engaging company culture is to reach out to your team, gather feedback and listen to what they have to say. There’s no use in bothering to cultivate company culture if you aren’t going to make sure your agency is staying on track and is willing to evaluate itself regularly. Be sure to provide opportunities for employees to give feedback in person and anonymously, but don’t forget you should address any concerns that spring up rather than brushing them aside. Just like your business tests strategies for improving sales before evaluating the results, you should test ways to cultivate culture and see how they worked out before determining your next steps for becoming the agency all agents want to work for. We're sorry in advance.
We know NO ONE wants to hear that they should be working on Saturdays. Insurance agents, like the rest of humanity, are working for the weekend each and every day. We crave our time off. We need that down time. And we relish it. BUT. Big BUT...there are real benefits to making calls to prospects on Saturdays. And here are some very compelling reasons why. TIME TO CHAT During the week, everyone is on the run. That goes for you AND your prospects. When you're in the office you're focused on several other things and may not have the time to answer typical prospect questions. If you're available on Saturday, you AND THE PROSPECT, will have more uninterrupted time to build chat and answer questions so you can get the consumer to get the policy they are looking for. SHOPPERS SHOP ON THE WEEKEND People shop around the clock now and they certainly do not take the weekends off. It's the opposite, in fact. The more you're front and center to respond to calls or to reach out to prospects, the more people you will speak to and the more policies you'll end up writing. OTHER AGENTS ARE SLEEPING IN Making a commitment to making calls to new leads on Saturdays can give you an edge on your competitors. If consumers are looking for insurance at that time and no one else is answering the phone to give them quotes and answer questions, there's a much higher chance you're going to get that business. FREE TIME FOR FOLLOW UPS We can all agree that follow ups are extremely important to the success of your agency. Lots of times, follow ups get lost in the fray of other, more time sensitive work. If you take the weekends to follow-up with consumers you've quoted, you may as well make that a time to also speak with new leads. If you're working anyways, you might as well add a few new calls to your list. PAYDAY, BABY! Most people are getting paid on Fridays. This means that you could be timing it perfectly for a prospect to have the extra money for an initial insurance payment. This is a big deal because a prospect could LOVE you and want to work with you, but if you call at a time when they don't have the funds to get started with you, you'll miss the sale. DEDICATION IS ALWAYS A GOOD LOOK Accidents and disasters don't only happen between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm from Monday to Friday. If a client is in need on a weekend, at night, or during the holidays, they want to know that their agent is working and available. By making calls to prospects on Saturday, they're going to know that you're dedicated to being accessible to your clients at all times. This is a huge selling point once a prospect realizes they'll be able to get to you when they really need you. If those reasons aren't enough to get you dialing on the weekends, we don't know what will. And we know. WE KNOW. Your Saturdays are precious. But if you consider carving out just an hour each Saturday morning to make a few calls, it could make a big difference to your book of business. Negotiating comes with the territory for insurance agents, whether we like it or not. Whether we're being made to negotiate with clients, marketing staff, underwriters, or leads, it's part of the job each and every day. There are rates to negotiate. There are deadlines to revise. There is coverage to haggle over. And these are all just examples of negotiations with the people outside the 4 walls of our own business. There's also a certain amount of internal negotiations with staff to get what we need to be a successful small business.
When we trained for this job, no one sat us down and taught us the art of negotiation. What makes most of us successful at negotiation is probably what we've learned in our own personal relationships or as parents dealing with our children. The learning curves granted there are usually much more gracious than the ones you'll find when you're looking over a desk at a potential customer. Never fear though, negotiation isn't impossible to learn from a business perspective. There are reliable ways to go about it. The basic principles include being preparation, positioning yourself wisely and having a well thought out strategy when entering a discussion you want to "win". If you're like most people, you're not a. fan of confrontation, which is what negotiation is at it's gentlest core. But once we're able to see that it's a necessary evil and a tool to help you improve the outcomes of many different and difficult conversations, you'll stop shying away from it and start using it to make a big difference in your business. RULE #1 IF YOU'RE NOT PREPARED, YOU'VE ALREADY LOST. In order to enter into a negotiation fully prepared, you've got to take time to realize what the other person seeks to achieve. Next, you'll need to brainstorm a strategy that makes them feel that their needs and/or wants are being met. This means taking time to ask the right questions the way you would in a normal sales meeting when you're seeking to serve your client the best you can. Finding out what the other party wants most will help you determine the best way to get what you want. RULE #2 KNOW WHEN TO HOLD'EM. Negotiation should be approached as a marathon, not a sprint. The only thing that rushing will get you is BURNED OUT. Acting too soon could cause you to give away more than necessary. Realize that the back and forth is part of the process and and push back that both parties give is normal and the rightful means to an end. RULE #3 SAVE THE PRICES FOR LAST. Don’t lead with the price. Always begin negotiation by understanding what it is the other party is wanting, and explore options and alternatives other than price to bring more value, vs. committing to price concessions. The goal is to create an atmosphere of cooperation and a feeling on the part of both sides that we are working together for a win/win solution. Always start by evaluating potential outcomes, and what each looks like. There are 3 potential outcomes to any negotiation. The BEST outcome, the ACCEPTABLE outcome and The WALK AWAY. The goal is always for both parties to walk away feeling like they have not given away too much. The very best way to accomplish this is through transparency which leads to solutions and to partnership instead of adversarial conversations. Once the objective is established, which should be “What a win -win looks like for both of us” and we understand the other party's position and interest, we can effectively prepare for the negotiation session. Being prepared and anticipating objections helps us prepare for value propositions that lead to more effective, constructive conversations. Think through the potential issues, concerns and objections you uncovered and then think through options and approaches that address issues and objections. This post originally ran on Everything PR.
There are few industries that can boast a great overall success rate when its comes to presenting a brand and maintaining a relationship with consumers and the insurance industry in particular serves as a showcase of businesses that are sometimes doing things very right, but sometimes doing them very wrong. In the struggle to keep up with the ever-changing trends of customer behavior, both online and off, the nearly limitless saturation of the insurance industry among the population of many nations demands that that niche in particular do everything it can to present a friendly, easy-to-understand face to the world. With that in mind, here are three crucial PR tips for insurance agencies. Simplify… Insurance is, by its very nature, a highly complicated business and insurance providers need to recognize that convoluted offerings are a sure way to scare potential customers away. According to autoinsurancequotes.net, the most consumer-friendly approach to a complex product is to simplify it via branding and promotional materials, changing an otherwise intimidating company into one that customers feel that they can approach. Where overwhelming people with information may once have worked well in convincing potential customers that they needed to trust an expert, the information age brought upon us by the internet has helped to educate the general public, leaving insurance companies that brand themselves in a friendly, approachable manner ranking well ahead of those who have chosen to stay behind. Be Fresh and Friendly… Serving as an excellent example of the success to be had in a simpler, more consumer-friendly approach to public relations is Geico, that instantly recognizable supplier of American car insurance policies. Between a comical gecko and the promise of one-on-one customer support for all policyholders, old and new, Geico has been able to win the hearts and minds of consumers in a way that is simply not comparable to any other player in the insurance industry. Whether this change in the public’s perception of insurance is born of the social media age or not, it’s clear that a fresh face is required when considering how to brand your insurance company. With a rapidly expanding population, the pool of potential new clients is brimming and it will be the insurance provider with the most memorable and trustworthy public relations efforts that takes the lion’s share. Utilize Social Media… Whether or not Facebook, Twitter and their contemporaries will stand the test of time and still command the usage rate in 10 years that they do today is debatable, there can be no denying that the very way that people communicate is undergoing a complete revolution and, given this fact, giving your insurance company a social media presence is crucial. It should also be noted that not just any social media presence will do; given their freeness, ease-of-use and the bridge to hundreds of millions of people that they represent, your social media endeavors deserve the very best that your company has to offer, including connecting with customers and offering content that is useful to them as opposed to throwing endless promotional content at them. Building trust with clients means being open and communicative and social media offers you the ability to make this trustworthy side of your firm one that the whole world can see. Finally… The ever-evolving landscape of business in general and insurance in particular is quickly drawing a line between those who are working to keep up and those who are being left behind. Technology has made it possible for every company to connect with their customers, both potential and existing, in intimate and intuitive ways, a point proven by the success of Geico’s friendly branding scheme as detailed above. New thinking is required to keep up with the business trends of a new time and every insurance company not currently working towards a friendlier external persona needs to take the time to take stock of what they’re doing if keeping up with the competition is a priority. If you've been in the insurance industry for any amount of time, you know that because of the secure and lucrative nature of the industry, you're bound to know a lot of agents who've been selling insurance for upwards of 15, 20 and even 25 years. Odds are that most of the agents you run into are in their late 40s to mid 50s. This is great news for your agency if you and your clients are looking for agents with a lot of experience. Most clients probably prefer a more seasoned agent. But that doesn't mean you should overlook the value of having a younger insurance agent in your agency.
Younger agents bring a lot to the table while they're starting out. There's a great chance they're going to be more tech savvy than your older agents. What they lack in industry experience and training, they can likely make up for with their experience in marketing, tech, communication, customer service and sales. So, you're ready to start your search for some younger agents. What are the best ways for you to find, train and keep those agents on your team? Check out these tips below! FIND THEM WHERE THEY LIVE - ON SOCIAL MEDIA Your agency should be actively promoting job opportunities on your social media accounts as well as on your company website. If you aren't doing both of those things already, you should start now. Young agents are young people and young people are actively looking for everything from groceries to cars to relationships and jobs online. LinkedIn is a must for connecting with new employees. Facebook and Craigslist are great options as well! SHOW THEM HOW THEY'RE RIGHT FOR THE JOB Explaining to new agents that there is certainly a need for them in your agency makes the role less intimidating to someone with little experience. Let them know that they're already well-versed in things that older, more experienced agents are not like their ability to market and network online OFFER TRAINING AND OFFER IT ONLINE Coming out of COVID, every agency has had to learn how to operate virtually from home. This means you should be able to find excellent training opportunities tailored to younger agents that align with your agency. Being willing to train new agents both on-the-go and at their desks will be an attractive selling point for young agents looking for jobs. ESTABLISH YOURSELF AS THEIR PERSONAL GURU Young agents, especially brand new ones, need a mentor. Partner your young agents with experienced agents and build a mentor program where they meet every month, for example, and create an atmosphere where questions are encouraged so the mentor can identify what really motivates the agent. This will help build your young agents’ confidence in their own abilities and will provide an open, trusting office setting. TEACH THEM HOW TO NURTURE CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS Seasoned agents know that the key to continued success is all in the way you treat your clients. Teach your new recruits that relationships with new clients are just as important as being able to bring in new ones. Show them that once they've established that relationship, there are opportunities to cross-sell and renew that will keep their book of business healthy, instead of having to pay money for or chase new leads. They'll need to know that their relationships with their clients are more important to their bottom line than anything else. Agency owners know that achieving success in an agency is a balancing act. Having the right mix of young and old agents could be just the thing your agency needs to reach new levels of success. |
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