If you've been paying attention, and we're sure you have been, you've noticed the "HELP WANTED" signs on office doors all over the country. From the family-owned diner on the corner to fast food chains to doctor's offices and beyond, no one wants to work. And while you may have open positions in your agency that you're trying to fill, there's no guarantee that you're going to even be able to attract an employee who REALLY WANTS TO WORK.

Below, Mike shares his thoughts on one very simple thing you can be doing in your agency to help out your understaffed and overworked agency at this very moment, without risking a hefty salary on someone who may not even show up when you need them. Check it out!

"​Right now you have an over the top abundance of people who NEED - past WANT - to save some money on their insurance.

Right now many of you are struggling to find the MANPOWER necessary to drive the numbers you are trying to hit.

And yet, with automation, you could have each and every person in your office so flush with opportunity they would not even have to pick up the phone to make an outbound dial to get a quote. But for some reason that's not a conversation many of you are willing to have.

Sitting in your office, day after day, smiling and dialing, some days making 100 dials with 10 people picking up and 2 or 3 allowing you to quote.

Some days with the best of intentions on making the hundred dials but only getting around to 30 with no quotes, because office stuff.

Yet, you could have a program dropping hundreds if not THOUSANDS of enticing messages, timed out throughout the day. 25 messages going out every 15 minutes for 8 hours. 800 messages going out. Bump it to 50 / 1600 if you're a bigger office. Bump it to 100 / 3200 if you're huge and simply have your phone ringing... or your calendar registering with person.... after person.... after person saying "I just got a message from you about my insurance.... let's talk."
​
But instead the conversation is about how we're struggling to bring on new people. How about getting your EXISTING people working for the full 8-10 hours they're there? MOST of us have people sitting around twiddling their thumbs or forcing themselves to use ineffective and exhausting prospecting methods when they COULD be QUOTING AND SELLING ALLLLLL DAYYYYY ERRRRRYYYY DAYYY.

But instead you're trying to figure out how you can put some fancy job offer and compensation/benefit package for people who are going to ghost your interviews and potentially not show up for their first day.

You're looking to OVERPAY a PERSON to do the exact same thing as the other people in your office right now. Smile and Dial 5-6 hours out of the 8 and hopefully pick up an hour or two of productive activity as the result.

You COULD have those people wasting those 5-6 hours dialing every day just quoting, selling, and binding. Can I ask you why you're doing this?

We are a year and a half into this pandemic. We are not seeing signs of improvement, in fact, many would argue that this employment situation is going to continue to get worse.

There are over 10 million open jobs right now in our country. 10 million.

They ain't coming to work for you unless you get super creative and overpay, and at that point it's a crap shoot if you're even getting anyone worth the pay.

OR, you could have a machine get those calls and messages done for you for LESS than the price of a VA and have the opportunity land in the lap of the people in your office that you already employ and know can close the business.

Unless your people suck. I've got no solution for you if your team sucks.

You're stuck with suck right now, but at least you can give the suck more at bats..

A broken clock is right two times a day and more at bats will help a weak team close more business too."

The urge to give advice to a colleague usually comes with the best of intentions. But it's important to remember that you shouldn't give life-changing career advice to someone without considering the full scope of that person's situation. You'd never want to steer someone into a major business and life decision without knowing if they're actually capable of handling everything that that change will bring with it.

A while back, Mike McCormick took to our Insurance Soup Facebook group with some solid advice on agents who offer potentially hazardous advice to other agents before really thinking it through. Check out his thoughts below:

"I have seen people give the advice "Go become an Agent and stop making someone else money" a TON of times in Insurance Soup.

Hell, I have given the advice myself from time to time.

Unless you know the person it's frivolous advice to give.

There is a LOT that goes into being an agent and some people just dont have it in them. That does not make the person a bad person, or a failure, or anything. We all have our skill sets and sometimes business ownership is not one of them.

Giving the advice to a stranger to abandon a situation they may be having success with (and often times perhaps even the most success or happiest they have been in their career) is dangerous.

So much goes into being an Agent. You're no longer working 40-50 hour weeks. Often in the beginning you're working 70-80+ hours. Can you stomach that?

Do you have the financial fortitude to weather the storm? And yes it is a storm. A violent and often times completely unpredictable storm.

You are taking on a whole slew of new expenses in many cases. E&O Insurance, business insurance, an accountant, an attorney, start up expenses, marketing expenses, a rater, a CRM, and more.

You have WAY more responsibility than to simply come in, sell, and go home. It is an undertaking that leaves many in shell shock.

I have been fortunate to experience success pretty much in anything I have done in my career and I was totally blown away by the amount of work and responsibility that went into opening up my own shop.

I am all for the person who wants more for themselves.

I am in total support for the ambitious entrepreneur-minded individual who is financially, emotionally, mentally, and physically capable of making the leap.

For the most part we're all virtual strangers in Insurance Soup. Some of us know each other, but with 39,000 of us stretching from coast to coast and from Texas to the Northern most parts of Canada we are virtual acquaintances at best.

Not every solider makes a great general. More do not than do.

If someone is asking questions and showing interest, educate and inform.

Please, please, please do not steer or direct a stranger into making career decisions that you have no idea if they are capable of handling or not.

This group was founded on the idea of support, education, and camaraderie and while intent is good we should all be mindful that we are doing no potential harm with misguided advice.

I say this to all of you out of love.

​I know all of your hearts are in the right place."

"Underwriters. I know that word strikes a nerve for many of you.

When I first got into insurance, I thought the same thing. They were the devil of success and their sole purpose was to make my life hell.

What I quickly realized is that they are the miracle workers and the final step between that big case being put through or being thrown out.

It can be hard to not let emotions be portrayed in a response to something being declined or turned away when you feel like there's still a way.

I can assure you though, a healthy and good relationship with your underwriters can make a huge difference. They are honestly the ones you should be kissing up to and making feel special. 

If your name comes across that caller ID and they cringe, they do not and will not go out of their way to help. If your name comes across that caller ID and they see that it's their friend, someone who is always nice, and that they have a relationship with, guess what? They will bend over backwards and do everything in their power to help you.

Stop viewing them as an enemy and start viewing them as a crucial part of your team.
​
Thank me later."

Those words above from Insurance Soup and CIA co-founder Taylor Dobbie, the words about how underwriters are usually the bane of an insurance agent's existence, are likely words that echo your own thoughts.  You've probably had experiences that add weight to the reason why underwriters get a bad rap, but like every agent knows, your career is built on good relationships. That goes for your underwriters too.

We know that's probably a tough pill to swallow, but you have to admit that Taylor makes a valid point. You get more flies with honey. Always. So, in an effort to help agents everywhere take a shot at improving the way they work with underwriters, we found these 3 quick tips to help you do just that. Check them out!

1. PROVIDE THEM WITH LESS RISKY POLICIES
We know, we know. The riskier policies are easier to sell. But if you're an agent who's been around for a while, you know that underwriters get a ton of flack from their carriers when they try to get riskier policies approved. Their carriers aren't dumb. They're very good at assessing the difference between "good risk" and "bad risk". If you do your underwriter a favor by submitting policies that are higher in good risk than they are in bad risk, you're probably going to get less push back because they'll get less push back from the carrier. If your underwriter knows that you're not just lobbing garbage at them non-stop, they'll be more likely to step up to the plate for you.

​2. MAKE LESS WORK FOR THEM, INSTEAD OF MORE
You know what it's like when you see an email or a phone call coming through from a client or co-worker who always seems to have a million pointless questions that could have all been answered by visiting your website or by doing a quick Google search. You dread working with them because of the inevitable waste of time that comes with them. The same goes for your underwriters. If they see you as an agent who is consistently bringing the same issue to them over and over again, your needs might get pushed to the bottom of the pile. And can you blame them? If you're creating needless amounts of work for them you're probably not going to be a favorite of theirs either.

​3. FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH WHAT THE CARRIERS WILL ACTUALLY APPROVE
"Well, they should just approve what my client needs them to" might be what you're thinking, but we all know that's not how the big wheel spins. This means it's your job as the agent to know the difference between a standard policy ask or an outlandish one that will never get approved. Spend some time with your underwriter and find out how, why, and what's realistic from the carrier's side, as well as the underwriter's side. You'll be saving everyone, including yourself, a lot of time and trouble by being proactive on this one. Just saying.

​Listen, we're not saying you should invite your underwriters over for Christmas dinner or take them on an all expense vacation with your family, but in Taylor's experience, giving a little in this area will get you a lot back. Treat your underwriters the way you treat your clients and you'll probably be glad you did.

​

This post originally ran on Fast Company.com.

By 2030, the private car, once a proxy for American culture itself, may be dead. Millennials are either none too thrilled at the prospect of purchasing a car, or just can’t afford one. Either way, between 2007 and 2011, the number of people between the ages of 18 and 34 who did so declined by 30%. Economists have estimated that private car ownership on the whole will decline in the U.S. by 80% in the next decade or so.

The implications for this shift are enormous. Car manufacturers will scramble to stay relevant, and perhaps, the end of America’s love affair with the car could usher in more investment in public transit and safe, walkable, low-carbon streets. But it will also give rise to another quandary: What will happen to insurance?

As it currently stands, the auto insurance industry is built around a model of private car ownership. Currently, insurance premiums attach to the car, not the driver. So if you lend your car to someone else, who crashes it, you, as the owner of the car and the holder of the insurance, would be liable to pay damages, not your friend. It’s easy to see how this model fails to translate across shifts in car usage. What if, as is becoming an increasingly popular idea, you decide to subscribe to a program like BOOK by Cadillac, which lets you rent different cars throughout the year for a flat monthly fee? Or if you swap out your car for a Car2Go or Zipcar membership, or just rely on Lyft and Uber? Or decide to use an app like Turo to rent out someone else’s car for a trip?

In giving up private cars to the sharing economy, perhaps the thing we should be keeping for ourselves is insurance. A new startup called Arity–a subsidiary of the insurance giant Allstate, tellingly—is doubling down on helping insurers build out a new model based on driver behavior, not car ownership or traditional demographic factors like gender, zip code, or vehicle model. Arity is using sensor data from smartphones and telematics connections inside cars–combined with traditional metrics like insurance claims history–to create personalized “driving scores” for customers. An algorithm processes behaviors like hard braking, speeding, running lights, and frequency of car usage to build the score, which then influences how much drivers pay for their plan. And crucially, hope is to cover drivers regardless of what car they get into.

This sort of “usage-based insurance” model is not new–companies like Progressive and State Farm have used driver behavior data to influence individual insurance plans. Arity launched in 2016, in fact, out of a previous Allstate program, called Drivewise, which launched in 2010 to use sensor technology in cars to map driver behavior and adjust premiums accordingly. But Arity, according to the company, has developed more sophisticated tech to more accurately capture and analyze driver behavior. And by creating a product around this model that it can sell, it hopes to make usage-based insurance go mainstream.
The startup offers devices that connect to the car’s diagnostic port and a software development kit to track everything from how fast the car is moving, how suddenly a driver brakes, how sharply they turn, and how many miles they accumulate. It also developed an app that tracks location and other data; in February, it rolled out a new version that incorporates data on distracted driving and phone use. Arity sells the software to other insurance companies like Esurance aiming to build out more driver-based plans. It’s also eyeing partnerships with mobility companies like Uber, which could use the data to create more behavior-based driver scores. As Arity president Gary Hallgren likes to say: “I would want to know that my Uber driver has a good rating because he is, in fact, a good driver, rather because his car smells good and he had a good radio station on.”
Scaling up data around driver behavior also has broader implications for cities, Hallgren says. For instance, Arity is partnering with the city of Chicago, where it’s based, to share data on where spikes in poor driver behavior occur. The partnership is helping the city identify speeding-prone stretches of road, intersections where drivers don’t stop, or corners where they turn especially sharply. This data will help Chicago advance its Vision Zero Action Plan–part of a global effort to reduce traffic injuries and fatalities through better street design and policies–by targeting infrastructure improvements and adjusting enforcement.
These are appealing applications, but Arity will still face an uphill battle in individual customer adoption. Even though usage-based insurance programs tend to reduce costs for customers–Allstate’s Drivewise program shaved up to 15% off a user’s premium–people still tend to balk at the invasion of privacy inherent in having their every move in a car tracked and analyzed. Only around 10% of insurance customers opt into data-based plans. But Hallgren thinks that the potential cost savings of having safe driving rewarded with discounts could nudge people both toward usage-based insurance plans, and hopefully, better driver behavior.

A while back, one of the Soup co-founders took to the group with a vulnerable post about something he struggles with on a daily basis known as imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome, which can be considered an underlying symptom of low-self-esteem, is a condition that causes successful people to doubt their abilities and question the validity of their success and their work. It's common in extremely driven people who've attained or are attaining a high level of achievement and it causes feelings of inadequacy in their field regardless of their proven track record.

While we all have doubts from time to time, someone with imposter syndrome may find it affecting their work as well as their mindset. Many sources recommend precisely what our co-founder recommends below and that is to get out of your head and be mindful of the evidence of your success. Check out his post below!

"Let's talk about leaning into fear. It's something we all must do at various points to make progress in our lives and our careers.

I do not talk about it much but I deal with imposter syndrome.

Between all the stone throwers we get screenshots of from outside of Soup, to the owners of other educations trying to make ours sound like it's not the gold standard of the industry, it is tough to not question yourself a bit.

I know my stuff is good and I know my intent with Agents is always in the right place, but when you read what others say about you often enough there are moments you ask yourself if maybe they're right.

So, now that the table is set. I've had a mini-course in my head that I have wanted to put together for ya'll. It's a topic you could say I know a little bit about. Growing profitable groups on social media that you can monetize for your Agency.

So I put the outline of the course together - put the slides together - prettied the slides up - and it's all ready to go.

I havent started recording it yet.

Because I have that stupid voice in the back of my head right now telling me I have no right making it.

But Mike - you and Taylor own the largest group on Facebook for Agents.

But Mike - the groups you ran when you were in Agency were responsible for 40% of revenue.

But Mike - you have given speeches and workshops on the topic and have gotten standing ovations.

Yeah I know. But that's not how imposter syndrome works.

That's not how fear works.

So, here I am with a badass education for y'all that I have not been able to get started because I am in my own head.

You know how I will get out of my own head?

When I am done with this post I am starting to record.

You have to lean into your fears. You have to lean into your insecurities. You have to tune out self doubt and the haters even more.

Just lean in.
And get started."

The insurance industry is not one for the shy or faint of heart. It's a business that one gets into knowing that there are going to be many social aspects to the job. Yes, an insurance agency is primarily responsible for the filing and handling of claims, collecting premiums and other more "all work and no play" type duties, but a huge side of insurance is selling, and selling always means social. Always. If you're getting into the insurance business, you need to be ready to bring your A game socially so you can have a shot at successful selling.

​STEP 1 - HAVE A HEART
Part of being an insurance agent is having tough conversations with clients about potentially catastrophic events that have happened or could happen to greatly influence that client's life. Clients don't want to have to think about losing their home, or they're families being injured in an automobile accident, but these are the tough topics that agents have to cover with clients. Make sure that you're able to have these types of tough conversations with prospects in a way that makes them feel at ease and comforted right off the bat. You're not trying to scare them, you're just trying to navigate a tough topic sympathetically in order to build trust.

​STEP 2 - BE A CUSTOMER SERVICE DREAM
You're going to have to prove to your clients that you're a salesperson who cares about them, and then, once the sales are made, the proof had better be in the pudding. Agents who go the extra mile to make sure their clients are tended to regularly, efficiently and properly are going to have long-lasting business relationships with their clients. If you're an agent who routinely drops the ball, doesn't connect with your clients beyond the sale and/or renewal time, or if you're an agent who doesn't show up to meetings or makes clients wait, you won't be around in this industry for long.

STEP 3 - IT'S A SOCIAL WORLD WE LIVE IN
These days, thanks to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, you can't hide from your clients behind your office door anymore. If you want to win clients and keep clients happy, you're going to be expected to engage with them on social media. Not only does having an active presence on social media make it easier for you and your agency to connect with people you wouldn't have been able to otherwise, but you're going to be creating stronger relationships with the clients you already have by interacting with them online.

​Step 4 - YOU'RE GOING TO FIGHT FOR BUSINESS
There's an enormous amount of competition in the insurance industry, as every agent knows. Other agencies are striving to produce, just like yours is. This means it's not going to come easy. You've got to be sure you're ahead of the game at every angle. Is your website and social media doing what it needs to do and reaching the right people? Are your targeted ads working? Are you actively showing clients what you're doing better than the other guys? This is an important aspect of any business, but as an insurance agent, you're going to have to come prepared on all fronts if you want to succeed.

​STEP 5 - NURTURE EXISTING RELATIONSHIPS FOR THE WIN
Insurance 101 says that it's easier to keep a client than it is to get a new one and this is likely one of the key social strategies that can lead to an agent's success (or demise). Taking care of the clients you have usually means that not only will they renew in order to stay with you for their insurance needs, but they're more likely to tell friends and family about you which leads to informed referrals. This is a powerful strategy that a lot of agents forget about when they're not calling clients back or when they're only interested in that primary sale. A happy customer is a long-term customer and that's what your agency needs to thrive.

It's not always easy for people, but if you're selling in the insurance industry you've got to be prepared to get out there and show your face, and then you've got to continually show up for your clients. If you follow these 5 basic steps to social success, we're sure you're going to have plenty of happy customers.

​

This post originally ran on Forbes.com.

​Are you looking for ways to win back lost customers? If so, you’re not alone. Brands across all industries want to keep customers engaged for as long as possible. 

There are plenty of advantages that come with building an audience that’s loyal to your brand. For starters, you can save money and increase your profits. It can cost five to 25 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. And I've noticed that long-term customers are likely to spend more when they place an order. 

The percentage of people who stop using your product or service in a given time period is known as your churn rate. You can calculate this by dividing the number of customers you lost by the total number of customers you had at the beginning of the time period and multiply by 100. So, if your business has 200 customers at the beginning of the month and 20 stop using your product, you have a churn rate of 10% that month. 

Companies with a high customer churn rate often have smaller profit margins and see mixed reviews on social platforms. As a business owner or marketer, keeping your churn rate low is crucial to your success. 
Below are several ways you can win back customers when they stop placing orders or responding to your emails. I started using these strategies back in 2016 when I co-founded my company. We've since grown exponentially and even acquired a few new brands along the way.

1. Find Out Why You Lost Them
First, find out why they decided to stop ordering or responding in the first place. If you can get to the bottom of the issue, you’ll have a much easier time figuring out your next course of action. 

For instance, if someone stopped buying from you because they found a better deal on a competitor site, you could send a coupon code that gives them a special price on their next order. Small incentives go a long way toward retaining customers. 

You can easily find out why customers are leaving by sending an exit survey to email subscribers. When someone goes a specific period of time without completing an order, or cancels their membership, send a short survey with targeted questions. You could ask them what your company could do to get them to stay. 

Alternatively, you could create a form that pops up when a customer is getting ready to abandon their shopping cart. These forms should only have one or two questions. Both questions should directly relate to their decision to leave and what you can do to change their mind. 

2. Make Returning Worth Their Time
Once you understand why customers are leaving, you can start taking action to make returning worth their time. At my company, we like to publish three to five blog posts every week so customers have a reason to come back to our site that doesn’t require them to spend money. Consumers should see your site as an experience and not a simple visit to a store. Content marketing is the perfect way to connect with your audience and give them one more reason to stay loyal to your brand. 

You can also entice customers into returning by frequently updating your website. Every business is slightly different, so your updates may vary depending on your budget and industry. 

Website users are often receptive to design changes. If you see that most people who filled out abandonment forms cited a slow checkout page as their reason for leaving, a revamp could be the thing that brings them back for future orders. 

When you make substantial changes to your products, features or website design, don’t forget to email your subscribers and let your social media followers know. If a former customer is still following your brand or subscribed to your list, they will see the message and they could come back to place a new order.
 
3. Create Personalized Campaigns
So, you’ve figured out why customers are leaving and made changes designed to bring them back; what’s next? The next step is creating personalized campaigns that are designed to bring customers back to your website. 

Earlier, I mentioned sending coupon codes to customers who found a better deal elsewhere. This tactic is just one example of how you can personalize retention strategies for each person. 

In many cases, email subscribers will not come back and buy something after just one email. You have to build up their trust in your brand again. You could segment your audience based on their interests and last interactions and create a re-engagement campaign. 

Let’s say you own an online pet supply store and want to reach your inactive email subscribers. First, pull all inactive subscribers who haven’t opened an email in at least six months. The key is to keep them in their designated segments. In other words, all of the inactive customers interested in dogs would go to one group, and those interested in cats would go to another. 

Now, you can create a campaign where you send relevant content and offers to the subscribers. I also suggest personalizing the headlines so they can see that you know they haven’t interacted with your brand in a long time. Headlines like “Was it something we said?” are eye-catching and can bring inactive subscribers back to your site. 

As business owners and marketers, we have to admit that we won’t convince everyone to keep using our products or services. Use these tips to put the odds in your favor and win back more customers.

Recently, Mike took to Insurance Soup and let them in on a bit of advice and openly admitted that he needed to this advice himself, which is why he felt comfortable relaying it to the members of the group. 

Basically, not every insurance agency owner is really meant to do EVERY job in the agency itself. As an agency owner, you're going to have your strong points and one of those strong points should be having the courage and wherewithal to notice your weaknesses.

In many cases, Mike thinks that a lot of agency owners resist hiring an agency manager because they feel that managing staff should fall under the job description of the owner, but it doesn't have to be and SHOULD NOT be the case if that owner feels that managing people isn't something they're well-suited for. 

See what Mike had to say about it below:

"​I am going to let you in on a little secret.

It's a secret that for many of you (once you know it,  if you decide to embrace it) could save your business.

I mean this with all due respect and I will say it as someone who also acknowledges the problem in himself. Some of you SUCK AT MANAGING PEOPLE.

Maybe you're a hothead.
Maybe you are non-confrontational.
Maybe you set goals that are too easy.
Maybe you do not want to hear about anyone's personal drama.
Maybe you just expect people to do their job without being supervised and coached.
Maybe you're the type that is always changing what is wanted or how things are done.
Maybe you give people too much rope to hang themselves.
Maybe you fire people too quickly.

Guess what?

If you are one of those things (or many others) and YOU run the show, your Agency is in constant danger of collapse.

Now that is not to say that you do not add value to your Agency. You have a ton of skills that an Agency needs. You would not have gone into business for yourself if you did not believe this.

But if you KNOW or uncover QUICKLY that you are unhappy managing or bad at it, stop forcing yourself to be something you are not. Or even worse, something that you do not enjoy or WANT to be.

HIRE A MANAGER.

Hire a manager that reports up to you. Give them a clear and concise role. Communicate goals. Let them know what is important to you. And have a solid plan for keeping that ONE person accountable for their ONE job.

Let THEM manage the staff.

You can work collaboratively on behind-the-scenes conversations about team, staff, sales goals, etc..., but you remove yourself from the role where you feel very weak. Or from a role you hate. Instead, hire someone who loves it and has a good track record of experience.

A LOT of Agents never think to do this because in their head, it's THEIR Agency.. THEY have to manage, but the truth is that  they don't. And neither do you.

It's a choice and if you suck at it or if you hate it, for your businesses chances of success and your own personal sanity, HIRE A MANAGER.
​
Someone Karen can speak to when she stops in."

An agency manager can be an amazing asset when it comes to directing and facilitating all parts of an insurance agency. They work with agents and customers to guarantee that objectives are met, important strategies and rules are maintained, and consumer loyalty is accomplished. Specific information might be required relying upon the kind of organization, but if an agency owner feels it's in the agency's best interest to step aside and assign the role of managing staff to someone else, it can make a world of difference for all involved!