Agency Operations

Hard Market Shenanigans

You believe that the agents of a particular company are deliberately underinsuring homes under an HO policy because the carrier’s rates are not competitive. They are allegedly relying on the carrier’s guaranteed replacement cost provision on the home, but you believe that this results in gross underinsurance of other property, and it definitely puts you…

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Marketing Personal Lines to Employees Using Workers Compensation Information

Your agency has rosters of employees that are submitted to you annually in order to write the business’s workers compensation coverage. Your sales department would like to use these lists to send marketing letters/brochures to employees to solicit their personal lines accounts. Is this a violation of privacy laws or is it otherwise a good…

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The ABC’s of Marketing

Most of us have enough food. shelter, clothing, and transportation. We don’t need much more. But we want more. We need food. But we want fast foods, diet foods and gourmet meals. Most of us don’t need a six-bedroom, 2 ½ bath home. But many of us may want one. We don’t need expensive designer…

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Closing the Sale in Five Easy Steps

Probably the toughest part of the sales process for most producers is closing the sale. However, by the time you get to that point, the sale should almost close itself. One of the reasons many producers have difficulty landing the account is they haven’t done the prep work that should have put the prospect in…

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How to Ask For and Get Referrals

According to one study, 86% of surveyed customers would refer their broker to their friends, yet only 12% had ever been ASKED. Another study found that a referral is up to 15 times more likely to do business with you than a cold prospect. Cold calling is HARD and statistically unproductive. Referral based selling can…

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You Gain a Lot Through Apology

Apologies are not an admission of wrongdoing. A simple, “I’m sorry that happened. What can we do to make it right?” can go a long way towards restoring faith and keeping a customer. In the long run, you gain a lot through improved retention and increased referrals. Click Emily’s photo to visit her web site.

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Building Value Rather Than Cutting Price

If you don’t know how to build value, you’ll be faced too often with the alternative of cutting price. The best way I know to build value in the prospect’s mind is to talk needs-based benefits. We build value by showing how our product, service or idea can satisfy those needs.

A Balanced Approach to Agency Marketing

Generating a profitable, high-margin book of business requires a balanced approach to marketing and sales – built on processes that are sustained over the long haul. Steve lays out how an agency can achieve such a successful marketing and sales process that is both high-touch and high-tech.

Winning and Losing Key Accounts

Key accounts can be significant for a variety of reasons: their premium volume, profitability, marquee status, relationship with producers, or a combination of these factors. Losing them is never easy. In this article we discuss learning from the experience, replacing it, and preventing future losses. On the positive side we also talk about winning a…

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Resisting Price Pressure

A client recently had me work with them to prepare their teams for price increases. The concern was that new and existing business would fall off and therefore pressure on the staff to give discounts was expected to be high. Here are some things we discussed which I share with you to consider for a…