We often encounter agents whose growth goals require them to penetrate new geographic territories. They open offices, hire or move employees and expect a flow of business. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. Here’s why and what you can do about it….
The primary value of an insurance agency is its book of business. The solicitation of an agency’s accounts represents THEFT, pure and simple. This theft is worse than the burglary of jewelry from your home. In the case of jewelry, you have lost the value of the pieces once (and any emotional attachment you may…
The Contact Grid is the management system by which the agency employees manage their relationships with the clients and prospects, and the agency management controls and knows that the expected contacts are being made as scheduled. The Contact Grid is a concept that can be done manually, automated through MS Office (in Excel) or managed…
Compensation depends upon what the producer does for the agency and client, NOT how long he’s been with the agency or even how much he has produced in the past. Producers are paid for selling insurance. Producers are paid for maintaining the customer relationship in order to retain those customers, and premium and commissions. Producers…
Incentive Compensation defines a change in compensation method in which employees achieve increased compensation (raises) for increased productivity. It teaches employees the shocking truth about growth and profitability — we can only afford to keep paying more to employees if we grow and are profitable (without taking money from agency owners’ pockets).
A “Legendary” agency is one who rarely loses customers unless the customer dies, moves or sells his/her business. It also has a regular, measurable, flow of referrals generated both by customers and by the agency requesting them. A “Legendary” agency is easily identified by the positive and proud attitude of both employees and owners.
Studies indicate that in 1950, customer loyalty was at 66%. A half century later, customer loyalty had decreased to 12%. We believe that the insurance industry has tracked this trend. But what does customer loyalty actually mean? How was it originally achieved? How was it lost?
A few years ago we visited an agent who boasted about continuous strong advertising and marketing efforts but bemoaned the lack of growth in his agency. Our consultants asked the agency for the marketing layout and the results. His “continuous strong marketing and advertising efforts” consisted of a full one page ad in the Yellow…
It used to be the $1 Million ceiling. That was the level of revenue at which an individual agent with a few helpers had to become a business with different people handling different clients and responsibilities. Everyone still worked for the agent, but the agent no longer made every decision in the agency. However, a…
For many years we have criticized the common practice of price quoting as the insurance agent’s primary sales method. Price is certainly important. But it’s rarely the only issue facing insurance customers and, while it is the easiest issue to address, there are often more important triggers to buying decisions than price. This article discusses…
