Agency Operations

12 Reasons YOU Should NOT Sell Your Own Agency (Part 4 of 4)

Have you ever bought or sold an agency? Did you use a consultant to structure the deal or did you do it yourself? If the latter, there’s a good chance you might have left a considerable amount of money on the table and didn’t even know it. Good mergers and acquisitions consultants don’t come cheap…

12 Reasons YOU Should NOT Sell Your Own Agency (Part 2 of 4)

Have you ever bought or sold an agency? Did you use a consultant to structure the deal or did you do it yourself? If the latter, there’s a good chance you might have left a considerable amount of money on the table and didn’t even know it. Good mergers and acquisitions consultants don’t come cheap…

How to Increase Commissions by 50%!

The #1 factor that distinguishes high from low producer production is goal setting. This article does not address the specific methodologies of goal-setting, but rather demonstrates how the goal-setting process can be used in a practical application. The figure of “50%” used in this illustration is arbitrary…each producer must establish a sales improvement goal that…

Concept of data protection with icons on wooden cubes

The Cost to Quote

According to consultant Chris Burand, “I have found that producers usually drastically underestimate the time required to quote and write an account.” Do you know how long it takes to quote an account? More important, do you know what it COSTS to quote an account in the aggregate? When you look at the numbers, it’s easy…

House, car, money icons under a red umbrella for insurance protection concept

The Danger of Buying Insurance on the Internet

As if I didn’t get enough punishment via our “Ask an Expert” service :-), at one time I served as one of the insurance “experts” at www.allexperts.com. During that brief stint, I had a question submitted from someone who purchased his auto insurance through a web site, without the aid or counsel of an agent. Here’s his…

Padlock with a tablet, keyboard, mouse and other device. Internet and technology security

Doorknob Marketing

According to a recent study, about 67% of apartment dwellers and house renters do not have an HO-4 (renters insurance) policy. What does this mean to you? Given the number of renters in the U.S., this is a vast untapped market. Admittedly, the commissions aren’t great, but what better place to start a newly licensed…

Selling on the Internet…How One Agent Does It

Can agents compete with direct writers and others in selling insurance over the internet? According to IIABA member Gary Savelli of Basic West Insurance Agency in San Francisco, the answer is a resounding YES! Because Gary runs a small agency and wants to keep it that way, he has found it necessary to REDUCE the…

Commission Rebating…Legal?

In order to reach a desired premium, an insurer may ask if the agent wants to “chip in” commission, for example, reducing the commission from 15% to 10% in order to make the premium more competitive. The process is invisible to the insured or prospect. Is this rebating?

12 Tips for Selling in a Hard Market

Many people in the P&C industry, particularly agency CSR’s and a number of producers have not yet had the pleasure of experiencing a hard market. It’s been about 15 years since we last had a significant hardening of prices. A hard market presents a number of selling problems. On the other hand, it also presents…

How to Make 50 (or more) Sales Calls in a Day

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Fifty or more sales calls in a single day? Obviously, making this many (or more) individual sales calls would be pretty difficult. But what if you could get that many prospects in a room at one time? Well, you can. All you have to do is hone your public speaking skills….