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…
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…
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…
The marketplace has been tightening up for the past year or so. Premium increases in the range of 15-50% (or even higher) have been anticipated. Now, with the events of September 11, this seems a bargain and we are beginning to face one of the hardest markets in industry history. As a producer what can…
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…
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?
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…
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….
Much has been written about how to reduce insurance premiums. Unfortunately, too much of this advice has been BAD and much of this bad advice comes from consumer web sites and publications that have little understanding of insurance and risk management. The purpose of this article is to identify some of the bad advice being bandied…
We dare to say that our newsletter subscribers (you) are wealthier and have more potential for wealth creation than 99.1% of the population on the planet. Check that statistic out for yourself. When considering the world stage, your current and future earning power is staggering. Keep in mind, though, that it’s not all about your…
