​Selling insurance is different from selling everything else.

Insurance is one of the most expensive things people buy and they can’t see it, touch it, or hold it.

You’re selling ideas. You’re selling trust. You’re selling promises.

You’re selling yourself. This is such a huge challenge that most insurance salespeople quit in the first 2 years and many agents are afraid to hire inexperienced salespeople.

 hate to see young producers fail and even more, I hate seeing agents miss out on the largest pool of cheap, passionate, and open-minded talent.

That’s why I created this resource. To help young insurance salespeople be successful and encourage hiring agents to consider young and inexperienced applicants.

If you know a young insurance salesperson please pass this article along to them. And if you are one:

Follow these 21 tips to be an inexperienced but insanely successful insurance salesperson:​

1) Dress More Professionally

Obviously, if you dress more professionally clients are more likely to take you seriously. I don’t need to convince you of that.

But when you’re the sharpest dressed person in the office your coworkers and your boss will take you more seriously and most importantly, you’ll take yourself more seriously!

Sometimes confidence comes from the outside in. If you look the part everyone, including yourself, will start to believe it.

2) Avoid Using “Young” Slang

Have you ever told a client or prospect that you were “all about” customer service?
​
Do you express agreement by saying things like, “Gotcha”, “Right on” or “For Sure”?

Don’t get me wrong, I believe in being yourself and not apologizing for it, but when you’re trying to sell, the more you speak like your prospect the better success you’ll have.

If your prospect doesn’t use those terms it’s harder to earn their trust when you do.

3) Find Common Ground

Regardless your prospect’s age or background there’s always something you have in common.

Find it.

Did you grow up in the same neighborhood? Like the same baseball team?  Shop at the same grocery store? Do you both love your family?

Ask questions and figure it out so you can focus on the commonalities and skip over the rest.

4) Ask Prospects About Their Kids

If you’re trying to sell to someone much older than you, try to find out if they have a child or grandchild your age and ask a lot of questions about him or her.

You’ll prime their brain to think about their loved one. This makes your prospect more likely to buy from you since they would want someone else to do the same for their child.

Plus, while you may be young and inexperienced, if you’re more polished than their child you’ll come off as a real professional by comparison.

5) Reference Combined Experience

Remind prospects that they’re not buying only from you.

“I passed my licensing exam 3 months ago and I’m so lucky because our office has over 45 years of insurance experience! In fact, every single policy I write is double-checked by the owner of the agency.”

If experience may be an issue for your prospect, make sure they know you’re up to your ears in it.

6) Learn From Experienced Coworkers

Technology has created a very unusual situation in the business world.

It makes younger people think they’re smarter than they are.

As a tech guy myself, I know it’s hard to take advice from someone you just watched peck away at a keyboard to write a one sentence email. But I also know more multi-millionaire insurance agents than almost anybody and I have found almost no correlation between their tech abilities and their success.

That’ll change for your generation, but learn everything you can from those who’ve been around.

​7) Be Enthusiastic

Have you ever seen an infomercial without enthusiastic people?

Everybody likes enthusiasm and as a young salesman, you can display unbridled enthusiasm without looking like an idiot.

People will just think you’re young and have a lot of energy.

They’ll like it. And they’ll buy into it.

8) Follow the Markets

If want to relate to a more mature and professional audience, follow the stock market.

You don’t have to be an expert, just know enough to ask questions that don’t make you sound stupid.

After you’ve qualified someone by asking if they follow the market, ask something like, “What sectors do you think are going to do the best in the next quarter?”

And don’t turn into one of those Cramer wannabees who think they always know the sleeper stock. It’ll make you look inexperienced to someone who has followed the market for years.

9) Listen to Your Phone Voice

​Record your voice on the phone while talking to some clients.

Do you sound smart?

Do you sound confident?

Do you sound like a little kid who picked up the phone in Daddy’s office?

10) Sell to Other Young People

There’s one group you have a huge advantage with in selling… other young people!

And guess what…

There’s millions of them!

Millions buying homes, millions getting married, starting businesses, having kids, buying expensive stuff!

Go get them!

11) Don’t Ignore Sales Fundamentals

I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but Facebook, Twitter, Text Messages and QR Codes don’t sell insurance.

People do.

Of course there are tools that can make things easier and more effective for agents, but social media will never replace the basics.

Read “How To Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. It was written in 1936 and teaches you how Teddy Roosevelt, Henry Ford, Benjamin Franklin and a lot of other old people become successful long before Mark Zuckerburg.

Everything in that book is just as relevant today as it was 75 years ago.

12) Speak Less, Listen More

As a young or inexperienced salesperson, there’s always an impulse to demonstrate your knowledge.

You want prospects to see you know your stuff because you’re a bit worried about it yourself.

The more you talk or explain things they didn’t ask about, the more obvious it is how much you don’t know.

And the more likely you’ll elicit a question you can’t answer!

13) Bring Up Age First

The best way to avoid an objection is to bring it up and overcome it before the prospect has a chance to.

Make a joke about your inexperience and be open about it.

Once you’ve brought it up, you have the excuse to explain why your prospect shouldn’t be concerned.

(you’re well-trained, you’re licensed, you ask questions when you don’t know answers, etc)

Here’s the greatest example ever.

14) Be Better Prepared

If your inexperience makes you feel inadequate as a salesperson then find a way to get around it.

Work harder, work longer, learn more about your products. Have an answer for every possible question.

Read books about sales, listen to sales audio tapes, go to seminars about sales.

Get in front of a mirror, a colleague, or a friend and practice your sales scripts, practice your rebuttals, your closes.

Nothing comes to you. Prepare yourself and go get it.

15) Expect to Live In the Trenches

Selling insurance is hard, hard work.

Insurance agents you see with big houses and nice cars playing golf around the world didn’t get there overnight.

They sold and sold and sold.

And sold more.

It’s the only way to become super successful in this business and if you want to be successful you’re going to have to do it too.

​16) Become a Marketing Expert

You can’t rely on the agency or carrier you work for to come up with all the marketing ideas and generate leads. Here’s a few marketing resources to get you started:

• Free Marketing Book for Insurance Agents
• 100 Insurance Agent Marketing Ideas
• 100 Insurance Social Media Marketing Ideas
• 100 Insurance Lead Generation Ideas
• Insurance LeadFinder Tool

You’re not just a salesperson, you are a marketer.

17) Don’t Spew Features

When you’re new to selling it’s common to focus on product features rather than benefits.

At some point you learned all 10 features of a product and you’re anxious to prove your knowledge by telling customers about all 10 of them.

Unfortunately they don’t care about all of them.

There’s maybe one or two features that interest them and  you’re better off asking questions to identify the client’s needs so you can explain how your products will satisfy those needs than trying to explain everything.

Don’t spew features on your clients; identify their needs and satisfy them.

18) Don’t Use Jargon

Nothing says “bad salesperson” more than using jargon to someone that doesn’t understand it.

There is no better way to show prospects you don’t give a %&#! about them than by using terminology no one outside your industry should know!

When you’re new, you have a unique advantage of being able to relate to clients as an outsider. People will actually relate better to you if they feel like you’re still on their side. You haven’t crossed over to the “insurance salesman” side.

Don’t use jargon, it only makes you look like you’re hiding something.

19) Recognize and Act on Buying Signals

I’ve witnessed a lot of new salespeople shoot themselves in the foot because they didn’t know when to shut up.

When someone is ready to buy, let them do it.

If it’s that important to explain everything then go ahead and do it… after you get their signature and a check!

20) Don’t Sell on Price

I get it… people are shopping on price, they’re comparing on price, and they’re buying on price.

You buy everything on price too, right?

Wrong.

Here’s the bottom line:

If you honestly believe people only buy on price then quit today. You’re in the wrong business and the industry doesn’t need you.

We’re not going to survive with a bunch of price-checkers. The entire industry will suffer if you don’t get out now.

Need some ideas for selling value?  Read this.

21) Embrace Your Youth

Be crazy. Be reckless. Be passionate. Be young!

No one ever had a mid-life crisis and became an insurance salesman. Don’t be afraid to breathe some life into this business!

Smile. Laugh. Be fun.

Who would you rather spend an hour talking about insurance with? Don’t Just Read This Article:

1. Make a list of strategies that are going to help you.
2. Develop an ACTIONABLE plan to follow through.
3. Share this resource with every insurance school classmate or young co-worker so they’ll owe you a favor.
4. And click “Like” to show me you want more material for new salespeople.

Good Luck!

​I know a few agents who hate asking for referrals because they’re afraid of bothering clients or asking for “too much”.

I understand the mentality, but it’s wrong.

When you make it easy and risk-free for clients to refer your agency, you are doing them a favor!

Why is that?

Because referrals are social currency. We all like to recommend quality companies and products to each other because it’s a way of helping one another.​Unfortunately, many insurance agents are never properly taught how to ask for referrals in an effective and comfortable way. This results in conversations like this:

​Agent: “If you value the service I’ve provided you, please tell me 3 people that could also benefit from my excellent service…”

Client: [awkward pause] “Oh… Um… Well…  I guess you could call my… I don’t really have any phone numbers with me right now…”

Agent: “Sorry… can’t let you go until I get my names…”

I’d hate for you to deprive clients of the ability to help their friends and I really don’t want you to have an awkward conversation so…

Here’s 27 referral marketing ideas to get you started on the right path:

1) Change Your Attitude About Referrals

Stop telling yourself you’re “asking for referrals” and imagine this instead:

“I’m helping my clients increase their social status by making it easy for them to recommend a local business that’s easy to work with, cares about it’s customers, and can save their friends thousands of dollars”

If you have trouble convincing yourself of this, your challenge may be deeper than just needing more referrals.

2) Make a Referral Reward Program

A referral reward program is an established system you use to thank clients who refer your agency. It can include a variety of ideas within this article, but the important element is that its an established, repeatable, and easy-to-follow procedure.

Establishing an official referral reward program offers many advantages:

1. It’s easy for your producers to explain to customers.
2. It makes an “un-thanked” referral less likely to happen.
3. You can generate promotional materials about it. (flyers, etc.)
4. Your customers will know what to expect if they refer someone and will be more likely to do it.

3) Get in Your Clients’ Cell Phones

If your clients don’t have your contact information on them somewhere they’ll be less able to fully recommend you to their friends.

Make sure every client has your contact information in their address book. Program it in there for them and don’t stop at getting just one member of the family. Insist on getting your contact information into every single phone in the house.​It’s easy if you frame it right: explain the benefits of having your phone number on hand in case there is ever an emergency.

I know agents that go so far as to insist the client input it while in the office and they’ll follow up with new customers to make sure the agency gets programmed in the rest of the family phones.

It just looks to the client like you really want to be available to them, which is a good thing!

​4) Referral Cards to Hand Out

Make up some outdoor advertising with promo media along with cards with your logo, agency contact information, and a spot that says: “Referred by _________”.

Handwrite your client’s name in the blank space and give it to them to pass along.

You could mail these out or put them in your new business packet, but I’d recommend actually handing them to your clients at a time when they’ll be forced to put them in their wallet or purse.

5) Check Out Rocket Referrals

I looked into this company out after the fifth different agent told me about them and I’m convinced they have an awesome system.

It’s called Rocket Referrals and it’s a turnkey system that identifies the clients who are most likely to refer your agency and reaches out to them by mail and email to ask for referrals.

It’s pretty cool system and I saw the demo but I don’t really know how it all works so if you’d be interested in making the referral process automated check out their website here.

6) Practice Your Referral Talkpaths

Think you’re too cool or too good to practice your sales conversations with a friend or in front of the mirror?

You’re not.

The average NFL football game has about 11 minutes of actual playing time.  If Payton Manning can spend a hundred hours each week preparing for 11 minutes of execution (half of which he’s on the bench) I think you can practice your referral scripts a few times a week, right?

7) Describe Your Target Customer

One reason clients hesitate to refer your agency is because they don’t want to look bad if they recommend your services and your prices are sky high.

Remove the risk in your clients’ eyes by explaining they types of customers you have the most competitive rates for.

For example, “We have the cheapest rate in town 95% of the time for homeowners with good credit and a clean driving record”. Or, “If you know someone with a DWI in the past 2 years, we’re the best agency to help them out.”

Just be careful not to tell customers your target client is the opposite of them. They’ll question whether they’ve got the right agency!

8) Help Clients Identify Referral Targets

Here’s an exercise to illustrate this point:

Exercise #1 -  Excluding your coworkers and family, think of someone you know that would be happy to win $200 today….

Don’t move on until you’ve thought of someone…

Exercise #2 - Now think of a neighbor that would be happy to win $200 today.

The first question is harder for most people to answer because it’s hard to think of just one person out of thousands of qualifiers.

The second question has fewer options to choose from, but I bet you probably just had a mental image of your neighbor holding a hundred dollar bill with a big smile on his face. Am I right?

The point is, when you ask clients to refer your agency, give them a specific group to choose from.

Instead of making a general request, say something like, “Is there anyone in your church group that could really benefit from saving a few hundred dollars on insurance?”.

9) Recommend-a-Friend Functionality on Your Website

Honestly, I don’t know how effective something like this will be for you, but having a page or a box somewhere on your agency website that allows people to send an email to a friend recommending your agency might work.

I think an entire page could work better than a little box somewhere because I expect it would take a bit of convincing to get people to actually give up their friend’s email address and you’d have to remove the perceived risk of getting your friend spammed.

10) Email Signature

Your email signature is a block of text that shows up automatically at the bottom of your emails. Most agents have their contact information and maybe a link to their website.

These are a great places to request a referral because it’s so easy for the recipient who is already reading your email to forward it to someone.

Use “Forward My Contact Information”  as your actual call to action to remind the reader specifically how to recommend you and encourage them to do so.

11) Remove the Risk

One reason people hesitate to refer your agency is because they’re afraid of looking bad if you don’t do a good job.

By recommending your agency to a friend they’re putting their reputation on the line.  If your agency is rude, doesn’t return phone calls, or has horrible rates they’ll look bad for recommending you!

Explain to your clients how you handle referred business. Emphasize that you give referred leads very special treatment and that you’re not going to hound referrals with 20 phone calls during dinner time and put them on an email spam list. (Save that for your internet leads)

12) Thank Referrers on Your Facebook Page

When you receive a customer referral, go out to your Facebook page and thank the person who provided that referral out in the open for everyone to see.

This accomplishes many things. It shows the referrer how much you appreciate their gesture which should get you more referrals from them. It shows everyone else how much you appreciate referrals which should get you more referrals from other Facebook fans.

It also reinforces to your existing clients that other people are so happy with your agency that they’re sending their friends. This social-proof should improve your client perception and retention.

13) Give Two Business Cards

This one is kind of simple, when you hand out your cards give everyone two and ask them to hand out the second one.

Come up with something cool to say like, “Here’s one for you and one for your friend who drives the most expensive car and has the most speeding tickets.

14) Identify Clients With the Most Friends

Okay, I know it’s a bit devious, but in many cases you can look at someone’s public Facebook profile and see how many friends they have. You can do the same for connections on LinkedIn too. The more friends they have the more important it is to treat them right and ask for referrals.​You could make it part of your new business process or check out all the people who already like your agency Facebook page.

Establish a special category of clients that are uber-connected and go out of your way for this group of clients to wow and amaze them.  They can probably generate a lot more leads than your agency’s FB page can.

Be aware – younger people have a lot more Facebook friends but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re better targets for generating referrals.

15) Use LinkedIn for Targeted Referrals

LinkedIn has an interesting feature that may help you get referrals for specific prospects that you’re trying to sell to. When you look at the LinkedIn profile of someone you’re not connected with and you are both connected with a third person, LinkedIn will show you who that third person is.

This means you can send a casual message to the person you’re both connected with requesting that they introduce you.

Obviously a lot depends on your relationship with that third person but you never know.

16) Get Clients to Like Your Facebook Page

The average person on Facebook has 130 friends. Imagine if you could get just a few people a week to post about your agency.

One way to drastically increase the odds of this happening is by getting them to like your Facebook page. Once they like your page they’ll see your content more often and if you post something really cool it’s more likely they’ll pass it along.

Just make sure your content is share-worthy. I’d stay away from the “Call us today for a cheap insurance quote!!!” post

While I’m on the topic… CLICK THIS LINK to like my Facebook page.

17) Get Referrals Immediately After Doing a Favor

According to Stanford University psychology research, when someone receives a favor, their perceived value of that favor diminishes over time. Interestingly, the perceived value of the same favor in the eyes of the person who gave the favor does the opposite, it increases as time passes.

Here’s an example to illustrate the point. Six months ago your customer hugged you for saving him $500 and he’s now screaming because renewal went up by $50. Sound familiar?

Anyway, the point is that the absolute best time to ask for a referral is immediately after you have helped a client with something – found a new discount they qualified for, helped them through a positive claim experience, whatever.

One week from now it’ll be water under the bridge, strike while the iron is hot!

18) Referral Commission Bonus for Producers

Pay your producers an extra bonus for policies that are sold from an existing customer’s referral. This will help you in several ways:

1. Your producers will never forget to ask the lead how they heard about you.
2. Your producers will treat referred leads as more valuable (they are).
3. Your producers will work harder to get existing clients to refer you.
4. Referred business will retain better, refer more, and is more valuable to you.

19) Facebook Ads – Sponsored Stories

Sponsored Stories are a specific type of ads in Facebook that are shown to friends of people who already like your Agency Facebook page.

They show your businesses image with a message that says something like, “Suzie Q. Likes This”.They tend to work well because people are more likely to be interested in something (like your agency)  knowing their friend already likes it.

You don’t need to show your ad to every friend of your fans, you can display your ad to specific groups like baby boomers with teenagers at home for example.

20) Call Your Clients’ Emergency Contacts

Okay, that heading sounds bad, but it’s not as bad as it sounds.

I wrote another article that explains a pretty creative way to get referrals from the neighbors of your new homeowner’s policy clients.

21) Get Referrals From the Right Clients

People usually hang out with other people like them. If you only ask your most troublesome clients for referrals you’re going to wind up with more troublesome clients.

However, if you get referrals from the people who never bother you, always pay their bill on time, never file claims and renew year after year you’ll be able to grow your agency in a healthy way.

You’ll have to find a way to reach out to these people, because they don’t swing by your office every other week like the other group!

22) Give Referrals

I know I’m not the first person to tell you that the more referrals you give the more you’re going to get, but here’s a few tips to help:

1. Make sure the person you refer mentions your name – if they don’t, it never happened.
2. Follow up with the person you referred a week later to see how it worked out.
3. Send an email to both parties so there’s no doubt you provided the connection.
4. Create a rolodex of self-employed clients and use it just for giving referrals.
5. Hang a huge bulletin board on the wall and encourage clients to pin their business cards to it.

23) Postcards The Clients Writes, You Mail

Print up a stack of postcards with your agency logo and contact information on them and put the stack on your front desk. Let your clients fill it out themselves and you stamp it and mail it.

You could do this as a strictly “refer a friend” postcard or you could be a little more benevolent and just let your clients write whatever they want and send it to their friend on your dime.

It might be kind of cool actually… “Sorry for the delay, would you like to mail someone a postcard while you wait for your appointment?”

24) Join a Referral Networking Group

Join one of those business networking groups where everybody gets together once a week to practice their elevator pitch, eat eggs and give each other referrals.

Sure it’s a lot of work generating new referrals every week, but what else do you have to do at 6:00 a.m. on a Thursday morning?

25) Educate Clients About All Your Products

Just because someone who buys homeowner’s insurance from you probably doesn’t also need a renters policy, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make sure they know you sell it.

They might know people who do need renters insurance but unless they know you sell it they won’t refer you.

An insurance agency isn’t a grocery store. Everything for sale isn’t in plain sight on the shelves (Unless you’re Flo).

​Make a one page sheet that shows all the different types of insurance you sell and take one minute with every new customer to explain it to them.

26) Teach Clients About Good Referral Opportunities

You know someone just bought a house or has a baby is a prime target for life insurance.

Do your clients?

Help your clients identify referral opportunities by painting a picture. Say something like this, “Next time someone at your work complains about insurance being expensive, tell them to give us a call. We’ve helped a lot of people struggling right now and we’re always looking for more.”

27) Ask

Need I say more?

Okay, I guess it’s my turn now…​If you think you’ll use EVEN JUST ONE of the ideas presented in this article and you know another insurance agent like you who is:

• dedicated to growing their agency
• open to new ideas
• not afraid to ask for referrals, sell more insurance and make more money.​

Would you do me a favor and email them a link to this article right now? You’ll be helping two people with one small but appreciated gesture.​​

And if you don’t have anyone to email but you liked the article, click the “Like” button so I know.

Thank you so much,
- John27 referral marketing ideas to get referrals and sell more insurance from InsuranceSplash

​What do computers, monkeys, and my 3 year old daughter all have in common?

They can all sell insurance on price alone.

A professional insurance salesperson (like you) must be able to connect with prospects and help them understand and internalize the value of the insurance you’re selling.If you only sell insurance on price, you will eventually be replaced because:

1. There will always be another company with lower rates.
2. When people buy from you just to save money, they’ll leave just as fast.
3. A call center employee can quote more people faster and cheaper than you.
4. A website can give millions of quotes per second even faster and cheaper.

I’m not an idiot. I know that price is the primary driver of insurance sales. But I also know that selling on price alone will be the downfall of you, your agency, and the entire agency sale model.

Here’s 14 tips you can implement today to sell insurance on value.  Not one of these tips takes more than a little conscious effort.

​1) Talk About Claims

When shoppers come to you for a quote they’re only focused on one thing – the price.

It’s your job to make them recognize and internalize the fact that they’re making a decision about more than just how large of a check they’re going to write every month.

Explain the claims process and how your agency helps guide customers through it as smoothly as possible. Use a specific example of how your process helped a previous client have a better experience.

Find every way possible to talk about claims – it’s the best way to get people thinking outside the price box.

​2) Ask Why They Bought That

​When you find out what kind of car, home, motorcycle, etc. the prospect owns ask them: “What made you choose that one?”

It’s very rare that someone responds with, “It was the cheapest.” Instead, they’ll say, “It had the best crash test ratings” or “It’s is in a really great neighborhood with amazing schools” or “After all these years of working hard, I deserve a few nice things”.

An expensive insurance policy is certainly not as cool as a brand-new Harley but getting prospects to answer this question aloud will remind them that they don’t make every purchasing decision on price alone and you will activate the part of their brain that makes more value-oriented decisions.

​3) Ask about the worst accident they’ve seen

​What’s the worst car accident you’ve ever witnessed? Seriously… stop reading this article right now and think about it in your head…

Got it? Have you re-lived it in your mind’s eye?

Now tell me you don’t care about anything but saving 15% off your car insurance.

Of course this example is geared toward auto insurance, but you could adjust the concept for property, life, disability and just about any other type of insurance.

4) Ask About Communication Preferences

During your sales conversation, ask your prospect how they like to communicate with companies they do business with. Do they prefer to use the phone, send emails, meet face-to-face, online accounts, text messages?

Once you understand how they like to communicate, it’ll be a lot easier to frame the benefits of your agency around that. Make sure your prospect knows that you’ll be there to communicate with them in the way that fits their life.

Don’t brag about your iPhone app if the prospect doesn’t have a smartphone and don’t oversell the convenience of an agency website with online customer service if your client prefers to speak to a human on the phone. In either case they’ll perceive that they’re paying extra for benefits they don’t value.

​5) Educate Your Prospects

​No matter what your prospects tell you, most of them don’t understand how insurance works. If you can explain it to them in a way that makes sense without being condescending you’re already providing an incredible amount of value!

When clients see how well you understand insurance they’ll  feel more comfortable about the decisions you’re guiding them to make and they’ll feel more confident you’ll be a positive resource in the event of a claim.

Experts don’t just spit out a bunch of terminology. The mark of a real expert is the ability to explain a subject to anyone regardless of age, background, or education. Don’t lecture; ask questions and engage.

​6) Explain The Discounts

When you identify discounts your prospect qualifies for, take time to explain how much money each discount saves, why they qualify, and why the carriers offer that discount.

People love discounts, and when they see how well you understand discounts they’ll trust that you’re getting them all the discounts they’re entitled to and will see the value in buying through an agent like you.

Explain to prospects that you regularly check their policy to make sure they’re getting every discount they deserve.

7) Talk About Your Experience

If you’ve been in insurance for a while, find ways to get this point across to every prospect. One way to do this is by identifying something that your prospect is very experienced in to make a comparison.

If you’re brand-new, that’s okay too. You can reference the combined experience of all your coworkers. “In our agency, we have over 30 years combined experience in insurance.”

If you’re inexperienced and so is everyone else, well… I guess you can just skip this one.

​8) Explain That Having an Agent Doesn’t Raise The Price

​Okay, so YOU know it’s not more expensive to have an agent but everyone else doesn’t.

In fact a lot of people assume buying through an agent is more expensive. (Of course, it doesn’t help that some rotten insurance companies have developed marketing plans around this lie)

Explain to prospects that agents are field underwriters who allow carriers to provide more accurate rates for every risk. There’s a lot more room for fraud when people get insurance through a website and that makes the honest people pay more.

A good agent who understands rating criteria and discounts can be a real asset when it comes to getting the cheapest price. Make sure your prospects know this.

​9) Explain Your Licenses and Certifications

Most people have no idea how hard it is just to get licensed to sell insurance. They also have no idea how many hours of continuing education you’re required to keep up with and some of the advanced designations have taken you years to achieve!

Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn. Just find a way to work it into the conversation naturally.

​10) Ask About Their Last Claim Experience

It’s probably already part of your quoting process to find out about the last insurance claim. Ask a follow-up question like, “How did your claim experience go?”

Sometimes you’ll get lucky and stumble into someone who had a bad experience and your claims handling processes might offer clear advantages.  But even if they had a wonderful experience, forcing your prospect to mentally “re-live” the claim experience will pull them further from the “only price matters” mindset.

11) Ask About the Potential Cost of Not Buying

​Compare how much money someone could save by not buying your insurance policy with the potential cost of not buying it.

“If you don’t buy this life insurance policy you’ll save $25 a month… But what’s the potential cost of being diagnosed with cancer after making that decision?

“If you don’t purchase higher coverage limits you’ll save $10 a month… But what’s the potential cost of becoming disabled in a major accident after making that decision?

When you pose questions like this, make sure you let the prospect think through and answer themselves before stepping in. It’s important for them to internalize the point of the question.

​12) Ask Questions and Listen

​It’s hard to sell the value of your products and agency when you don’t know what’s most important to the client.

We’re inclined to believe everyone else thinks just like we do. Most salespeople mistakenly believe the product features and benefits most appealing to them will also appeal to our clients and this can lead to selling the WRONG value.

To find out what product values to focus on ask more questions. Here’s an example: “What’s the second most important thing to you about insurance? I’ll assume price is number one…”

​13) Help Clients Earn More Discounts

I’m not talking about identifying new discounts or educating clients about discounts (I mentioned those both earlier). I mean actually helping them get discounts that they don’t currently qualify for.

Will an online defensive driver class save your clients some money? Email them a link to a website where they can earn it online.

Client can’t afford life insurance at the smoker rate? Connect them with a local or online program that can help them quit.

Can a home security system drive down the price of their policy? Refer them to a local security company.

BONUS TIP: try to get your clients a discount with the other service to deepen your value even more.

​14) Don’t Apologize For Your Price

I get it. I know everyone wants to save money on insurance – me too. I also know most of your sales happen because of saving people money. But guess what:

Sometimes nice things cost more.
Does the Mercedes salesperson apologize because you can’t get an S-Class for the same price as an Kia Forte? Of course not, he believes it’s a better car and it’s worth the extra price.

If you don’t believe your product is better than everyone else’s and worth the price either convince yourself otherwise or don’t expect long-term success.I’m confident that local insurance agents will survive against threats like online direct writers and call centers but it will not happen unless you can sell value.

Start selling more VALUE today, or we’ll all face the consequences tomorrow!

Wrap up

Do you know another agent or producer that sells exclusively on price?

Don’t lie, I know you do. :)

Send them a link to this article. I promise they’ll thank you.

Hope this helps,
John14 sales tips on how to sell insurance on value instead of price from InsuranceSplash

​Sometimes cross-sales fall in your lap.

“Do you guys also do life insurance?”

Beautiful thing, huh?

Most of the time though, you have to work hard to make it happen.

I’ll assume you’re already good with the ones that fall in your lap, today I want to give you a bunch of ideas for making cross-sales happen.

So I did a little “brain-dump” and came up with 29 different ways you can cross-sell more in your insurance agency. ​If you get an idea or two please share this resource with a colleague and if you have ideas to add let me know in the comments below.

1) Know the Two Types

Did you know there are two distinct types of Cross Selling situations?

Prospects who already own the product - These people already bought the coverage from a competitor but you’re trying to get the business with your agency.

The key with them is repetition, collecting the x date, good follow-up and selling the benefits of your agency.

Prospects who DO NOT already own the product - These people don’t currently have the type of coverage you’re trying to sell them.

The key with them is product awareness, education, creating a need, identifying interest, and then selling.

These aren’t complete opposites, but they do require different approaches and sales tactics.

If you’re currently treating all cross-sale prospects the same, take a few moments to think about how each one requires a different approach and how you can address it best.

2) Develop an Established Cross-Selling System

It’s great if you read my articles and get a few ideas to implement here. That’s why I write the darn things.

The trouble is that most agents “think” they’re going to use a few new ideas, some of them really do, but very few make changes to the procedures and systems they use in their agency to make process improvements last.

The only way to create lasting success is to establish formal systems for processes in your agency like cross selling.

And this article is the perfect resource to help you put something like that together. Use it and do it!

You don’t have to write a manual, just make a list of what you want to do in each of the most common situations and share it with your staff.

3) Identify the Target Product(s) For Each Customer

Assuming your agency doesn’t specialize in specific lines of insurance, there are probably at least 4 different products that each of your customers could also buy from you.

And there are probably a bunch more that aren’t even relevant to each client.

Find a way to prioritize the best products to cross-sell each client and get this information front and center for your sales and customer service folks.

4) Establish a Tracking System

If your plan is to remember which products are the best cross-sale opportunities for each client, or to just always cross-sell the same one or two lines to everyone you’re not cross-selling efficiently.

Ideally, you’d be able to pull up any of your client’s accounts and see, at a glance, what products are the best cross sale opportunities for them. Having information like this top of mind when you’re looking at a client’s account will make a huge impact in how often your salespeople bring up the cross sale conversation.

In addition, it’s also great if you could pull up a list of all the clients who are prospects for each type of insurance. This is helpful for email, direct mail, or other campaigns that are oriented around awareness of your different product lines.

While we’re at it, you’re also going to need a way to keep track of X-dates for each month.

5) Handle Immediate Needs First

Be careful not to push cross-sales too hard during an initial sale.

It’s fine to plant seeds, but your prospects aren’t remotely interested in buying a second product from you until they know you can take care of the first one.

I’ve witnessed a lot of agents pushing too hard for additional lines when it’s clearly obvious the prospect only has one thing on their mind.

Respect your prospect, listen to your prospect, and put their immediate needs first.

6) Designate a Cross-Selling Leader

Pick one person in your agency and put them in charge of getting everyone to cross-sell more.

That way someone will always be paying attention to the goings-on in the agency and what could be done to boost cross-sales.

There’s also the possibility that your producers will embrace the concept more if it’s not coming from you.

This doesn’t even need to be a salesperson. In fact, the person who answers your phones might be the best one!

You can give them a little extra commission for all cross sales the agency makes and the first thing they should do is read this article!

7) Follow Up For It

I understand many agents have the philosophy of “I want to sell every policy I possibly can while I have this person’s attention”

I get it and I think it can work for some prospects and for some salespeople.

But I personally think it sends the wrong signals to push too hard for additional lines during an initial sale and I think it’s better to focus on providing an amazing purchasing experience.

It’s a judgement call and you have to do what you’re comfortable with, but remember that once they become your customer, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to follow up for that cross-sale.

8) Don’t Raise The Price Too Much Today

There’s a reason the Super Jumbo Monster popcorn only costs $.35 more than the kid’s size at the movie theater.

People’s minds get set on paying one amount and they’re just not going to dip too much further into their wallet in one purchasing event.

So if your life depends on making a cross-sale today, remember you’re far more likely to upsell them a renter’s policy than a life insurance policy.

9) Everything We Sell Sheet

InsuranceSplash readers have all heard this one before because I mention it all the time.

Create a one-page flyer that shows all the different products you sell. It doesn’t have to be “salesy” it can just be a checklist.

Take every new client through it and use it to guide your policy review conversations.

A nice added bonus is that you’ll get more referrals when all your customers know everything you sell!

Bonus Tip: Create a page on your insurance agency’s website that serves as the online version of your “everything we sell” sheet. This way you have something to email customers and share on social media.

10) Get X-Dates

X-Dates, (or expiration dates) are insurance slang for the date when a client’s policy with another carrier or agency is set to expire.

The idea is, “if I can’t quote your home policy today let me know when it renews and I’ll reach out to you beforehand”.

I see many agents that are so head-over-heels-in-love with quotes, they miss out on cross-sale opportunities being over-aggressive for the quote when they should just be asking for an x-date.

To me, asking someone who’s not interested to let you quote them is the equivalent of saying, “please let me try to sell you something that you’re not interested in because it’s important to me.”

Asking for an X-Date is like saying, “I understand you probably only care about your home insurance once a year, and I’m willing to respect your feelings and wait.”

11) Book of Business Audits

Does your CRM let you run audits of your book of business to identify people with one line of insurance but not another?

For example, auto insurance clients who own homes but don’t have homeowner insurance from you?

Or self-employed people who don’t have business insurance.

Parents with children and no life insurance.

You get the point, right? I’m thinking different audit ideas might make a good article in the future…

12) Be a Broken Record

Most cross-sales don’t happen the first time you suggest an additional line.

Most cross-sales don’t happen the second time you suggest an additional line.

Most cross-sales don’t happen the third time you suggest an additional line.

I could go on… Am I making my point?

13) Learn The Policy-Change Triggers

Some agents argue that every single change your customer make to their policy can be a cross-sale opportunity.

I can’t disagree, even if it’s just because the client is actually thinking about insurance for once.

But there are certain policy changes that are RED FLAG indicators of a cross-sale opportunity.

Let me paint the picture with a crystal clear example:

Back in 2009, I called my insurance agent in Philadelphia to find out if I’d get any discount for becoming a parent. (The carrier I worked for offered such a discount) and would you believe that dumba** didn’t ask me about life insurance?

I would have bought it from the first person that asked, and it should have been him.

14) Practice Cross Selling

Like anything in life, don’t expect to be good at sales unless you practice.

And that certainly includes cross-sales.

I wrote an article to help you, check it out.

15) Bump Commissions for Cross Sales

I know some agents that pay LESS commission for cross-sales.

Are you kidding?

Did you know a customer’s retention rate jumps each time you sell them an additional line of insurance?

Build incentives into your producer’s commission structure so they get even bigger bonuses for cross-sales than for sales to new customers.

Theoretically, producers should prefer cross-selling over other methods since the prospect is usually more receptive but it doesn’t hurt to give them a nudge in the right direction.

16) Take Cross-Sellers Off the Phones

This is a spin on the one above it about commissions.

One of the ideas with cross-selling is that it prevents you from cold-calling.

What about driving home that fact by letting producers who make a cross-sale skip out on an undesireable cold-calling activity for the day?

It’s a perk, but the real value is the lesson it teaches your salespeople: take care of, service, and upsell your existing customers and you shouldn’t need to work so hard to find new ones.

17) Ask Cross Sale Related Questions During Quotes

When you’re gathering information to give someone a quote, they don’t know what questions you really need to ask.

You can ask anything!!!

Use that time to find out everything you need to know about their other policies and insurance needs during the quoting process.

What’s that you say? People want their quotes quickly… You don’t have time to ask extra questions?

Well then send them to E-surance. (that’s a joke, don’t really do that)

18) Sign Off Sheets

I think this probably works best with life insurance but I’m sure you could use it for just about anything.

The basic idea is, you make clients “sign away” their right to a free quote for that other line.

There’s nothing legally binding to it, it’s just a conversation starter.

Conversation starters are good for cross selling.

19) Policy Reviews

Do I really need to add this one? I mean, every agent knows the main point of a policy review is to cross-sell.

Right?

Well actually, here’s an idea you might not have thought of. (it’s new to me… just popped into my head now)

Create a “Mini-Policy Review” for the people who will never take the time to go through your formal review process. Just ask a bunch of quick questions that would allow you to identify a new cross sale opportunity based on any life changes in your customer’s life.

Questions like, Did you have any kids, get married, retire, etc?

Keep it short and sweet so you can give it to every single customer in your book.

Your clients are constantly getting married, having kids, buying motorcycles, starting businesses and lots of other things that can lead to cross sales and I bet most agents are missing 90% of that information.

​20) Prepare Them For Your Cross Selling “Experience”

Tell your customers upfront:

“I’m going to bug you about this other line until you buy from me.”

Make a joke, explain how you’re going to, or just give them some information and let them know you’ll talk about it in the future.

You don’t have to cross-sell during the initial process, but if you set the stage for it you’ll be glad you did later on.

21) Learn the Benefits of Having Only One Agency

One of the biggest reasons people won’t bring all their lines to your agency is because they don’t see the value.

A lot of times you can’t beat the price of their other policy so you better have some benefits ready to give them about why it makes sense to work with just one agency.

Here’s a few examples to get you thinking, fewer coverage overlaps, multi-policy discounts, being a preferred customer, easier communication, simpler life, policy reviews that are more relevant, etc.

22) Start By Cross-Selling Renters Coverage

It’s the easiest thing to cross-sell, right?

It’s cheap to begin with, many people have to buy it, and it can often get a multi-policy discount on a much more expensive line.

So if you’re just getting started with a cross-selling initiative or bringing in a new salesperson have them start with the renters.

23) Get Around “Do Not Call”

I’m not a lawyer, although I do play one on this blog. ;)

I’m pretty sure that if one of your customers is on the “Do Not Call” list you’re not allowed to reach out to them about a new line of insurance.

However, if that new line of insurance gets them a discount on the line they already have with you… then you’ve got a conversation starter that is focused on a product they’ve purchased from you, which (I’m pretty sure) is 100% legit.

If you think this is unethical or illegal then DON’T DO IT.

24) Cross Sell Other Agents’ Clients

This one’s more for the captive agents.

Most of the carriers I know don’t transfer commissions when a customer changes their agent of record. (trust me – it’s better that way)

However, cross-sales are usually okay to capture commissions because the money deserves to go to whoever makes the sale.

So if you service other agents’ clients in your agency, DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN TO CROSS SELL THEM!

What have you got to lose?

Obviously you’re going to want to check with your sales manager to see how situations like that work. While you’re at it, why don’t you share this article with them… maybe they’ll start giving better advice. ;)

25) Use Partners

Obviously, cross-selling helps you make more money, but it also helps your retention.

Because of the boost in retention, even if you only sell one type of insurance it still makes sense to try to cross-sell your clients to another agent in your “network”.

If nothing else, when you refer your client to an friend of yours for other insurance lines, it’s less likely another agent will be trying to cross-sell the policy you sold!

26) Use Social Media

I know “use social media” should go without saying, but there’s a deeper point I’m trying to make here.

I see a lot of agents promoting their “bread and butter” insurance lines on their Facebook pages.

But think about this… since most of your followers are probably already customers (I don’t know anyone other than me that follows agencies they don’t buy from) chances are most of your followers already have the main lines of insurance with you.

Social media is a better place to raise awareness of the lesser known lines of insurance so you can cross-sell more!

Just something to consider…

27) 74% of People Who Bought This Also Bought…

Just a little social psychology trick here, tell your prospects that most people who buy the product they have also buy this other product.

It’s kind of funny, because there are many times people won’t trust what the salesperson says about something, but if the salesperson says “this is what everybody does” they’ll go with it.

And by the way,

When you use random numbers in your made-up statistics, people believe them 83% more.

28) Sync the Renewals

This is just an objection rebuttal I thought of for the person that wants to buy one new policy today and wait until their other policy renews to switch to you.

“We can wait, but if we can switch the other policy over now it will put all your renewals in sync. You’ll only have to think about insurance once a year, you can come in here and talk to us about everything at once, and you’ll always know right before Easter is when you handle all your insurance.”

Just a thought…

29) Be Patient And Keep Cross Selling

Cross selling is a unique sales situation because you’re going to have lots of chances to interact with the prospect.

In some ways that’s good because you don’t have to be too aggressive.

But it can also be bad because it’s too easy to say, “I don’t want to irritate my customer” or “I’ll talk to her about it next time”.

The key is to develop processes that take both extremes into consideration and force you to go down the middle with everyone.

The more you talk about cross-sales with your customers, the more cross sales you’ll make.

I promise.

Here’s What to Do Next:

• Go through this list and write down any new ideas you’d like to implement
• Add these new ideas to your current process and keep track of the results.
• If you found value in this article, spread the love and share it with a friend or manager.

I hope this helps,
John

​I don’t like networking events.

I don’t like the fake smiles, cheesy jokes, overbearing personalities, awkward conversations, and unsolicited advice.

And of course I can’t stand the sales pitches for crap I will never ever buy.

On the bright side… sometimes there’s alcohol.

Although I’m a die-hard internet marketing guy I know these two things as fact:

1. The more people you know the more insurance you sell.
2. Networking events are one of the best ways to meet people.

So I figured, considering my disdain for networking events, I would be the perfect person to give ideas for getting the most out of something that I consider to be a necessary evil.

Here they are, 34 networking tips for insurance agents:

​1) Be a Connector

​I’m sure you’ve heard this one before, but there’s more to helping people connect with each other than you may have considered.

When you’re the person introducing two others you’ll naturally assume a position of power within that group of three.

Over time, the more people you connect, the higher you’ll climb up the power pyramid in your local community.

​2) Show Up to Events Early

​I understand the temptation to show up fashionably late – it’s a lot easier to blend into a full room of people and its more likely you’ll see someone you already know.

Show up late though, and you’re missing a key opportunity – meeting the organizers.

Event organizers hold a lot of “connection power” and when you’re one of the first people to show up you can help out, get to know them, and compliment the setup.

There’s a decent chance it’ll even get you a “shout out” during any microphone time later in the event.

​3) Don’t Talk Insurance

​Not only is insurance boring, but every business networking event I’ve ever been to is crawling with insurance agents.

At some point, every networker has been stuck talking to a super-boring insurance guy and they are forever on the lookout to avoid the situation. ​Even if someone wants to talk about insurance, try to push it off until after the event. That way you’ll be in a better situation to sell and you’ll find out whether they’re really interested or were just making small talk.

4) Find More Networking Events

There are a lot more opportunities than just the local chamber of commerce.

Think outside the box, ask around, and check out this list to get you thinking:

1. Chambers of Commerce
2. Business Networking Groups
3. Mastermind Groups
4. Meetup.com Groups
5. Charity Events
6. School Board Meetings
7. High School Sports Games
8. Local Youth Sports Events
9. City Government
10. And check out local event sites like Eventbrite, Eventful, and Patch.com

5) Send Your Staff

​You don’t have to do all the networking yourself.

In fact, it’s probably more important that your producers are out there shaking hands than you are.

Don’t just send them blind, give them some goals and objectives and make them read this article!

​6) Have Memorable Cards

​People expect you (the insurance guy) will have some boring business cards.

Surprise them!

I’ll write another article with ideas for business cards that stand out so I’m not digging deep into that here but be creative and make them stand out.

​​At the very least, put your picture on there.

And by the way, for those captive guys who say they’re stuck with the company issued cards…
The marketing police don’t go to your chamber of commerce meetings and nobody can stop you from marketing yourself (not the agency) however the heck you want to. Or put a funny sticker or stamp on the back.

​7) Set Networking Goals

​Like anything in business, proper goals will improve your results.

Make a measurable goal for networking like adding new LinkedIn Connections, giving away a certain number of business cards, or sending a certain number of follow-up emails to your contacts.

Like any goals you set, these should be focused on the activities that lead to sales, not the actual sales themselves.

​8) Always Give Your Card

​Business cards are cheap.

Ever find yourself thinking, “Should I give this guy my card?” or “Does she really want a card?”

The answer is always yes. Give it to everyone 10 times.

9) Don’t Have Big Handouts

​I know what these people are thinking…

“Instead of handing out business cards I’m going to give people a 5×7 postcard. It’ll really stand out.”

Here’s what I’m thinking when you hand it to me:

“Thanks a**hole. Now I have to hold on to this stupid thing until I can find a garbage can.” Don’t be that guy. People may smile and take your postcard but annoying people is not good networking.

​10) Do The Follow-Up

Just like in sales, poor follow-up can make all your networking efforts worthless.

Do you think someone’s going to buy insurance from you or refer your agency after one meeting at a networking event?

Of course not…. You need to develop strong relationships.

Devise a follow-up plan that serves to deepen the connections you make at networking events.

(Try not to creep anyone out.)

11) Use LinkedIn To Follow Up

​LinkedIn is a perfect low-effort tool for forging stronger relationships with people you meet at networking events (or anywhere else).

There’s no social stigma against requesting a connection on LinkedIn from someone you met and had a conversation with.

A LinkedIn connection is not the end goal, in fact it’s really just the beginning but it is a great first step toward developing a deeper professional connection with anyone.

​12) Follow Their Business on Twitter and Facebook

​Most agents I know think of Twitter and Facebook only as tools to reach out to current and prospective clients.

It can also be used very effectively as a professional networking and monitoring tool.

Use your agency’s twitter account and use Facebook as your agency page (not as yourself) and follow and like all the businesses who’s owners you meet. ​Likes on Facebook are free so it won’t cost you a dime to “like” every business you meet and “like” every post they make. That’s a lot of potential free goodwill!

While we’re on the subject, click here to “like” My Facebook page and click “like” everything I post in the future ;)

I DO NOT recommend using Facebook to “friend” a person you meet professionally unless you have a connection with them that is deeper than business.

​13) Follow Up Via Email

​After meeting someone you feel a strong connection with send them an email.

You can develop a template for emails like this, however I strongly encourage you to customize each email to reference something you discussed with the individual.

If you don’t have anything specific to say to this person, take a peek at their website and mention something about it. Wouldn’t it get your attention if someone mentioned something on your agency’s website?

(When I get a generic form email that I know was also sent to everyone else at a networking event I usually report it as SPAM.)

​14) Phone Call Follow Up

​Have a good networking connection you’re trying to build into a great one?

Call them up out of the blue with a question about their business.

You can just make it up if you want to… Say you’re doing research for a client.

Everyone loves being the expert and they’ll think it might be a sales lead so they’ll love it.

If they’re a really important connection, put it on your calendar to reach out once a month.

​15) Read “How to Win Friends and Influence People”

​If you haven’t heard of or read this book you should really check it out. It’s been around for almost a century and the information it gives is fundamental, but powerful.

I have an audio version on my phone that I listen to about once a year.

(It also helps me get my kids to do what I them to. Not by much, but I’ll take all the help I can get!)

Check it out: Print Version – Audio version

​16) Remember Names and Use Them Often

This one comes straight from the Dale Carnegie Playbook. (see #15 above).

People love hearing the sound of their own name and it will make people like you more.

The added benefit is when you use others’ names they’ll feel like they owe it to learn your name and more about what you do.

When more people remember your name and that you sell insurance, you win!

17) Join a Networking Breakfast Group

The biggest one is Business Networking International and they have groups all over the world but they’re not the only one. Try searching Google for other local networking groups too.

They’ll usually only allow one member from each industry and it can sometimes be hard to find an opening for an insurance agent but there’s also a lot of turnover so be patient you’ll get in.

Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of referral networking groups but I’ll hold back my own feelings because I do think they can be very helpful most insurance agents.

​18) Talk To The Wallflowers

One of the easiest tricks at networking events is to look for people who look shy or uncomfortable and start talking to them.

They’re usually relieved to have someone showing interest in them and it gives you someone you can take around and introduce to all your connections.

Who do you think will remember (and appreciate) you more:

1. The person that was uncomfortably hiding in the corner until you helped them?
2. Or Mr. Mayor who thinks he’s better than everyone and doesn’t need your help?

19) Bring a Wingman (Or Wingwoman)

​Taking a partner or employee with you to a networking event can be a huge boost to both your networking productivity.

With someone there making you feel comfortable it’s easier to break out of your shell.

Also, you can act as filters for each other, introducing and sharing the valuable connections while keeping the less valuable connections to yourselves. ​And, if you’re the business owner and you bring an employee, you’ll be forced to step up your own networking to set the right example.

20) Prepare General Questions About Business

Just like in sales, good questions are like gold at networking events.

Having a short list of 5-6 go-to questions you can ask nearly everyone will help you avoid awkward situations and make sure you’re always showing people how much you’re interested in them.

Don’t rely on your ability to come up with interesting questions on the spot. Make a list before you walk in the door.

Here’s an article with some good ideas to get you started.

21) Take Notes on Business Cards

​It’s normal to assume you’ll remember all the little conversational details about the people you meet the next day.

You won’t.

Making some notes on the back of their card about what you discussed will give you good content for an email or LinkedIn connection request.

Anything about kids, family, or personal life is great because it shows the person you care about them as a person, not just a business connection.

22) Identify the Connectors

​If you’ve read The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell you’re already aware of the value of Connectors.

Even if you haven’t, it doesn’t take a genius to understand that some people have more social clout than others and it makes sense to identify those with the most influence and try to befriend them.

At each networking event you go to, identify 2-5 people you would like to know better, not for who they are but for who they know.

When you connect well with one from the list add a new one.

​23) Keep Expectations Low at First

Like many things in marketing, many agents stop going to networking events because they don’t see results fast enough.

It takes time to build connections and much more time to see measurable results.

Trust that your networking time is an investment in your career and future and don’t worry about the sales.

I promise sales will come if you keep networking; I guarantee they won’t if you quit.

​24) Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously

​Okay, this is a pet peeve of mine more than a tip, but I’ll say it anyway.

I can’t stand people that go to networking events and walk around like they have a stick up their butt.

Why so serious?

Have a good time, throw back a couple drinks, enjoy yourself. People might actually want to talk to you!

25) Network With Your Clients

​A lot of the advice on this page is oriented toward networking events, but that’s really only part of the whole networking equation.

Many of the tips and ideas on this page can be used on your own network of clients.

In fact, if you’re going to connect with someone on LinkedIn or follow them on Twitter, shouldn’t you be doing that with your own clients first?

​26) Always Be Networking

​ABN lacks the sex appeal of ABC, but if you’re not networking you’ll never be closing.

If you want to be successful you’re going to need to be an insurance agent 100% of the time.

Does every single person you’re connected with know you sell insurance?

They should.

27) Moving Pennies Technique

I got this tip a while back from an MLM recruiter. I didn’t sign up to sell with him, but it’s not a bad tip.

Every morning take 10 pennies and put them in your left pocket.

Throughout the day, each time you meet a new person and tell them what you sell move the penny from the left pocket to the right one.

Your day isn’t over until your left pocket is empty.

28) Disappearing Cards Technique

​While writing the above idea I came up with a new one that could work for people that hate networking events.

Put 20-30 cards in your pocket and as soon as they’re all gone you can leave.

Work fast or you’ll be handing them out to the cleaning crew. (they need insurance too, right?)

​29) The Elevator Pitch

​I hate overused business cliches (like elevator pitches) as much as the next guy but there is a value to having a well-rehearsed explanation of what you do.

The elevator pitch is an explanation of what you do that’s quick enough to tell someone between floors on an elevator.

Make sure your elevator pitch is intriguing. A good elevator pitch makes people stop, think, and ask you a follow up question.

If you’re going to talk about yourself you want it to be because people asked.

30) Talk About What Excites You

​In Number 3 I warned against talking about insurance.

Nobody really cares about it.

Sorry.

But people will listen to anything if you speak with passion.

It doesn’t matter if it’s your family, your hobby, the lacrosse team you coach or anything else! When you speak with passion people will listen, they’ll want to introduce you to others and most importantly – they’ll never forget you.

​31) It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who They Know

​You’re not networking to sell insurance to the people you meet.

You’re networking to sell insurance to FRIENDS of the people you meet.

Remember that it only takes one really good networking connection to make up for all the time you spend doing it.

​32) Describe Your Perfect Client

Although you can probably sell something to just about anyone, its easier for people to refer you if you narrow down your targeted client.

Find a way to tell all your networking connections specifically who your ideal client is (or the situation your ideal client may be in)

Saying, “My perfect client is everyone” is the best way to get zero referrals.

33) Keep a Networking Journal

​Just like sales, networking is an activity that can be analyzed and improved through study and experience.

Keeping a journal of your networking experiences is a great way to identify new connections to target, keep track of things other people did that were good and bad, and find opportunities to improve your own networking skills.

Just don’t hide it under your bed, that’s the first place your little brother will look for it!

​34) Be Memorable

​No aspect of networking is more important than having people remember you.

Be Different.

Stand Out.

Be the person everyone wants to meet.

And the one they’ll remember tomorrow.

Or don’t waste your time.

Here’s What to Do Next:

1. Make a list of the ideas here that will work for you and read it before every networking event.
2. Share a link to this article with the most socially-challenged agent you know. ;)
3. Network with Me – Connect with me on LinkedIn if you found value in this resource I made for you.
4. Click the Like Button to tell me you’d like to see more articles like this one.

​I’m no relationship expert.

Just ask my wife.

But I know you need to go out of your way to show appreciation for the other person in any relationship, otherwise it will deteriorate and eventually die.

But you don’t want relationship advice from me. (trust me)

Let’s talk about your agency instead.

• How healthy are your customer relationships?
• Do they know how much you appreciate them?
• Do you go out of your way to make sure they know how you really feel?
• What are you doing to make them feel all warm and fuzzy inside?

Client relationships are just like personal ones – they require work.

And if your business strategy doesn’t include processes to go out of your way to say “thank you” to your customers, they will eventually leave you.

With Thanksgiving coming up later this week, I thought it’d be a good time to explore ways to say “Thanks!” to your insurance customers. I already started by giving travel tips to those planning vacation. As for the rest – here they are:

​1) Random Thank You Phone Call

A phone call from your insurance agent usually means one of two things:

1. There’s a problem
2. They’re trying to sell something

Surprise your clients in a remarkable way with a random phone call just to say, “thanks for your business.”

By the way, if you literally just call and say “thank you” they’re going to think you’re weird so combine your “thank you” with a question like, “We’re taking a survey, is there anything we could be doing to make you happier with our agency?”

​2) Handwritten Note of Appreciation

​Just like a phone call out of the blue, a handwritten note for no other reason than to say thanks will surprise most people nowadays.

Simple tip: Use small paper so it’s easy to fill in the whole page quickly.

​3) Recommend Their Businesses

​For your self-employed clients and others who work on commission, there’s no better way to say thanks for their business than by sending them some too.

I know agents who keep a rolodex of only client businesses just for this purpose and I think it’s a great idea. If you’re going to do this, make sure to show new clients that they’ve been added to your rolodex – it’ll make them more likely to renew so they don’t get yanked out!

And guess what, the more you refer other people the more referrals you’ll get to your agency.

​4) Customer Appreciation Party

​I know a customer appreciation party sounds a little cheesy, but not if you do it right.

The key is giving people something they actually want.

Customers won’t want to come party at your agency, but they’ll be happy to play a free round of golf, go watch a just-released movie, or eat at one of their favorite restaurants as long as you pay for it…

Aren’t they so kind?

5) Write Recommendations on LinkedIn

This might work a bit better for commercial than personal lines, but if you have a strong enough relationship with one of your clients, there’s no reason you can’t go to their LinkedIn profile page and write a nice recommendation about their professional aptitude.

As an added bonus, there’s a decent chance they’ll turn around and write one about you too!

At the very least, you could click one of those “endorsement” buttons. That only takes a second.

​6) Send a Picture of You Saying Thanks!

Take a picture of all the employees at your agency holding a sign that says, “Thanks!”.

You can email this picture anytime someone does something you appreciate for your agency like referring a new client or just renewing a policy.

Here’s a creative spin:

Take the same picture of your office employees holding a blank sign. Then you could use photoshop or picmonkey to personalize it to make it say anything you want in just a few moments…

​7) Social Media Post

​Go out on your insurance agency Facebook page and make a post for the world to see thanking one of your clients.

The side benefit of this method is it encourages your other Facebook fans to repeat the same behavior when they see how much appreciation you have for it.

Bonus tip: Write a blog post on your agency website thanking your customer and share a link to that page on social media instead. It’ll drive traffic to your website where it’s easier for people to get a quote or learn more about your agency.

​8) Gift Cards

Okay, it’s not super creative but everyone loves free money!

I know a lot of agents who give out gas cards. Personally I never liked that idea because you’re just making someone pay $51.23 at the pump instead of $56.23 and to me that’s just not a big deal.

That same $5 could get your clients a car wash, a footlong hoagie, or a couple ice cream cones!

In my opinion those are all cooler and more memorable than a slight price reduction at the gas pump but that’s just my opinion.

9) Give Free Agency Swag

You know the deal, people love to get free stuff – even when it’s crap.

You can get a lot of really cheap stuff, but what’s the lifetime value of a fake rubick’s cube that falls apart the first day you give it out?

I find if you spend a bit more on higher quality items people will use and hold on to you’ll get much more lifetime marketing value from it.

Here’s a few promotional items that tend to stick around:

• coffee mugs
• a pizza cutters
• refrigerator magnet with valuable information
• baby’s bib
• or even just nice pens.

Do you think I’ll ever forget the agent who gave my daughter this bib?

​10) Send a Thank You eCard

​Saying thanks doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive.

There’s tons of sites that make it really easy to send an electronic ecard to your customers.

Go for something funny, if you can inject a laugh into someone’s day that’s a very powerful thing.

11) Thank You Video

​Make a movie using the different employees of your agency saying thank you.

You could be wild and go all out by singing or lip-synching a song like, “Thank You” by Dido, or just do something very simple like have everyone say, in unison, “thank you”.

If you want to make a powerful “thanks for becoming a new customer” video, film each person in your agency stating their name, a personal message, and either “thank you”, or “welcome to the agency”, or something like that. Put the miniclips together and you’ve got a great video.

It doesn’t have to be super professional.

Upload your video to YouTube as a hidden video and send the link via email to your new clients.

12) Say Thanks in Your Newsletter

If you send out a monthly electronic or paper newsletter to your clients, give a shout out to specific clients with a personalized message thanking them for their business, a referral, or something like that.

Make sure you point it out to them though because most people probably don’t read your newsletter… (sorry but it’s true!)

​13) Give Discounts to Another Local Business

Work a deal with another local business (preferably a client) that gives your clients a discount at the other business.

This is awesome for everyone because

• The other business gets free advertising and customers,
• You provide added value to your own clients,
• And the clients get discounts!

And you know they can never get enough discounts. ;)

14) Give Tickets to the Game

50 yard line seats at an NFL game might fall outside the range of acceptable (or affordable) customer gifts for most of the agents I know, but you can get your clients tickets to a minor league baseball game, or even the local high school sports games.

And it doesn’t need to be sports either.

What about tickets to the:

• zoo
• museum
• theater
• you get the idea…

15) Say Thanks on THEIR Facebook Page

​If you go out to your commercial client’s Facebook page you should be able to make a recommendation on their wall.

That’s a great place to say thanks for something they did for you or the community.

And if their settings don’t allow a recommendation like that you can also just send a Facebook message too.

Do not do this on someone’s personal Facebook page unless you know them really well!

16) Mail Them a Cookie

​When’s the last time you got a cookie in the mail?

For me the answer is never and that just ain’t right.

If someone did mail me a cookie I’d be very likely to renew my insurance policy with them.

​17) Donate to Charity

​Another way to say thanks to your clients is to make a charitable donation in their name.

Of course you could do this year round, but I have seen this technique used a lot during the winter holidays.

Because it’s more popular to do during the holidays, I would probably do it anytime but then. So your gesture stands out more… just a thought.

18) Holiday Thank You Cards (it’s probably too late for Thanksgiving though)

​Your customers are used to receiving Holiday Cards in the mall during the winter season, but if you’re going to spend all that money on stamps and envelopes, why not do it at a time when people aren’t getting many cards like Valentine’s Day, July 4th, or Halloween.

I often recommend agents send cards out to clients once a year but instead of doing them all in December, why not send a card to all your clients for whatever holiday occurs the month before their renewal?

Your December holiday card is long forgotten when August renewals are sent out…

19) Birthday Phone Call

Sure it’s more of a “happy birthday” than a “thank you”, but that doesn’t mean that calling your clients on their birthdays isn’t an opportunity to say “thanks again for your business”.

“By the way, life insurance isn’t getting any cheaper you old fart…”

20) Buy Clients a Coffee

​Send someone a small value gift card to Starbucks, or another local coffee shop.

It works great for clients who either live too far away or are very busy.

Send it with a note that says, “I’d love to take you out to coffee sometime but that’s not so easy… why don’t you have a coffee on me instead.”

21) Make Them Laugh

I don’t want to get too cheesy here, but there’s not many better things you can give someone than a good hard laugh.

Just follow a few rules: no jokes about politics, religion, nationality, sex, or anything else that might offend someone.

Don’t worry, that still leaves you with lots of great of knock-knock jokes.

22) Give Your Client Flowers

​Flowers are always a nice gesture because if your clients are anything like my wife, they probably never get them.

(I should follow my own advice more often)

You don’t have to spend a fortune on real flowers… follow my lead and snap a picture of one of your kids in the backyard with a flower they tore off my neighbor’s rosebush! ​It worked, didn’t it?

Whether you’re a regular reader of InsuranceSplash or just happened upon this article…

​I thank you so much.

​I’ve been in absolute awe with how the community of InsuranceSplash readers has grown and supported this blog. I cannot thank you enough for that.

​And one more thing…

If you appreciate articles like this and want to thank me for taking the time to write and publish these here’s the best way to do it:

1. Click one of those Like buttons.
2. And share a link to this article with an agent you know that really appreciates their clients.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

​Retention is necessary to build and maintain a successful insurance agency.

Every agent knows that.

You know small boosts in retention will grow long term profit immensely.

You know it costs more to get new customers than to keep current ones.

And you probably know the pain of losing more policies than you wrote in a week. You don’t hear as much about these two things:

1. Retention is a sales strategy – Every single thing you do to improve retention makes customers more likely to refer you.
2. Retention requires established processes –  Unless you decide exactly which methods in this article are going to work for you and establish formal procedures in your office to follow through, you will not see results.

I wrote this article so you couldn’t say, “I don’t know how to effect our retention.”

Here’s 34 ways to improve your insurance agency’s customer retention. No excuses, decide which retention strategies you like and take action!

1) More Customer Contacts

​Don’t harrass your clients, but the more times they hear from you throughout the year the less likely they’ll consider shopping around.

The key to multiple touches throughout the year is to vary the method and make sure you’re always bringing value. The same email every month about why to buy life insurance doesn’t cut it.

Need ideas? Here’s a few: emails, phone calls, newsletters, postcards, seminars, policy reviews, holiday cards, birthday cards, text messages, surveys, handwritten letters, webinars, community events, recommendations, gifts, billing notices, customer appreciation parties.

2) Cross Sell More

It’s very simple: The more lines you sell someone, the higher their retention rate.

I used to work for a company that gave such a big discount on your auto insurance if you bought a renters policy it was usually cheaper to have both.

A lot of agents thought the company was crazy but I didn’t.

I know the retention rate for those clients went through the roof when we added that extra policy.

3) Annual Coverage Reviews

​I could write a book about the value of providing coverage reviews for your clients but you’ve already heard it hundreds of times.

What holds most agents back is deciding they’re going to do it, developing a process, and following through.

Make it easy on yourself and start with a small goal of doing one coverage review a week (or even less) and only go after your best clients. Remember that even when clients decline your offer to review coverage, they’ll still appreciate the gesture and won’t be able to use, “I never hear from my agent.” as an excuse to shop around.

4) Discount Reviews

Has a client ever left you to save 10% when you could have saved them 15% just by applying all the discounts they were entitled to?

Don’t lie.

It’s incredibly frustrating and I know a lot of agents that will blame the client for not calling you first. This is wrong.

Asking your clients a few questions every year to make sure they have every discount they’re entitled to will make them feel more confident they’re getting a fair price and they’ll be more endeared to your commitment to saving them money.

​5) Strengthen Your “Onboarding” Process

Marriage is the most important and longest lasting commitment most people ever make and that’s why every culture makes such a big deal out of wedding ceremonies.

I know it sounds silly, but I encouarage agents to compare their new client onboarding processes to a wedding ceremony.

Do your new clients feel like they’ve just joined a family, or made a business transaction?

Unless Kim Kardashian is your client, the more your onboarding process resembles a wedding the longer they’ll stick with you.

By the way, this is a highly symbolic analogy so don’t toss rice or tie cans to their car.

6) Call Before Premium Increases

I know many agents prefer to “let the sleeping dog lie”, but when you know a client is going to receive a big premium increase I recommend being proactive about it.

If you’re open and honest, the good clients will appreciate it. You can also give people an opportunity to change coverages around or identify any additional discounts to reduce the effect.

Orient your conversation around what is causing the increase and what can be done to offset it if needed. Assume that leaving your agency is not an option.

7) Setup Automatic Payments

​Clients on EFT payments renew their policies at a much higher rate than those who write a check and mail it every month.

It’s just too convenient to stay and too inconvenient to leave.

Getting your clients on automatic payments is a mini-sale within the sale and should be appreciated for its value.

Make sure your staff is aware how important it is and compensate them accordingly.

8) Get More Referrals

Every agent loves referrals and you can never have too many, but one value that often goes unappreciated is that clients who refer are more likely to renew.

It’s psychology… if I tell everyone you’re the best agent ever,​

1. I’ll believe it more every time I say it aloud.
2. I’d feel stupid switching after saying you’re the best.

Read this article for more ideas on getting referrals

9) Shop Rates For Them

​Obviously it won’t work for the captive agents but for the independent guys, sending your client comparison quotes with your other carriers once a year is a great way to keep them with your agency.

It doesn’t matter if you send quotes for the worst carriers, just seeing a few other numbers that are higher than what they’re paying is all most people need to stay put.

10) Pre-renewal Phone Calls

​Simple idea: call your clients before the renewal to thank them for their continued loyalty and offer to answer any questions they may have.

If reaching out to your entire book sounds daunting, identify the most important clients and reach out to them. Or identify the “flight risks” and call them.

11) Pre-renewal Holiday Cards

​This is a little twist for agents who send out Christmas cards.

Send clients a holiday card in the month before their renewal arrives. Each month you’ll have a new card for the holiday but it only goes out to your clients renewing the following month.

In February you send Valentines to the clients renewing in March and in March you send St. Patrick’s day cards to the clients renewing in April. (and so on)

It’d be about the same cost as Christmas cards, but more timely and more noticeable.

12) Remind Clients of Longevity Benefits

​I used to be a claim adjuster and can honestly say that when a question arises about paying a claim, one of the first things looked at is the client’s longevity with the company.

A straightforward claim will not be affected but if it could go either way (and claims often can) a 10 year client will get coverage  at times that a first year client will not.

Don’t be afraid to remind your clients this. It’s true.

13) Educate Your Clients

The more your clients understand insurance, the more value they’ll see in your services.

On the other hand, when clients only understand price you’re 100% dispensable.

If you truly understand and believe that clients should stay with you regardless of price it’s your job to educate your clients as to why.

If you can’t do that, maybe you don’t really know the answer yourself.

14) Random Acts of Kindness

There’s a term in psychology called reciprocal altruism that says, “do something nice for someone, and there’s a better chance they’ll do something nice for you” (like renew their policy).

Sending clients an occasional handwritten note or personal email, giving their children balloons when they come into the office, or mentioning a client’s business on your Facebook page are just a few ideas.

The hand that gives, gathers.

15) Remember Clients’ Children

​It probably sounds silly, but when people I do business with remember my childrens’ names and ask about them, I feel very respected and greatly appreciated.

If my insurance agent asked about my kids every time I saw him I would never leave.

This might be good information you can keep track of in your CRM.

You can pretty much always ask “How’s the family?” and manage your way through the conversation appearing to know a lot more than you do.

16) Anniversary Present

​Earlier in this article, I likened the on-boarding process for new clients to that of a wedding ceremony. If you really want to take this analogy further send your clients an anniversary gift each year.

If you follow this schedule you won’t need to buy a diamond for 60 years.

You could also just send a “virtual” anniversary gift.  Email a picture of a gift and explain you’d like to buy it for them, if only the insurance regulators would allow it. ;)

17) Reward for Renewals

I’m sure there are others, but I know Allstate, Nationwide, and United Healthcare offer some sort of deductible reduction for each continued year of insurance.

As an insurance agent you can’t change the policy offerings but perhaps there are certain benefits you can offer your longtime clients so they feel more appreciated and like they’d be giving up an earned benefit by leaving.

I’m sure you can come up with better perks, but here’s a few to get you thinking. Give your longtime clients a special phone number, an appreciation party, access to your top customer service representative, a special customer service email address, or a special discount card that saves them money at other local businesses.

18) Birthday Cards or Letters

Face it, everybody likes getting birthday cards. It doesn’t matter who it’s from or how old you are, just knowing someone remembered and made the effort makes you feel good.

If you’re worried about the cost, time involved, or distraction, consider sending birthday cards to your top 10% of clients.

​19) Exaggerate Your Sales Success

​Your current clients want to see that you’re selling a lot of insurance.

When they think people are lining up to buy insurance from you every day of the week it proves that they still have a good price with a good company.

When you say things like, “we’re having a slow month,” your clients will hear, “No one wants to buy the product you’re currently paying for… time to shop around.”

20) Make Them Laugh

​I guess this is more of a just a general customer service/experience tip, but every laugh you get from a client makes them a bit more of your friend and a bit less of your client.

When your clients are your friends they’re a lot more forgiving when the policy goes up at the next renewal.

21) Follow up with Claims

​Customers who have had a claim in the last policy period are one of the most likely segments of your client base to non-renew.

Why?

Because claims suck.

I was a claim adjuster long ago and I know there are many great claim experiences but a very high percentage of them are very unpleasant.

But here’s the good news: As an agent, you can play an integral role in your clients’ claim experiences. In order to do so, you need to establish a procedure to contact customers with claims and follow up regularly until the claim is complete.

When clients have a bad claims experience and they don’t tell you about it, they’ll think the only way to send a message to the company is by cancelling the policy.

Take the complaint, absorb it, apologize, and keep the client.

​22) Attract Better Clients

​Okay, I know that everyone would like better clients. Most agents are more than willing to take anyone with a heartbeat and I understand.

I guess my point is this, when you’re trying to determine where to spend your marketing dollars, keep in mind the lifetime value of each sale.

It may cost half as much to get clients from the wrong side of town, but if they leave your agency 3 times as often spend your marketing dollars elsewhere.

​23) Remind Clients About Discounts

Insurance shoppers love discounts. And they hate not getting discounts.

When you remind your clients about every discount they get during every interaction, it does two things that help retention:

1. It reinforces the idea that they’re not paying too much.
2. It makes them less likely to go to another company without the same discounts.

Have you ever had a conversation like this?

Prospect: “Do you offer a discount for X?”

Agent: “Unfortunately no, but I’m confident we can save you money even without that discount.”

Prospect:  “Well, I can’t get past the fact that they reward me for X and you guys don’t even care.”

Wouldn’t you like your competitors to have that conversation if your clients ever call them?

​24) Build Social Network Connections

​I mentioned how important it is to “touch” your clients as frequently as possible. Connecting through social networks makes this even easier.

Each time you connect with a client virtually they’re making a bit more of a commitment toward you.

When clients connect with you, it’s like combining the recommendation benefit from #8 with the connection benefit in #7 and the increased number of contacts benefit of #1!

​25) Take Ownership of Problems

​Because we often want to make ourselves look better, when things go wrong with a customer it’s only natural to blame the problem on factors out of our control.

While this is the intuitive approach, it is not best for business.

When your client has a complaint and you blame forces outside your control they have no reason to stay with you.

The problem is likely to reoccur.

Blame yourself and explain why it won’t happen again and you’re far more likely to retain that upset customer.

​26) New Client Follow-Up Schedule

​Clients who have been with you for less than 2 years are the most likely to non-renew.

Develop a procedure for keeping in regular contact with them by phone, email, or snail mail.

It should be “contact-heavy” at the beginning and can ease off over time but should ramp up again during renewals and any other important times in the life of the policy.

For the first couple years, make sure your clients don’t get any surprises.

When their policy, declarations page, renewal, and any other paperwork comes in the mail they’ll be expecting it and already know what to do with it because you called them first.

27) Make Someone Responsible for Retention

​When everyone is equally responsible for retention, no one is.

Put someone in charge of developing strategies to increase retention (they can probably just read this article) and pay them for delivering results.

Also, your other staff members may be more likely to support the goals of agency retention when it’s not being driven by the person who has the most to gain. (You)

​28) Pay Staff on Retention

If you’re not paying your staff for customer retention, why should they care?

I believe one person should hold the lion’s share of the responsibility and the potential commissions for retention success but anyone else who can play a role in helping or hurting retention should have some skin in the game.

Your non-commissioned CSRs might be more important with retention that your producers.

29) Customer Surveys

When you ask clients for feedback about your agency it accomplishes a lot of things:

1. It gives unhappy clients a chance to show their unhappiness with words instead of actions.
2. It shows clients how committed you are to keeping them happy.
3. It reinforces positive thoughts about your agency for anyone that gives you top reviews.
4. It allows you to ask questions about things other than price, to remind customers that price is not the only consideration.
5. It’s another touch point. (See #1)

Need I say more?

​30) Don’t Burn Bridges

​This isn’t really a retention strategy as much as a re-acquisition strategy but I thought it belonged here somewhere.

When someone leaves your agency and there’s nothing you can do to retain them, make sure it’s as pleasant an experience as possible for them.

In this business, the grass is often not as green as it looks over there and many customers will come back if you let them leave with appreciation and respect.

​31) Improve Your Customer Service

​I guess I had to put this somewhere on the list, right?

Focusing too much on the retention strategies on this page when your customer service sucks is putting the cart in front of the horse.

For example, can customers use your agency’s website to handle the most common customer service issues? If not it’s time to call your web guy or get an insurance website you can update yourself.

32) Give Referrals to Your Clients

​If you’re a regular source of referrals for clients that own small businesses or work in sales, they’ll never leave you.

When you can control connections of people within your community you’re offering an amazingly valuable service on top of insurance advice.

Make sure you get credit for every referral you give and consider making a table or bulletin board in your office somewhere for client promotional materials.

Just thinking they might get yanked off your “Wall of Recommended Businesses” could be enough to keep many people from leaving.

33) Promote Your Most Loyal Customers.

​Social proof is a sales tool that involves showing prospects other customers who bought from you and are happy.

Video testimonials can be a great for new sales but they can also be used as a retention tool.

For example, get a video testimonial from one of your most loyal customers and find ways to show it to your current customers. Post it to Facebook, email it to your “flight risk” clients, play it on a monitor in your waiting room, etc.

34) Don’t Sell Only on Price

​It’s tempting to sell on price, especially when you’ve got the lowest one.

Selling on price may work today but it kills retention.

If you can save a prospect money and you have the cheapest rate, move on to all the other benefits of your agency.

They won’t forget the savings, I promise.

In the insurance business, no honest company can have the cheapest rates forever.

Here’s What To Do Next

First - Click the Like button on this page so I know you want more content like this.

Second -  Share a link to this article with an agent or sales manager you trust and discuss the ideas that will work best for you.

Third - Develop a plan of attack for boosting retention and take action by the beginning of next week.

Retention is necessary to build and maintain a successful insurance agency.

Today’s article was contributed by guest author Avery Manko from The Manko Company. Thanks Avery! Let’s face facts: to the average person, insurance is not exciting or interesting.

Adding insult to injury, I’d be willing to bet that most folks think insurance is a necessary evil and are not thrilled about paying premiums.

Writing new business in an overcrowded marketplace is tough enough already, so when you sound like Ned Ryerson from “Groundhog Day”, the task to grow your book is even more challenging. I suggest a short, well-designed commercial known as an “elevator pitch.”

Imagine getting on an elevator and the person standing next to you asks what you do for a living. You now have less than a minute to pique their interest and hopefully get the opportunity for a future conversation.

Wouldn’t it be great to have something planned for such an occasion?

Let’s do it.

First – Create an Intriguing Yet Vague Headline

In order to craft the perfect elevator pitch, you first need an intriguing yet vague headline. I suggest something short and unusual.

For example:

• “I have an unusual business in a not so unusual industry”
• “If I told you what I did, you won’t believe me”
• “I have a niche business.”

Hitting them with something different will create curiosity.

If you lead off with “I sell insurance” you lose the listener at the beginning.

Second – Explain Who You Work With

Let them know the characteristics of the people you want to work with. This statement needs to convey to the listener a little bit about your ideal client.

Typically, the statement begins with the words “I work with…”

Here are some examples:
“I work with people who own homes and businesses in the Philadelphia area”
“I work with people who own more than one home.”
This is your chance to let the listener know what kind of business you’re looking for.

Third – Give an Example of Solving a Problem

The third step is to give the listener a short example of how you solved a client’s problem.

Typically, these statements start off with “I recently helped a client…” or “A business owner was referred to me looking for ways…“

Here’s an example of what this statement may sound like:

• “I recently helped a client who’s financially successful. She purchased a multi-unit dwelling and she needed some options to reduce her liability and protect her other assets.”

​Be careful, the statement should be no more than 3 sentences otherwise you may sound like you’re selling.

Fourth – Explain The Insurance Part

Now you’re going to let them know who you are and that you’re in the insurance business but you need to do it in a way that maintains the curiosity.

Perhaps it would sound like

• “I’m Bob Smith. I’m in the insurance business. My clients come to me because I have a unique skill in handling complex insurance needs.”

​The purpose of the statement is to create a distance between you and your competitors by letting the listener know that you specialize.

​Let’s Put It Together

So here’s what it sounds like when you put the whole thing together:

• “I have an unusual business in a not so unusual industry. I work with people who own homes and businesses in the Philadelphia area. I recently helped a client who’s financially very successful. She purchased a multi-unit dwelling and she needed some options to reduce her liability and to protect her other assets. I’m Bob Smith. I’m in the insurance business. My clients come to me because I have a unique skill in handling complex insurance needs.”

Finally, here’s a few tips:

• Write several statements for each of the 4 steps. Use them interchangeably depending on the situation.
• When creating the statements, brainstorm about what makes up your perfect client and the problems you’ve solved for them. Saying that you save people money on their insurance will attract price shoppers; saying you work with responsible people may help you insure more responsible people.
• Once you have created several statement for each step, practice, practice, practice!

About the Author:

Avery Manko is the owner and founder of The Manko Company, a promotional products distributor that specializes in helping insurance agents. He offers a lot more than great products, prices, and service. Working with Avery you get an experienced and knowledgeable insurance promotional products consultant. Connect with Avery on LinkedIn. If you’re an insurance industry expert and would like to submit a guest post for the InsuranceSplash Blog CLICK HERE.

​Selling insurance is hard.

Really hard!

In fact, making a sale is so hard that agents often forget the most important part of building a successful insurance agency:

Developing a ROCK-SOLID relationship with every client.

​There’s no better time forge that relationship and boost the lifespan of your clients than immediately after the initial sale, but it’s easy to miss because it’s so exciting just to close the deal.

That’s why I recommend creating a formal Welcome Kit for new clients.

Traditionally, a welcome kit is a folder full of papers for you to explain face-to-face but it doesn’t need to be exactly like that.

The point is just to have something formal to walk every new client through all the most important things they should know as a client of yours.

Here’s 25 ideas to get you started on building your new customer welcome kit:

1) Conversation Checklist

Create a simple one-page checklist of all the things you want to discuss with each new client.

(this article would be a good starting point)

The checklist ensures everything is covered and also keeps the client engaged and receptive by outlining the information you’re going to cover.

Use it as the introduction at the beginning and to review at the end.

2) Everything We Sell Sheet

Unless your agency is like the Progressive commercials with shelves full of policies, your clients won’t know what else you sell if you don’t tell them.

Why not make it easy for yourself?

Create a simple one-page sheet that shows all the different policies and products you sell. Show it to every new client, put it in their welcome kit, and take a few minutes to go through it.

Here’s a few of the benefits:

1. You might make a cross-sale right then and there.
2. It helps you collect x-dates.
3. It prepares the client for future conversations about additional lines.
4. It prevents the client from buying another line of insurance somewhere else.
5. It trains the client to be a better referrer of your agency.
6. It reinforces the idea that you can support all their insurance needs forever.

Hmm…. After coming up with all those reasons I’m thinking maybe you should put it on a refrigerator magnet!

3) Referral Program Explanation

I think a lot of agents don’t create an established referral program because it sounds complicated and they’re confident they’re already handling referred business well.

That’s fine, I’m sure you are.

But if you don’t establish a formal referral program you’re missing out on a huge opportunity – making it easy for your producers to talk about referrals with clients.

Make a one-page sheet that explains:

1. How you “reward” clients who refer you.
2. How you handle the friends they refer.
3. The types of clients who you have the best products for.

Giving your producers something to talk about reduces the anxiety over “asking” for a referral because they’re not asking for anything – they’re just explaining the program.

​4) The Client’s Policy Documents

If you print out your new clients actual policy (or application), they’ll be more likely to hang on to the entire package.

(Along with all the other marketing goodies you put in there.)

Tell them they might need it someday so put it in a safe place and don’t throw it out.

5) ID Card Holders

I’m a cheapskate, but I don’t think this is a place to skimp.

Get some nice ID Card Holders for your new auto insurance clients. They’re paying thousands of dollars and all they walk away with is a piece of paper.

Put it in a nice package for them.

6) Connect With Us Sheet

I’d prefer your new clients walk out of your agency having already liked your Facebook page, followed you on Twitter, and connected with your staff and you on LinkedIn but that’s not very likely, is it?

Create a simple one-page sheet that explains your different social media accounts with URLS to each.

As I’ve written before, don’t just ask them to connect, explain WHY your clients should WANT to connect with you.

(And I’m sorry to break it to you, but “We’re trying to get 100 fans” is a really stupid reason)

7) Important Phone Numbers

Create a list of the most important phone numbers your clients may need.

Numbers to report a claim after hours, billing questions, whatever – just take the phone numbers you already give out a lot and put them on one page for the customer.

You’ll help clients solve their problems quicker and more smoothly which should result in better customer satisfaction.

And it should also cut down on some of the unnecessary calls you get in the agency.

Just make sure customers know they can always call you – don’t cut yourself out of the value equation!

8) How To Review Us Online

Create a one-page sheet that explains how customers can write positive reviews for your agency.

Right after you’ve saved someone a ton of money is the best time to ask for a review because 6 months later they forget.

And if you’re not already seeking positive online reviews here’s why you should be:

• More positive online reviews helps you rank higher in Google.
• Customers are making decisions on who to call based on reviews.
• Every insurance agency should have at least 5 positive reviews on Google and Yelp to protect against the potential reputation disaster of having only one review from an irate customer.

And don’t fake them – you’ll get banned!

9) Agency Staff Bios

Make your new clients feel like a part of the family by introducing them to all the members of your agency team.

This is a great supplement (not a replacement) to walking new clients around the office to meet everyone and it’s a great way to put faces on the agency for clients who might never see the inside of your office.

Include work background, education, and pictures of your staff along with each member’s individual contact information and LinkedIn URL.

It also tells your clients they’re not just getting a policy, they’re getting a team of experts at their service!

10) Use Nice Folders

They don’t need to be leather-bound, but show clients you’re investing in a long-term relationship with a high-quality folder to hold their new client paperwork together.

First impressions are lasting and a customized folder with your agency branding will portray a sense of quality and trust.

If you approach new business like every new customer will be with you for life, a lot more of them will be.

11) Sign-Off Sheets

These are conversation starters for selling other lines of insurance (or potentially a tool to avoid E&O exposure).

Create a simple document the client signs if they refuse a certain coverage or another line of insurance you think they should have.

If the client says they don’t want a life insurance quote ask them to sign a refusal form.

They don’t want rental coverage? No problem -just sign this waiver.

Waiver documents you create are probably not going to have any major legal protection value (although they probably can’t hurt).

The real value is to get clients to consider your recommendations more carefully.

12) Contact Info Page

I’m not sure if this requires an entire page in your new business package, but it should definitely be easy for the client to find whatever contact information they need for your agency.

Maybe it’d be good to combine this idea with number 7 above.

13) Online Account Setup Instructions

Do your carriers allow clients to setup online accounts for greater control and access to their policy?

Make sure to include a page that walks them through the process.

Consider setting up accounts right there in the office, or scheduling a time when they’re in front of the computer to walk them through the process over the phone.

The more connected your clients become to the carriers you sell the more likely they will renew.

14) How to Recommend Us Information

Create a simple one-pager that explains everything a client might need to know about referring your agency.

​Here’s a few ideas to get you thinking:

• All the different ways to get a quote. (call, website, fax)
• The most popular policies you sell
• The life events when someone should talk to an agent
• The clients you have the best rates/products for
• 5 Reasons why your friends are better off with our agency

​
​You should constantly be asking yourself this question:
“How can I possibly make it EVEN EASIER for clients to refer us?”

15) X-Date Capture Form

Do your producers have a hard time asking for x-dates?

Make a checklist with every line of insurance the client might already own with a line next to it to fill in the renewal date.

If you want to take an extra step toward the sale, include another space on the form for how many weeks prior to renewal your agency should contact the client.

16) Customer Service Process Information

Explain to clients how you handle customer service with specifics.

​Include​

• Your hours of operation
• What’s handled inside the agency vs. by the carrier
• Who does what in the agency
• How quickly customers can expect responses
• customer service contact information
• Your philosophy of customer service

​And if you need other ideas just ask your customer service person what they wish every client already knew.​

17) What to Do In An Accident Card

Car accidents and other insurance-related losses are highly stressful and jarring experiences.

No matter how much your customers think they know what to do, they’ll appreciate a simple instruction list when something bad happens.

Give every client plenty of them and put your contact information on there since it could be a great resource for referrals.

18) Safety Information For the Kids

If your clients have any children or grandchildren, give them coloring books or other safety information for the kids.

These are great for grandparents because they love giving the kids a present and since it’s about safety their protective instincts will be fulfilled.

19) Explanation of Annual Policy Review

I know a lot of your clients don’t want to take the time to have an annual policy review with you.

I can’t blame them, the idea hasn’t been sold to them beforehand so it sounds like a sales trick.

It’s a lot easier to explain all the benefits of an Annual Policy Review during new business when the client feels no pressure toward setting an appointment.

20) Business Cards

Lots of ‘em.

21) Referral Cards

A referral card is a special card designed for your clients to carry in their wallet and hand to someone as a recommendation of your agency.

You can offer some kind of reward for both parties (depending on local insurance laws) or just give a few reasons why your agency rocks.

If you don’t want to create special cards, get a stamp that says, “Referred by _____” and stamp the back of your business cards.

22) FAQs Sheet

What are the 3-5 most frequently asked questions your agency receives.

Could you go through them during new business and avoid a lot of phone calls later on?

Make it funny by adding in a question that’s obviously not frequently asked. I’m drawing a blank right now, but I’m sure you can think of something funny.

23) Agency Schwag

Now’s the time to give out all that cool stuff with your agency’s name on it.

It’s funny how someone can spend thousands of dollars at your agency and walk away excited about a pen you gave them because it has a cool clicky thing.

I recommend spending a bit more on promotional items that have more staying power. I have a pizza cutter from 5 years ago and will be looking at pictures of my kids wearing Allstate bibs for the rest of my life.

24) Emergency Contact Information Form

Chances are, your carriers aren’t going to require you to collect an emergency contact person for your clients, but it’s still a good idea.

Ask your clients for the contact information of a friend, neighbor, or relative you could contact if there was ever a major emergency with the insurance.

People are used to being asked this question so they won’t think twice. And when they tell you the contact person ask casually who their insurance agent is and see where it goes.

25) Annual Events Information

Does your agency participate in a few events throughout the year?

Even if you just have a sponsor’s table at the annual pie eating contest put it on your list.

Not only will you be able to get more people involved with your events, you’ll also reinforce the idea that you’re a local business and you support the local community.

One More Thought to Add
You might read all these ideas and think,

“My new clients wouldn’t want all this, they just want their insurance.”

That’s not true.

(Of course if you bring that attitude your clients will sense it and you’ll fulfill your own prophecy. Congratulations!)

• Your clients WANT to be treated like they’re important.
• Your clients WANT to feel they’re getting more value for their money.
• Your clients WANT to be a part of something special.

And if you WANT to keep your clients then you’d better figure out how to make it happen.

What to do next:

1. Use a few of the ideas here you like most to develop or enhance your new client welcome kit in the next week.
2. It doesn’t have to be perfect to start using it. Make your kit a dynamic resource that builds over time.
3. If you know another agent who wants better retention send them a link to this article.
4. And Click the Like, +1, Tweet, or LinkedIn button so I know you want more information like this. (That’s how I know what to write in the future)

​According to a recent survey by J.D. Power & Associates over 92% of internet users have used reviews to make a purchase sometime in the last 12 month. That’s pretty much everyone.

Reviews matter. People don’t have time to waste shopping around or money to lose on a bad service or product. Using the collective experience of a group of people is a great way to speed up your shopping process and avoid getting burned. Why get a referral from one friend with one situation when you can compare the average reviews of 100 people who had 100 different experiences?

While online reviews have traditionally been more relevant for online products (Amazon) and high-volume services (restaurants, hotels, etc) they’re quickly becoming integral for every company that does business

with the public, including and especially insurance.

It’s true, and yet so many insurance agents are totally passive about generating reviews from their clients. Ignoring your online reputation is irresponsible for your business.

Download the free ebook below to learn more about why it’s so important for your agency: