1. Sell insurance value: The plethora of insurance commercials on television have made consumers more focused on how little they can pay rather than what protection they will get. Agents need to flip the script. Help customers realize it is not solely about price – but getting the best coverage for the best price. Make insurance relatable. Learn about the customer’s lifestyle and educate them on their risks and what could happen if they don’t have the right coverage for these risks.

2. Tell real, engaging stories: Nothing resonates better than a story. While you don’t want to be hyperbolic, in the insurance world, there are many real-life worst case scenarios that people can learn from. If you have trouble thinking of a story from your own experience, talk with your underwriters or claims representatives. A customer might not remember all of the insurance terminology you explain to them during your discussion, but they will remember the story and understand why a certain type of coverage is important.

3. Accentuate what makes your agency different from others: Great customer service, dedication to the community, more helpful than captive carriers. While these values are vital, they are often table stakes for most independent agencies. Highlighting these attributes won’t make your agency stand out from the others. Agency owners need to dig deep to determine what they want their agency to stand for and what they can give to their customers. For example, the mission statement for KILGO Insurance in Richmond, VA focuses on helping their customers live confidently. This mission statement is rooted in everything they do as they strive to make their customers confident that they have the right protection for their risks.

4. Be the go-to-source for information – even for non-customers: Take your customer service to the next level. Let your clients know that if family members or friends have questions about insurance, they are welcome to call you with no commitment to purchase a policy. Consider creating a blog addressing the most common questions about insurance or advice on how people can reduce their risks. When sending the blog to your contact list, encourage them to share with others who might need it. When it comes time for these people to make purchasing decisions, they will remember that you helped them with no strings attached.

5. Look for partnerships – even in unconventional places: Who are the local real estate agents in your area? Are there any car dealerships? Connect with the owners of complementary businesses and see if you can create a referral relationship. Also research the other independent agencies in your area to see if you could fill a void in their offerings. For example, perhaps you specialize in small business insurance but there is another agent in your area that only focuses on personal lines. You could agree to send any personal lines inquiries to them and they can send any small commercial requests to you.

Creating a Tech Stack to Accelerate Sales

With technology, agencies should follow their A B C’s – always be curious. While agencies should be selective about the technologies they implement to ensure they are actually providing value, they should be keeping up-to-date with new advances to make sure they aren’t missing out. Customer relationships management systems and email marketing automation solutions have been staples to the sales channel for years, but here are some other tools that could help grow a book of business:

• Sentiment Analysis: Sentiment analysis helps identify how happy clients are. Sentiment analysis solutions use AI to analyze communications from customers including emails and phone transcripts looking at the tone, word choice and other factors to determine how happy or dissatisfied a customer is. It can also be used to identify cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.
• Net Promoter Score (NPS): NPS helps agencies get customer insights on what they are doing well and setup systems to improve processes. After a qualifying event like a call to the agency or filing a claim,  a one question survey is sent to customers asking for feedback. If a customer gives you a high NPS, you can ask the respondent to refer you to others.
• Chatbots: These solutions can be integrated into your agency website or customer portal and answer common questions enabling your agency to provide faster service to customers and prospects. Chatbots powered by generative AI will be able to learn from client interactions and improve their interactions overtime.
• Sale Assistance: AI powered solutions can scan your book of business, identify areas for upselling and cross-selling, as well as target prospects that fit your service areas.
• ChatGPT: From social media posts to blogs to email, helpful content can help you attract new business. But developing that content takes time. ChatGPT can turn raw content into polished pieces fast. But remember to review everything for accuracy before publishing on your website or emailing to clients.
• SEO Optimization: Did you know “insurance” is the most expensive word in Google Ads? Getting found online in a highly saturated market can be tough. There is a method to getting found online and working with a website solution provider can help enhance your site’s SEO and raise your agency’s listing in the Google rankings.
• Quoting Technologies: Customers don’t want to wait days let alone weeks to find out the cost of their policy. Quoting solutions not only allow you to deliver pricing information quickly, but many are using available online information to reduce the number of questions prospects have to answer.
• Onboarding Services: The faster you can get new producers onboarded the faster they can begin turning leads into sales. Solutions that manage producer management from getting setup and licensed to maintaining compliance can ensure your team doesn’t experience any downtime.

Examples of Sale Enhancing Technologies

This is not an exhaustive list and the following is not to be considered a full evaluation of available vendors or any issues associated with vendors:

• Agency Management Systems: Agency management systems can help agencies manage their sales pipeline as well as assist in identifying cross sell and upsell capabilities. Examples of providers include Dyad, EZLynx, HawkSoft and Xanatek. If you are pursuing lines outside of P/C, such as life and health, providers like Agencybloc, are specialized to assist with these workflows.
• AgentSync Streamline compliance and deliver a frictionless onboarding and licensing experience that gets producers ready to sell in hours, not weeks or months.
• Crystal Knows: A personality data platform that reveals the DISC personality profile for any buyer so sales teams can maximize the impact of every conversation.
• Customer Relationship Management Systems: These solutions help automate tasks, track leads, manage customer relationships and assist with marketing efforts. Examples of CRMs for agents include Anthem Software and InsuredMine.
• Digital Marketing Platforms: Solutions like Agency Revolution and Brightfire offer a variety of services to boost marketing such as elevating website SEO to assisting with outreach on social.
• Donna by Aureus Analytics: Designed specifically for independent agencies, Donna provides out-of-the-box solutions focused on addressing their top concerns including: customer retention, cross-selling, and becoming a trusted advisor.
• Gaya.ai: Extracts information from carrier portals, AMS, or documents and then pastes that information in the appropriate fields making it faster and easier for agents to quote.
• LeO: A personalized AI sales assistant for insurance agents and brokers, making sales information personalized and instantly available.
• LULA Gail: A voice powered AI tool that is capable of having human like conversations and is built to lower customer acquisition and support costs.
• OpenAI ChatGPT: A free platform that enables you to engage with the AI and create custom content. Using prompts and information provided, it can help with content creation including emails, blogs, and social media posts.
• Zendesk: Zendek AI chatbots don’t require technical skills to deploy and come pre-trained on real customer service interactions that are specific to the customer’s industry.

Best Practices for Implementing New Technology

• Have an end in mind: It is easy to get caught up in the technology hype and want to implement a solution because it seems cool. But if a technology isn’t solving any real pain points it can be a waste of money. To make sure technology will add value, think about where you want to go and then work backwards. What do you need to achieve this goal? Is technology even needed? If it is, what kind of solution do you need?
• Research, research, research: Finding time to research and demo possible solutions is hard. But if you don’t do your due diligence, you may end up spending even more time if you make the wrong selection and need to start all over again. Key things to keep in mind when evaluating solutions are:
  • Who was it made for:  If agencies aren’t a primary target, you may have to do workarounds. Make sure the provider fully understands agents’ needs and isn’t trying to shoehorn a solution designed for carriers into the agent market.
  • Is there a long-term contract: Partnering with solutions that have pay as you go options or enable you to cancel anytime, could make it easier to test within your agency without any financial repercussions if it doesn’t fit your needs.
  • Is the company looking for customers or partners: What type of assistance does the provider offer after the contract is signed? Do they want your feedback on what is working and what can be improved? If the solution is all about transactions rather than customer success, it might not provide the support you need once the solution is up and running. Vendors should value customer feedback and work with you to make sure you are getting the most out of the solution.
• Have a defined set of metrics to measure ROI: Is the solution solving the problem you needed it to solve? Is it making your team more productive? Can you service customers faster? Has your customer experience changed at all? Continuously evaluate the solution to make sure it is performing the way you need it to perform.

The insurance industry has had a talent issue for years. No one grows up wanting to work in insurance – most people fall into it. Agencies have to get creative to not only help recruit talent but also to retain their top employees.

Here are four tips to help find the right people for your sales team:

1. Go beyond insurance: To be effective at sales requires a special set of skills. The person has to be outgoing, friendly, able to keep a conversation going, persistent without being pushy. The list goes on and on. The majority of these traits are innate – they can’t be taught. But insurance can be taught – so don’t eliminate a candidate just because they don’t have insurance expertise. One PIA agency owner shared that one of his best employees used to be his hairdresser.

2. Don’t skimp on the interview process: Agency owners are always in a battle with time. While you might want to hire a person as quickly as possible, having a thorough interview process can prevent you from having to start the process over again in six months because the new hire didn’t work out. Think about all of the ways the producer or agent will have to interact with a customer. How is their phone presence? How is their email communication? How do they handle talking with someone who just experienced a loss? How are they on video calls? These are all areas you should explore before you make your hiring decision.

3. Bust the insurance myth: The insurance industry has a bad rep. People think it is slow and boring and involves pushing paper behind a desk. But insurance is about relationships and being there for people when they experience a loss. Agency owners should promote this narrative whenever they can. Extol the benefits of an insurance career in recruitment material including job listings and informational brochures. Network with young professionals and be open with answering any questions they have about the industry and share stories from your own experience.

4. Create a culture where you lead by example. Employees and new talent prospects want to work for an organization where their input is valued and everyone is working towards achieving a common goal. The best culture starts at the top. Agency owners should be walking embodiments of what they want their agency to represent such as a deep commitment to the community, providing stellar customer service, or having a work hard play hard mentality. Make sure to take time to have regular face to face time with each team member so they can provide any feedback they have as well as ask you questions and learn from your experience.