Today’s insurance market is different. With social media, email marketing and search engine optimization the way we attract, quote and serve customers has had to change. For many agencies they have adopted some newer ways of doing business but it may not be clearly outlined to the customers and the team. We have worked with a few agencies to outline their standards, you can check out the Paradiso Promises and the Galvez Guarantee.
We often find that in sales we don’t have as many standards as we do in the service sector. At APP we can help agencies outline sales standards. We generally approach this in three distinct ways:
- Standards that the prospect can expect
- Agency standards for coverage and placing new business
- Standards for producer activity to be successful
Standards for Prospect Expectations
Most customers or prospects communicate exactly what they expect. However, when we define a sales process with standards we can ensure we are always delighting our customer and exceeding expectations. This also allows you to stick out from the competition, when you outperform your competitors you win more business. Here are some things to build into expectations for your sales process:
- Quote turn around time (we always recommend quoting over the phone) however, when you cannot the agency needs to have an expectation set of exactly when a quote is expected to be turned around. The sooner the better.
- Expectations on the number of options a client will receive. We always recommend 3; people will generally choose the middle or top tier.
- Set the expectation on how they will receive the quote we always want a live review so you can ask for the business. Never an email.
Standards for Coverage and Planning Business
When you are quoting everyone should have a clearly outlined process to follow. This means not short cutting the rater and should always entail putting every prospect into the management system even if they don’t bind. You want to develop a database of unsold business to continue to nurture.
- You have to place minimum standards for quoting business. If anyone would like a quote below your agency standards that should require sign off from management.
- In addition, you need to have standards for the type of insurance you will quote. For example, you can always provide an umbrella quote, renters quote, cyber or epli just as a standard. It’s not that you ask the client, we just do it.
- We believe that agencies should tell agents where to place business when all things are competitive. Agencies grow when they are maximizing bonuses, and feeding the company appetites. We should be able to sell a few more dollars to maximize our commissions and bonuses.
Producer Activity Expectations
Producers who have clear activity expectations will sell more insurance. For many producers the challenge is they are aggressively waiting for the phone to ring or waiting on referrals. The top producers take control of their prospecting and follow up in a systematic fashion.
- 20 Prospecting calls per day
- 1 Center of Influence meeting per week
- 1 Networking event per week
- Call every sold client 30 days later to welcome them and ask for referrals
- 6 follow up calls on every prospect and quote
- Call 1 existing client every work day to check in
When your expectations of activity and delivery are clear you can align your agency’s training to help your team meet the expectations. Without clear expectations your clients are not getting a uniform experience and you are missing out on driving the highest closing ratios. Expectations align activity. When we can have our team execute our expectations we can keep growing the business!
