How To Turn A 3% Improvement Into 40% Growth For Your Agency

If you're planning on staying in business for awhile, you already understand the value in growing your agency. And since you're taking the time to read this, you're obviously interested in growth. Increasing the number of clients you bring into your agency each month has a direct impact on your bottom line - how profitable your agency is. Most agents think that in order to grow their agency they need to find the "next big thing" to revolutionize their business and get them to the next level, but nothing could be further from the truth.

The truth is, trying to hit a home run and catapult your agency towards success with one shot is often what drives agents out of business or keeps them stuck where they are. A home run would be nice, but most of the time if you swing for the fences you end up striking out. Too many agents invest a lot of time, effort and energy into one big program that ends up not working out. If you want consistent growth in your agency, you need to focus on the little things - hitting the singles. The singles take a lot less time and effort AND if you do it right, you can turn 3% more effort into 30% annual growth in your agency!

From 3% improvement to 30% growth, where's the magic? Whether you know it or not, there are only 6 major profit drivers in your agency that earn you a profit from new clients. Your goal is to lead clients through these 6 steps in order to grow your agency. The 6 drivers are:

1. Lead Generation: How many client leads you are producing
2. Request A Quote: How many leads you convert to prospects that request a quote
3. Deliver A Quote: How many prospects who request a quote follow through to review the quote on a favorable basis
4. Close The Sale: How many prospects become clients
5. Cross-Sales: How many of your new clients do you cross-sell into additional lines of business
6. Referrals: How many of your new clients provide you with referrals

For a typical agency, here is the breakdown of numbers from initial lead to closing the sale:

What if you could improve each of the 6 profit drivers by an average of just 3%, how would that affect your business? This is where the real magic happens! There are a plethora (one of my favorite words) of things you can do to improve your numbers by a measly 3%, and I'll save that topic for another time, but if you average 3% improvement in each of the 6 profit drivers, you've effectively made 18% worth of improvements. BUT, because of the magic of compounding (something you should be talking to all of your clients about!) each 3% improvement gets bigger as the number from the previous profit driver improves. The result is pure magic - a whopping 34% growth for your agency from a measly 3% improvement!

The best part about a 3% improvement is that you don't have to kill yourself to get it done. You don't have to go out and find the next big thing and you never have to strike out! You can still swing for the fences if the opportunity presents itself, but most of the time it's the small, steady improvements that add up to a big increase in your agency.

Take a little time to break down each of the 6 profit drivers and figure out how to improve it by just 3%. At the end of the year you'll be amazed at the extra 34% of new clients in your agency!

If It Takes 7, Why Do You Quit After 3?

Studies show that people buy after 7 touches, yet most sales reps stop following up after 3 touches. When you stop before 7, all you're doing is prepping your prospects to buy from your competitor! Think about it, if someone contacts you, interested in an insurance quote, then they are probably going to buy insurance at some point in the near future. However, people buy on their own terms and time frames. The secret in closing more sales is to stay positioned in front of your prospects until they are ready to buy, and that usually takes place after 7 touches.

The typical transaction: A new prospect is referred to your office for auto, home and life insurance. You have a nice conversation with them, put together a proposal and review it with them. When you follow up a few days later to answer any questions, "I've been extra busy at work and didn't have a chance to think about it" is the response you get. No problem, you'll just get a hold of them after the weekend. Your call on Monday gets you the same response, too busy to look. One more try a few days later and after they're still too busy, so you give up and write them off as a waste of time.

Sound familiar? When you stop following up, you're quickly forgotten by the prospect and you're pretty much guaranteed to NOT make a sale. The prospect really did get too busy dealing with things to stop and think about their insurance program (that's real life). A month later when things slow down and they're ready to make a move, they've already forgotten about you because you gave up too soon.

You need a 7 step system to stay in front of prospects until they make a decision! There is no SIMPLER way of increasing sales than by positioning yourself to be in 1st position when your prospect thinks about insurance. You position yourself through a 7 step process that consistently reminds your prospect that you are there, ready to help, when they are ready to buy. Positioning yourself simplifies your sales, but simple does not necessarily mean the same thing as easy!

You can't just call your prospect twice a week until you've contacted them 7 times. Although it would probable work better than doing nothing, you don't want to annoy your prospect into buying. Even if you do, the referrals and and cross-selling opportunities will be pretty limited. You need a well thought out, multi-media, multi-step process of staying in front of your prospects that communicates in different ways and provides information the prospect wants. You need to show your value through:

1. Calls
2. Letters
3. Reports
4. Testimonials
5. Videos
6. Emails
7. CD's

You need to delight and surprise your prospects by reaching out to them in new and unexpected ways so that when the time is right, you're the first agent that comes to mind. If you put together a 7 step process, you'll not only be the first, you'll probably be the only agent that comes to mind because no other agents out there will be communicating like you.

The bottom line is that people buy when they're ready to buy, not when you're ready to sell. And, people prefer the familiar over the unfamiliar, so make sure you put a plan in place to become familiar to your prospects. It's all about the positioning!

$8000 Sale As Easy As "Did You Know?"

Do you ever walk out of a P.I.R. ticked off at yourself for not bringing up life insurance, investments or some other service that you know you should have talked to your client about? Most P&C agents I know (myself included) find that opening up a life insurance or retirement conversation with their P&C clients isn't always easy. The next time you find yourself talking with someone about their auto or home insurance, try this simple transition that just helped me open an $8000 life insurance sale:

"Did you know..."

Yep, sometimes it's really that simple! The other day I sat down for a first time visit with David, a client who's agent had recently left the company. His policies were transferred into my agency and this was our first meeting so I could introduce myself and do a quick review of his policies. David's prior agent had done a good job on the auto and home side of things, but there was no life insurance in place. I had no idea if David (who is 71) had already been approached about life insurance or not, or if he already had a retirement plan put in place, so I threw out the "did you know" question.

"Did you know we also take care of life insurance and retirement planning?" The answer was no, he did not. Over the last 5 years, David had met with his prior agent 4 times, referred a few new clients every year and added more P&C policies to his account on multiple occasions, but he had no idea that his agent could help him with life insurance. And he needed some help! It turns out David had recently received a letter from a prior insurance company explaining that the policy he had purchased 19 years ago was about to expire. He knew he needed to protect his family, but wasn't sure who to talk to since the agent who sold him the original policy 19 years ago had retired.

David ended up choosing a $250,000 permanent policy to make sure he could take care of his wife and leave a legacy with his children and grandchildren. The premium is $8000 per year, but David knows it will be the last life insurance policy he ever has to buy. David thanked me for helping him and for letting him know we took care of more than just auto and home insurance.

It's amazing how 3 little words can start so many wonderful conversations. The worst thing you can find out by asking someone a "did you know" question is, yes, they already know. You might also find out that not only didn't they know, they're also glad you asked!

You've Done A Great Job, But...

One of the best things about being an insurance advisor is knowing that you are really, truly helping your clients protect the things that matter most to them. Their cars, their homes, their boats, motorcycles and other toys will all be repaired or replaced if something happens because you've done a great job of helping them protect those things.

But what about their retirement plans? Are your clients protected from losing something just as important as their cars and house - the money they plan on using for retirement? Our job as advisor is to protect our clients assets - including their retirement accounts! Most advisors don't ever think about insuring their clients retirement, and most clients never think about it either. If you change your mindset from helping your clients INVEST for retirement and instead start helping them INSURE and PROTECT their retirement account, a whole new world of opportunities will open up for you!

In-sur-ance: The act or system of protecting against loss or harm arising from specified contingencies, in consideration of a payment proportionate to the risk involved.

Here's a new conversation starter you can try with your clients this afternoon, whether in person or over the phone. The result (if done right) will amaze you:

YOU: Mr. Client, you've really done a great job with your insurance program. Your cars, your house and your motorcycle are very well protected from loss in case something happens to them. May I ask you a question? What are you doing to insure your your retirement account to keep your money protected from loss in case something happens with the economy?
CLIENT: What do you mean insure my retirement plan, is that possible?
YOU: Well let me ask you, is that important to you - to protect your retirement plan if something happens in the economy?

There are a lot of different ways you can respond with this opener, and the bottom line is that you CAN protect your clients retirement plan and insure that it never loses money. We have the products and the strategies to available to give our clients safety and guarantees and, as Van Mueller always says, our company and our industry were made for times like these!

Stop worrying about investing your clients money, and start concentrating on protecting it. Your clients will thank you and your production will skyrocket!