There’s an early bird rate that you definelty want to take advantage of so we suggest that you go to the site and check it out. If you have any questions about the eagent summit, please do not hesitate to contact me as well.

Hope to see you there!

Since it focuses on business and networking opportunities as opposed to photos and gossip, LinkedIn is sometimes treated as the red-headed step child of social media, and given no attention. However, according to a poll executed in 2011 by Performics, a performance marketing company, 60% of professionals think LinkedIn is the most important social network because of its emphasis on business building. The site is in a class of its own; and while it may not be as ‘fun’ as other sites, as a commercial sales agent, LinkedIn is your most valuable online marketing and research tool.

Read the full article here.

• Building a World Class Sales Culture
• Creating a Website that Converts Visitors to Leads
• Having Landing Pages and multi media that attracts visitors to your products and services
• Blogging Consistently
• Embracing Social Media with an emphasis on FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+

This is obviously just a small sampling of all the things agencies need to do in order to attract the Modern Consumer, sell them more of your products and services and, of course retain them for years to come. One of my favorite phrases in the industry is, don’t make a customer for a day, earn a client for life!

If you need any help in the areas of Digital Marketing or Training and Consulting, please contact us for a free consultation.

Look forward to seeing you there!

I recall many times over the past 2 decades when Owners pat themselves on the back for growing their business. It’s ironic however, that when things are bad, it’s the employees, the economy, carriers, regulations and everything except; The Leader. I urge you to come see us speak sometime because you’ll see that the number one Core Principle in building a World Class Sales Culture is Leadership. There’s no question that it all starts at the top and Agency Owners are growing their businesses when they have a great attitude, train their people, invest in marketing and make a difference every day.

Employees follow your lead and if they hear you complain about a soft market guess what they’ll do? If they hear you talk about how the economy is hurting your business, guess what they’ll believe? If they hear you talk about what a great opportunity you have, take a wild guess at what they’ll believe?

Remember, being the leader of an organization is like being a parent. You set the tone for what’s going to happen so take our advice and be the type of leader that everyone wants to work with.

Don’t forget to contact us if you ever need coaching in this area. We’d love to speak with you!

It’s equally important that your Producers and CSR’s are trained on how to work with the consumer that finds you on the internet. It’s a much different sales process than referrals or yellow page leads from 10 years ago and many agents struggle with embracing the new way of selling and servicing.

The best way to learn what the fastest growing agencies in the country are doing to grow is to contact me.

I’ve never, and I mean never walked into an agency with an Owner that was engaged, people that were motivated and a culture we’d all like to work in that was shrinking. Let me repeat, I’ve never seen an agency shrinking with people that had Core Principals like: Belief, Positive Attitude, Charisma, Motivation and discussed them regularly.

Yes, it wasn’t a tool, trinket, widget, carrier, market, product, service or anything else. It’s an engaged leader, motivated people and a culture that exhibits growth. That’s the only common characteristic that I’ve seen agencies that are growing. Part of what we do is help you develop this culture in your agency while giving you enterprise level software to help you Find, Sell and Keep more customers profitably.

If you’d like to learn how to change the culture in your agency, contact us for more info.

Make it a Great Day!

There’s nothing like good old fashioned salesmanship to grow a business. Often times you get so caught up in the day to day minutia as an agency owner that you don’t pay attention to the most vital part of the operation; selling new business. Salesmanship is rarely practiced, taught or discussed in many insurance agencies. It’s usually insurance talk, underwriting or personnel issues. You have to ask yourself whether or not your agency has a sales culture. If you have a sales culture, your service is second to none because everyone in the organization works like a commissioned salesperson. Every client is important, every sales opportunity will be maximized and we give 100% effort to keep every account on the books.

When it comes to selling insurance everything is based on rate, rate, rate. Companies like GEICO, State Farm, Progressive and Esurance (to name a few) advertise that they’ll save you X amount by calling. You’ll love the savings… Call us to save money… 15% will….

Consumers and businesses are trained to focus on price when shopping for insurance so it’s up to you to sell the benefits of doing business with your agency. If you’re within 15% of your competition you should win the client every time. If you’re taking orders, you’ll only sell a policy when you have the lowest price the consumer received. If you need the lowest price to sell something, you’re not a sales person!

What benefits should you mention on every call? What about your agency’s value proposition? What about the benefits of the carrier and your agency? Your agency has something unique about its sales/service/renewal process that should interest a prospect. What about the ease of doing business? The ease of purchasing the policy? The variety of payment options? 24 hour claims service? Web access to their account? The list of benefits are endless.

Are you training your Producers and CSR’s? Are they good listeners? Do they know what their clients hot buttons? How do they answer the phone? How do they introduce themselves? When they give a price what do they say before delivering the price? After? Do they offer additional coverages? Do they ask for the sale? Do they send the quote in writing? Do they send by US Mail, Email or both? Do they explain that as a broker they can shop multiple companies every year to ensure they’re in the best policy possible? In other words, do you have a sales process?

Do they bore the prospect with product knowledge or give them enough information to understand coverages during the sales process? How do they handle price and other objections? Do they overcome objections or do they end the call hoping they’ll have the best rate for their next prospect?

We’ve heard numerous agents claim they prefer to focus on servicing their customers which is why they don’t produce as much new business as they should. The bottom line is you have to do both if you want to grow.

When the going gets tough the tough go back to basics. Ask for referrals, offer additional lines of business to existing clients and make sure you use a blended strategy when Marketing your Insurance Agency.

It’s impossible to grow without bringing a sales culture to your agency in this soft competitive market. It’s never too late to start, so develop a plan, and get your staff excited about selling.