Growing Business?

[Herkster]

HA!

Herkster, for better understanding, what is your region like..state/city (if you don't mind asking)? Sounds very rural...how much competition is out there? Sounds like you need to join some local organizations to network a bit.

I don't know that this advice applies to personal lines, but for writing business insurance (and farms for that matter) my highest success rate was the second or third time around. My first year in the business, at 21, I killed myself to break even on my commission draw. Year 2 was equally a grind for writing accounts on the first try but I had a small gold mine of "dead files" to rekindle and, having a better understanding of the particular accounts, was much more successful.

I'm a firm believer in cold-calling, especially for business insurance and especially for the first couple years.

You could look through your agency's dead files/lost accounts to see if there are any gems worth contacting. Your business clients should also be getting COI's from any business they obtain goods or services from. We required our insured's to send us those cert's to make sure the coverage was adequate (good for the insured) and to identify prospects (good for you). It's a good route to go if it's available, you have the xdate of coverage, you know the competition and potentially can get a warm referral from your client. You can also recommend this to your HO clients. Anyone having contracted work done to their house should obtain a COI from the contractor and send it to the agent for the file and to verify coverage requirements are met.

Well, my area is like Mayberry
Small town, less than 600 residents, very rural, very farming oriented. We've been located in this town since it was pretty much developed back in the early 1900's. If you look at my previous post, our agency has been here since the late 20's or early 30's! We are a bank based agency that has three locations, all inside of a bank in those three locations.

Our home town is highly saturated by us and the length of time we have been in the area. The other two towns are what I am trying to break into and I'm trying to figure out the best ways to do that. I've kicked around the idea of joining the chamber in the larger city (under 4k population) but I haven't done so yet as I have a new born at home and am trying to find that work versus home life balance.

We are the only agency in our hometown, our 2nd location (population under 400) has us and a Farm Bureau office, and the larger city location where I work at only one day a week (busy with crop insurance which is just winding down in our hometown) has several other agencies.

We don't get a lot of commercial exposure due to the demographics of our area. Most workers are blue collar, very few independent business owners, and those that are around, we either write or can't compete with their current carrier.

I help a local farmer so I know the business, I know what they do during spring, summer, and fall. I can talk with just about anyone but am still hesitant to just drop by most places in fear of irritating people, which is something I know I have to get over and just do, and I know in my mind that most people would be happy to chat for a few minutes with me.

We have like a 95% retention ratio, the 5% that leave are mostly from policy holders passing away. It isn't very often that we have business walk out the door to a competitor because that is just how people are in this area. They are very loyal unless they have a bad experience.

 

[Herkster]

Any other input on any of this?? We had some good discussion up until the end of last week...

 

[XdateNotSexDate]

Looks like you have 2 options to work - 1 being to cross sell your boss's crop customers for p&c and the other is to move on to another town, as 1manshow stated, where your agency doesn't have the market locked up.

I would think cross selling your boss's clients would be the easier route, and supplement that with looking outside your normal territory. If the next town over is a hike, cold calling will be your best friend. Make your calls, schedule an appointment and then identify as many other prospects in that area that you can either call and say "I'll be in your area on (this) day and would like to stop by to introduce myself and discuss your insurance program" and/or just stop by to drop off your card and maybe get lucky. I guess it is a synergistic effect I'm trying to explain- use the "excitement" from 1 meeting to spark another meeting.

 

[Herkster]

Looks like you have 2 options to work - 1 being to cross sell your boss's crop customers for p&c and the other is to move on to another town, as 1manshow stated, where your agency doesn't have the market locked up.

I would think cross selling your boss's clients would be the easier route, and supplement that with looking outside your normal territory. If the next town over is a hike, cold calling will be your best friend. Make your calls, schedule an appointment and then identify as many other prospects in that area that you can either call and say "I'll be in your area on (this) day and would like to stop by to introduce myself and discuss your insurance program" and/or just stop by to drop off your card and maybe get lucky. I guess it is a synergistic effect I'm trying to explain- use the "excitement" from 1 meeting to spark another meeting.

I appreciate the input! Most of our crop book is cross sold, but there are a few that aren't, which is a list I already have printed out and on my desk to go over.

I will have to work on a cold call "script" - I don't want to say script, just an idea of what I want to get across when I'm on the phone with someone. I've got 5 or 6 towns within 20 minutes from here, not a huge deal mileage wise.