Scroll down for a discussion on Referrals, Referrals, Referrals within the Auto Insurance Forum.
From day one, even before we were licensed to sell, the importance of receiving, cultivating, processing and selling referrals has been beaten into our heads ...
From day one, even before we were licensed to sell, the importance of receiving, cultivating, processing and selling referrals has been beaten into our heads as the most effective way to grow a book of business. The referral is not only a warm call but more likely to stay on the books and generate more referrals. (It's always easier to get a referral from a referral)
You life insurance agents probably do it best…. As an agent for Northwestern Mutual Life some 20 years ago, I actually found myself tracking my referrals more religiously and diligently than I did my actual sales. Knowing that if that bucket of names dried up - I was in serious trouble.
My current P&C agency uses three or four very productive ways to generate a steady flow of names. One of these is an agency closing sheet. This form is filled out before any application that we are writing. The form consists of nailing down contact information (most importantly email addresses), asking the life insurance questions, re-affirming their understanding of coverages and/or lack of coverages that they are purchasing and finally referrals… referrals….referrals….
With that being said, I want your input. What are you doing that works the best to get referrals? What are you doing that you think is unique and creative to generate referrals? What percentage of (face to face asking the question) referrals make up your book of business?
------------------------------------
Tim
Warnerins.com
I ask for referrals and testimonials every time I meet a client or prospect. In return, I cast a good luck spell on the person. Its been pretty effective so far, and I get alot of good energy in return.
------------------------------------
Silence is golden - Duct Tape is Silver
Right now, kicking ass on rate... nothing has been better for my agency than when our rate is real good... gonna ride that wave till it breaks
Photo of a client in every monday morning newspaper with a caption underneath (%$# agency just saved me $300/yr on my auto insurance)( no agency phone#, address or anything, they can look us up and I don't want it to look salesy)
We also do the summary sheet(like ur close sheet)
Emergency contact program
CSR's call clients on Bdays with congrats
Claims satisfaction questionnaires to both PH and claimant
Referral program, $10gas card/referral $50 monthly winner, $500 annual winner
Publish all of these in our newsletter occasionally to reaffirm the knowledge to our client base
We have a 3 step welcome mailing for new clients that goes out at 30, 90 and 180 days 30 day explains the referral program, 90 day explains why we will be calling about life ins and 180 day gathers testimonials with a $10gas card for their time
These seem to keep the referral pipeline pretty full. Hope it helps add to your ideas. Hopefully someone will post up something I can add to my list.
From day one, even before we were licensed to sell, the importance of receiving, cultivating, processing and selling referrals has been beaten into our heads as the most effective way to grow a book of business. The referral is not only a warm call but more likely to stay on the books and generate more referrals. (It's always easier to get a referral from a referral)
You life insurance agents probably do it best…. As an agent for Northwestern Mutual Life some 20 years ago, I actually found myself tracking my referrals more religiously and diligently than I did my actual sales. Knowing that if that bucket of names dried up - I was in serious trouble.
My current P&C agency uses three or four very productive ways to generate a steady flow of names. One of these is an agency closing sheet. This form is filled out before any application that we are writing. The form consists of nailing down contact information (most importantly email addresses), asking the life insurance questions, re-affirming their understanding of coverages and/or lack of coverages that they are purchasing and finally referrals… referrals….referrals….
With that being said, I want your input. What are you doing that works the best to get referrals? What are you doing that you think is unique and creative to generate referrals? What percentage of (face to face asking the question) referrals make up your book of business?
Tim would you be so kind to share the other referral methods you find that work. I am a new agent looking to build my referral network. thank you
James
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Originally Posted by 1manshow
right now, kicking ass on rate... nothing has been better for my agency than when our rate is real good... gonna ride that wave till it breaks
Photo of a client in every monday morning newspaper with a caption underneath (%$# agency just saved me $300/yr on my auto insurance)( no agency phone#, address or anything, they can look us up and I don't want it to look salesy)
We also do the summary sheet(like ur close sheet)
Emergency contact program
CSR's call clients on Bdays with congrats
Claims satisfaction questionnaires to both PH and claimant
Referral program, $10gas card/referral $50 monthly winner, $500 annual winner
Publish all of these in our newsletter occasionally to reaffirm the knowledge to our client base
We have a 3 step welcome mailing for new clients that goes out at 30, 90 and 180 days 30 day explains the referral program, 90 day explains why we will be calling about life ins and 180 day gathers testimonials with a $10gas card for their time
These seem to keep the referral pipeline pretty full. Hope it helps add to your ideas. Hopefully someone will post up something I can add to my list.
Thank you for the insight. I am a new agent getting started, and I want to make sure I hit the referrals hard. Thank you.
Last edited by gstker : 10-29-2008 at 04:05 PM.
Reason: Automerged Doublepost
Thanks for the response, all great Ideas. Some of the other things that we do are -
Our monthly e-newsletter goes out to our new clients the day after the policy is sold. This has a link to our monthly referral contest on-line form ($100 winner gift card to Walmart).
Our life and health agent calls all new clients the following week and does his magic. The closing sheets are scanned to the file so he can pull those up for quick reference.
Our referral contest online form is emailed out every Monday. This is probaby our best source. I wake up every morning with one or two of these in my email in box.
Here is a link to that online form
Sorry I tried to post a link to it but received an error saying that I am only allowed to post URLs to other sites after you have made 15 posts or more.
I ask for referrals and testimonials every time I meet a client or prospect. In return, I cast a good luck spell on the person. Its been pretty effective so far, and I get alot of good energy in return.
Thanks for this, Is there a special dance or wand that needs to be mastered?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The gift card to Walmart works.. Really... I think that it is a little more practical to let the family get what they really need. In these tough economic times it doesn't feel as good to give Mrs. Jones (struggling mom of four) a dinner for two at Les Fabulous. When all she wants to do is feed the kids.
Last edited by warnerins : 10-30-2008 at 08:39 AM.
Reason: Automerged Doublepost
Thanks for this, Is there a special dance or wand that needs to be mastered?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The gift card to Walmart works.. Really... I think that it is a little more practical to let the family get what they really need. In these tough economic times it doesn't feel as good to give Mrs. Jones (struggling mom of four) a dinner for two at Les Fabulous. When all she wants to do is feed the kids.
Plus, with a WalMart card, you can always regift it to someone else. On the other hand, I typically use gift certificates from my clients businesses. Its good karma.
Plus, with a WalMart card, you can always regift it to someone else. On the other hand, I typically use gift certificates from my clients businesses. Its good karma.
Nice!!! I had not thought of the gift certs from existing clients businesses. Thanks so much for the input (I am throwing you good karma for the rest of the week).
$100 to Walmart? Might I suggest classing it up a bit and offering $100 to a nice restaurant
You're just jealous 'cuz you didn't get one...
Originally Posted by warnerins
The gift card to Walmart works..I think that it is a little more practical to let the family get what they really need. In these tough economic times it doesn't feel as good to give Mrs. Jones (struggling mom of four) a dinner for two at Les Fabulous.
Gotta disagree.
Practical = logic = boring. A Wal*Mart gift card will be forgotten as soon as the diapers are used up...no emotion, or passion to it!
You give Mrs. Jones a treat she couldn't otherwise enjoy (dinner at Les Fabulous) "in these tough economic times" and she'll never forget you!
------------------------------------
[COLOR=blue]Don't steal - the government hates competition.[/COLOR]
The point is to generate referrals. A nice restaurant may be memorable, but not necessarily interest everyone enough to take the time to fill out a referral form.
I'm not going to take the time to refer someone if you're offering a gift cert. to an Italian restaurant if I don't like Italian food. I'm also not going to take the time to refer someone if the restaurant is not located someplace I find convenient.
A Wal-Mart type gift cert. is convenient, almost every community has one, and will be useful to far more people. You can make your agency memorable in other ways, but referral contests are more about getting NEW people in front of you than retention. Just my thought.
Any other tips or ideas? Do you think a restaurant gift card is better than somewhere like best buy or nordstroms?
I like the idea of offering a gift card that can be used both at the store or on-line. Make it as convenient as possible to get the interest of as many people as possible.
There's no doubt that is all true. There's also no doubt that it is boring.
Not much wow! factor to a Wal*Mart gift card....snooze....
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sorry, bad marketing idea.
When you try to get the interest of everyone, you end up with the interest of no one...
Alright, I will give some consideration to classing up the joint. Not sure how this thread got stuck on my Wal*Mart card (Mrs. Jones loved it last month)........ Moving on.
We tried something this week that has turned out to be interesting. Quartely we hire the local boyscout troop to attach our flyer to the neighborhood association newsletter. This flyer is usually filled with catch phrases and other propaganda to get clients to our office. They attach it and deliver 5000 of them to our area and can get these completed in an afternoon.
This time we decided to attach an announcement of a food drive for our community food bank. We announced that we woud be collecting non-perishable items and will deliver them on Dec. 1st and that we were trying to reach a goal of about 500 lbs of food. We have been overwhelmed with the amount of people that have walked into our office with cans of soup, boxes of oatmeal, dry cereal and other stuff...... All of these generous people have walked into the office with a smile on their face and a compliment for our efforts, all of them have asked for our cards and more information about our agency and most of them have never stepped foot in our office before.
We have already reached our food goal and have over a week to go. Not sure what the results will be as far as writing business but am looking forward to this on an annual basis.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
By the way, I have been away for a week or so and in that time have had a chance to read a lot of these threads (never really on vacation - I love my job). I have taken the opportunity to copy and paste several posts and have compiled a desk top file folder filled with a plethora of very cool marketing ideas. All of which will be scanned through again and either implemented or discarded for future reference.
For the new forum member, there is a gold mine off information in here that is just waiting to be implemented. You just have to weed through some of the crap to get to it. But well worth the hours of reading.
Last edited by warnerins : 11-23-2008 at 01:47 AM.
Reason: Posts merged
There's no doubt that is all true. There's also no doubt that it is boring.
Not much wow! factor to a Wal*Mart gift card....snooze....
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Sorry, bad marketing idea.
When you try to get the interest of everyone, you end up with the interest of no one...
I didn't suggest trying to get "everyone's" attention. I suggested getting more people's interest. I'll take 200 people coming to my website who can use a boring gas card over 10 people who are excited to try Les Fabulous any day. Sorry. I'll wow them once they're my client.
Sorry, lisar1208 and agent4sail I tried to PM you the links but need 30 posts to do that and agen4sail the email address that you sent me came back undeliverable. I think I have enough posts now to post the link now
No!! I tried again and it said that I have to have 15 posts. I think this post is 21
Does anyone know about the legality of passing out gift cards for referrals? I've heard it's ok to give things to current clients as long as you give them the gift card regardless of whether or not the referral buys. Is that true?
Referrals, Referrals, Referrals
Re: Referrals, Referrals, Referrals
Linear Mode
