What’s the secret to sales success? Easy: there is no secret. Successful prospecting requires the right tools and a well-thought-out plan. The good news is your agency management system is one tool already at your disposal. But are you using it efficiently? Ask yourself these five questions to find out.
1. Are we tracking prospects in our agency management system?
You don’t need a complex program to track prospects. Use what you already have! Start by identifying the important data needed to track prospects (contact info, dates of meetings/phone calls, etc.). After setting up the prospect profile, take advantage of system capabilities like email integration, adding notes to profiles, and setting reminders to streamline your process.
Once you’ve identified what to include in a prospect profile, regularly create and share reports, pulling this info by producer. It’s shockingly simple to pull such reports for prospects, new quotes or renewal quotes.
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2. What’s our prospect follow-up process?
If you’ve quoted a prospect but didn’t write the business, when and how do you circle back? If you’re not tracking prospects you quote, you probably won’t get another shot at their business – at least not any time soon. Set up a system to follow-up. Once you’ve entered a quoted prospect in the system, you can set a reminder to get in touch again before they renew with a competitor.
Reports are again useful here. Set up reports pulling prospect quote information by date to tackle multiple follow-ups at a time. Or, divvy up prospects by agent to accurately hit all your potential customers.
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3. Do we have an established referral process?
It’s common to ask for referrals when writing new business, but do you have a process to keep asking as the relationship continues? Add referral requests as part of your regular cultivation strategy. Maybe it’s adding a “refer a friend” to the end of your newsletters or reaching out at renewal time with a discount for referrals. No matter what you decide, be sure you have a method for storing referred prospects, and noting their connection to current customers, in your management system.
4. Can we generate proposals straight from our system?
For new customers or if you shop when it’s time for renewal, can you easily generate a proposal summarizing your recommendations? Sending a professionally-branded, easy to understand proposal (that isn’t 60 pages long!) can make a huge difference. Especially if you’re able to do it quickly. Take advantage of your management system’s proposal creation abilities to capitalize on your renewal and upsell opportunities.
Read more on retaining customers on the SIS blog
5. Can we automate some of our prospecting and customer cultivation?
There are one-off tools out there to automate prospecting, but Partner XE users will soon be able to automate prospecting with an integrated pipeline manager and customer communications platform. Users will be able to program tasks like sending a Welcome Letter, follow-up email or text, and birthday email or letter. This integration also allows users to build a custom cadence to automatically schedule a letter, email, or phone call reminder prior to expiration, keeping on top of renewals.
Our team is always working hard to incorporate more selling capabilities in Partner XE, including pipeline management, client communications, proposal generation, and client portals.
See what we have to offer by viewing a Partner XE demo or get in touch with us at [email protected].
