When it comes to your insurance prospects and
customers, there are three main areas to focus on:
Improving ease and speed of service
Personalizing prospect and customer experience
Gaining data for expert advice
Each of these areas answers the question, “what do insurance customers want?”. Are you leveraging the right insurance sales software and processes to respond to these needs?
Improving Ease and Speed of Service
The best way to improve your service is by being
accessible and responsive. The two key technologies to make that possible are
your agency management system and your website.
Your agency management system needs to present
information quickly and accurately so you can respond to clients and have the
right analytics to measure and improve results.
If you need a Ph.D. to pull reports, you may want to reconsider your
options. The faster you can interpret your customer data, the faster you can
respond to needs.
An often-overlooked service tool, your agency website
can be a meaningful communication platform – when set up correctly. Make your
site intuitive to navigate and include
a client portal that’s integrated with your management system. Client
portals are essential in today’s digitized service experience. With a client
portal, your customers can view coverage, print insurance cards, and check on
claims processing 24/7. That immediate and always accessible service is vital.
Personalizing Prospect and Customer Experience
Prospects and customers now expect personalized
service. With an integrated Customer Relationship Manager (CRM), you can gain
the data you need to personalize the entire prospect journey and build better relationships
with your customers. Reminders to follow-up on tasks to engage with your
prospects come with a comprehensive picture of the prospect so you can target
each conversation to their individual needs. Timing and content are critical
when communicating with a prospect. Good timing with good information improves
the probability of a quality conversation, the catalyst for driving new
business results.
Marketing
Automation adds another level of personalization with custom marketing
campaigns that speak to different prospect segments. Each campaign gains
information on individual prospects and their segment, allowing you to improve
personalization with each message.
Gaining Data for Expert Service
In our recent
conversations with Partner Platform agencies, we’ve heard again and again
that the need for expert insurance advice is rising and will continue to rise
for the foreseeable future. To bring that advice, you need better data on your
customers. An
integrated CRM system is the ideal tool to gain and interpret data.
With that data, you can create expert proposals
with the help of an integrated
proposal creator. With a proposal creator, you can create a professional proposal
in minutes by flooding policy and submission information. This tool is excellent
for conducting an account review and offering cross-selling opportunities as
well.
Get all the Best Insurance Sales Software in One Place
We know the value of each of these tools because they’re just what our Partner Platform agencies asked for to enhance their sales and marketing experience. See how you can get all these sales and services tools and more in one system – contact us to view a Partner Platform demo today.
ZYWAVE ACQUIRES STRATEGIC INSURANCE SOFTWARE (SIS), STRENGTHENS POSITION AS AN INNOVATIVE LEADER Challenge the Status Quo More than an agency management system, Partner is who we are View Partner Platform What’s Important to You An agency management system that...
Among the many insurance marketing strategies out there, blogging continues to be a popular and useful tool across the years. We consider blogging an effective method and have the facts to back it up: websites with blogs have over 400% more pages indexed in Google than those without a blog, and more than 60% of consumers made a purchase based on a blog post.
As with any new process or strategy, start small
with your blogging and scale as you go. Begin with one or two posts a month and
slowly build as you get your footing. It takes time to establish your blog
presence, but the wait is worth it. Focus on the quality of your content
rather than the quantity to start.
2. Designate a point person/people
Ideas may flow freely, but action can be sparse.
Ensure you have a team or a team member heading up the blogging process.
Ideally, you should have a few individuals devoting time to your blog to
diversify ideas and spread-out responsibility. Still, there should be one point
person dedicated to moving things forward.
3. Generate ideas
The first place to look for ideas is other blogs in
the industry. Check out their topics and determine if any would resonate with
your audience. Check-in with your larger agency team, too. Discover the common
questions team members get from customers and ask what topics they think are relevant.
No idea is a bad idea at the start – this is the time to throw everything at
the wall and see what sticks.
4. Determine your keywords
To make your blog an effective marketing tool, you
want to use relevant search words reasonably often in your posts. Your locality
name plus “insurance,” or “insurance agency,” and other variations are an
excellent place to start for most independent agencies. Another great
combination is adding in your specialty for something, like “small business
insurance Houston.” These key phrases have a lower competition since they focus
on your local city or county, but they have a relatively high search volume.
Once you have a few phrases, you can discover more
using tools like Google’s keyword planner to
identify similar search phrases and rank your current terms by competition and
search volume.
Before you start churning out posts, determine how
you will categorize them. Take a look at your topic ideas and determine how you
should group them (i.e., Auto insurance, Life insurance, Tips and Tricks,
etc.). Organizing posts makes it easier for someone to continue diving into
topics of interest, keeping them on your site longer, and increasing their
engagement.
6. Spread the word
A blog without readers is like a tree falling in
the woods – does it make an impact? The answer is no. Once you have a few posts
up, begin sharing the news of your blog on your social media and via your
regular newsletters. Add a “share” button on each post so readers can let
others know about posts they enjoyed.
7. Make your website attractive to get your blog seen
No matter how great your blog content, if the site
it’s hosted on is out-of-date or difficult to navigate, it won’t succeed. Ensure
your agency has a professional, secure, and attractive landing place before implementing
your blog strategy.
The year 2020 was one like no other: it provided
individuals and businesses worldwide with some interesting and rarely seen
challenges. Innovation, flexibility, and adaptation were required in increasing
measure to reduce risk and make the most of the opportunities that came our
way.
For the Partner Platform team at Strategic Insurance Software, the foundational service principles we practice every day were exercised in new ways and to new heights, helping us turn the many challenges of 2020 into some amazing successes. The growth and achievements of the team are truly remarkable.
In this unpredictable and challenging year, our
team worked with the Partner Platform Community to improve the Partner Platform
experience and achieved significant accomplishments including adding and
enhancing features such as:
Through it all, we as a team welcomed a dozen new
team members, celebrated births and marriages from afar, and supported each
other and our Partner Platform agencies through each new test and transition
2020 brought us.
We are thankful for our Partner Platform Community,
who expressed encouragement and appreciation as we worked through the
challenges of 2020 together. Countless positive emails and conversations on
service team experience and product enhancements make us all exceedingly proud
of our team’s commitment, effort, and accomplishments in serving the Partner
Platform Community.
We look forward to building on these successes and assisting our clients in growing and flourishing in the years ahead.
Ever feel like the once critical phone call is now
irrelevant? You’re not alone. The rise of data-driven prospecting and digital
outreach sparked this rumor that phone prospecting is dead.
Yet, successful development teams still leverage the phone with insurance prospecting software for great results – in fact our Partner Platform agencies are emphasizing that a phone conversation is more important than ever. But how are they getting to that conversation?
The Facts Don’t Lie
Insurance prospecting software evolved, and savvy
agencies took these new tech advances and leveraged them to improve
time-honored outreach methods. Studies show there is no reason to put the phone
call to rest:
69% of buyers accepted one or more cold
calls in 2019
More than 80% of buyers said they set
sales appointments as a result of multiple contacts that started with a cold
call
Almost half of buyers say cold calls are
their preferred first contact
57% of C-suite executives report they
value information gained from phone calls with reps
These stats show phone outreach is alive and well.
It’s all about how you leverage it.
1. Start with a data
Data, gained through your insurance CRM, is your
starting point. Even though initial phone outreach is known as “cold calling,” these
calls shouldn’t be cold at all. The information gained from your marketing
automation campaigns and CRM should provide essential background
knowledge you can leverage to build a relationship right away.
2. Use more than one outreach method
While the prospecting call is very much alive for some, it
may not work for all. Your outreach efforts should be part of a multi-pronged
strategy. Content sharing, email, and social media are all elements of what
makes up effective, professionally persistent, data-driven outreach.
Whether via phone, email, text, or another method,
each of your conversations should contain an element of discovery. Focus on
understanding the person you’re talking to: what do they need most? What are
their barriers to purchase? Do they have any non-negotiables? The more you
know, the better you can tailor policy proposals to meet their needs, making
them more likely to choose your agency for coverage.
4. Make it easy to focus
Stay focused on the call and the prospect’s needs
at all times. Eliminate distractions: close your door, sign out of email and
social networking, and consider wearing headphones to block out other noise.
Show your commitment to the conversation by saying
the prospect’s name often, smiling, and leaving room for them to
talk. Over 60% of individuals surveyed said someone who listens to their needs
is more likely to win their business.
Keep the prospect engaged with a follow-up re-cap of
what you talked about, confirmation on your next communication (whether a call,
something you’ll email, or a meeting), and add in something they can use. That
“something useful” could be a link to client feedback, contact info for a referrer,
special offer, or any other content that provides more information. This
follow-up gives them a reference as they think it over, and it shows you care
more about meeting their needs than signing them as a customer.
6. Train your agents
Too often in sales, it’s thought you either have
“it,” or you don’t. Though there is some element of natural ability and
interest, successful agents grow from coaching and training.
Know your agents’ strengths and weaknesses and leverage
training to fill in gaps. Perhaps you need to bring in new agents to add to the
team or look to others in your agency who could grow into the position. To help
grow your group, establish mentorship and coaching, allowing team members to bolster
confidence and learn the ropes. And have a constant feedback loop for all team
members, ensuring each has someone to consult to assess growth and celebrate
successes.
As with all successful agency processes, you need
to review and improve your prospecting strategy continuously. Try different
outreach cadences, test various scripts, and add to training as is necessary to
help your team stay fresh and focused.
And keep your team equipped with the right
insurance prospecting software. Essential tools include your insurance CRM and
marketing automation systems as well as quality
communication tools like an up-to-date insurance agency website, integrated
email and texting, and a custom client portal. The easier it is for you to
connect with prospects, the better.
Discover more about essential
prospecting tools and how your agency can get them all in one place: view a demo
of our all-in-one Partner Platform agency management system today.
Have you properly equipped your insurance website for sales? Almost three-quarters of insurance shoppers go online to do research and obtain quotes, so you need a quality website to attract those sales.
This shift to online prompted our Partner Platform team to think more about agency websites and how to optimize them for sales and service. We now work with agencies to help them create a custom site to grow their business after seeing several common mistakes. Here are some of the ways we saw agency websites missing the mark – and how we helped them correct their missteps.
Partner Platform announces seamless integration with Rocket Referrals – expanding marketing automation capabilities to send timely communications, cross-sell policies, and measure client satisfaction while building long-term relationships with their insureds.
How did the COVID-19 pandemic change your insurance agency management?
Most agencies are emerging from pandemic lockdown with their business still healthy – perhaps even healthier for those that benefitted from restrictions that reduced claims. An agency that emerges from such an immediate and drastic change with economic strength speaks to their resilience and preparation.
