Breaking into a New Market?

[Herkster]

Alright, P & C wizards, I've got a question for you.

First, we're a bank agency, with 3 locations. Heavy customer base in our home office, which is a small town, very rural. Our 3rd location is in a decent sized city, a lot of blue collar workers, and some office folks.

I'm trying to come up with a way to help promote us in this city, to allow us to maybe get some additional home and auto policies, as we look to grow our book.
Besides simply cold calling, what other things work the best?
Mass mailer? Every door direct mailer? Seminar?
Thoughts?

 

[tpowell138]

Do people still walk into banks... If so that's your ticket. They already are your customer you just need to cross sell.
Cross sell then ask referrals. Write the referrals and ask your referrals for referrals. Write your referrals from your referrals and then.... Haha You get the point

 

[FL P&C Broker]

^This

Greet people as they walk in. If somebody asks to speak to so and so about their mortgage or whatever tell them whoever the banker is will be them in 10 minutes and you are the insurance person and ask them if they would like a quote on their home and auto insurance.

 

[Herkster]

We don't staff that office full time, which is part of our issue. I think I need to just spend a couple weeks straight over there, and really hit the customers as they walk in. The ones that we've had referred to us are NOT the ones we have wanted.

 

[shawnmwalker]

Good Points. Really!

But to the second question (First question in the first response)

Do people still walk into banks. They do.

Will they continue to if they get approached by someone about Insurance? A % would stop coming in.

 

[indienoise]

Bank walk-ins will either be the elderly or the financially unstable. Most of the world is direct deposit or mobile deposit if they are white collar, professional employees. Or use drive thru. You say it is a blue collar town, so hopefully that is the market you are targeting if you're moving in there. This crowd will require full commitment (it's what I do, trust me) so either stay staffed full time, or abandon ship. Make a friendly, low-pressure value proposition to customers who are already there, then work the referral angle hard.

 

[insurance1822]

^Good point here.

1.) Incentivize LO's to refer (or make their job security rely on it)

2.) Get telemarketers to hammer that bank database to drum up quotes for you guys to do.

3.) Walk ins are bums. If the bank owns the agency and wants to make money, they must monetize their depositors to create leads. Otherwise, waste of time.

 

[AboutThatLife]

Walk ins are not bums. Lots of people like walking into the bank to meet people, or just because its nice to know who works there.

 

[agentinsouth]

Walk ins are not bums. Lots of people like walking into the bank to meet people, or just because its nice to know who works there.

Yea- my bank has great coffee. I don't actually go to the tellers, that is why the Internet was created. But they do have some really good free coffee. Oh- & very clean bathrooms.

 

[pfg1]

I don't go into my bank(s) that often, but I did last Saturday and was surprised how many people were in there. It was super busy. And no, they were not all old or deadbeat. But I do agree, more and more people do things outside of the actual physical locations.