How to Take Customers from Geico

[Ferrari]

Must love that kitty

 

[iiinycboi]

lol. i found a geico killer they beat them by 30% all the time too bad its another form of geico business model direct only no IAs

 

[Gulliver]

If pricing is the issue and you are not able to sell on price or get close you must attempt to educate the prospect on the benefits of higher limits. I always try to tell a story that has happened or could happen to show the prospect how the coverage works and how vulnerable they could be if they are underinsured. If you explain this properly and can provide a proposal that is respectable you should be able to do very well. If the prospect does not respond favorably to your insurance lesson then move on.

All of us who have been in the industry for a while have seen accidents happen that required all of the policy limit to protect the client. These experiences are what I base my explanations on. This is why we are in the business. I cannot sell a minimum limit policy and feel good about it unless the person is already uninsured when they approach me. If they are uninsured I really don't want them because I know they will likely (not always) lapse as soon as they can. Don't fear GEICO they have very little to offer other than price and I find Progressive to be more competitive than them in my state so watch out for Flo and her friends too.

Gulliver

 

[1manshow]

Is Geico really a player?

Here in Pa some of our preferred carriers consider previous Geico customers as non-standard business. This means they must be spotless to come from Geico to a preferred plan. Often the rates are half what Geico charged.

 

[iiinycboi]

over here in NY its has like 25% of the autos i think, i saw the statistic somewhere. And they quote and bind less than 5 mins with the lowest price you can find.

 

[Guest]

Geico is ALWAYS a player, people get home at 7 or 8 at night, open thier bill, get mad, and go to Geico or Progressive online and get a cheaper policy.....

These 2 companies are DRILLED into everyones head and it has worked, You know the names, you know the charaters in their commercials, heck, FLO has a Halloween costume out. Their mass marketing worked....

 

[BTFuzz]

Geico is ALWAYS a player, people get home at 7 or 8 at night, open thier bill, get mad, and go to Geico or Progressive online and get a cheaper policy.....

These 2 companies are DRILLED into everyones head and it has worked, You know the names, you know the charaters in their commercials, heck, FLO has a Halloween costume out. Their mass marketing worked....

I agree...but when you get down to the nitty gritty, in my area we kill them consistently. Their ease of doing business and 24 hour availability help them tremedously.

But when I get someone who has them or is thinking of leaving to go to them I can talk them off the ledge almost everytime.

 

[AgencyEquity]

So like the title says, how would you write auto insurance for a client who came in and told you he has geico.

My pricing is not competitive with them. Do you try to educate them and offer agent assistant that they cant get thru geico?

What would you do?

For me, when i get people asking for auto insurance and they say they are currently with geico, i know i cant be competitive in pricing.

GEICO has a place in the marketplace, I always asked myself do I want to target GEICO clients and the answer is no. The reason why is GEICO attracts people on price and these don't make the best clients for Insurance Agencies. The only exception is when someone moves up on the world, they are at the point were the need an auto,home and umbrella as well as realize that GEICO is not really not the best market for them. In this case, you really need to sell youself and the entire package, sophisticated people will pick on on your value and these are the best clients.

 

[Josh]

GEICO has a place in the marketplace, I always asked myself do I want to target GEICO clients and the answer is no. The reason why is GEICO attracts people on price and these don't make the best clients for Insurance Agencies. The only exception is when someone moves up on the world, they are at the point were the need an auto,home and umbrella as well as realize that GEICO is not really not the best market for them. In this case, you really need to sell youself and the entire package, sophisticated people will pick on on your value and these are the best clients.

That's a pretty interesting take on it.

I'm one of at least three active members of this forum with Geico. I'm with them because they have the best price on the coverage I want and I've had a positive experience with the way they've handled claims.

When I was at Allstate I'd steal clients from other companies, even when we were more expensive, because I took the time to go over their coverages with them and explain what gaps they had. They felt I added value and went with Allstate partially because of the branding, but largely because I helped them understand the value of the coverage and turned the discussion of "I want the state minimums" into a discussion about what that actually meant which led to the obvious conclusion that their last agent did not help them the way they wished they had.

Since you called out Geico customers as shopping on price, I'm wondering what carriers you know of or what agencies that don't use that as a marketing point? Allstate, State Farm, most independent agencies (all?), and the whole slew say "call me to see how much I can save you on your insurance".

If you don't angle on price, what do you advertise? "If you'd like to pay 15% or more, call AgencyEquity!"? I'm being a little facetious with that, but I really am curious as to what your approach is.

 

[Norwayguy]

You might want to get a copy of a tricks motorcycle policy and look at and highlight the exclusion for 2 wheeled vehicles....Josh is happy to have that exclusion on his tricks motorcycle policy.