Rarely Any Sales !

[xrac]

Grab a hand full of your business cards and walk to your neighboring businesses. Walk in the door with a smile on your face and introduce yourself and tell them you work next door and wanted to say hi, pass out a business card and tell them you would love to help in any way possible. Or pick up the phone and call someone, anyone...(That is a potential client) Tell them what you do, how you can help, and ask to be of service. All in all just do something...talk to people tell them what you do...Help people, ask them what they do....There are books upon books of information on this stuff and Forums after forums you can read for help, advice and guidance. Whatever you do sitting next to the phone and trolling the internet will not get you a sale. Be proactive, be hungry and be willing to work your butt off because insurance sales don't fall in your lap and there are a few million other agents ready and willing to take the sale.

This is good advice.

 

[LDG]

Join your local board of realtors. I am an associate member and with that membership I got the email addresses of each realtor in the area.

Several times a month I will email each realtor pertinent information about homeowners insurance that might effect their closing. I also put a disclaimer in the email informing them to let me know if they want to opt out of the email and to date I have only had one person ask to opt out.....only after he asked me to quote all of his insurances.

Once I have written the property insurance, it makes the conversation about auto and boat that much easier.

 

[lhrowley]

Joining your local Chamber of Commerce can help tremendously. They typically offer numerous opportunities to connect with other area business owners - by developing relationships with these professionals, you can get more referrals than you ever expected.

If you are in a large-ish city, look for networking groups on Meetup and in local business publications. Same approach - develop relationships and find ways to help other business owners. In many (but not all) cases, you will become the go-to insurance professional when your network finds someone who needs your products.

 

[nyagent31]

Wow...all of these are great suggestions. I am new to the forums and was thrilled to see everyone giving advise to the new guy.

 

[Gooner]

IF you go the Chamber or BNI route...just be consistent. There always seems to be a million P&C guys jumping at the chance to tell you about their company...don't be that guy. Get to know people, it takes months, but it can pay off. I know a lot of P&C agents that survive solely on their BNI groups. Expensive upfront, $600/year or something like that, but if you can find an opening or start one, you'd be in good shape.


Other than that start what I'd call a "Milk Route". Pick a couple big Realtor offices, a couple big Mortgage broker offices around you and once a week go drop off "goodies"...donuts, coffee, sodas, cookies...whatever. After a couple of weeks of being CONSISTENT, you'll start getting some phone calls. They get bombarded with P&C agents dropping off cards..be different. Pick a day of the week to do it, every week and just do it!


Good Luck

 

[lhrowley]

If you're selling auto (and I assume you are, given that this is in the Auto Insurance Forum) in addition to other P&C lines, you might be able to do the Milk Route that Gooner talked about with car dealerships.

You might want to get a handle on your state's laws, though... in Ohio (or, at least, it was this way years ago), dealerships are technically prohibited from recommending specific insurance companies or agents. Not to say that it doesn't happen.

 

[Gooner]

If you're selling auto (and I assume you are, given that this is in the Auto Insurance Forum) in addition to other P&C lines, you might be able to do the Milk Route that Gooner talked about with car dealerships.

You might want to get a handle on your state's laws, though... in Ohio (or, at least, it was this way years ago), dealerships are technically prohibited from recommending specific insurance companies or agents. Not to say that it doesn't happen.

I totally left them out...he's right...a good milk route of Car dealerships can be GOLD!!! Had a captive agent that I know was clearing an easy $150K, purely off his dealership connections and referring another $150K to independent agents he couldn't right. Now was he doing it the right way...eh, probably not, but money is there to be made.

 

[pcbinsurance]

"Join your local board of realtors. I am an associate member and with that membership I got the email addresses of each realtor in the area."
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With many board of realtor associations, there is no need to join as an associate member. Just go to the website and all of the members are on there with their emails. Easy pickings that will pad your email address book.