Since the dawn of insurance sales, agents have yearned for viable leads. Those who found the best leads enjoyed success, prosperity, and exotic travel. They built empires that stood for decades.
The source of those powerful leads remained a closely guarded secret, known only to the Old Agents and the gods they worshipped. But time passed and the age of the Old Agents was replaced by waves of New Agents who worshipped the false idols of Internet Leads. As New Agents waited for the Internet to magically make sales for them, the knowledge of the past slipped away.
• Editor’s note: This is the second of a three-part series, “Lost Secrets of the Best Insurance Leads,” that reveals great tips for finding quality leads. Read Part 1 here, and Part III will appear next week.
Yet, modern “Agentologists” have uncovered three powerful secrets of the Old Agents, and we present the second of these three secrets now for your study.
Secret #2: “The hunt may bring glory but the farm delivers wealth”
Translation: “Prospecting can bring occasional big wins, but long-term success comes from cross-selling and up-selling to your base of existing customers.”
Farming may not provide the same adrenaline rush as hunting, but evidence shows that adrenaline rushes underperform compared to the increasing year-over-year yields of steady cultivation efforts of cross-selling and up-selling to existing customers.
Most insurance agents try to sell an additional policy to their current policyholders. What they may not realize is that the value of the second policy is much greater than the additional profit from that second policy. The true value comes from increasing the retention rate of the first policy.
Experience shows:
• Mono-line customers stay less than three years
• Two-policy customers stay for seven years
• Three-policy customers stay for 14 years
• Customers with four or more policies are considered “lifetime customers”
The Old Agents knew it to be far easier (and more profitable) to manage 100 customers with four policies each than trying to manage 400 customers with one policy each.
Cultivating relationships with existing customers leads to better and more sustainable agency growth – especially as you consider the likelihood of average premiums growing as you up-sell and cross-sell additional policies to a friendly audience.
The Old Agents may have hunted for sport, but they depended on their farms to provide for their kingdoms.
• Stay tuned for Lost Secret #3: “Only the fool hunts when his field is ready to harvest”
• Read Lost Secret #1: Drink water from your own well
About Boyd Karren
Boyd Karren is an “Agentologist” and the Chief Marketing Officer at Engagex Corp. Always passionate about helping small businesses grow, he has provided marketing advice and direct consultation to growth-minded sales professionals and owners of small businesses for 20 years. He has particular expertise in helping businesses establish and optimize their online presence, and brings “stomping, screaming, soccer fan-type enthusiasm” to the world of Inbound/Content Marketing. Boyd holds an MBA from Indiana University, and a Master’s in Global Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
About Engagex
Engagex sets up selling opportunities for insurance agents, specifically by helping agents market to their existing books of business, with the goal of uncovering all insurable interests and strengthening customer retention. Engagex enjoys approved partner status with several major insurance carriers who contribute cost-share, co-op or subsidy money to its agents to help pay for these vital marketing services.
