How To Make Meaningful Client Connections And Earn Customers For Life

Today’s marketing strategies cater toward short attention spans and feature loud, flashy advertising. But despite what you might believe based on the endless ads bombarding every online platform, game, and TV show, what your customers really crave is authentic human connection.

Insurance customers want good products and great service, but they also want to work with people they trust. They want to feel understood. They want to feel like their insurance agent actually cares and genuinely wants to help.

We took a deep dive into three strategies used by insurance and business veterans Scott Grates, Troy Korsgaden, and Whitney Mork, all of whom have built successful businesses by establishing meaningful and lasting relationships with their clients rather than focusing solely on transactions or monthly revenue. Here’s how they do it, and how you can emulate their success.

How To Earn Loyal Customers For Life

Find your “why.”

Whitney Mork built her insurance agency around community engagement and performing acts of kindness. She sums up her mission simply:

“Kindness doesn’t have to cost money. Be a good person! That’s what people remember.”

If you’re not sure what sets your brand apart from the others, Whitney recommends finding your “why” and pursuing it with full force. She lost her father to cancer, dropped out of school, and was only able to return with financial help from strangers who simply asked her to pay it forward once she finished her education. Since then, her mission has been about paying that kindness forward; it has become the “why” behind her business.

“Fast forward fourteen years,” she says. “I got my agency. I get to protect people with the same life insurance that my dad didn’t have.” Her team also provides community services—things like delivering groceries during the pandemic and sending gift baskets to frontline workers—as part of her mission.

“People started calling us ‘The Kindness Agency.’ That’s when I knew our brand had become a movement.”

—Whitney Mork

Whitney advises agency owners to infuse their own passions into their businesses. “Find your fire. What makes you get up in the morning? Why did you start your agency?

“To be in this business, you have to have a servant’s heart. So what are you doing to make your community a better place? People like working with businesses that put effort into giving back to the community.”

In essence, she says, “It doesn’t matter if it’s an animal shelter, veterans, or if you want to help the homeless. Just give a damn.”

Don’t chase leads. Earn them.

Scott Grates’s agency thrives on referrals. He knows what it’s like to work lists of leads, but it’s the referral relationships that keep his pipeline full of highly motivated customers who already trust him based on word-of-mouth recommendations.

“I was told to buy leads, cold call, and hope for the best,” Scott says. “That was 2009. Today, we generate over 1,000 referrals a year through relationships alone.”

Though it sounds daunting to get to that level of success, Scott’s strategy is actually a simple one that you can start working on today:

He recommends building a network of just 25 people who are already doing business with your ideal clients. These folks could be mortgage brokers, real estate agents, car salesmen, or simply the staff at your town’s local high school.

Once you’ve made these connections, nurture them like leads. Send gift baskets, thank you cards, and social media messages. Help them out when they need a professional stepping stone.

Don’t make any sales pitches or ask for any favors, just provide value. These kind acts will ensure that your name is top of mind when a potential client needs an insurance agent they can trust—someone who really cares and goes the extra mile to help out.

“I discovered the law of reciprocity. People want to refer to you when they like you, trust you, and see you show up without asking for anything in return.”

—Scott Grates

Scott advises using a simple CRM to log every interaction and stay in touch with your connections on a regular basis.

“It’s not time-consuming,” he says. “We spend thirty minutes a day across five employees. We make ten contacts per day, and fifty per week. Over time, that turns into 1,000 referrals per year.”

Hire a dedicated staff member to manage your customer contacts.

Troy Korsgaden had an epiphany when he visited the dentist one day:

“Your dentist doesn’t wait until you have cavities. They proactively schedule cleanings, because they know prevention leads to profits. It should be the same thing with your clients.”

Unfortunately, most agents get stuck in a reactive mindset, helping customers only when they have an urgent need rather than anticipating those needs ahead of time.

This realization prompted Troy to create the role of Agency Contact Representative (ACR) in his own business. This person was tasked with scheduling and managing client reviews year round. By reviewing your active clients on a regular basis, you can provide an even better service to your existing clients.

All it takes is a quick check-in to ask, “Hi, when would be a good time to sit down and go over your current policy coverage? Let’s make sure there’s nothing you might be missing.” The ACR will then book appointments for you, filling up your schedule so you can focus on having productive conversations with your clients.

How many appointments should you aim for if you hire an ACR in your agency?

Troy says, “An ACR should book four reviews, two life appointments, two P&C appointments, and two business appointments every day. One ACR can handle 1,500 to 3,000 households.”

Troy insists that a good ACR will pay for their own salary in ROI many times over. “If they book two life insurance appointments per weekday, that’s 40 life insurance appointments in a month. If I close 20% of those, that’s eight life policies in a month.”

“Eight times the commission on a life policy more than pays for the ACR position, and the rest is profit.”

—Troy Korsgaden

The ideal ACR, according to Troy, should be “fearless, fun, and know how to talk to people.” He recommends recruiting from college drama departments if you’re willing to think outside the box. “The best ACRs come from places you least expect!”

Put it all together into a practical plan of action.

What do these strategies look like in your business? Only you can decide the specifics.

In broad strokes, here are the action steps you can start taking to connect with your clients and build real, lasting business relationships:

• Find the “why” behind your business. This will help you decide how you want to emotionally and authentically connect with your community.
• Use a CRM to manage outreach to at least 25 key partners every week. Once you get the ball rolling, you can expand to 50 per week, as Scott does.
• Hire or assign a staff member that will be dedicated only to building client relationships and setting review appointments to improve service to existing clients.
• Focus on giving. Provide excellent service, and show that you really care about your clients, community members, and business partners. Referrals should follow naturally.

In addition to the above plan, all three experts agree that you should get involved locally whenever possible. Sponsor events, support your city’s schools, and volunteer if you can. As Scott says, “These [connections] will be your greatest referral sources. These are people who are vouching for you. They’re out there. They’re an extension of your sales team.”

By putting yourself out into the community, providing helpful service both in a professional capacity and as a citizen, and dedicating some time and resources exclusively toward building relationships, you should start to see the quality of your client connections improve dramatically in short order.

When you get to know people, earn their trust, and maintain those relationships, you’ll be surprised how many lifetime, loyal customers you can bring on board!

In the meantime, supplement your pipeline with highly motivated leads from EverQuote.

While building meaningful client relationships is the ultimate goal, that strategy takes time. Plus, even once the word-of-mouth advertising begins working for you and the referrals start rolling in, you’ll likely still need to supplement your new business acquisition or have slow weeks or even months.

Whenever you need to boost your business and start bringing in revenue right away, EverQuote is here for you. With warm internet leads, exclusive leads, and consumer-initiated inbound calls, you’ll have a variety of options for finding new clients fast. And once those clients are in your contact book, they’re yours to nurture and cultivate as friends for years to come.

Contact EverQuote to get started today.