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What’s your goal as an insurance agent? Most likely, you started your business because you like to help people, because you want the opportunity to be your own boss, and because you want to earn an excellent income.
But to succeed at all those things, you must embrace a growth mindset. That means you’ll need some proven insurance agency growth strategies at the ready. In this article, we’ll identify three tried-and-true strategies for growing your insurance business, and tell how you can implement them immediately. Take a look and see how they can help you move the needle in your agency.
Growth Strategy #1: Partner With A Data-Driven Lead Company
Maybe you’re doing a double-take right now because you’ve had a bad experience (or multiple bad experiences) working with lead companies in the past. Unfortunately, this is common among agents. The working relationship with the leads company starts out strong, but missteps along the way turn things sour for all parties involved (including the consumer who’s shopping for insurance).
I want to take a second to acknowledge that hesitance. I get it, and I’m sorry you have been burned in the past.
But I want you to start looking toward your future. You need to partner with a different kind of lead company: a data-driven lead company that’s transparent in showing you how we get leads—and uses a rigorous validation processes and real-time delivery to ensure you get better quality leads.
When it comes to insurance agency growth strategies, working with a data-driven leads partner should be the first tactic you consider.
Here’s the difference between the lead companies you may have heard of and one that’s data driven (like EverQuote):
- They generate leads 100% organically—not buying them from others. Most of our industry is filled with aggregators who purchase and resell consumer information from multiple sources. This doesn’t help you earn business, and it’s not the way we do business. This is why EverQuote leads have higher contact, quote and bind rates than any other lead provider. Every EverQuote prospect must come to the EverQuote website and fill out extensive form questions (up to 42 required fields depending on the Lead-type) before they can be sent to an agent. We are transparent with agents about how we get the leads we send you, because we don’t want to put you in a situation where you are the seventh agent who calls a lead but doesn’t win any business.
- They don't store leads. I like to compare lead generation to running a bakery—you don’t want to purchase pastries when they’ve been behind a counter for days. The same is true for leads—agents don’t want leads that have been available for days because they’re no longer “warm.” You want donuts the second they come out of the kitchen, and you want leads the second they fill out a form. So, if the company you’re considering can't tell you exactly where a prospect came from and/or when they filled out a lead form, keep looking.
Growth Strategy #2: Don’t Buy The Cheapest Leads Available
A corollary to growth strategy number one is this: Cheap leads are rarely quality leads. Many agents see the dollar signs associated with leads and choose to buy aged leads because they are less expensive. (Spoiler: You get what you pay for—and maybe even less.)
Consumer data shows us people buy from people they trust—and that’s usually the first agent who calls. In fact, a customer is 238% more likely to choose to work with the first agent who calls because that agent has an opportunity to develop a rapport and understand what the customer is looking for. (Tweet this!) An aged lead (anyone who filled out a form longer than 12 hours ago) that you buy has likely already spoken to at least one agent, significantly decreasing your chances of a successful call.
So if you want to grow your agency, don’t choose cheap leads—choose quality leads that can be delivered to you in real time.
Growth Strategy #3: Take A Hard Look At Your Sales Processes & Fix What’s Broken
If you want to grow your agency, you can’t underestimate the importance of building solid processes for working your leads.
If you’re using leads but not seeing the growth you anticipated, A/B testing can help you determine if there’s a breakdown in your process and, if so, where it might be occurring. Here are some of the common places we see a breakdown:
- Follow-up with leads—agents wait more than five minutes to call a lead.
- Producers’ methods for handling leads—producers treat auto leads the same way they treat life insurance leads.
- What time you buy leads—just an hour difference in the time you buy leads can boost or squash how many of those leads end up as policies. Don’t buy leads at the same time each day without knowing of whether or not that time is giving you a good ROI.
- How much you’re spending on leads—the “low-hanging fruit,” also known as the cheapest leads” is rarely the most profitable. Just because you’re buying a bunch for cheap doesn’t mean you’re actually making money—in fact, fewer, higher quality leads will be just as successful but require less of your time.
Here’s the thing: If you’ve already purchased quality leads, then your next move should be to extract every bit of data you can from them to see trends that show you what’s really happening at your agency. With EverQuote, you can do just that in a very simple way. Using what you learn to make changes (like buying leads at different times, pairing the right products with the prospects needs, etc.) will yield more policies that you can bind—and ultimately contribute significantly to a growing, healthy agency.
Implementing Insurance Agency Growth Strategies: Next Steps
At the end of the day, you want to do the right thing for your customers. Why are they shopping? What are their needs? What’s causing them to make a change? They’re talking to you because they need someone who understands their situation, and can guide them to the best products for them (not sell to them). If you can strategically find those people, understand their needs and wants, and then serve as a consultant on the best-fitting product, you will have an excellent chance at keeping them happy for life.
We can kickstart your growth process by giving you leads that fit your goals. Talk to us about how we can help with your own insurance agency growth strategies today!
