2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide: Allied Insurance/Harleysville Insurance, Ezlynx, ITC and Rough Notes

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701-0596F Word Bubble_PL 2.indd 1 5/15/14 8:44 AM eal successes from real independent agents. That’s the focus of this, the fifth edition of PIA’s annual Agency Marketing Guide. From grand strategy to battlefield tactics, we’ve asked your fellow agents and experts from across the country to share their ideas for suc- Rcess. The result is hundreds of great ideas for you to consider implementing in your agency. No one can do everything described in this publication, but if you’d like to grow over the next 1, 2, 3 years or more — and you’re looking for a little help — I encourage you to read on and select a few strategies that seem like a good fit for your agency. Then get out there, roll up your sleeves and put them to work.

If you like this year’s Agency Marketing Guide, you may want to read previous editions of this publication. They are all online at www.PIAAgencyMarketingGuide.com.

PIA National would like to extend a special thank you to the sponsors of the 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide: Allied Insurance/Harleysville Insurance, EZLynx, ITC and Rough Notes. Please join me in thanking these sponsors.

Best wishes and happy marketing!

John G. Lee, CIC, CPIA, LUTCF President National Association of Professional Insurance Agents

2014 Table of Contents SPONSORS DIGITAL MARKETING Allied Insurance/Harleysville Insurance . . . . page 4-5 3 Ways to Optimize Your e-Newsletter EZLynx ...... page 6-7 by Jennifer Davis ...... page 30 ITC ...... page 8-9 A New-fashioned Old Agency by George Nordhaus ...... page 32 Rough Notes...... page 10-11 CROSS SELLING BIG IDEAS Blueprint for Cross-selling Personal Lines Can You “Cheat” Your Way Into More Customers, by Alan Shulman ...... page 34 More Revenue Per Customer and Better Retention? by Michael Jans ...... page 12 Building a Cross-selling Machine: Revenue From the Sale of Life Insurance by Tim Gilder...... page 36 What It Takes to Be the Insurance Agent of Choice by John Graham ...... page 14 SALES STRATEGY Insurance Agency Sales Pipeline Management Just Do It! by Chris Dik ...... page 16 by John Boudreau ...... page 38 Reaching out to Your Customers by Bill Jenkins. page 18 The Importance of Sales Meetings PERSONNEL MATTERS by David Connolly ...... page 39 “Shark Tank” Lessons by Nancy Doucette . . . . page 20 OUTSOURCING YOUR MARKETING Essentials of Producer Hiring and Management Is It Possible to Make Cold Calls a Thing of the Past? by Al Diamond ...... page 22 by Donna Gray ...... page 40 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING REFERRAL MARKETING To Be Successful on Social Media: Just Be Yourself Is Referral Marketing Dead in a Digital World? by Ted Janusz...... page 24 by Shaun Irwin ...... page 41 Social Media Can Combat Commoditization — OTHER ASPECTS OF THE SALES PROCESS Here’s How by Tom Wetzel ...... page 26 Your Insurance Proposals — Will They Help You or Hurt Why Your Small Business Should Be Using Social Media You in E&O Litigation by Curtis M. Pearsall . . . page 42 by Jim Mansfield ...... page 27 Leveraging Technology to Increase Agency Efficiency Social: The Must-Have Element of an Agency Growth by Bob, Craig and Eric Most...... page 43 Strategy by Chris Paradiso ...... page 28 Stop Wasting Time on LinkedIn and Grow Your Business With Google+ by Ryan Hanley...... page 29 2014 PIA Marketing Guide:03-17-14 5/30/2014 11:48 AM Page 1

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Products underwritten by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and affiliated companies.Home office: Columbus, OH 43215.Subject to underwriting guidelines, review and approval.Products and discounts not available to all persons in all states.

4 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 2014 PIA Marketing Guide:03-17-14 7/7/2014 12:56 PM Page 2

… along with our Nationwide affiliates!

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2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 5

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2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 11 BIG IDEAS

Can You “Cheat” Your Way Into More Customers, More Revenue Per Customer and Better

Retention? By Michael Jans The short answer is “yes.” The long answer is “beware.” curve — that “new-ish” piece of information should be filed under “bad news indeed.” First, let’s look at the good news. For starters, let me share my perspective. With over twenty years of training, coach- And on and on. ing and designing direct response marketing campaigns, tactics and strategies, I don’t put a lot of stock in people’s But — and this is important for serious students of the opinions. industry — there’s a glaring, eye-squinting ray of bright news in the recent industry analysis. What’s that? It’s Even my own. that, it seems, you can (at least, almost) “cheat” your way into more customers, more revenue per customer and I prefer to see tests, the answers to tests, real metrics. higher retention. And proof. If someone says, “That ad has too many words” or “It should have more pictures,” I want proof. Run that How is that? Let’s look at this revealing research from the split A/B test — that digital marketing makes so easy — standard bearers at J.D. Power. They’ve identified five ways and “show me the money.” that consumers interact with the industry: 1. No interaction There’s a reason I’m sharing this: because our industry 2. Agent only has been under the microscope lately. Several of the 3. Agent who uses emerging technology major research and consulting firms seem to be thinking 4. Agent who uses traditional technology this industry is either a) ripe for disruption or b) already 5. No agent has been disrupted (and perhaps we haven’t noticed) — and they want to reveal the trends they’ve discovered.

Candidly, a lot of what they’ve discovered can, and should, be filed under “bad news.” In other words: • 80% of new Private Passenger Auto (PPA) written in 2003 by local agents. 63% in 2010. I’d file that under bad news. • Roughly 40 million quote requests were submit- ted online. 72% of those went to GEICO, Progressive Direct and Esurance. Let’s file that under bad news. • 7% of PPA policies were purchased online if the relationship is five years or older. 26% purchased online if the policy is a year old. That’s pretty bad news, too. • In 2007, the service experience delivered by local And here’s the magic. Whether they were measuring the agents was the #1 driver of customer satisfaction. young bucks (Gen Y) or the old standby’s (Boomers), they Now it’s #4. Definitely file that under bad news. found the same thing: the Customer Satisfaction Index • GEICO doubled market share (4.8% to 9.7%) in ten (CSI) went up — way up — in one critical interaction cat- years. That’s not very good news, either. (No other egory: agents who use emerging technology. carrier came close. Progressive came in second in that race.) For example, the Boomers reported out at a remarkable • 51% of small business owners declare they are “likely 852 Customer Satisfaction Index rating if, and only if, they or very likely” to be open to purchasing their com- interacted with an agent using emerging technology. mercial insurance online. Well, for the great majority of agents — who are far, far behind the technology Continued on page 44

12 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide PIA_Program IA_Facing Ad 8.5x11.FINAL.crops.indd 1 5/12/14 3:59 PM BIG IDEAS

What It Takes to Be the Insurance

Agent of Choice By John Graham

Insurance is good stuff — very good stuff. And most of remarkably candid in describing their problems: those who own insurance could use more, some a lot • Many customers don’t understand that lower premi- more. Insurance is an example of more being better than ums generally mean lower limits. less. • One agent was surprised at how many customers “don’t know the limits of their quotes.” While those words are certain to please those in the • Another indicated that a $20 premium increase insurance business, there’s a darker side to the story. It’s upsets some customers. not necessary to tell you what’s been happening in the agency business. Until quite recently, the main competi- Isolated incidents? Of course not! They make an indel- tion came from other independent agents down the ible statement that consumers are woefully ignorant street or across town. Even so, the pie was big enough so regarding insurance. On top of that, their distrust of everyone sitting at the table was not only well fed, but those who sell insurance only compounds the problem. often satiated and remarkably congenial. Needless to say, Is it any wonder that customers gravitate to sources that that’s history. are friendly, funny and that make insurance amazingly simple? Today, finding good prospects is not only difficult but only part of the problem. Contacting them is even more In a business environment where consumers of insurance daunting, not to mention actually meeting with them. products expect to be in charge of their destiny and are Everyone wants to be left alone until they get ready. adamant about understanding what they are buying, there’s a significant role for the independent agent. Here The Internet has disrupted the are tips that can lead to success: • Get over the idea of being beloved in the commu- marketplace by creating a new buyer nity. Customers don’t buy insurance just because mindset. Consumers feel the Internet someone is a nice person who’s involved in the com- has set them free from the need to munity, sponsors a Little League team, makes con- depend on salespeople for information. tributions whenever asked, drives a nice car, belongs to a dozen groups, takes ads in church and school bulletins, and wears a white shirt and a suit. Without question, the Internet has disrupted the market- • Customers talk to friends, associates and family place by creating a new buyer mindset. Today, consum- about two types of agents: those who come across ers feel the Internet has set them free from the need to as pushers of insurance and those who make an depend on salespeople for information. They can get the effort to listen because they care and are good at information they need instantly to take charge of the what they do. sale. • It’s no longer about trying to capture prospects; it’s all about having customers seek you out. You do not It’s relatively easy to install a kitchen faucet or even build know who they are or where they are or when they a deck by following the directions or watching a YouTube need what you sell, which is why they must find you. video; buying insurance is quite different. It comes with • Before you talk to someone about buying insurance, its own highly technical language that leaves consum- they must have made a decision that they want to do ers shaking their heads, just as risks are becoming more business with you. complicated and adequate coverage is more important • It’s delusional to think you have an advantage simply than ever. because various surveys say, “Customers want to Because insurance causes confusion in the consumer’s talk to a local agent.” It only clouds your thinking. mind, there is a role — an essential one — for insur- What customers want are advisors who take time to ance agents. In fact, there’s more of a role than most understand them, are proactively helpful, keep them in the business understand. The need, however, is for informed and who offer valid choices. agents who, by their behavior and actions, are seen as • If you want customers down the road, pay close valued advisors. The need for this is obvious, at least to some agents. A recent panel of independent agents was Continued on page 45

14 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide We’re on Main Street with our independent agents

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Just Do It! By Chris Dik

What makes a good salesperson? The simple answer is per week. I have always liked direct mail as it is much a good product to sell and qualified prospects to sell it easier to get quality lists. Also, it gives you lots of ways to to. Over the past few years, we have been building and get your message across. It could be a letter, a postcard, a customizing our workers comp program, WorkersComp flyer, a brochure. It can ask you to call, email, check out a Results. We took a mundane insurance product with video or website. You must have a call to action. lower revenue and turned it into a constant and predict- able revenue stream. Don’t be afraid to market. The biggest mistake is to wait for it to be perfect. What’s perfect to you will not be What makes a good insurance niche? A marketing pro- perfect to your prospect. While sitting on the beach last gram that can produce quality results, week after week, year reading a marketing book, I wrote a marketing letter month after month. We desperately wanted to get out of to landscapers. The title was simple, “WARNING” in bright the bidding and quoting game and get into the solutions red, bold text. Best of all, warning had nothing to do with and results game. We have been successful in that transi- my message. It was in the mail Monday morning and it tion by building a quality program that continually looks was UGLY! Lo and behold, by weeks end I had 11 land- to address the biggest pain points for clients with larger scapers with WC premiums over 25k calling. workers comp premiums.

Setting up the sale is easy when you are offering solu- No one marketing piece is for everyone. tions. With our program, I am able to quickly identify high Some people are analytic...others need cost issues prospects are facing. I can’t always change to hear stories and testimonials...some what has happened to the prospect over the past few are visual and others auditory. years, but I always have time-tested solutions that they can apply moving forward. Our program has evolved from a handful of solutions to over a dozen services that either You need to try some different messages, different lists our team or third party companies administer. We have and different techniques. If you are reaching the right built the program by taking a bold position in the market- people with a solution to a problem they believe exists place and continuing to back up our desire to help solve you win. Typically a campaign only needs to help you workers comp problems. close one or two accounts to pay for it. This past year my marketing efforts helped me create just shy of one new Setting up the sale is easy when you client a week in my niche. are offering solutions. I talk to a lot of agents, especially those who focus on workers comp. Often they have been referred to me because they were told I do a lot of marketing. Most of Early on, I decided that I didn’t want to have to make them want to know the silver bullet, the one marketing cold calls every day to build my book. I did my fair share piece that will solve everything. The reality is no one mar- of calling early on and I learned a lot about the industry, keting piece is for everyone. Some people are analytic so perceived problems and what prospects responded to they need more time and numbers. Others need to hear the best. It all fueled my desire to build a great market- stories and testimonials to feel good about their decision. ing system to help build my book of business with larger Some are visual while others are auditory. The point is, quality accounts who wanted to work with me. I knew you need to put something in the mail! good marketing would make my life a lot simpler. Chris Dik is a broker with the Knight-Dik Insurance Agency, The goal was simple. I wanted to be able to send a direct a full service independent insurance agency in Worces- mail piece out to prospects each week and have enough ter, MA. He can be reached at 508-753-6353 Ext. 112 and of them respond so that I could average one new client [email protected].

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Reaching out to Your Customers

By Bill Jenkins Today there is a considerable amount of effort and expense being spent by mass marketers pushing customers to think about the brand of insurance they’re offering as the best commodity in the marketplace — often based on price alone. However, when these same customers are asked what they truly value when it comes to insurance, their answers run much deeper.

A recent national survey of more than 900 insurance customers was sponsored by The PIA Partnership (see sidebars on page 46 for a description of the survey and a description of The PIA Partnership) and the results are clear. Across the board, customers want what professional independent insurance agents have to offer.

When we go to the grocery store and pick-up “Grade A” eggs, we expect them to meet standards that have been established by the US Department of Agriculture. When they meet these standards, they become a commodity and that’s how they’re purchased. But when it comes to insurance, it takes more than eggs to make an omelet and our Partnership research helps identify the ingredients that can help enhance customer satis- As an example, Phil Garlow started his Charleston, WV, faction and improve agency retention. Put simply, the agency in 1995. Today it has grown to six locations, sixty research shows that after good value, customers want five employees, $60 million in premium and a combined to be able to trust someone who will take care of them PL/CL retention of 91%. He attributes much of their when it comes to their insurance. Over the past several success to proactive contact with existing customers — years, The PIA Partnership has built on these research asking simple questions every time they make contact. By conclusions to develop its most recent set of tools for consistently reminding them that they are ready, willing members entitled “Closing the Gap – Growth & Profit.” and able to meet ALL of their insurance needs, they have These tools are available on the PIA National website via enjoyed phenomenal success. http://agency-growth-profit.com. By viewing the “Making Changes” tab on the “Closing the When you visit the website, you’ll find Microsoft Excel Gap – Growth & Profit” website you can view their story based calculators which can be used to help an agency on video, read their story in print and even download examine and then project growth, retention and revenue guides to help implement their strategy in a way that’s for personal lines. The website also offers several down- right for your agency. loadable turnkey approaches to help enhance growth and profitability. The design of each of these turnkey Another example comes from the town of Southport, approaches focuses on various ways that an agency can CT, where The Russell Agency knows that “community let their customers know that they are there for them — matters” and that giving back to their community is a whatever their insurance needs may be. key ingredient to their success. As you follow their story, you’ll come to understand how they’ve taken the idea of Agency success stories (which can be found on the “Mak- conducting a “Young Driver Seminar” to reach out, in a ing Changes” tab of the website) demonstrate how these positive way, to their entire community. Again, their story practical approaches can be employed to “reach out to is available on the website on video and in print — along customers” in ways that let them know that you have with guides to help any agency conduct their own young more to offer than the “commodity” that some call insur- driver seminar in their own community. ance.

Continued on page 46

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“Shark Tank” Lessons By Nancy Doucette

Chances are, you’ve seen the Friday evening reality show new business commissions each CSR brought in and “Shark Tank” where viewers watch would-be entrepre- reduced their salary by that amount, with the guarantee neurs seek funding for their projects from a panel of that if they fell short on the commission side the first hugely successful entrepreneurs/investors that includes year, we would make them whole. I didn’t want them to media and sports mogul Mark Cuban, technology com- worry that they would be making less money.” pany magnate Robert Herjavec, and Barbara Corcoran, who made her mark in real estate. Panel members have Seely & Durland revamped the CSR job description and also contributed to the recently released book Shark Tank: pay structure, resulting in the new, incentive-based client Jump Start Your Business. relations professional (CRP) position. Since then, each CRP has made more money and no one left the agency as a Successful agency owners consistently look for ways to result of the new approach. jump-start their businesses. Rough Notes magazine cover agents Stu Durland, AAI, AINS, vice president of Seely & The Shark Tank lesson? Believe in what you’re selling. In Durland Insurance in Warwick, New York, and Jeff Kweder, this case, Durland was selling the idea that the agency’s president of Shepherd Insurance & Financial Services, service people were in fact sales people. Carmel, Indiana, are two such agency principals. He points out that incentive-based compensation isn’t Durland implemented an incentive-based compensation for every agency and for those that do implement it, there plan in his 10-person Best Practices agency about six are various approaches. “Every agency has to handle the years ago. It’s proven to be a wise decision and he says the transition the way that best suits their operation,” he plan continues to evolve. notes. “Some may see fit to keep paying CSRs the same amount and add commission on top of it, or some type of Kweder has seen the Shepherd agency grow from two bonus. There is no one ‘best way’ of doing this.” people in 1984 to nearly 150 today. In the past four years, the agency has hired some 60 new employees. For the Seely & Durland pays a bonus when a CRP brings in two past 10 years, he says Shepherd has enjoyed double-digit accounts up front and a bit more of a bonus for three organic growth. accounts. “So if you write a package, you get a bonus on top of the normal commission. There’s incentive to do the Let’s learn more about how these two leaders continu- right thing,” Durland says. ously jump-start their organizations. He says there are now posters of a tennis player execut- Home-grown Sales Talent ing a serve and the motto: “Serve + 1” displayed around “Our primary sales force is our client the office. “The idea is: complete the service element of relations professionals,” says Durland. the call — the change of car or the billing question — and He recalls that in 2008, the agency was then do one more thing … look to see if there’s a policy on the leading edge of believing in and we’re not currently writing, or a coverage endorsement implementing Real Time capabilities the client doesn’t have. Take this opportunity to open a using Applied’s agency management dialogue with the client. If nothing else, make sure we software. “The CSRs had more time Stu Durland of have the client’s email address and cell phone number. Seely & Durland thanks to the efficiencies Real Time Insurance in Just fill in any gaps,” Durland offers. processes deliver,” he says. The addi- Warwick, New York tional time could be used to develop With the benefit of perspective, Durland says: “To do this more of a sales culture in the agency, right, you really need to help CSRs learn how to sell — where the mix of business is roughly 55% commercial and teach them some sales techniques. Early on we just relied 45% personal lines. The first step would be to demonstrate on their existing capabilities.” to the CSRs that they had been selling all along. So in the summer of 2013, based on a recommendation “In individual conversations with each CSR we provided a from an industry friend, Durland invested in a year-long three-year picture of the new business they’d handled in program offered by Sales Consultant Sheldon Snodgrass each of the previous three years,” he explains. Then came of The Steady Sales Group (www.steadysales.com). “You the scary part of the conversation. “We averaged out the Continued on page 47

20 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide The biggest thing he’s feeling now is a flood of disappointment. ( In you. )

Gary was sure this would never happen to him. After all, he didn’t live in a high risk area. Too bad. Because that flood insurance policy he turned down would have saved him tens of thousands of dollars right about now. Make sure your clients know that anywhere it rains, it can flood. For an annual policy that starts at Speak Flood just $129, Gary, and your reputation, could have been protected. Agents.FloodSmart.gov Find out more at Agents.FloodSmart.gov/speakflood.

FEMA_FS_2014_Agent_Ad_MAN_8x10_5.indd 1 5/28/14 11:49 AM PERSONNEL MATTERS

Essentials of Producer Hiring and

Management By Al Diamond Is hiring a producer an art or a science? As we visit agen- time spent in a role and is not a guarantee of success. A cies across the country, we encounter some phenomenal producer who has been employed at four or five agencies producers. We also come across some producers who are for a few years at a time can accrue many years of experi- certainly not cut from the same cloth. Chances are, when ence, but his lifespan at any given agency is short-lived. we hire a producer, we are looking at the upside potential, That should be a key indicator of their future at your identifying their best traits while overlooking even the agency. We can all identify the person with that sales most evident problems. After all, it is easy to justify the personality, that one in seven person who can win the hiring decision with simple logic: if the producer cannot trust of people simply through conversation. Often, we perform to the sales expectations we agreed to, we will encounter these people in a different profession or indus- let them go. try. You can validate your feeling with a personality test like the ACG Hiring System (http://acghiringsystem.com), Good managers monitor activity and performance of but this should be a part of the hiring process and not the producers, and great managers mentor and coach pro- final determination of hiring. ducers into a position of success. But a distasteful part of a manager’s job is to discipline and terminate poor producers, and so it is often simply not addressed in a A distasteful part of a manager’s job timely manner. Instead of addressing the issues head-on, is to discipline and terminate poor emotion takes over, leading to a tense and uncomfort- able atmosphere in the agency and between employees. producers, so it is often not addressed Generally, owners know whether a producer will succeed in a timely manner. or fail within three to six months. Conversely, owners and managers know within just two months if the producer is performing as billed in his interviews. Most owners are Next, plan on spending as much as six months coaching, compassionate and want to see the producer succeed, counseling and training that producer. Even seasoned giving them many more chances, even after they have a producers bring their bad habits with them. Make sure track record that indicates a change in their performance that the producer is representing the agency in the way is not likely. Once financial desperation or emotions that you would if you were personally on the sales call. become a factor that exceeds the patience of the man- Six months of close action with the manager or owner ager and the owner, then the separation occurs. will reinforce those sales techniques that led to your success and will give you the confidence that the producer When we analyze agencies with these issues, we find is going to have the best chance for success every time some common practices that set the agency up for fail- they step foot in front of a prospect. When you have that ure: Too much reliance is placed on profile testing rather confidence, so does your producer. than the historic track record or personal background when hiring a producer. Insufficient training, coach- Create marketing programs to provide prospects to the ing and counseling from managers leads to continued producer. As an owner or manager, you are expected to performance without corrections. Often we expect them generate your own leads, but your producer has a specific to generate their own leads and business opportunities, function: Create, grow and foster relationships with tar- even though the agency has a recognized brand and the geted prospects that leads to new accounts with customers carriers indicated which types of clients they could write. who were not already associated with the agency. Pros- And improper compensation without monitoring results pecting is not a primary part of that role. As an agency, or adjusting compensation based on actual performance. you have much more recognition in the community and a much greater ability to reach out to the target markets With those four common practices in mind, there is a that are best suited for your carriers. Each time you reach better method for hiring and managing a producer into out to a prospect, your producer should appear at their success. door within a few days to reinforce your marketing effort. That contact creates the relationship that most agents First, find the right personality before asking about expe- don’t continue following after the sale. The relationship is rience or skills. Only one out of every seven people natu- rally has that sales personality. Experience is a measure of Continued on page 48

22 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

To Be Successful on Social Media:

Just Be Yourself By Ted Janusz Using social media to promote your agency may first Gary Vaynerchuk also reminds us that “social media is a require a paradigm shift in your thinking. Social media is marathon, not a sprint.” not about “advertising” but rather about “building com- munities.” Your Facebook page is not the place to shout Q: How did you get started with a Facebook page? “Call me today to get a free insurance quote!” but rather I actually started with Facebook because of a part-time to engage your fans in two-way communications. photography business I used to run. Having a Facebook page for a photography business is the BOMB! It’s more When I spoke at a recent convention for PIA of Tennes- of a challenge with insurance, since it’s more of a struggle see, one agent told me that he successfully engaged his to keep posts relevant and interesting. followers by asking questions like, “Because of the recent spate of weather occurrences, your tree fell on your Q: What has having a Facebook page done for your neighbor’s house. Who do you think is responsible for the agency? resulting damages?” First and foremost I think it’s a MUST have now. Just like an agency Website used to be a “must have.” A Facebook Not only did this open up a discussion on his Facebook page allows us to keep in front of current and prospective page, this dialogue allowed him to show that he was clients. With over 1.25 billion people now on Facebook both an insurance expert and a trusted member of the and so many people spending so much time on the site, community, which are the two primary goals that you you just have to be where your people are! For instance, want to achieve with your social media efforts. why would I advertise in the newspaper when so few of my clients and prospective clients even read the paper Another independent insurance anymore? agent who is both an expert and a trusted member of his community is Total newspaper advertising revenue across the country Jason Verlinde, president of Verlinde amounted to $42 billion in 2007. In 2013, it plummeted Insurance in Richmond, Michigan. to just $17.3 billion. Today he talks with us about how he has successfully used social media to Q: One of the concerns for an agency starting a page is “Where can I get content?” Where do you promote his insurance agency. Jason Verlinde of Verlinde Insurance in get the content for your page? Q: What kinds of other Richmond, Michigan Today I walked into the front of the agency to talk to a cli- advertising and promotion do ent who is an excavator who came in to pick up a Certifi- you do or have you done for your cate of Insurance. When I asked him “How’s business?” he agency? How have these efforts paid off compared proudly explained that his phone is ringing off the hook to the efforts you have made in social media? right now! Lots of people are planning to build houses We mainly do “Community Advertising.” We sponsor this spring. That’s the kind of thing that I post on Face- sports teams, golf outings, local theatre, and zero tolerance book. It’s not insurance related, but it’s what people like (drug and alcohol) events at local schools. We do very little and want to hear! Things are looking up! traditional advertising with the newspaper, radio or TV. Keep your mind open for things that you know your Face- Community advertising was “social media” before social book fans want to hear about, whether they are insur- media existed, so it was a natural transition for us to ance related or community events. The key is to make move into the actual social media arena. your posts be about them and not always about your agency. Always keep your eyes open. It is tough to gauge the ROI on social media. As social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk asks, “What’s the ROI of Here is the actual post I just made: having a cell phone?” But in a typical month about 50% of our new business opportunities are generated by some “To get a real feel about how the economy is doing talk to form of the Internet. The other 50% of new business real people. Don’t listen to the news or read the newspa- opportunities come mainly from referrals, from providing per. They may have agendas. Two conversations I had this great service and from being in the community for such a week. Two things I heard come out of clients’ mouths this long time. Continued on page 49

24 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Social Media Can Combat Commoditization — Here’s How

By Tom Wetzel

Agents lament the commoditization of insurance and not as possible to do so. It’s utter madness for any agent to having enough time to develop stronger relationships ignore social media for that very reason. No agent, no with clients and prospects. Regrettably, most still ignore matter how industrious and well meaning, can keep up if or underutilize one of the most powerful weapons in they insist on playing on a field that’s shrinking fast. Even combating both: social media. the best website needs to be found and that means cast- ing as wide a net as possible. Agents must be visible and Commoditization and weak relationships are two sides of accessible not just on their websites but also where their the same coin. On one side, strong relationships keep the prospects gather to share ideas and stories and solutions lines of communications open, head off misunderstand- to common problems — and that means social media. In ings and dispel perceptions that all agents are the same. addition, there is a growing trend in which consumers are On the other side, agents contribute to commoditization more likely to skip browsing the Web (aka Googling) but if they treat policies more as transactions than relation- instead to just visit the sites or platforms they favor. This ships. In today’s marketplace, relationships with both trend underscores the need for agents to use social media current and prospective clients must be developed and as a critical means to reach out and be “found.” maintained continually, not just at renewal time or when a claim needs attention. Accenture, the management consulting, technology services firm, recently came out with a survey that reported Why? Because today’s insurance buyers, including those that 48% of the respondents said they would consider on the commercial side, are bombarded every day with comments on social media BEFORE making a buying deci- more pitches, offers and come-ons and through more sion. Why then, would any agency consciously ignore one channels than ever — on TV, radio, smartphones, tablets, communications tool that one out of every two buyers and yes, social media ads. They come not just from Flo considers an important factor? and the gecko, Esurance and other digital-savvy carriers but also from new players such as Overstock and The fact is, every age group, from millenials to seniors, Walmart, both of which have launched efforts to peel off relies heavily on social media to help find and evaluate personal lines clients. These efforts work for three rea- businesses to patronize. Why? For the simple reason that sons: sheer saturation, they make the insurance process it is far easier and less time-consuming to go online, shop easier and more immediate and because most indepen- around, get some recommendations and then, and only dent agents don’t fight back, or at least not effectively. then, schedule a direct conversation, either face-to-face That must change. or on the phone. Finding an insurance agent or just the right coverage may not be as simple as buying a loaf of I appreciate how many issues and challenges agents have bread. Most agents, however, lose the opportunity to sell on their plates and how tempting it may be to dismiss to wide segments of the population by making it harder social media by saying, “I’ll do it when I have the time.” to be found and harder to get to know by avoiding social For those agents who already have a Facebook or LinkedIn media entirely or by participating halfheartedly. page without much to show for it, it’s just as easy to feel that social media is a waste of time. Both conclusions are Just Being There Is Not Enough wrong, dangerously so. It’s not enough just to have a mere presence on Face- book or Twitter or any of the other social media sites Agents Are Pressed for Time, but that consumers use today. The generic “we have great So Are Consumers people, great service and great products” bromide that Agents do have time issues, but con- many agents display on their websites and on their sumers are just as time-slammed, social media pages just doesn’t cut it. To stand out from which is why they are increasingly Flo, State Farm and other independents, agents must turning to digital tools to help them generate, week in and week out, distinct, memorable and find, evaluate, and buy from carriers and agents who make it as easy Continued on page 50

26 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Why Your Small Business Should

Be Using Social Media By Jim Mansfield It’s a Small World After All. What’s Up? What if you could get every client that you insure — and The following is an assessment from one of our district all of their friends and family — to drive by your business sales managers from the Erie Insurance Group: every day and see your latest message on your sign out “Jim has embraced social media and has made it an front? integral part of his marketing strategy. He is able to promote what’s going on in the insurance industry Well, you can. and in his local community in a fun, easy way that lets him interact with current and potential clients. He also My most popular post on my Mansfield Insurance Agency uses social media to promote agency events, such as a Facebook page this year was very simple: I “checked in” at recent flat-screen TV giveaway. Thanks to this activity, 24244 Stateline Jim is seen as someone who is ‘in the know’ and who Road and posted can be trusted to give the most up-to-date advice when this photo of my it comes to insurance needs. In 2013, he grew new P&C sign out front: premium by over 31%, new policies-in-force by 26%, and Suddenly, clients increased his retention to 91%.” who live hun- — Rachel J. White, CIC, CLU®, AINS, Erie Insurance, dreds of miles District Sales Manager away were virtually at my As Rachel pointed out in the quote above, it’s important doorstep. Not to “promote what’s going on.” My first rule of using social only that, but media is to give. To give you must be informed, which is those clients who both saw the post and “liked” it — their why I rely heavily on my professional associations, PIA of friends and family saw that activity, expanding the reach Inidana and the National organization and the AIMS Soci- of my business. ety, which distributes the CPIA designation and classes. Those two organizations are constantly giving informa- At Mansfield Insurance Agency, we use social media to tion that is vital to our customers. Not only do they give flame the marketing plans that help us meet our sales information but, more importantly, I am surrounded by goals. In the last five years, there is no doubt from our the best leaders of our industry by being a part of them. sales increase and overall growth that social media has My lead company, Erie Insurance, also has an awesome had an impact. Since 2009, when we first started getting social media marketing resource. involved in social media, our sales have increased every year, along with an increase in retention and thus an Getting Started overall growth. Our website is a rock solid placement on Steve Andersen, at a PRO to PRO (AIMS SOCIETY) meet- the first page of local searches which is one of the main ing in Tampa: “It is like dancing,” he said. “At first you feel goals of using social media. awkward and not sure what you are doing, but the more you participate the better you become.” If you are not involved in social media you might think that accessing the Internet or search engines are mainly Our agency is signed up for almost every social media accomplished on a desktop computer or through Google outlet you can think of, and we remain active in four of searches. This is not true. Over 75% of consumers use them. Creating a presence on each of the social media some form of social media to search the Internet, and a outlets is relatively easy: Just follow the prompts to create majority of them are accessing it through Apps on mobile an account. As soon as you accomplish the basic setup, devices. This is crucial in that just having a website and follow other similar organizations to get ideas for refin- using social media on your computer is a good first step, ing yours or consult with your web developer. but you need to make sure you have the right kind of website and are preparing to have your own app or use Mansfield Insurance Agency mainly uses Facebook, Twit- your parent company’s app. ter, LinkedIn, and Yelp. Another important platform is

Continued on page 51

2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 27 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Social: The Must-Have Element of an Agency

Growth Strategy By Chris Paradiso Back in 2008, when I started to delve into the then-new favorite topics, the more referrals would trickle in. I social media arena, Paradiso Insurance was an entirely started attracting customers across the entire state with different agency. I had 600 customers and one staff mem- interests similar to mine. This confirmed one of the first ber, and we had been thriving for just about two years. principles of great marketing: People want to buy from Facebook was just beginning to gain broad appeal, and I people they like. Facebook allowed me to show who I am really knew nothing about the platform. As a new inde- and find people with similar philosophies. pendent agent, I was focused heavily on growth, because, quite frankly, that’s what I had to do. As a father of twin toddlers, the thought of paying for college, weddings and People want to buy from people they more motivated me to take advantage of the new free like. Facebook allowed me to show marketing channels that were emerging. who I am and find people with similar philosophies. You may have seen my social media posts, read articles about my agency or heard about me from carriers or others in the industry. I want to take this opportunity to I want to take a moment to address a common misper- explain my story: The truth is, our five-plus-year journey ception many have about Facebook and other social to become a social agency has not always been easy. networks. I hear weekly from agents that believe social We’ve had several failures, which I view as teachable media is a waste of time. My response: What could we moments, and even some regrets. possibly spend our time and resources on that yields a higher return than social media? Successful social media As I write this article today, I operate four blogs and have is not about what you like; it’s about what your custom- 3,165 personal Facebook friends, 757 agency Facebook ers like and where they spend their time. As agents, we fans, 1700 Twitter followers and 500+ LinkedIn connec- too often forget the brilliance of our industry. Virtually tions. I post on 21 Pinterest boards, with 2500 pins and everyone has to buy our product, whether they like it or Instagram photos. Our agency’s accomplishments were not. Unlike many industries, insurance agents don’t need five years in the making and were achieved with the help to spend time finding little pockets of prospects. Our of an outside digital marketing consultant, a team of prospects’ only decision is whether they purchase from interns and a now-full-time marketing staff. Getting here you. To be successful in social media, you have to know was not easy. Maintaining momentum is not easy. Of why someone would buy from YOUR agency. course, nothing worth much is ever really very easy. After I started routinely generating leads from my per- My digital marketing journey began in 2008, when I sonal Facebook presence, we launched an agency fan needed a website. My agency was growing and we didn’t page. Today my personal page still has more friends than have any web presence. Yes, it took me until 2008 to my agency page has fans. In all honesty, I view this as a develop a website. After launching our first site, I person- weakness in our current social media strategy. We need ally started to become engaged in Facebook. At the time, to boost “likes” on our agency page. It is our mission this Facebook was an up-and-coming way to communicate. year to earn fans with the help of our new Social Media I found friends, colleagues and lost acquaintances; even Engineer. better, Facebook found people for me with whom I hadn’t connected in years. As I gained traction on Facebook in the first couple of years, several other channels began to erupt, including I did what everyone does on Facebook: posted pictures LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and more. The thought of of my family, shared great quotes, provided updates and capitalizing on all these channels became overwhelming. chimed in on topics I felt passionate about. If you look at I couldn’t imagine meeting my goal of doubling my book my Facebook page today, you will find I love my family, while, at the same time, executing a social strategy with America, insurance and our country’s veterans. a high level of effectiveness. It was at that time—in 2010, Before long, I learned that the more I posted about my Continued on page 53

28 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Stop Wasting Time on LinkedIn and Grow Your

Business With Google+ By Ryan Hanley

As social media has gained acceptance among insurance essentially back at square one. agents and professionals looking to expand their relationships and grow their business, LinkedIn has traditionally LinkedIn is a labor intensive social network. been where we start. It’s time to realign our goals (which Every action you take inside a social network should be should be growing our business) with the finite amount of building your authority in your given field of expertise. time we have to market our business online. Google+: The Authority Engine It’s time to replace LinkedIn with Google+. We only have so much time to spend marketing our Why We All Start on LinkedIn business online. When we work inside of Google+, unlike LinkedIn is considered the “professional” social network LinkedIn (or any other social network for that matter), and subsequently feels like a comfortable and safe place every action we take is building our authority. for us to spend the limited time we have on social media. What do I mean by authority? There are no cat pictures or offensive comments filling up our news stream on LinkedIn like we find on Facebook Google’s mission, at its core, is to match every problem and Twitter. The truth is, as an industry, we consider our- with the best possible solution online. This creates oppor- selves very professional, as we should, so a “professional” tunities for those agencies and carriers willing to hon- social network makes sense. estly and transparently discuss the solutions they provide.

What are you getting out of LinkedIn? Done often enough, Google begins to assign “Author- ity,” some refer to this as “Google Juice,” to your website If you’re like 95% of LinkedIn users, you’re currently using around a given topic. As your website accumulates the social network as a rolodex. You’re not leveraging authority on topics pertaining to your specific products Groups, Introductions, InMail, Recommendations or inte- and/or services, your website starts to outrank competing grations with tools like Slideshare. websites. But for arguments sake, let’s say you are. What are you By outrank I mean, your website will show up higher in getting from these features? Are you asking prospects Google search results. The higher your website shows in out to lunch or coffee? Are you researching prospects or search results, the more traffic your website gets and ulti- potential business partners before you work with them? mately the more qualified leads your business receives. Are you asking clients for recommendations and then directing prospects to those recommendations as social Google+ was built, by Google, to help their search engine proof of your work? better understand who is an authority on which topics. Google is indexing and applying authority to every action If you’re not, don’t fret, most LinkedIn users don’t. The we take inside of Google+. This is a good thing. average LinkedIn user spends less than two hours a week on the social network. By using Google+ to communicate with prospects, local professionals and insurance industry peers, you’re telling Even if you are taking these actions, they’re all single Google point blank you want to be an authority on the moment actions. topic of insurance. By single moment I mean, you connect with a prospect. Like it or not, Google rewards those individuals and busi- You share an article in a group you know that prospect is nesses that use their tools (i.e. Google+, YouTube, etc.), in. You ask that prospect out for coffee. The conversation is not to infringe on your privacy, but to better understand pleasant but doesn’t go anywhere. All the activity around what problems you solve so they can better service the courting that prospect inside of LinkedIn was wasted. 5,000,000,000+ Google searches that occur every day. Other than knowing that one particular prospect is not a good fit or not ready to do business with you, you’re Continued on page 55

2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 29 DIGITAL MARKETING

3 Ways to Optimize Your

e-Newsletter By Jennifer Davis At Progressive, we send around 25 million emails each Friday are good choices. We’ve also had luck scheduling month to our customers. That’s a lot of content. To get emails to go out over the weekend. Those who are most the most from each touch, we use a variety of methods to likely to open it will do so within 8 hours of receiving, so test and improve what we send over time to ensure we’re it’s smart to reach the customer when they have more reaching customers when and how they prefer with con- time to read. tent that’s clear and useful. Some of what we’ve learned along the way can help you with your own communications, particularly your agency newsletter. As you know When deciding on which day of the well, content creation takes time, and all content isn’t week to send an email, we’ve found created (or consumed) equally. Understanding up front that closer to the weekend is better. not only what your clients want to read, but when to reach them and how to quickly capture their interest can be the difference between a newsletter that effectively How to Grab Their Interest engages your customers and one that’s deleted before it’s Keep subject lines short, personal and relevant. ever opened. The average person’s attention span is 8 seconds — a full 2 Here are a few tactics that have consistently worked for second less than a goldfish. Media like Twitter and Vine increasing our customer newsletter opens and clicks. are pushing us further toward the sound byte. The pull Try them in your own agency newsletters to learn what quote. The highlight. Today’s readers expect quick hits, works best with your readers. and they make instant decisions whether or not to open our email with a scan of the subject line and, if we’re When to Send lucky, the first few lines of the intro. The technology our clients use to read our communications also plays a role. Afternoons and ends of the week are smart ways to Either we develop content that acknowledges these reali- avoid inbox clutter. ties, or we risk losing relevance (and readership). An inbox is a tough place to get noticed. It’s a steady stream of new information, much of it more important For instance, half of your customers will be opening your (or, let’s face it, more interesting) than an insurance email on a mobile device, so limit your subject line to 50 newsletter. The average working professional receives characters to avoid getting cut off on the small screen. more than 100 messages a day from colleagues, friends, Use the headline of your newsletter’s most interesting and favorite brands, not to mention spammers of every article rather than something generic (the subject line stripe.1 Avoiding the highest-volume times of the day and “Smith Insurance June Newsletter” isn’t likely to earn an week is a good way to improve the odds that customers open in a newsfeed or an inbox). Add “you” or “yours” will see and open your email. early in the subject line to grab the readers’ attention and personalize the message (for example, “5 tips for For starters, don’t send first thing in the morning. You’re mingling with the neighbors” would become “Meet your competing with overnight email accumulation, and your neighbors: 5 tips for mingling”). Clarity is key, so keep it message could get purged in the rush to clear out the short, straightforward and avoid anything too clever. inbox before the workday begins. Steer clear from sending overnight emails as well. Mobile users who forget to mute Also recognize that email providers like Gmail and Yahoo their phones don’t take kindly to midnight pings, dings and leverage “pre-headers,” while software like Outlook rings waking them from their beauty sleep. Midafternoon enables preview panes — both present not only the sub- has been the sweet spot for our efforts — inboxes often ject line, but a few lines of intro text. Be sure the first few are less cluttered, the morning rush has subsided, and sentences of your email, not just the subject line, leave customers may be more open for a little light reading. your readers wanting more.

When deciding on which day of the week to send, we’ve found that closer to the weekend is better. Thursday and Continued on page 56 1 https://litmus.com/blog/how-to-write-the-perfect-subject- line-infographic/subject-line-infographic 2 http://www.statisticbrain.com/attention-span-statistics/

30 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide TIPS FROM THE PROS TO HELP BUILD BUSINESS.

Kevin Ament Agency Marketing Director

The Pro TipsSM series is a free collection of two- to six-minute videos from Progressive featuring simple tips and tools to improve your online presence. Pro Tips are available on ForAgentsOnly.com in the e-marketing section of the Brand Express, or visit the ProgressiveAgents YouTube channel and click “Playlists”. To become an appointed Progressive agent, visit ProgressiveAgent.com.

Progressive Casualty Ins. Co. & afﬁ liates. 13A00200.G (05/14)

13A00200.G_PIA_MarketingGuide_8x10.5_v2.indd 1 5/19/14 7:42 AM DIGITAL MARKETING

A New-fashioned Old Agency

By George Nordhaus One hundred and one years ago, in Concord, Massachu- Voice-over Introduction to the Site: A professional actor setts, an independent insurance agency was founded. It doing a voice-over introduction to our website and to took the name Appleby & Wyman. the succeeding sections sets the scene for each, and it is unusual enough to get compliments from our website Today, the agency, headquartered in Beverly, Massachu- visitors. setts, still has the same name despite having acquired a number of other agencies over those years, having Live Chat Line: Works best for personal lines and small changed ownership and management as many times as commercial. We get about 15 questions a month….and would be suspected and serving over 10,000 clients from after the communications we get an email with the its two offices (the other is located in Westford, Massa- comments. We attach that to the client’s account in our chusetts). agency management system.

The moving force in these last three decades has been Schedule an Insurance Review: Just another way of A. Carmen Marciano. In 2007, Carmen, with the help of requesting a review of their current program…a bit more his two daughters, Lisa Marciano and Christine Sciola, subtle approach than “Request a Quote.” decided the firm was going to jump into the rapidly- changing communications and technology fray, and Quote Requests: We get a decent amount of quote create a marketing program that immediately became requests….and we do track those on which we close…or not. a model for any agency management who wanted to Client Resources: Some people want do things online, survive and excel in this wild marketplace. some don’t. We just want to give them the option. We The First Step: An Interactive Website also link them to certain insurers we represent. Appleby & Wyman made the decision to involve everyone Claims Assistance: Our “how-to” on this section is helpful. in the agency who was in any way involved in sales and But we also connect our clients directly with their insurer marketing to participate in the planning and execution of for use on weekends, nights, whenever we are closed. It its new aggressive marketing activities. lets the carriers get on the claim that much faster. A review of the Appleby & Wyman website illustrates a About Us: Among other information, we have an employ- few of their marketing moves. ment opportunities section listing various openings (there I interviewed are six positions on it now). We are always looking for great the sisters, Lisa additions to our 40-person staff...but we also think it helps and Christine, our image to know that our visitors are seeing that we are and following aggressively growing to better serve them. each were their Overall, we have had great experience with our website… comments and we are constantly updating it about various features of their The Growing A-W Advertising Program website: In The agency holds a monthly marketing meeting, demonstrating attended by a varying number of staff members, includ- their site, the ing any who are running their increasing number of sisters said, “We “niche” selling campaigns. not only use our website as the One unique tool that A-W salespeople use is a person- cornerstone of alized PowerPoint presentation. It can be emailed to our marketing prospects, used as an IPad presentation, and for new efforts, but we also employ multi-media to communicate prospects it is used on-site as an introductory tool. our message to our clients and prospects.” Here are some of their comments about various aspects of their website: The agency runs a variety of printed ads in local newspa-

Continued on page 52

32 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide

CROSS SELLING

Blueprint for Cross-selling

Personal Lines By Alan Shulman, CPCU You can never assume that your staff will cross-sell – just Motivation because it is the right thing to do. Instead, you must Continued motivation is vital to the successful execu- actively manage the event employing both strategy and tion of any cross-sell program. Start by setting attainable tactics. Below are several basic concepts and approaches cross-sell / upsell goals for each CSR and producer. Then, for P&C agencies. track their results on a monthly or quarterly basis. Reward effective results with goodies ranging from cash, to time- Strategies: off, preferred parking spaces, to representing the agency To successfully and continuously cross-sell, it must be a at company or industry functions. Help underperformers top down directive from agency management to front with additional training and tools. line CSRs and producers — and be a permanent agenda item at staff meetings. The agency must also properly set the stage for cross-selling by dealing with the following Cross-selling is an extension of the considerations (among others)… original sale and should be attempted Client Assignment as quickly as possible. The longer you Successful cross-selling involves more than asking for an wait, the freshness of the relationship additional sale or two, it requires mutual trust. So, work dissipates. to build a bond between each insured and a specific agency staffer by having that employee become the client’s primary contact person. In personal lines, use the Direct Client Contact traditional alphabetical split when assigning accounts to You can free up time for CSRs to contact insureds in writ- CSRs, instead of the “first available” approach. (Do some- ing by email, letter, or a creative marketing device. But, thing similar with small commercial lines, although the never set aside time for CSRs to call people about buying account split doesn’t have to be alphabetical; it can be additional coverages. Instead, train them to segue into based on the type of business. Commercial CSRs can also cross-sell / upsell discussions with insureds as they call in team up with one or more producers to create a united for routine service. Encourage them to ask about “miss- front for smaller insureds.) ing” policies (contracts that they own but are written Selling Time elsewhere) and needed coverages that they don’t yet pos- sess such as an umbrella. CSRs must have adequate time to cross-sell, so don’t dis- tract them with non-service functions such as bookkeep- Example… While on the phone with an insured with a ing and supply ordering. Also, direct first reports (after monoline account… a seamless hand-off from the insured’s primary CSR) to dedicated claims people, if you have the staffing. Also, The CSR double-checks the client’s contact information, take advantage of all available automation capabilities to including all phone numbers and a primary and backup free up selling time. (These vary by agency and by man- email address. When your agency utilizes Facebook agement system and as such are too numerous to list.) or Twitter, ask if the person is similarly active in social media. If so, invite them to “like” you and follow you so Training you can exchange communications in this manner. Continuous product and sales training is essential for every CSR. Here are several ways to approach it. When an Next, ask if they have a moment to discuss discounts. agency represents multiple companies, assign a CSR to Point out that you want to see if you can save them each one so they become the “in-house expert.” It’s their some money on their next renewal with you. Discuss job to keep everyone up-to-date on the carrier’s products the “active effort” discounts they can enjoy. These often and underwriting. Provide both in-house and external include such non-automatic ones as taking a defensive sales training. Focus on new business opportunities driver course, installing home alarms, paying premiums as well as cross-selling and upselling. Knowing how to in advance, digital policy delivery, etc. underwrite and rate isn’t enough. Reps also need to know how to spot leads, close sales, account round, and gain Be certain to tout the valuable multi-policy credit, where referrals. Continued on page 57

34 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide

CROSS SELLING

Building a Cross-selling Machine: Revenue From the Sale of Life

Insurance By Tim Gilder, CLU, ALMI Cross-selling life insurance to your current customers protection for the business and a personal policy to is a great idea. In fact, it is such a great idea that I bet protect the family. you have been told to do it at least fifty times in the last • Niche Market Examples – Private equity/mergers & five years. So? Go do it! What’s stopping you? Tell every acquisitions usually require life insurance as collat- single one of your agents and CSRs that the next time eral right in the agreement. And your high net worth they are on the phone with someone all they have to say clients are good prospects for a conversation about is, “Do you need any life insurance?” and money will start protecting their wealth for future generations. falling from the sky. That is all that there is to cross-selling life insurance, right? Your customer data will help you Obviously, it is not that easy. In fact, I would argue that identify and focus your marketing successfully cross-selling life insurance is extremely dif- opportunities. ficult. Unless you get some help you will be disappointed with the results and will not look to do it very often. Knowing What to Say: Well, help is here. We have a blueprint for building the I am a big believer in having scripts or sales talking points successful cross-selling machine. The steps involve train- available so that regardless of the direction that the con- ing your staff, identifying the opportunity, learning what versation may go, a cross-selling conversation may occur. to say, and partnering with an independent brokerage We have adopted a sales training process that involves agency. taking a single idea and breaking it down to a one line “hook,” followed by three talking points, each supported Train Your People: by three support points. We sum up each message and The cross-selling opportunity will fall apart if your people offer up three objections and responses (yes, we’re big don’t have a process in place that helps them collect the on threes). Each idea ends up as a one page sales aid that necessary data and get it to the right people. Identify anyone in the agency can use with a client. the sales people or CSRs to specifically handle the life insurance leads internally. This usually only involves a few Some examples and hooks that I can put actual sales tweaks and not an overhaul of your existing process. revenue next to would be: • Key Person Life Insurance – “Would your business Identify the Opportunity: suffer a financial hardship if a key employee died?” The most valuable information in any agency is the cus- • Life Insurance in Retirement Planning – “Would you tomer data. The data will help you identify and focus your be interested in income tax-free retirement income?” marketing opportunities. Consider the following: • Legacy Planning With Affluent Clients – “Research • Personal Lines – Home and auto policy holders has shown that 70% of family money is lost by the between the ages of 25-55 probably have a mort- end of the second generation; would you be inter- gage and a need for life insurance. This is an easy ested in building walls around your family wealth to one, sell it to them. protect that legacy?” • Commercial Lines – The small business owner needs help protecting the business continuity. Life insur- If you receive an affirmative response to any one of these ance can fund the buy-sell agreement. Life insurance questions, the follow up is simply, “Let’s talk about life can also help the small business owner save for insurance planning to address that need.” Try it yourself retirement. The income tax-free nature of withdraw- with one of your clients and see what happens. als and loans from life insurance cash values can be a powerful tool. Partnering for Success: • Employee Benefits – The conversation for two years Developing a successful life insurance cross-selling in this market certainly has been dominated by machine is not easy, it takes some help. Look to partner Healthcare Reform. A common strategy in this market involves the sale of two policies: key person life Continued on page 60

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2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 37

PIA full page ad.indd 1 5/30/2014 11:14:44 AM SALES STRATEGY

Insurance Agency Sales Pipeline

Management By John Boudreau Marketing Sherpa estimates that 68% of organizations With all of the information available to the online cus- have not identified their sales funnel.1 This is concerning. tomer, your agency needs to focus on providing the right Companies without an identified sales funnel are at a information to capture and keep their attention. serious loss in terms of their ability to convert leads into opportunities and, ultimately, sales. In order to truly make the most of your lead generation impact, you need to have a solid mix of inbound market- There is one very simple definition of a sales pipeline: A ing and outbound marketing tactics. systematic approach to selling a product or service over a time frame. However, one simple definition comes with A well rounded marketing strategy is going to work well many different understandings of what a sales pipeline for your lead generation strategy. actually entails. Depending on the product or service, each Inbound Marketing Lead Generation Strategies sales team may have a different approach. Additionally, 1. Content Marketing digital media and online marketing have made it necessary 2. SEO (search engine optimization) for marketers and sales teams to alter their sales pipeline. 3. Your Website - Forms, Calls-to-Action What does your insurance agency consider to be the 4. Blogging pieces of its sales pipeline? And if you do have a solid 5. Social Media Marketing idea, what marketing and sales activities do you have in Outbound Marketing Lead Generation Strategies place to move your leads down the pipeline and convert 1. Email Marketing them into closed sales? 2. Display Advertisements What Are the Stages of a Sales Funnel Pipeline for 3. PPC (pay-per-click) Insurance Agencies? 4. Events In a perfect world, your agency will be able to round-out 5. Direct Mail existing customers and build your customer referrals. 6. Sales Representatives – Your People However, we all know that you will have to focus not just 2. Engaging Opportunities: Optimizing your agency’s on retention but also on new opportunities. This means points of contact. that if you are only focusing on one half of your sales process, you are losing out on a great deal of business: your Once your agency has attracted leads with a relevant mix new opportunities. of informative and entertaining content, your inbound marketing and outbound marketing strategy is not done. You have only just begun to build a relationship with a lead now.

During the lead engagement phase, your agency must optimize: • Your points of contact – This includes website forms, email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, and arming your sales team with talk tracks. • Your response times – Research shows that 35-50% of sales will go to the vendor that responds first. Insurance shoppers are typically price conscious, yes, but customer service will still reign supreme. In fact, according to the J.D. Power 2014 U.S. Insurance Shop- ping Study, insurance customers who experience a Does your sales and marketing strategy consider premium increase shop at a rate of 13 percent — less the following as a sales funnel? than half the rate of shopping among those who 2 1. Attracting Leads: Using lead generation strategies. have a poor experience (28 percent). 2 http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/ 1 http://growthpoint-inc.com/Marketing-Services national/2014/04/24/327220.htm Continued on page 58

38 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide SALES STRATEGY

The Importance of Sales Meetings

By David Connolly

Nothing, not one thing happens in this economy until a like sole proprietors who manage our personal books. Sales sale is made. No raw materials are ordered, not one engine meetings require us to come together for one hour as a starts, and no services are performed until an order has team and communicate. They foster teamwork and bring to been placed. Strong sales are the single most important light opportunities for us to help each other. Sales meetings asset of any for-profit company. New business is the life- serve as the one consistent forum for communication and blood of every company. It is the fuel that drives growth, connection as producers. investment and opportunity.

Considering the vital importance of sales, you would think Sales meetings bring us together to that meetings whose sole purpose is to promote and drive accomplish much more than we could sales would be considered critical. But sales meetings finish alone. They are part of the foundation low on the list of priorities for many agencies. As a result, that supports a thriving sales culture. sales meetings are plagued by poor attendance, tardiness, distractions and interruptions. Sales meetings often start late, run late or are cancelled altogether. Lack of prepara- 3. Synergy: Sales meetings create synergy. If we are not pulling tion and a defined agenda produces terrible meetings that together, then we are pulling apart. They create like-minded produce terrible results. thinking and get us pulling together in the same direction.

Sound familiar? In what professional sales organization 4. Direction and Numbers: Sales meetings serve as our would these behaviors be acceptable? What we expect and compass. They influence direction and indicate when tolerate is what we get. This tolerance creates a perception course correction is required. Numbers are a direct reflec- that sales meetings are a waste of time. Nothing could be tion of results. Numbers are the only true, impartial mea- further from the truth. I believe that sales meetings are surement of success. Numbers are a true ally and friend to sacred. Once we understand the direct, positive impact producers. Numbers never lie, and they are brutally honest. sales meetings have on our culture, our success and our Numbers give us hope, determination, incentive and recog- wallets, we will give them the respect they deserve. nition for our successes. They also give us a kick in the rear when we need it. Sales meetings are all about the numbers, Why Are Sales Meetings So Important? and we need to fall in love with numbers. We only have 24 hours in a day to take care of our family, our clients, our job, and ourselves. Given the value of our 5. Motivation: We are all motivated by different factors. For time, why waste it on meetings that don’t always appear to some it’s the pursuit of excellence, for others it’s money, benefit us personally? Here is the short list of reasons why and still others are motivated by competition. We all have sales meetings are critical to your success. personal forms of internal motivation, but peer pressure and competition are powerful forms of external motivation that 1. Culture: A Total Agency Sales Culture is the cornerstone gives us that extra spark to jump-start our engines. External of every high performance agency. The underpinnings of a motivation stirs our competitive spirit. Sales meetings touch total agency sales culture are activities that build, support on many forms of motivation both positive and negative. and sustain organic growth. Effective sales meetings are one Sales meetings create needed competition and pressure. of these critical activities. Sales meetings nurture esprit de corps. They serve as a catalyst and binding agent for shared 6. Skill Set Development and Reinforcement: Selling isn’t goals and objectives. They serve to reinforce and remind us winning. Winning is winning. We win business from the that we are a team, and we share a higher purpose other competition by being better. Sales meetings test and hone than our own personal benefit. Sales meetings bring us our abilities and force us to learn and apply new skills and together to accomplish much more than we could alone. processes that are good for us and make us better than our We are a sales driven industry. Sales meetings are part of the competition. foundation that supports a thriving sales culture. 7. Talent Development and Perpetuation: Agencies that 2. Communication: Many agencies are plagued by poor have expired or been consumed by larger shops all share communication. One reason is producers are a very inde- one thing in common; they failed to groom new talent to pendent group. The nature of our job requires us to operate Continued on page 59

2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 39 OUTSOURCING YOUR MARKETING

Is It Possible to Make Cold Calls a

Thing of the Past? By Donna Gray

That’s certainly a common question pondered by sales with diverse age groups represented was important,” professionals at AIMS education sessions, where our Wenner says. “They didn’t need to be insurance experts mission is to provide the marketing and sales tools any — we could fill in the gaps there — but they did need to property/casualty insurance agency might need to gener- bring enthusiasm and a forward-thinking approach. Ulti- ate sufficient incoming sales so cold calls are no longer mately, all we had to do was share our vision. It was their necessary. One agent seems to have a real answer. job to tell us how to get there, and that’s exactly how it’s worked. They’re constantly after us with new ideas, while “We do a lot to make the phone ring,” says Gordon at the same time keeping us focused on a consistent Wenner, president and chief executive officer of Jones & message.” Wenner Insurance Agency, Inc. in Fairlawn, Ohio. “People arrive at our door ready to buy. All we have to do is con- He goes on to explain how technology has played a role: vince them we’re the right fit. How we’ve created that “People buy differently today. It used to be a salesperson interest certainly isn’t brain surgery, but it does require a had to really educate their customer. But now with the dedicated approach.” Internet, people come to you already knowing what they want.” Jones & Wenner’s approach capitalizes on this customer behavior pattern. Probably the best thing we did was recognize that we weren’t the When people are in the research phase of their search, the agency has made sure to provide detailed informa- marketing experts, and we hired a tion online, particularly as it relates to their specializa- marketing firm to help us figure out tion in transportation. “We want to make sure people how to improve and focus our efforts. find us when they’re just starting to look around online,” says Wenner. Targeted methodology helps reach a niche market. Email blasts, search engine optimization and Wenner explains that the growth his firm enjoys today pay-per-click campaigns work together to move Jones followed a deliberate decision made around 2010, & Wenner to the top of buyer consideration lists. High- when the economy stalled and insurance sales suffered. quality direct mail pieces reinforce the electronic efforts. Wenner knew then it was time to evaluate how to move “We don’t skimp on our direct mail pieces, believing it’s the agency forward. better to present ourselves the best way possible. It’s not cheap initially to create high-impact pieces, but in the In the past, the agency had relied on fairly traditional long-run, our numbers back up the investment. The pay- marketing efforts, including direct mail. “We were pretty back is definitely there. We’ve had some customers come much saying what every other insurance agency was say- to us saying they received our brochure and held onto it ing — what services we offered, why insurance is impor- for months, recognizing that we might be the kind of firm tant — but we weren’t doing anything to set ourselves they want to work with in the future.” apart,” he explains. It’s somewhat ironic that technology has also changed “And like so many other agencies, we were handling our the nature of face-to-face sales. Because the customer own marketing,” he adds. “We weren’t really highlight- arrives at the sales table already armed with knowledge ing why choosing Jones & Wenner mattered, how it about agency details and insurance facts and figures, a helped the customer. Probably the best thing we did at salesperson has to seal the deal by solidifying trust. “Peo- that point was recognize that we weren’t the marketing ple can buy their policies and review coverage options experts, and we hired a marketing firm to help us figure anywhere,” says Wenner. “The way we become their long- out how to improve and focus our efforts. We started term agency is by establishing a personal connection.” designing things for the public, rather than for ourselves, and that was an important shift in perspective.” While targeted pieces — the direct mail and online efforts — work to grow agency income, Jones & Wenner’s There was a short list of requirements for the agency’s brand image advertising is what really positions it as the new marketing partner. “We wanted our messaging to appeal to a spectrum of generations, so having a team Continued on page 60

40 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide REFERRAL MARKETING

Is Referral Marketing Dead in a

Digital World? By Shaun Irwin Yogi Berra is well-known as a Hall of Fame baseball player, send a thank you note, give the referring party a call (not but is perhaps more famously known for being one of the as often as they should), reply right away (“right away” most quoted people in sports. And some lines he actually having a different meaning, depending who you ask), said! send a thank you gift, immediately add them to their digital newsletter or blog mailing (maybe a little too One quote Yogi is known for — whether he said it or not immediately), and the list goes on — it’s just that it’s not — is, “Nobody ever goes there anymore. It’s too crowded!” written down. Anywhere! Over and over, it’s completely in their head. What specifically happens when a referral hits Yogi’s short-sighted wisdom is relevant here because their universe is mostly left to their gut at the moment when you check in on the marketing strategies and suc- they get it. If they happen to be on vacation, sick, or busy cess stories from top sales organizations, and more spe- working on another project, well then, oops, sorry about cifically, their top sales people, it turns out what worked that, we missed it. before still works. The tools that we have now can make this process so A digital world can and should expand your referral much more robust and effective if we’ll take a miniscule marketing capabilities. In fact, social media is a little amount of time to work on them (compared to the gigan- like having a lot of money; it magnifies both your good tic payoff). qualities and your weaknesses. The time-tested and true remaining facets of referral marketing are still Know, Like, and Trust! What is your process for attracting and converting more referrals? Is it written Referral marketing has always been about giving. Digital down? connectivity only increases your capacity for channeling your efforts. In his phenomenal book Give and Take, Adam Grant, the youngest tenured professor ever at the Whar- Getting your head around how much better your referral ton School of Business and exhaustive researcher, shares machine can be with a replicable process is a key to mak- great stories from all walks of life and careers built from ing it worth it. Start with math. the old models of meet, greet, shake, help and mold, to the increased capacity of givers to reach more and more Are you any good at math or do you have any desire to people than ever. I highly recommend you follow Grant be? There’s not a right or wrong answer, there’s just an and pay attention to his seminal work. A giving mindset honesty you need to assess with yourself before you is an abundance mindset which leads to greater capacity move on. If you’re good at math, break apart how much for growth in all of us. an ideal referral is worth, both on an annual basis and from a lifetime value perspective. Your lifetime value is You can use digital processes along with other media to the annual revenue times the length of time your clients open doors to Know, Like and Trust, and produce results. normally stick with you. When meeting with business professionals or sales people, I’ll ask them to list their lead sources. In professional If you’re not good at math or aren’t motivated by it, and service organizations, referrals almost always land in the your eyes are already starting to glaze over from the mere top three. In more varied industries, referrals occasionally description of lifetime value of a client, ask for a volunteer land in the top five but are still counted as an important from your team who loves math. Go ahead, send out an element of their success. email and ask for one. You have one nearby and maybe you just don’t know that Sudoku-playing maniac is in the The next question is the one that leads to ummms and office next door. ahhhs: How often does an ideal referral convert into a client? What is your process for attracting and converting more Almost universally, I’m told, “at a much higher percentage referrals? than anyone else,” but very few measure what that means. Not that sales people don’t do a lot of things which they The more you like to help others succeed, the better you’ll are perfectly willing to shout out and share — they’ll Continued on page 61

2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 41 OTHER ASPECTS OF THE SALES PROCESS

Your Insurance Proposals — Will They Help You or Hurt You

in E&O Litigation By Curtis M. Pearsall, CPCU, AIAF, CPIA

Most agencies and their respective producers look at involve “he said, she said” scenarios. Who wins these is insurance proposals as one of the key tools that will anyone’s guess. To ensure there is no misunderstanding, determine whether they land the account. However, in it is highly suggested to secure the insured’s signature / addition to the sales benefit, a quality insurance pro- acknowledgement detailing his or her ultimate buying posal can also provide solid E&O benefits. The key word decision. is “quality” because there is certainly the possibility that your proposals can cause you some E&O nightmares if a To ensure thoroughness and consistency, a standard problem were ever to develop. How do the proposals in template detailing what the proposal should include and your agency measure up? how it should be communicated should be used. This will ensure that the proposals contain the necessary detail Typically, insurance proposals are broken down by line and explanation. of business and list the coverages offered/proposed and the corresponding premium. They probably use abbrevia- Key Ingredients of a Proposal tions or phrases such as ACV or RC, co-insurance, or time • Detailed explanations and definitions of key terms. element or business interruption coverage. As a producer, Just because the agency understands the terms you know what these abbreviations and phrases mean. does not mean the client does. As you present the How about imagining that you are the prospect? Does proposal, look for opportunities to ensure that the the proposal help you understand the insurance pro- prospect understands the material. Avoid abbrevia- gram? If not, while you may sell the account, you have tions if there is any chance the customer will not not really achieved the E&O benefits of the proposal. In understand what they mean. actuality, you may have hurt your E&O defense. • Easy-to-understand information. Provide the mate- If an E&O claim developed, both the defense attorney rial in a language that is not above the ability of the and the plaintiff’s attorney will review the agency file prospect to understand it. as well as all of the specific documents involved in the • Reference any mortgagee or loss payee you know procurement of the coverage. There is a very good chance of. It is amazing how this level of detail is taken for that the proposal you provided will be reviewed in depth. granted. Failure to provide this has surfaced in a host The goal is to ensure that when this occurs, the proposal of E&O claims. helps your case, not hurts it. • Be as detailed as necessary. For example, if you are Educate Customers and Prospects providing a proposal including Time Element / Busi- If your proposals are structured strictly to provide an over- ness Interruption coverage, spell out exactly what view, you may be missing an important element — one coverage is provided or maybe include a “specimen that may actually play a role in landing the account while policy” for reference. Many of the Exposure Analysis also providing some quality errors and omissions protec- Checklists provide this level of detail for the vari- tion. Look for your proposals to educate your prospects ous coverage forms. When dealing with Workers and help them understand their insurance program. They Compensation, based on the corporate structure of know their business but do they really know the finer the entity, reference should be made to whether the points of the insurance business? Educating customers policy affords coverage for sole proprietors/partners. and prospects has been shown to be a key issue in mini- On General Liability, it should be clearly stated if the mizing E&O claims activity. policy is “subject to audit.” For a Professional Liabil- Since customers and prospects heavily rely on proposals ity/ D&O policy, provide clarification on issues such to make informed purchasing decisions, the best propos- as “retro date” and whether the defense is within or als clearly lay out the coverages offered, with documen- outside of the limit of liability. tation ultimately being made to detail what was — and • Where applicable, include a statement that clearly was not — purchased. Oftentimes, these discussions are verbal. Without something in writing, any problems could Continued on page 61

42 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide OTHER ASPECTS OF THE SALES PROCESS

Leveraging Technology to Increase Agency

Efficiency By Bob, Craig and Eric Most From left: Eric, Bob and Craig Most

How many times have we said “can’t do with it, can’t do significantly updated in a timely manner. We also have without it?” Well technology in the insurance industry added new technology, telecommuting, and instant mes- is one of those “can’t do with outs.” Love it or hate it we saging amongst staff. All of these additions have really need to understand that it is the future of our industry, helped us leverage technology for the benefit of staff and and the future is now. We may feel we are insulated from clients. it in our little niche, but trust us, the business world and customers are passing us by if we are not on board.

Technology is pervasive and absolutely affects every aspect of our sales and service processes.

Being able to market through various data sources has assisted our agency in reaching out to potential customers. Data sources such as County Property Appraiser and the State Department of Business and Professional Regu- lation has helped us progress in locating customers that fit our agency’s appetite. At our agency, internal agency communications are Most Insurance has employed numerous advanced tech- utilized to synchronize service and sales efforts. We use a nologies to further develop the communication between secure internal website for updates to coordinate agency our customers and carriers. As an agency, we continue to procedures and carrier forms and updates to carrier’s email and fax, but we have consolidated the two commu- procedures. nication methods into one called Metrofax. We have also signed up for electronic delivery of underwriting memos. Ergonomics, the relationship between workers and their This saves on the scanning of paper documents and it has environment, have also been a factor in our agency’s drastically improved the response time of agents to cus- success. Each agent is able to work with three flat panel tomer service needs. IVANS, a third party policy download displays in their work space. Agents are also provided tool, has improved connection between clients, carriers, wireless telephone headsets. These amenities have better and our team. In addition, another great tool we have equipped our agents to tackle any task. utilized is carrier web chats. This has reduced time on the phone with carrier staff and increased the availability for Leveraging of technology not only makes us more effi- customer phone calls. cient working with prospects, customers, and carriers, but it also help us be more effective working together as a One of our major advances in technology communication team, regardless of role and location of workspace. has been in relation to customer sales. E-signatures have played a big role in the customer sales process. Electronic Bob Most founded Most Insurance, located in Tampa, Florida, signatures better accommodate customers and agents in January of 1973. For over 10 years his sons Craig and Eric and have accelerated the completion of the sales process. have been instrumental in continuing the agency’s growth, continually positioning the agency for the future of the insur- Agency operations here at Most Insurance have become ance industry, serving on various carrier agent advisory groups, very successful with several new programs. New addi- serving on the board of directors of the American Insurance tions such as a Tech Tuesday lunch have helped to train Marketing & Sales Society (Craig), as well as speaking at numerous national conferences. Most Insurance was honored staff on new tools and improve their proficiency with to be named the Rough Notes Marketing Agency of the Month existing tools. With hardware updates, our PC’s have been in May 2013. The agency’s web address is www.mostins.com.

2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 43 Continued from page 12 Can You “Cheat” Your Way Into More Customers, More Revenue Per Customer and Better Retention? By Michael Jans

Now, you may — justifiably — be asking, “big so what?” I’d like to end with one observation. Simply installing “emerging technology” in your agency or brokerage is not Here’s the “big so what:” They also found that when the enough. Scratch the surface and you’ll discover that there CSI went up, the money went up, too. Way up. are the agents who know what to do with it...and those who don’t. How so? Let’s look at that magic CSI number of 852: the number Boomers hit when they interact with an agent who uses emerging technology: J.D. Power also found that when the • Those (happy) clients retain at a 95.5%. Compare Customer Satisfaction Index went up, that to the lower CSI score of 750; those clients only the money went up, too. Way up. retain at a (dismal) 82%. And, yes, the math on that is easy: an extra $130,000 for every million dollars in your book of business. (And, by the way, that delivers Emerging technology allows you to communicate. It lets an extra $3,694,595 over the next ten years.) you do it efficiently, automatically — almost magically. • Those (happy) clients “intend to recommend” at a The savvy agent considers seriously what he is going to sky-high rate of 63%. (That’s not just “like” you or communicate. He thinks deeply about the core values of “might recommend if the situation occurs.” They his business. He ponders his value proposition. He creates intend to.) Compare that to a meager 29% at the a culture of success built on world class sales and service. lower level of 750. (Want to reduce your customer acquisition costs? Unleash 63% of your happy cus- As a marketing consultant to the industry, a lot of agents tomers on the marketplace!) put me on their email and text message list. And, sadly, • Those (happy) clients won’t leave — even if your car- I get a lot of messages that are irritating or pushy or riers (or the market cycle) throws a serious premium “value-subtracting.” increase at them. 45% claim they won’t leave “at any price increase.” (Compare that to 21% in the lower Just because some marketing consultant says you should and middle tiers of customer satisfaction.) touch your clients 17-21 times per year doesn’t mean you should irritate them 17-21 times per year! You should be For an agency owner who is a) serious about market- nurturing, cultivating and delighting them on each and ing, b) committed to building long-term equity and c) every point of contact. somewhere between “bewildered” and “terrified” about changes in consumer behavior, the trove of recent Technology multiplies everything. Use it to multiply value. research doesn’t all show, as McKinsey declared, that That’s how you grow your business. “there are signs now that the economics of the tradi- Michael Jans is the CEO and founder of Agency Revolution, tional agent model are beginning to unravel.” “the most trusted marketing company in the insurance industry.” Get a copy of his white paper, The 2014 State of Well, on the other hand, perhaps McKinsey was right. If the Industry: 3 Reasons Insurance Will Never Be The Same for “traditional” means “old school” or “still acting as if it’s the free at www.InsIndustryTrends.com or call (800) 606-0477. 1990’s,” then, for those agents, the end may be near. But, To learn more about the services of Agency Revolution visit as consumers change, industries change and technolo- www.agencyrevolution.com. gies change, the savvy entrepreneur changes, too. And, as always, the future belongs to those who embrace it. Not to those who deny it.

44 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide Continued from page 14

What It Takes to Be the Insurance Agent of Choice By John Graham

attention to young drivers, those who get a kick out • Stay in close touch with both customers and pros- of the “everybody knows that” messages of saving pects with informative eNewsletters and periodic money on auto insurance. Their parents may think alerts as to weather conditions and helpful seasonal you’re terrific, but they expect to do business at their information. convenience 24/7 with smartphone apps. Unless you capture them now, they’re gone for good. Most prospects take time — often • Spend your waking hours figuring out how to make it easier for customers to do business with you. For considerable time — to decide if they example, being closed from 12 Noon to 1 PM sends want to change insurance agents. customers and prospects the clear message that you Cultivating them by demonstrating set the rules for doing business. In the same way, how your knowledge and expertise can telling a customer “Sally is busy now; but she’s very be of value to them is critical. good at getting back to people” is not something customers will tolerate today — and something they will never forget. • Constantly look for customer testimonials, particu- • Develop your own smartphone app. It may be the larly those with a focus on the quality of your work. best investment in your business you make in After getting permission and possibly a photo, post the next five years. It will set you apart from the on your website and use in eNewsletters. competition and send the message that you really • Most prospects take time — often considerable understand what today’s customers want from an time — to decide if they want to change insurance insurance agent. agents. This is why building a strong database and • Be data driven so you can always be ready to give using it regularly in various ways — including the customers personalized attention. Analyze your book social media — to cultivate them by demonstrating of business and update your files by adding such how your knowledge and expertise can be of value to information as lifestyle, health, birthday, family, place them is critical. Then, you’ll be their choice when they on life spectrum, job, personal information (divorced, get ready. single, etc.), special interests, what bothers them and so forth. If you want to be an insurance agent of choice, it’s not • If you want to build trust, make every meeting with what you say, but what you do — how you perform — prospects and customers educational, so that they that counts. come away feeling you have helped them better John Graham of GrahamComm is a marketing and sales understand what insurance is all about, how it can consultant specializing in the insurance industry. He writes benefit them now and in the future and how they a monthly eNewsletter, “No Nonsense Marketing & Sales.” can make better insurance-buying decisions. Contact him at [email protected], 617-774-9759 or • Include in every proposal a “Why this is important to johnrgraham.com. you” explanation of the coverages so customers have a clear understanding of what they’re buying and recognize the benefits of your recommendations. • It’s the experience you create for your customers that counts today, not the size of your office, where it’s located or how many awards are on the walls.

2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 45 Continued from page 18

Reaching out to Your Customers By Bill Jenkins

These are examples of how PIA members are using their agents, proactively reach out to our customers — using own unique “value proposition” to reach out to their proven ways to help “Close the Gap – for Growth & customers. Customer research makes it clear that, for Profit.” many, insurance is much more than a mere commodity. When customers contact their professional independent Bill Jenkins works with The PIA Partnership and has been involved in the insurance industry for more than 20 years in areas of agent, they experience the value an agent can provide marketing, advertising, communication and technology. first-hand. This value can only be enhanced when we, as

PIA Partnership Personal Lines The PIA Customer Survey Partnership

Two surveys were conducted with 5. They will “go to bat for me” when Through The PIA Partnership, personal lines customers utilizing the necessary PIA National staff and volunteer “General Marketing Survey Panel” 6. Personal attention agent leaders work together with provided by SSI (Survey Sampling insurance company participants 7. They are able to offer me choices International, LLC). The first set of to identify areas of opportunity of coverage questions collected 904 completed and develop tools and resources surveys from qualified participants. 8. They provide me with confidence to help enhance the success The second set collected 915 that l am making the right of professional independent completed surveys. The demographic insurance decisions insurance agents. distribution of survey respondents 9. They are recommending sufficient tracks well with the general insurance protection PIA recognizes and appreciates the support of the following demographics of the U.S. population. 10. They are able to offer me a choice Partnership companies: With the total number of personal of companies auto policyholders set at 187 million Encompass Insurance one can say with 95% confidence that With Regard to Frequency & Method the maximum margin of error is +/- 4 of Contact: Erie Insurance percentage points. This is the same 69% of customers want to be Harleysville Insurance level of accuracy typically cited by contacted when an agent or Liberty Mutual Insurance Gallup for their surveys. company has a suggestion for coverage they may be missing or to MetLife Auto & Home Question: With regard to the increase coverage where they may be individual or company you work with Progressive Insurance underinsured. to provide you insurance coverage, Selective Insurance Group please rank these factors in order of 73% of customers want to hear from importance from 1 to 10. their current insurance provider more State Auto Group often than just at renewal. The results to this question were The Central Insurance Companies ordered as follows: Your customers want to hear from 1. Value in the rates they find for me you. They want to know that you’re The Hanover Insurance Group there for them — that you’re 2. They are taking care of me and my The Hartford insurance needs proactively interested in their insurance needs. 3. Trust in the person or company The Motorists Insurance Group 4. Quick service response

46 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide Continued from page 20

“Shark Tank” Lessons By Nancy Doucette can’t just send someone to a class and expect them to be finding sales talent but they do have a method. “The sales oriented at that point,” Durland comments. Snod- management team is always networking — looking for grass visited the agency to set the groundwork. Every people with Type A personalities, driven, family oriented. month after that, the staff gathers for a teleconference to They want to build a house, have kids, they’re not afraid review sales techniques learned last month and go over of taking on debt, they’re calculated risk takers. We hire some new ones. former athletes — the over-achieving athletes who had to work really hard to be good. They have the work ethic, “One simple thing we’ve learned is how to ask a ques- the competitive drive, a passion for success.” tion differently,” Durland says. “Suppose we write the homeowners but not the auto. Rather than say: ‘I see we The Shark Tank lesson? Know what motivates people. In don’t write your auto insurance. May I give you a quote?’ this case, Shepherd finds people with specific material or Instead say: ‘I see we don’t write your auto insurance. monetary goals who have the drive to achieve them. May I ask why?’ “We’ve hired golf pros, people from rental car agencies, “More times than not, the customer will tell you why. IT and banking professionals. Our director of sales was a Maybe it’s because they have a relative who is also an national sales manager for an IT company. Between 85% agent or maybe they just never thought about it. In any and 90% of our producers come from outside the insur- event, you have the information; you can document your ance business. We use personality profiles — Omnia is system and set up an activity if there’s an opportunity. one of them — and we abide by the test results. If the tests say the person isn’t a good fit, we don’t hire that “We are big proponents of incentive-based compensa- individual,” he says. tion,” Durland concludes. “It’s a great way to grow your business. Train the people you already have to improve Kweder adds proudly, “Our wash-out ratio with producers their sales capabilities. But if you don’t have the Real Time is very low — 80% are making it after three years.” workflows and technology in place to free up the CSRs’ time, they probably won’t have as much time to sell.” The agency also brings in interns from nearby universi- ties with insurance and risk management programs. Gung-ho on Growth “We have hired the majority of them,” Kweder says. One “We’ve been focused on growth since of those interns rose quickly through the ranks and in the day I started here, 30 years ago,” just three years became Shepherd’s middle market sales declares Jeff Kweder. During that director. time the agency has grown from a two-person, exclusively personal lines Recalling his days as sales manager, Kweder says the agency didn’t have a formal sales training program. agency located in a garage to six Jeff Kweder of locations around Indiana with 25% of Shepherd Insurance In 2005, he sought to remedy that by partnering with the business in personal lines, 40% in & Financial Services Blueprint Consulting Group (www.blueprintselling.com). in Carmel, Indiana commercial, 30% in benefits, and 5% Brothers Jeff, Chad and Brian Jenkins each bring a differ- in financial services. “We’ll end 2014 ent skill set and experience to the quarterly sales training with between $19 million and $20 sessions, he says. “We would focus on differentiation — million in revenue,” he reports. needs-based selling, red flag selling — not price selling. We would concentrate on stewardship, risk management “For the last six or seven years, we’ve focused on a dual and carrier strength — the value-addeds — getting away strategy of organic growth — including investing in new from products being commoditized.” producers — along with strategic acquisitions,” he adds. Kweder says Shepherd now has Blueprint Consulting Ten years ago, Kweder was sales manager for the agency. Group on retainer so one or more of the Jenkins brothers At that point he says there were 8 or 10 producers. Today now visit the agency every six to eight weeks. Addition- there are 45 and 10 of them are new to the agency — and ally, they’re on call. “We can pick up the phone or send an the insurance business — within the last 18 months. email to discuss a specific situation.” They also help mentor the new producers, but the seasoned producers have Kweder says the agency doesn’t have a secret recipe for Continued on page 48

2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 47 Continued from page 22

Essentials of Producer Hiring and Management By Al Diamond

the glue that bonds a client to an agency. With that in mind, should the sales call rate slip consistently, it is apparent that he will not achieve the required And create a proper compensation program from Day 1 results and compensation should be adjusted down when a producer is hired. When setting the salary or draw accordingly. Agency Consulting Group has successfully for a producer, what the new employee wants is not as instituted this Self-Adjusting Compensation concept in important to you as what he needs. The lower you can many agencies over the last thirty years and can report keep the initial salary or draw, the sooner you will be able successes in agencies of all sizes around the country. We to validate the producer’s compensation and allow them can also report a high retention of successful producers to enter into a tiered, commission-based compensation as those who fail to meet their activity levels leave the program or allow them to enter into a bonus program agency or are terminated. and build their income from renewals. If the initial draw is too high and is based on unrealistic or unproven Hiring good producers is hard work. There is an art to expectations, the producer risks increasing his deficit to finding the right candidate to become your next producer, the compensation package to the point where he cannot but there is a science in the process of hiring, training earn his way out and is terminated. and retaining that person. Consider looking outside of the industry for the right person, then entice them with To create a safety valve, consider a Self-Adjusting com- the concept of renewal commissions. Train them to be pensation schedule that bonuses exceptional perfor- technically competent, but also in the techniques to build mance AND adjusts compensation downward if the the relationship and when to close the deal. Provide the activity levels achieved by the producer prove insufficient producer with their leads to get the best return on your to generate the required amount of gross commission investment rather than spend their time prospecting. to satisfy his salary or draw. The Self-Adjusting schedule And compensate them fairly and properly based on the is based on Sales Call Activity, which is a face-to-face expectations of their activity level. meeting with prospective decision-makers. Phone calls and email do not count as activity. If the producer sees Al Diamond, president of Agency Consulting Group, Inc., has enough people enough times, they will sell enough been consulting since 1980. With clients across the United accounts to earn a living. By making his compensation States and Canada, Al and his staff have been responsible for sensitive to his achievement of a sufficient number of over 1,000 annual agency valuations, published the Compos- ite Groups for the insurance agency industry (including over sales calls in a week, month and year, the result should be 4,000 contributing agencies) on an annual basis, and has the sale of sufficient insurance programs to support his published the PIPELINE, the newsletter for Agency Owners and draw or salary. Principles, since 1987. Al can be reached at (856) 779-2430 or email [email protected]. You can also visit Agency Consulting Group’s website at www.agencyconsulting.com.

Continued from page 47

access to Blueprint as well. account in a two-year cycle. Our commission structure rewards the second year (the first renewal). In other words, Kweder notes that by following Blueprint’s advice, the the second year’s commission is more than the first. agency’s hit ratio has improved. “We don’t waste time on ‘opportunities’ that really aren’t opportunities,” he says. “Over time the producer will have a significant engagement with the client because they have the financial He continues: “One of our mantras is: ‘Win all ties.’ So if incentive,” he says. we’re up against an incumbent and we can come close or match their price, we expect to be able to win the “At times our shareholders shake their heads over why account based on our value-added services, product we keep investing in new producers, new technology, and knowledge, and our ability to manage their losses.” acquisitions,” Kweder concludes. “Our philosophy is: grow or the business is at risk.” Kweder describes the agency’s producer compensation model as “contrarian.” He explains: “We look at any new Nancy Doucette is managing editor for Rough Notes magazine.

48 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide Continued from page 24

To Be Successful on Social Media: Just Be Yourself By Ted Janusz

week. #1 – “I could hire 20 mechanics and work them all reached over 3,600 people, without us paying anything to overtime if I could find qualified people.” #2 - My phone has promote the agency. Our hope is that we also inspired our been ringing non-stop with people looking for excavating followers to donate to the cause. quotes. Lots of new home building plans for the spring.” Q: Do you think that Facebook pages and other I believe these people more than the Free Press, Detroit forms of social media can be successfully run by News, Fox News or CNN anyday.” an outside consultant or centralized entity, or does each agency need to maintain their own page? Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I also always As of this interview, we do all of our social media in try to include a photograph or some other image with house. But I am looking into hiring a consultant to do each post, to catch the reader’s eye. some of the managing, posting and writing. If you find the right person or organization who actually KNOWS This post has already received some “likes.” People love to you and your agency’s personality and brand, I believe it see that you are real and that you care. can be done successfully. Q: What was the biggest thing you have learned Q: What other advice would you give to other from trying different things in social media? independent agents looking to start their own Not everything works or gets traction. Something that I Facebook page or participate in social media? think will be successful ends up going nowhere. Some of BE YOURSELF. Do not try to be something online that the things that I thought were “dumb” ideas are the ones you’re not. People will see right through the fake. And that took off. You just never know! Just keep trying! of course, the golden rule of social media: Don’t’ post Unlike traditional marketing for which you may commit anything you wouldn’t want your mother, grandmother (and lose) hundreds or even thousands of dollars, with or priest to see! social media, the only real investment is your time. Ted Janusz has been honored to contribute articles to all five Q: What has been the most successful thing you annual PIA National Agency Marketing Guides. Because 92% of consumers looking for local businesses now start have done? their journey with an Internet search, Ted Janusz speaks Probably the most successful thing we have done on on how insurance agents can create great content for the Facebook was to promote a fundraiser for a local fireman Web, so that their agencies will be found. Contact Ted at who had a massive heart attack. We posted the event [email protected]. flyer and asked people to share. We advertised we would donate $1 for each share, with a maximum of $200. (Always set a max!)

Although we didn’t hit the 200 shares we did get over 80 shares (and we still donated the $200). The Facebook post

2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 49 Continued from page 26 Social Media Can Combat Commoditization — Here’s How By Tom Wetzel

unique social media images and content that resonate The Most Important Best Practices with their target niches. • Use canned content sparingly. The best content is that which you create yourself and reflects some- To make social media work, agents need to wear their thing unique and distinctive about yourself or your personalities on their sleeves and demonstrate how well agency. they understand every market they serve. Ironically, that • Post consistently and frequently, at least three times should not be as hard as it sounds. Every agent worth a week. his or her salt got there because of a dynamic, energetic, • Pick the social media sites that your prospects use. can-do personality. It is just a matter of transferring that • Be visual. Use photos, videos, drawings and plenty of image to a digital platform. color to attract attention and to make your message Social Media as a Prospecting Tool fun and memorable. • Monitor everyday. The process of monitoring is not It’s also amazing to me why just checking your own Facebook page for responses. more agents do not use social Monitor the social media activity of those commu- media for prospecting. Every nities you serve as well as your target markets for connection developed via social updates and unusual or interesting subjects. Monitor media represents a solid pros- the activity of other agents with whom you compete. pect, not just a faceless cold call. Learn what works and what doesn’t. Create remind- After all, these connections can ers to monitor periodically throughout the day show up on an agent’s digital — your followers will understand that you are not doorstep because they share a common interest with the glued to your computer screen but it is important to agent, be it a love of community, plumbers, jazz, or old respond as quickly as you can to questions and com- cars. For example, LinkedIn maintains hundreds of discus- ments that warrant it. sion groups that cover topics ranging from parenting to • Measure, measure, measure. Measure continually, poets to photographers. Entire books have been writ- not just the number of likes, comments and shares ten by agents who find interest groups with which they but other details by using free or low-cost tools. share a special passion or expertise and then join in the Google Alerts (free) is a good first option but also discussion, not to sell overtly but to participate as a “fel- take a look at SocialMention (also free) which pro- low traveler.” Then when an opportunity to demonstrate vides more detail. Hootsuite, Tweetdeck and Buffer insurance expertise presents itself, the “fellow traveler” are all good with free options available. enjoys a powerful credibility. Social media is not a new-fangled technological concept Creating the right content is also essential to social media but actually a throwback to the days of the small town success. There is nothing wrong with a consistent stream merchant in which communication was immediate and of insurance advice and periodic premium-saving tips, face-to-face — now it’s just dressed up in a new pack- but there are two caveats. First, if you use canned advice age. It’s not as hard as you may think, however it will get from an outside source, understand that such content harder if you put off getting in the game or learning how does little to separate an agent from competitors, partic- to use it effectively. ularly if they’re using similar content. Second, insurance advice is like broccoli — it’s good for consumers but no Tom Wetzel is CEO of Thomas H. Wetzel & Associates, an insur- one wants it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days ance marketing communications firm with special services a week. As a rule of thumb, it’s a good idea that for every and training programs for agents on the productive use of insurance post, post two or more non-insurance items, social media. An insurance communicator for over 30 years, including events, humor, useful tips and human interest. he has conducted presentations and workshops to thousands of insurance professionals across the country and served as the Studies have shown that answering customer-service social media columnist for Rough Notes. He can be reached questions on social media is a powerful boost to partici- via email at [email protected], the company pation. Specific policy questions about specific clients are website www.wetzelandasssociates.com and found on Face- off limits but general answers about a particular cover- book at “Social Media Management for Insurance,” Twitter age, exposure or market work well. and LinkedIn.

50 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide Continued from page 27 Why Your Small Business Should Be Using Social Media By Jim Mansfield

blogging, which we have used in the past and is great for We use our business Facebook to give information to our content marketing. In 2012, 78.6% of sales people using customers about texting and driving, tornado safety, fire social media to sell out-performed those who weren’t safety, car safety, etc. We get this information from our using social media.1 associations, insurance companies, and magazine articles in professional publications. Most insurance companies There are several reasons to acquire more than one social and our associations give you this information on social media site. First, you need them to help promote your media already — all you have to do is copy and paste to website, so don’t forget to include your URL on every share the information with your customers. application and also to link to it when you post various items. You also need these sites to help with Search My second rule of using social media is to make it fun Engine Optimization (SEO), which gets your business to or make it seriously informative. Do not combine those the front page of a Google search. If done correctly you two concepts. There is nothing funny about texting and get your website on the very first page of all Internet driving. searches in your area. Our agency is there and we are constantly tweaking our plans to stay there. If you’re wondering how putting this information out there would help you make a sale, that is often not imme- Finally, most searches are now done on mobile devices, diately foreseeable. The goal is to establish yourself as a not traditional personal computers. Most consumers use professional and an expert that social media users can social media apps on their mobile devices to get updates contact if they have a question about the field of insur- on what is happening in the world, so you need to have ance. an Internet location that is responsive to that. If you do not have a professional website designer hosting your Taking Advantage of Resources website and social media sites, I highly recommend get- The best reason to use social media is that it is free! It is ting one. similar to having a storefront, a huge billboard, a daily reminder delivered to hundreds if not thousands every If you’re not sure where to start with all of this, I recom- day, all at no extra cost. Your name is in front of all these mend creating a Facebook business page, the easiest and friends and followers, expanding to their friends and most popular for the most part. One million web pages followers. My very first advertisement on my business are accessed using the “Login with Facebook” feature Facebook page netted a sale. I simply posted that we sell and 23 percent of Facebook users login at least 5 times Landlords Property and Liability Insurance, and a neigh- per day.2 bor of mine (and a friend on Facebook) who did not have insurance with me called me up within an hour and said, “Jim, I didn’t know you sold insurance for rentals!” Boom!

Most companies, like my lead company Erie Insurance Group, will pay co-op money to advertise and get you paid advertisements on social media, which is a whole different level of social media. Why would you not take that money?

Social media is not hard, but it takes time for you to get followers and get others to share your information. When you look at your “insights,” stats about your page that https://www.facebook.com/pages/create/ are only visible to you, you’ll often see that more people see your post than like your page. This is a result of your followers sharing, liking, or commenting on your posts. Also, you can discover information about the demograph- 1 Forbes, May 19, 2013, “Study: 78% of Salespeople Using ics that follow your page: My largest demographic on my Social Media Outsell Their Peers 2 Jeff Bullas, “22 Social Media Facts and Statistics You Should Know in 2014” Continued on page 52

2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 51 Continued from page 51 Continued from page 32

Facebook business page is women ages 35-44. Infor- mation like that at my fingertips is extremely valuable A New-fashioned Old Agency when I am designing our marketing strategy. By George Nordhaus Have Fun! The most important rule is to have fun. This is the pers and other hard-copy advertising opportunities. “social” part of social media. Many days I will read about an interesting story and I will then ask my Here is an ad featuring their brother, David, who is on followers for an answer to some aspect of that story. the “Wicked Tuna” TV show. Local people love to see their The first one to respond through my email on my neighbor as the star, and the sisters say they get lots of website will get a free lunch. No quotes, no insurance, comment on these ads. just something fun. As a result, they are likely to look One of the reasons they for my future postings, more serious posts that could can advertise so exten- result in a sale. When we ask people how they dis- sively is that they are utiliz- covered us, they usually say our website or our social ing every opportunity to media accounts. take advantage of insurer I owe much of my success as I have said to the AIMS co-op advertising dol- Society, PIA of Indiana and several individuals such lars. “It’s free dollars and as Steve Anderson and my fellow board member at it doubles what we can AIMS, Chris Paradiso. spend,” say the sisters.

Start your social media marketing now, get engaged Conclusion with associations and watch your business grow! When asked to describe their advertising and marketing goals, the sisters replied: Jim Mansfield is an insurance agent (CPIA) with more than 35 years of experience in the industry. In 1981, he “We are constantly looking for ways to promote our opened Mansfield Insurance Agency in his town of Bright, brand, our agency, and our producers. To further that Indiana, where he has served as owner and president goal we work with AgenciesOnline who helps us create ever since. Jim began his career as a teacher in the public cross-sell, account rounding, risk management and school system, and this background has greatly influenced market specific programs. how he has grown in the insurance industry. He enjoys educating his clients about different insurance policies “We find that mixing the distribution of our messaging and how best he can help them. He also is a facilitator for not only provides awareness of the Appleby & Wyman the CPIA classes and has led several social media events. Agency, but also has resulted in growing our agency Jim’s professional affiliations include the Professional production across multiple channels. Insurance Agents (PIA) of Indiana, where he recently served as president from 2012-2013. He is currently serv- “If we had to conclude with just one major goal that is ing as one of two vice presidents of the AIMS Society. He being accomplished it would be that we are building also serves on the board of the local Bright Area Business Association. lasting relationships…and in that we feel that we are, happily, succeeding.

“We’ve gone a long way since 1903…but there is no end in sight.”

George Nordhaus is chairman of AgenciesOnline. For many years he has been considered one of the leading professionals in insurance agency marketing. He is a former EVP of two agents’ associations, creator of Insurance Marketing and Management Services, author of eight books on marketing, and is the host of “Monday Morning”, a weekly-recorded mini- webinar. Mr. Nordhaus has earned numerous awards and hon- ors from a wide array of insurance bodies and was inducted into the Tennessee Insurance Hall of Fame. He and his firm, AgenciesOnline, work as providers of complete marketing systems for agencies. AgenciesOnline can be found online at www.agenciesonline.biz.

52 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide Continued from page 28 Social: The Must-Have Element of an Agency Growth Strategy By Chris Paradiso

I believe—that I decided to invest in a paid, part-time Don’t be afraid of hiring young talent. And pay your intern to help the agency continue to maximize these interns! These students brought energy, vitality and a channels. new perspective to the agency. Of course, you’ll need to work with interns to teach them about insurance, but As we became more invested in our social media strategy, this became an agency mission. Everyone in the agency I started encouraging my team of two CSRs to get active helps new interns understand the value of the indepen- on social media—sharing content and generating refer- dent agent. rals. We allowed them to have Facebook open all day on their computers. In my travels I find that too many agents let fear of training and managing young people stop them from invest- One day I was on-site with one of our agency’s vendors, ing in interns. You need to have a plan and you need to whose account manager had become friendly with my spend time with them. But their skills will pay you back team and were connected on Facebook. During that for your investment, many times over. visit, the vendor shared with me something that was not only hurtful to me as the agency leader, but infuriating At any point in time, Paradiso Insurance has three people to my customers: one of my CSRs was playing Farmville whose main role is social marketing—one full-time posi- the entire day, while I was out of the office. This was all tion, one part-time blogger to support four blogs, and one clearly displayed on Facebook. part-time video-editing person. One important bless- ing I’ve had in this journey was learning all of the social I knew I had a decision to make. As I drove home, I pon- media channels personally and being able to do them dered my dilemma. Do I abandon my social media strat- myself. If you as an agency owner don’t understand these egy because I can’t trust my team? Or do I realize that, channels, you will always struggle to see the value and in my agency, if you can’t focus on using these tools for how they can take your marketing to the next level. our customers’ and prospects’ benefit, you simply are not the quality of employee my customers deserve? I became In 2011, with a then-growing team of three social media convinced of the latter, and fired her the next day. team members, six office employees and several outside producers, I realized how important it was for us to Today, at our agency, we talk about the appropriate use of clearly define our agency brand—our corporate identity. social media as a way to enhance client relationships. If An agency brand aligns culture and values, and provides a an employee cannot handle this responsibility, he or she framework for everyone’s daily decisions. As we got more is not a good fit for Paradiso Insurance. Here is the big- involved in identifying who we were, why we existed and gest take away I had from this experience: I didn’t need why someone would buy from us, our content and social to change my agency and my beliefs to accommodate an posts became more personal—more “human”—and less employee. corporate.

If you are fearful of abuse of these new channels, you The shift generated greater interest in our agency. What need to think critically on what’s more important—your we learned is that, because social media is a commu- vision or their lack of discipline. Secondly, you need to nication channel, if you don’t know who you are, your answer the question, “Why would you want to pay some- communication will always be vanilla, generic and no one like that every week to manage your customers?” different than your competition. We simply were not willing to be average. Today, if you come to our agency, you’ll Many agencies struggle attracting young people into the notice our corporate identity and a list of why someone business. Interns proved to be a great source of talent. would do business with us posted at every desk. So far in 2014, I have had 4 college interns. One of them, Dan, became the youngest licensed agent in Connecticut. As my social media journey took off, my passion and Jenilee is now an agent with New York Life. Kevin is in a enthusiasm for my new found secret led me to want to Masters Program for Political Science. And Mallory is a share information with other agents. The way I saw it, the sophomore in college. more agents I could get excited about what I had learned, the better our independent agency channel would fare. Continued on page 54

2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 53 Continued from page 53

This represented an entirely different process for me. allowed us to capitalize and convert more leads and most importantly celebrate daily our success. I had metrics and proof that a social strategy worked. However, I had to fight naysayers—and I still do. I find I used to get frustrated when quotes were backed up. I agents fall into one of three buckets: those who love the felt like our team was failing. I now see our numbers each concept and take right to it; those who love it and toe-dip, day and realize we need to realign expectations. And we then find some resistance and back away; and those who need to make time to celebrate quoting 23 pieces of busi- feel that certain channels don’t work or who simply don’t ness in 48 hours, which we recently did. believe. The last two buckets concern me the most. Our full time social media engineer left us in January, and You need to know you will face resistance; I do every day. we are actively looking for a good fit for the agency. We Currently, our producers are not routinely connecting are working to get a marketing communication roadmap with prospects on social media. I stress over and over the together so that we can execute in conjunction with our importance of getting engaged, but I know it’s an area we new processes. need to focus on. This year we are implementing a system of checks and balances that will make sure every prospect I personally have been running our social media strategy knows to connect with us. by posting, blogging, tagging and commenting several times a day. That is the benefit of really understanding all There will be challenges. There will be concepts you have these channels; it gives me the luxury of time that will to test, refine and sometimes re-launch. Keep learning allow us to find the right person for the social media posi- and stay with it; it will pay off. tion and wait for him or her to graduate!

I encourage all of the agents out there who don’t believe I want to conclude my story by repeating that social mar- in one channel or online marketing at all to ask them- keting is not easy. Still, it’s critical to the modern agency’s selves one critical question: “Do you really understand strategy. In 2014, we can no longer buy marketing; we these channels or are you making an assumption based have to do marketing to be successful. on other agents’ experiences or what you have heard through the grapevine?” If you have tried the channels, No matter which of the three buckets best describes did you toe-dip or test and refine? As agents, we need to you, I hope this article helped you realize that I have had embrace change and new ways of doing business or our struggles, success and challenges. And I still do today! options will diminish quickly. Start by understanding the platforms personally, and At the height of our social media strategies, a new prob- then find a great candidate to work with you to handle lem erupted for me and the agency. We were generating your social strategy. Be sure to identify your brand and more leads than ever and our agency was growing! Of share it throughout your agency. And finally, review your course, these are great problems to have, but I realized processes to maximize every opportunity. The competi- we were not just a three-person agency anymore, with tion is heavier than ever in insurance. Use your social me as the producer. My agency lacked a real strategy for strategy to stand out. sales and service processes that would let us capitalize on Christopher Paradiso is one of the most passionate, dynamic every opportunity. agency owners in the insurance industry today. His willingness to embrace change and adopt technology has taken his agency Imagine this challenge: we are growing each month, to the next level. Chris has been acknowledged by several closing more premium than we did the previous month, insurance publications, such as Rough Notes Magazine (Cover and maintaining a 92% retention rate. Still, I knew we Agent), The Insurance Journal, and PIA as a leader in the indus- weren’t as efficient in maximizing every opportunity and try for his use of digital marketing and social media to help if I did not tie up loose ends, these numbers could quickly brand his agency and promote other small businesses within his decline. community. Chris has also been recognized for his charity work with The Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. Our 2014 goals revolve around process—everything from renewals to client on-boarding, new business call In 2011, Chris was excited to introduce “Paradiso Presents LLC”, sequences and understanding when our team reaches a social media program aimed at teaching small agencies how critical “new business overload” so we can load balance. to not only survive, but compete in today’s complex online marketing world. Chris resides in Stafford Springs, CT, with his I am working with an insurance agency consultant who wife and two children, Mia and Gianni. is helping identify our areas of opportunity, mapping out the process and rolling it out with our team. This has

54 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide Continued from page 29 Stop Wasting Time on LinkedIn and Grow Your Business With Google+ By Ryan Hanley

Why Replace LinkedIn With Google+? You should consider replacing LinkedIn with Google+ because we never want to waste an action. On Google+ you are at once connecting with prospects, creating relationships with peers and building search engine authority every time you visit the social network.

Google+ allows us to maximize every minute we spend marketing our agency on social media.

Here are three examples that showcase the benefits of spending your limited digital marketing time on Google+ versus LinkedIn:

1) Full YouTube Integration

YouTube and Google+ are both owned by Google. Whether you’ve established yourself on YouTube creating videos or not, you’ll reach a wider audience when you share YouTube video on Google+. The Hangout On Air videos provide incredible value to When you share a YouTube video to Google+, users can anyone with questions about health insurance or related view the video from directly within Google+. This allows topics and establish Joey as an expert in the health your audience to watch your YouTube videos without insurance niche. He’s creating the most effective type of having to leave Google+ (unlike LinkedIn) leading to a content —answering client questions —using Google’s much higher conversion rate and more exposure to your own video platform. content. 3) Greater Google Search Visibility 2) Hangouts On Air Google+ posts are indexed by Google Search just as Webinars are a powerful tool for sharing information every page on your website is. This means that each post and building a loyal audience. Unfortunately, webinar you create in Google has the potential of showing up in software can be clunky and expensive. Google+ has an search results. This is not the case with LinkedIn. easy alternative. The more opportunities we have to show up in Google Hangouts On Air provides a free video broadcasting Search, the more potential customers we get our mes- service that lets you stream a live feed to your YouTube sage in front of. channel for recording, and, of course, is completely inte- grated with Google+. At once, you are speaking live with Additionally, by connecting your Google+ account to your audience members and creating valuable YouTube video website/blog, Google will show your profile image in content. search results. This is known as Google Authorship and articles in search with Google Authorship have a Joey Giangola of Giangola Insurance in Ohio is a 47 percent higher click-through rate. great example of an insurance agent using Hang- outs On Air to reach a broader audience. Visit the More click-throughs, means more website traffic and Giangola Insurance YouTube page to see examples: more potential leads for your insurance agency. https://www.youtube.com/user/GiangolaInsurance. Joey uses the Hangout On Air format to introduce his audi- First thing you need to do is get a Google+ account. If you ence (think clients and prospects) with other experts in have a Gmail account then you already have a Google+ the health services industry. Continued on page 56

2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 55 Continued from page 30

3 Ways to Optimize Your e-Newsletter By Jennifer Davis

How to Keep Them Reading ers about coverage that makes a difference during a claim. Follow the 3/30/3 rule. How much content is right for one sitting? Readers will Content may be king, but in an age of social media, mil- likely only read 1-3 articles, so less truly is more. That’s good lions of customers have kingdoms of their own. They news for agencies that don’t have a lot of time or resources are used to creating and sharing their own content on internally to dedicate to newsletter development. As for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, and length, aim for articles between 300-500 words. they understand the impact of high quality images and powerful headlines. That makes our job that much harder, Many writers follow the 3/30/3 rule: because the customer is savvier and the bar is higher. • A third of your audience will spend 3 seconds — so Remember that readers eat with their eyes first, so pair be sure the piece can be easily scanned. Include articles with an eye-catching graphic. We’ve found that strong subheads, images and captions. leading with an image drives engagement, and a high • Another third will spend 30 seconds. They need to quality photo is just a smart phone and an Instagram app get the gist in that amount of time. Write a good away. If that’s not an option, stock photo sites are an easy headline and opening paragraph. and inexpensive way to add quality imagery on the cheap. • The final third will spend 3 minutes. They’re your true readers. Assume they’ll cover about 200 words a We’ve also found a few ways to get our headlines work- minute. ing harder. We’ve had success talking more about the customer and less about us. For example, a simple change Perhaps most important: What works for us we’ve from “Progressive offers policy reviews,” to “Policy reviews learned over time, so continue to test and learn no matter can save you money,” drove greater engagement. Articles what kind of content you’re developing for your custom- with number-driven headlines do well, like “5 tips for win- ers. I hope you take away a few ideas to try in your next terizing your boat” or “3 ways to prevent thieves from nab- newsletter — we’ll continue sharing our learnings with bing your car.” Our research also has found that preferred you through our ProgressiveAgents YouTube channel, PIA customers enjoy reading about tips to safeguard their events and our marketing portal, Brand Express. possessions, and these articles are a great opportunity to Jennifer Davis is director of Retention Marketing at Progressive. provide expertise on vehicle care while educating custom-

Continued from page 55

account. I am Ryan Hanley.

Once you have your Google+ account, a great place to P.S. Unsure of how to use Google+? Don’t worry, I created a start is the Insurance Inbound Marketing community, free course, the Google+ Starter Kit, which will get you up which you can find by searching “Insurance Inbound Mar- to speed in four short weeks. Just type, “Google+ Starter keting” in Google+. This community (similar to LinkedIn Kit” into Google Search and you’ll find it. Groups) is filled with some of the best and brightest minds working in insurance and marketing their business Ryan Hanley is founder and president of Hanley Media Lab, an advanced digital marketing agency helping insurance agen- online. cies and carriers grow their audience, to grow their business. Google+ is the professional’s social network of the Learn more about Hanley Media Lab at www.RyanHanley.com and how you can have Ryan speak at your next event. future... and I want to see you there!

Thank you and good luck.

56 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide Continued from page 34

Blueprint for Cross-selling Personal Lines By Alan Shulman, CPCU

the insured enjoys a X% credit on both of their primary higher auto liability limits and rental reimbursement. personal lines policies (in addition to others as well, with many carriers). Use this credit to segue into discussing For homeowners they include higher liability and medical the importance of your agency writing both their auto payment limits, plus popular endorsements like replace- and homeowners policies. ment cost on contents. The enhanced protection that results serves all parties: the insured, agency, and carrier. Tactics: This simplified sales procedure is a confidence builder that eases service reps into full-blown cross-selling and Profiling new business acquisition activities. Although the com- When initiating or jump starting a personal lines cross- missions from casual upselling are small, they add up sell program, an agency typically profiles its personal lines over time. Plus, they involve nearly no effort on the part of book by policy type. It commonly sees a fair number of the agency, since the policy is being endorsed anyway. one-policy accounts. This isn’t necessarily due to a failure to cross-sell, as some of it is attributable to client charac- Timing teristics. Timing is a key driver of cross-selling. Ideally, multiple policies are closed at the time of the initial sale — but due to In other words, certain people just can’t be cross-sold. timing issues — this isn’t always the case. For instance, They include young drivers who live at home, elderly driv- the non-concurrent expiration dates of the buyer’s auto ers who live with their children, renters and homeowners and home policies, the desire of the selling CSR to solidify who use public transportation, etc. Plus, there are certain the sale of the first policy before soliciting another, or individuals who are willing to let you write their home, waiting for the “missing” policy’s rates to become more but repeatedly insist on keeping their auto policy with competitive before asking for the business can all delay a one of the large national marketers. Eliminate these folks, purchase. and you have your net cross-sell prospect base. Regardless, cross-selling is an extension of the original Casual Upselling sale and should be attempted as quickly as possible. The The agency and its insureds both benefit when CSRs longer you wait, the freshness of the relationship dis- casually proffer upsell advice. This typically involves a sipates. Asking for additional sales during the first-year friendly recommendation of better protection without “honeymoon period” reminds the insured that you are requiring the insured to purchase an additional policy. For actively looking out for their interests, particularly when example, increasing auto property damage liability limits your offer improves their policy protection, lowers their from $X to $Y is upselling versus cross-selling a separate premium, or both. umbrella policy. The latter approach demands full underwriting inquiries and firm pricing. The former requires Alan Shulman, CPCU is the publisher of Agency Ideas® only minimal underwriting effort. (Of course, sometimes newsletter, a creative subscription-only sales and marketing an umbrella policy is preferable for a particular insured, trade publication for growing agencies. He was a successful and suggesting it as an extra contract always trumps P&C producer and agency partner in Western New York for 17 years prior to launching his popular newsletter in 1990. He ease of selling.) is also a long-time monthly columnist for Insurance Journal Reps can casually upsell whenever an insured calls in with magazine and the author of hundreds of P&C sales resources. Alan may be reached at 1-800-724-1435 or by email at a policy change (such as a new car) by saying something [email protected]. His website is www.agencyideas.com. like, “As long as we are making this change, we should also increase your [type of] coverage from $X to $XX or © 2014 Agency Ideas® / Shulman Consulting Group, Inc. All better — or add X coverage [when needed].” Since the rights reserved. Duplication prohibited without our express endorsement’s cost is reduced by the expired portion of written permission. Portions of this article were reprinted, with the policy term, it’s palatable. Easy upsales often include permission, from Agency Ideas® sales and marketing newsletter.

2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 57 Continued from page 38

Insurance Agency Sales Pipeline Management By John Boudreau

• Your calls to action – In any piece of marketing your lead conversion strategy. However, without the buyer’s material a prospect receives from your agency, you intent in mind, it can be tough to do a good job at this. must do your best to maintain a two-way conversation. Sales is all about forming an interpersonal The first thing you will want to do is qualify all of your relationship. You must properly manage the expecta- leads. After that, you must implement a lead conversion tions of your prospects and give them reason to want strategy that keeps the following in mind: to engage with you — that is, contact you. • Know who your buyer is — Where is your lead in their buyer cycle? Awareness, research, negotiation or 3. Nurturing Leads: Conversion of your leads into market- purchase? That is going to help you target your coming qualified prospects and, ultimately, sales. munication with this specific person. • Align yourself with the prospect — What is the intent Lead nurturing is the process of building a relationship of the buyer? What type of information is this person with a lead — no matter where they fall, timing wise, looking for? What type of information do you need to in the sales cycle. The majority of leads are not yet sales provide in order to bring this person from a lead to a ready, so you want to be sure you take the time to nurture prospect and how can you then convert that prospect all of your leads to maximize your chances of engaging into a sale? Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes. with them and converting them into opportunities. • Create a need and help solve it — At the end of the day, your product is a solution. You want to subtly You do not want to lose out on the top of your funnel by use your promotional strategy to remind people ignoring your leads. Instead, you want to build a relation- of the need they have and provide a solution. As a ship with your leads. But how? Start by designing a lead marketing and sales strategy, you will convert more nurturing process that your agency can sustain. leads if you cater your messages to the needs of your 1. Provide value: All of your interactions with your prospects. leads must add value to the relationship you are building — both to you and to the lead. Don’t make It’s Time to Identify Your Agency’s Sales Funnel it too promotional, and focus on what type of infor- Consider this, according to Marketing Sherpa, the follow- mation the lead might be looking for. ing is true: 2. Don’t overwhelm: There is an abundance of • 79% of leads will never convert into sales. information out there for the online customer to • 61% of marketers send all of their leads directly to digest. You will stand out if you provide information sales. However, only 27% of those leads sent to sales in digestible forms. Think about how much time a are actually qualified leads. potential customer might have to devote to what • 65% of B2B marketers have not established any form you are providing them. Break down your content of lead nurturing for their opportunities. marketing strategy into bite-size pieces if need be. 3. Consider buying stages: Similar to your sales funnel Automating tasks with an insurance marketing CRM tool, with regards to leads, you will also want to con- staying top of mind with your leads, and when it comes to sider the buying cycle for a customer. Is this lead in sales, your agency’s marketing preparation is essential to their awareness, research, negotiation or purchase its financial success. Start with your sales funnel. Identify phase? This will greatly impact what type of infor- your funnel today and consider getting professional help by mation they want from you. automating tasks with an insurance marketing CRM tool.

As with everything you do in marketing, remember the John Boudreau is the CEO and co-founder of Astonish, an golden rule: Timing is everything. Avoid sending too insurance marketing and sales platform for local insurance much content, but remember not to “ignore” your leads. agencies. Astonish collaborates with insurance agencies Determine the right time frame for information for your to provide an optimized online marketing presence, automate tasks with technology, and create an effective sales client base and nurture them based on that information. culture through hands-on coaching. Their platform drives 4. Converting Sales: Identify prospects ready to buy and growth in round-outs, retention, referrals, new opportunities, lead conversion, and team performance. Learn more prioritize your efforts. about Astonish’s insurance marketing CRM solutions at There will be little point to all of your lead generation and www.astonish.com/technology/crm-marketing-automation. lead nurturing strategies if you do not have a handle on

58 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide Continued from page 39

The Importance of Sales Meetings By David Connolly grow and perpetuate the agency. Experienced producers meeting ends. can have a huge impact on the careers of new produc- Agenda: ers by shortening their learning curve. The opportunity • 15 minutes of skill set training. for a new producer to participate in meetings where • 1/2 hour of pre-appointment strategies on new busi- experienced producers discuss numbers, business plans, ness prospects. account strategies and selling skills is invaluable. Who • 15 minutes on the numbers where sales managers will provide for your retirement? The new talent you review goals, pipelines, and new business written by groom to take your place. Sales meetings serve as an producers. opportunity for seasoned agents to help grow new talent. Rules: 8. NOBs: All highly performing companies embrace Non Rule #1: Sales meetings are not optional. They are the Optional Behaviors. All fortune 500 companies subscribe most important thing we do on a weekly basis. With the to NOBs that drive sales cultures based on excellence exception of illness, family emergency, traffic accident or and exceptional results. Sales meetings are one specific vacation, producers do not miss sales meetings, ever. change we can make to produce immediate results. The agencies and producers I work with experience excep- Rule #2: Producers and managers must show up early, tional results. Why? One reason is they all run excellent and never late. We must respect each other and the sales meetings. Producers and managers who participate importance of the meeting. Never be late. in sales meetings gain significant personal and financial Rule #3: Leave your phones outside. Texting, emailing and benefits. Increased opportunities and improved perfor- taking calls in meetings is not acceptable. Our culture’s mance are the product of these sales meetings. They recent tolerance of this behavior needs to change. result in significant revenue that benefits everyone in the organization and secures the future of the agency. All Rule #4: No interruptions by anyone, anytime, unless it’s believe that Sales Meetings Are Non Optional Behaviors. a family emergency. Client’s can wait an hour for a call back, or our CSRs can handle it. Over my 30-year career in insurance, I have participated in and run thousands of sales meetings. Good, bad and ugly Rule #5: Producers come prepared with one new busi- sales meetings. What I’ve learned is that sales leaders must ness prospect to discuss and conduct a pre-appointment prepare for and practice running productive sales meetings. strategy. Effective sales meetings governed by rules of conduct that Do any doubts linger as to the benefits of sales meetings? apply to everyone. There must be a results driven agenda Do you still ask, “Why should I attend sales meetings?” that creates opportunity and a desire to attend. If so, read 1-8 again and find a reason that resonates for you. Here is what I consider the optimal structure, agenda and rules for running the very best sales meetings in the If 1-7 don’t get the job done, just read the last line of #8. business. David Connolly is the founder of iQ Consulting, and is a recog- Running Sales Meetings That Drive Sales nized industry leader in helping agencies and carriers acceler- ate and perpetuate growth and retention. Their robust agency Structure: services platform provides professional guidance in almost every area critical to the success of your company. iQ provides • Frequency: Weekly. Create a rhythm and expecta- agency consulting and leadership coaching services and focuses tions. Sales meetings are important. on producer development through training, in-field coach- • Day: Monday. Sales are a priority, this is the first ing and reinforcement resources. iQ’s approach to consulting meeting we have. and coaching is built from decades of personal experience in • Time: First thing Monday morning. Sales are a prior- production, sales management, and agency leadership. David ity, this is the first meeting we have. has coached thousands of insurance sales and marketing pro- • Size: No more than 10 per meeting, only production fessionals in the US and Canada. David delivers performance- and management personnel. If you exceed 10, break based seminars, keynotes, and workshops throughout North up into 2 groups of 5 and run back to back meetings. America. For more information about iQ Performance Consult- • Duration: 1 hour. Period. When 1 hour is up, the ing visit www.iqsalescoach.com or contact David directly at [email protected] or 612-414-5618.

2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 59 Continued from page 36 Building a Cross-selling Machine: Revenue From the Sale of Life Insurance By Tim Gilder, CLU, ALMI

with an independent life insurance brokerage agency and the agency ultimately ends up in a murky place trying to build a process together. The brokerage agency offers a remember just whose client this actually was. It is bet- perspective that comes from processing thousands of ter to keep your leads in-house. Build that cross-selling policies every year from hundreds of different agencies. machine and switch it on to generate more revenue. Think of the life brokerage agency as being on your staff, but not on your payroll, and leverage the expertise. Tim Gilder, CLU, ALMI, is co-owner of Comprehensive Planning, Inc., a life insurance brokerage general agency. Comprehensive Know Where the Leads Are Going: Planning, a LifeMark Partner agency and MIPIA member, is Regardless of your decision on how you want to handle an independently owned, family business, founded in 1981. Gilder entered the insurance industry in 1998 and works the life insurance sales in your agency, do not lose track with independent insurance agents to grow their revenue of them. If you allow your agents to refer leads outside of from the sale of life insurance products. Contact him at the agency make sure you know what you are getting in [email protected] or 248-457-2312 x 333. return. In my experience, the referral of leads outside of

Continued from page 40

Is It Possible to Make Cold Calls a Thing of the Past? By Donna Gray

community agency, the one that protects the customer message and our brand image is delivered in a creative, and treats them as a valued partner. “That’s the ‘slow consistent way. We don’t have to find customers; custom- and steady wins the race’ portion of our marketing plan,” ers are finding us. Ultimately, it turns out that letting the explains Wenner. “You don’t see overnight sales gains marketing experts do what they do best freed us up to do with image ads, but it’s the only way to improve brand what we do best.” name recognition and build long-term value. The key is repetition with the same message.” Donna Gray is the executive director of the American Insur- ance Marketing and Sales (AIMS) Society. The AIMS Society Jones & Wenner is onto something with their one-two provides marketing and sales training and tools to property/ punch: targeted information delivered when customers casualty insurance agency owners, producers, support staff and insurance company personnel. Membership is open to are beginning to investigate their options and existing anyone in the insurance industry in the pursuit of sales excel- brand awareness to make them receptive to the sales lence and professionalism. The AIMS Society offers the Certified message. Just one proof positive: Auto Owners Insurance Professional Insurance Agent (CPIA) professional designation named Jones & Wenner the number one agency in Ohio and offers other beginning and advanced-level marketing and for their company premium growth in 2013. sales training workshops. Visit www.aimssociety.org for more information. “Our firm’s growth has continued since we outsourced our marketing,” says Wenner. “It forces us to stay on-

60 2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide Continued from page 41

Is Referral Marketing Dead in a Digital World? By Shaun Irwin

be at giving and getting referrals. Digital media and technology should expand your referral marketing, not detract from it. When people know, like You can do this and when you do, it will illuminate all and trust you, now they can tell people that much faster! that can be awesome about referral marketing and can be amplified by digital marketing. Your world of who and Shaun Irwin is a multi-million dollar producer, national what you know has been greatly expanded by digital con- award winning marketer, and author of Convertible Refer- nectivity, and will continue to grow each and every day. rals: How to Get More Referrals and More Clients. You can subscribe to his free selling tips and ask your sales questions at www.convertiblereferrals.com.

Continued from page 42 Your Insurance Proposals — Will They Help You or Hurt You in E&O Litigation By Curtis M. Pearsall, CPCU, AIAF, CPIA

denotes that higher limits are available. This would • If any of the carriers referenced are non-admitted, certainly be applicable in references to an umbrella provide an explanation of what this means. or excess limits policy. • Include the financial rating for each of the carriers, A Clearer Understanding with an explanation of what the rating means. It is Obviously the goal of your proposal is to sell the account. recommended to use the exact definition as pro- Enhancing your proposal with some quality E&O preven- vided by that rating organization. tion tools may actually result in a more educated pros- • Include a disclaimer. There is no way the proposal pect and could very well be the difference that helps you can include every single aspect of the insurance pro- land the account. If a problem develops down the road, gram. A disclaimer, such as the following, will provide the detail provided in your proposal could be key in the a degree of E&O protection: defense of your agency.

Information contained in this proposal is intended to Curtis Pearsall is president and founder of Pearsall Associ- ates Inc., a risk management consulting firm specializing provide you with a brief overview of the coverages pro- in helping agents protect themselves. He is the former SVP vided for reference purposes only. It is not intended to of Utica National’s Agents E&O program where he oversaw provide you with all policy exclusions, limitations and their Underwriting, Marketing Services and Claims divisions conditions. The precise coverage afforded is subject to from 1987 to 2009. Mr. Pearsall holds the following designa- the terms, conditions, and exclusions of the policies tions: CPCU, AIAF, ARM, AU and CPIA. He is the immediate issued. past president of the American Insurance and Marketing Sales Society, a board member of the Stanley Center for the In addition, if your agency has relied upon infor- Arts and a member of the Pastoral Council for his church. mation provided directly by the prospect, consider Curt regularly provides free E&O tips for agents on his blog including a statement such as, “This proposal is www.agentseotips.com. based on information provided and we cannot attest to the accuracy of this information.”

2014 PIA National Agency Marketing Guide 61 PIA’s Agency Marketing Guide Is Brought to You by the PIA Branding Program

CLE PAR A T It is the sincere hope of everyone at PIA that you and your colleagues N N N E I have found great value in this, the fifth installment of the PIA National R

P Agency Marketing Guide.

PIA’s Agency Marketing Guide is made possible by our many wonder- ful sponsors and advertisers and is made available to you through the PIA Branding Program. Through this program, available online at www.piabrandingprogram.com, PIA provides members of the associa- 2014 PIA National tion with a variety of marketing materials. These include print and ra- Pinnacle Partners dio ads in both English and Spanish as well as a growing body of digital marketing assistance. Encompass Insurance Erie Insurance We are happy to announce that PIA has recently begun work on a new Harleysville Insurance group of marketing tools that PIA members will be able to use to better communicate with your clients, prospects and community. Stay tuned Progressive Insurance for our announcement of these new marketing tools. State Auto Group Funding for the PIA Branding Program is provided in part by PIA’s Pin- The Hartford nacle Partners. Pinnacle Partners are highly regarded insurance compa- The Motorists Insurance Group nies that demonstrate their commitment to the independent agency Wright Flood distribution system and financially support the development of new marketing tools which are made available to PIA members through the PIA Branding Program. PIA National Agency Marketing Guide

Editor-in-Chief/Advertising Director ©2014 All rights reserved. Alexi Papandon, CAE [email protected] No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, 703-518-1353 stored in a database or retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, Publisher photocopying, recording or otherwise except as expressly Ted Besesparis permitted by the publisher. [email protected] 703-518-1352 The information in this publication is general in nature and is not intended to serve as legal, accounting, The PIA National Agency Marketing Guide is financial, insurance, investment advisory or other published by the National Association of professional advice as to any reader’s particular situation. Professional Insurance Agents. Users are encouraged to consult with competent legal, financial, insurance, investment advisory and or other 400 North Washington Street, professional advisors concerning specific matters before Alexandria, Virginia 22314 making any decisions and we disclaim any responsibility 703-836-9340 for any decisions or actions by readers. [email protected] For additional information on any of the subjects addressed in this publication, please access the PIA National website at www.pianet.com.

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