2. 36 | INSURANCE JOURNAL-NATIONAL August 19, 2013 www.insurancejournal.com
1 – Know Your Client
Be alert to details that matter to the
client and recognize what makes every
encounter with each client unique. Our
brand promise, “Because You’re Different,”
hinges on employees knowing their dis-
tinctive clients and sustaining a positive
relationship. Tell your client things you
are doing for them that they might not
know about and make a point to ask them
questions about their business. — Jackie
Donnelly, Heffernan Insurance Brokers
2 – Link Up
Ask key commercial clients for their per-
mission to include a link to their websites
on your agency’s website. You can bet they
will give you their OK and will probably
appreciate your loyalty to them, which
should help you bond with a long-term cli-
ent. — Phil Tuccy, Insurance Group Consulting
LLC
3 – Share Problems
Make the customer’s problem your
problem. — Scott Mikkelsen, Mikkelsen,
Kelly, & Kipp Insurance
4 – Mobile Friendly
Make your insurance web-
site mobile-friendly so your
customers on-the-go can
easily access your infor-
mation if they need it. —
Laird Rixford, Insurance
Technologies Corp.
5 – Customer’s Shoes
Put yourself in the customer’s shoes.
Think: “If I were them, what questions
would I ask?” — Scott Mikkelsen, Mikkelsen,
Kelly, & Kipp Insurance
6 – Referral Partnerships
Enter into a mutually beneficial agree-
ment with a referral partner (i.e., accoun-
tant, car dealership) with the objective of
sending each other hot leads. I gain a lot of
new business using this approach. — Eric
Lanzillotta, CBIA Insurance Agency Inc.
7 – Foot in the Door
For commercial insurance: Drop off a
cookie in the shape of a foot to a prospec-
tive insured. The cookie should have a note
attached that says, “Trying to get my foot
in the door.” — Trisha Wright, The
Hartford.
8 – Checklists
Use coverage and expo-
sure checklists to increase
sales. By doing the job of
a professional insurance
agent, you will also create a great reputa-
tion for yourself. — Chris Burand, Burand &
Associates LLC
9 – Make Friends
Stop pushing product and price. Make
friends and they will become your best
clients. — Al Diamond, Agency Consulting
Group Inc.
10 – Thank You
Send a handwritten thank you card to
clients when they send you referrals
and say the following, “The sincerest
form of flattery to my agency is in
a referral from you, our client.
Thank you so much for your
vote of confidence and we
will take special care of your
referral.” Then enclose two
more of your business cards.
— Catherine Oak, Oak &
Associates
11 – Measurements
Measure customer
Insurance Journal has listened to readers, spoken with experts, combed through columns and
articles and even searched outside insurance circles to find the best sales and marketing tips for
independent agencies today. Here are 101 ideas, in no particular order.
SPECIAL REPORT

3. August 19, 2013 INSURANCE JOURNAL-NATIONAL | 37www.insurancejournal.com
sentiment with social media — not just
negative, but positive, too. If your customers
are singing you praises, use that to tell more
people about your great customer service
and get some real marketing mileage out of
it. — Don Wolff, Astute Solutions
12 – Umbrellas
Sell increased limits on umbrella policies.
Invite personal and small commercial lines
umbrella insureds to increase their policy
limits beyond $1 million. Many CSRs and
producers write a small umbrella once —
and then forget to suggest adding another
million, or more, at renewal time. — Alan
Shulman, www.AgencyIdeas.com
13 – Promote Your Website
Promote your website on all of your mar-
keting. This could include business cards,
brochures, emails and social media.
Basically, anywhere you have your agen-
cy logo, your URL should be there, too.
— Laird Rixford, Insurance Technologies Corp.
14 – Turn to Your State Association
If you have an agency challenge, chanc-
es are that someone else has already faced it
— and solved it. Turn to your state agents’
association for a broad range of solutions
to problems you face as an agent or agency
principal. — Sharon Emek, Work At Home
Vintage Employees (WAHVE)
15 – Screen Share
It’s not always possible to get an in-per-
son appointment. Using easy-to-use screen-
share technology such as Join.me is a good
way to share a presentation, or go through
your website while you’ve got the pros-
pect or client on the phone. — Julie
Tinney, Insurance Journal
16 – Virtual Checks
Use remote deposit to electronically
deposit checks without leaving the
office. Remote deposit captures
images of both sides of checks,
analyzes them for image quality
and authenticity, and automati-
cally balances deposits before
submission. That makes
the bank available 24/7,
saves time and money, and boosts security.
Remote deposit does not require applica-
tion software, and uses a scanner (typically
provided by the bank) as well as a PC with
an Internet connection. — Mary Grazen,
InsurBanc, a division of Connecticut Community
Bank N.A.
17 – Great Customer Service
It’s not a secret tactic, but it is the most
effective one. When our agents provide cus-
tomers with outstanding service, they show
their appreciation by giving us referrals. —
Trident Insurance Agency
18 – Give Them Something
Never leave your client or prospect emp-
ty-handed. Give them something useful
and informative that will make them think
of you every time they see it and use it. —
Christopher J. Boggs, Academy of Insurance,
www.IJAcademy.com
19 – Track New Business Appointments
New business production is the ultimate
indicator of sales performance, but under-
standing meaningful activity may be the
missing piece of your sales management
platform. — Tommy McDonald, MarshBerry
20 – Website Design
A well-designed website will serve as the
hub of all digital agency marketing. When
done well, it can serve multiple purposes:
customer service, education, sales, reten-
tion. — Laird Rixford, Insurance
Technologies Corp.
21 – Tracking Metrics
Growing agencies have
one thing in common: They
track where every new piece
of business is coming from,
so they know which mar-
keting efforts are paying
off. They also track the
number of policies per
client, so they know
whether they are
building deeper rela-
tionships. — Jeff
Yates, Agents Council
for Technology
22 – X the Lingo
Get rid of lingo and find a way to talk to
clients in words and phrases they can easily
understand. — Anonymous
23 – Strategize
All marketing needs a strategy and a
goal. You want to post a banner? Send an
email to a list? Start a newsletter? Great.
Why? — Anonymous
24 – Double Referrals
Create a referral program that rewards
existing and new customers. This creates a
win-win which is naturally what a referral
should be. Dropbox and Uber have suc-
cessful referral programs that award the
existing customer and new customer with
bonus storage and
service credit when
the new customer
signs up. — Josh
Carlson, Wells Media
Group
25 – Believe in
Your Brand
Passion is con-
tagious. If you love
where you work, shout it to the rooftops.
Let others know why your agency is the
best. You’ll be much more likely to generate
genuine enthusiasm, which could drive
more customers to use your services. —
Aimee Woodall, The Black Sheep Agency
26 – Data Goldmine
For more than 20 years, agencies have
had the most lucrative gold mine locked up
in customer data. You may have 20 valuable
nuggets of information about every client in
your system: birthdays, claims, policies held,
policies not held, ex-dates and so forth. So, if
you’ve got 5,000 customers, you’ve got 100,000
pieces of information ...that changes every
single day. Technology exists to turn that
“dead data” into a marketing goldmine. —
Michael Jans, Agency Revolution
27 – Be in Position to See Opportunity
Work hard and try to put yourself in a
position where, if luck strikes, you can see
continued on next page

4. www.insurancejournal.com38 | INSURANCE JOURNAL-NATIONAL August 19, 2013
the opportunity and take advantage of it. —
Mark Cuban, chairman of HDNet
28 – Drip Marketing
Use a consistent drip marketing cam-
paign: Bring value by providing useful info
or ideas. You will be (hopefully) top-of-
mind when the need for services will arise.
— Brad Tamulski, Baldwin Krystyn Sherman
Partners
29 – Unique Landing Pages
Use landing pages that are designed to
match specific marketing campaigns (e.g.,
an email sent to auto insurance prospects
should link to a landing page that discusses
auto insurance and matches the design of
the email). This will improve your con-
version rate. — Laird Rixford, Insurance
Technologies Corp.
30 – Social Media Content
Provide useful, engaging content on
social media to attract new customers and
retain relationships with existing ones.
Always remember that social media is con-
versational. Never ignore anyone. Respond
to all inquiries, comments, etc. — Valerie
Foster, Monitor Liability Managers
31 – Community Like Its
Partner with a community charity on
Facebook. Preferred Insurance Services
is partnering with Pet Project Rescue
in Minneapolis until the beginning of
September in the hopes of garnering $500
for the non-profit. Preferred has committed
to donating $1 to PPR for every new “like”
it gets on its Facebook page between now
and then. In just three weeks, Preferred
doubled its fan base — and raised nearly
$200 for PPR in the process. — Preferred
Insurance Services
32 – Don’t Forget to Ask
Ask for the business. After show-
ing value and laying out distinct
advantages of a
partner-
ship, be clear
about asking
for business. You will either get it or find
out remaining obstacles. — Brad Tamulski,
Baldwin Krystyn Sherman Partner
33 – Community Involvement
Savvy agencies and their employees are
becoming increasingly involved in local
causes to support their communities, and
these efforts are generating new clients for
them — clients who want to support busi-
nesses striving to make the community bet-
ter. — Jeff Yates, Agents Council for Technology
34 – Target Marketing
Smart call — target certain industries/
client sizes/etc. and tell them exactly why
you’ve identified them as benefiting from
what you have to offer. Prospects can be
more receptive. — Brad Tamulski, Baldwin
Krystyn Sherman Partners
35 – Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is more than
tweeting/posting and running; it is roll-
up-your-sleeves interactive work
that builds solid relationships
and reputations. — Tammy
Elizabeth Southin, social media
marketing consultant
36 – Show You Care
Show your customers you
care by helping them when
they’re in trouble, respond-
ing quickly and effectively
to complaints, or providing sym-
pathetic feedback. It’s up to you to build a
symmetrical feedback loop of appreciation
and understanding. — Aimee Woodall, The
Black Sheep Agency
37 – Clients in Common
Find out from each of your key clients
who their attorney and CPA is, and then
contact those professionals and let them
know you have the same good clients in
common. It gets the attorney and CPA
to send you more referrals because their
clients use you. — Catherine Oak, Oak &
Associates
38 – Video Testimonials
Collect mini-video testimonials. Identify
your happiest and most influential insureds.
Ask them for a brief video testimonial
you can tactfully use. A 6-second Vine or
15-second Instagram video recorded on your
smartphone can be fun for your insured
and for you. Use them online for marketing
purposes and display them in-person when
actively selling. — Alan Shulman,
www.AgencyIdeas.com
39 – Bigger Footprint
You have a license to sell insurance
throughout your state, or more. Then do it.
One of my clients shot from 95 contractors
to 2,000 in four years. Her small town loca-
tion did not dictate a small town marketing
plan. — Michael Jans, Agency Revolution
40 – Email
Use email marketing to cross sell. —
Laird Rixford, Insurance Technologies Corp.
41 – Decide Once and For All
Average marketing will flow from the
unconscious decision to be “OK”
with an average agency. Great mar-
keting will flow from the decision
to be great. Insanely great market-
ing will flow from the decision to
be insanely great. It’s up to you,
cowboy. — Michael Jans, Agency
Revolution
42 – Go Out of Your Way
Going out of your way to help a customer
will likely benefit you in terms of customer
retention and word-of-mouth. But it’s also
just a genuinely good thing to do — and
that’s worth something, too. — Aimee
Woodall, The Black Sheep Agency
43 – Buyer’s Remorse Review
What do you do when you discover that
your personal or commercial prospect’s pol-
icies just renewed? One response is to target
their post-sale period of uncertainty and
offer to provide a “buyer’s remorse review.”
Your prompt second opinion can open an
unsure prospect’s mind to many valid criti-
cisms. — Alan Shulman, www.AgencyIdeas.com
SPECIAL REPORT
continued from page 37

5. August 19, 2013 INSURANCE JOURNAL-NATIONAL | 39www.insurancejournal.com
44 – Free Coffee
We have a promotion on our website that
offers a $5 Starbucks
giftcard for referring
a friend to our
agency. — Trident
Insurance Agency
45 – Build a
Community
There is
strength in numbers.
Look for people who
are excited about the
work you do and high-
light them. Create
an ambassador program
to get even more people
involved. You’ll suddenly
find your brand popping up in more plac-
es: in conversations, blog posts and “Best
Company” lists. — Aimee Woodall, The Black
Sheep Agency
46 – Dissatisfaction Surveys
What’s wrong with your insurance? Don’t
use the same old “let me quote” approach
when soliciting commercial lines. Instead,
employ a business “dissatisfaction survey”
to differentiate yourself and to let the buyer
vent about what’s wrong with his current
insurance program. When you know exactly
what bugs him, you can provide a custom
solution. — Alan Shulman,
www.AgencyIdeas.com
47 – Turn to Training
The industry’s nonprofit organizations
are a rich source of training and education.
The CPCU Society, ceu.com, AIMS Society,
and NAPSLO are a few of the national orga-
nizations that offer specialized classes in
property/casualty insurance. Local associa-
tions and affiliates also are helpful and even
more accessible. — Sharon Emek, Work At
Home Vintage Employees (WAHVE)
48 – Featured Partners
We feature prospective clients and exist-
ing clients’ companies on our “partners”
page for cross referrals. — Trident
Insurance Agency
49 – Email Drips
Set up email drips in an automated
agency marketing system to automatically
follow up on every prospect over a period
of time. This will help keep your agency in
front of the consumer without you having
to remember to do the follow up. — Laird
Rixford, Insurance Technologies Corp.
50 – Shopping Carts
We have our pres-
ident’s picture on shopping
carts! We advertise our
agency at the local gro-
cery stores. — Trident
Insurance Agency
51 - –
Reduce
Redundancy
Maintain your records
and solidify your data
with data download. — Real Time/Download
Campaign co-chair Joyce Sigler, Jones & Wenner
Insurance Agency
52– Consider Your Audience
It’s all about the customer experience.
Think about their experience and what
they’re going through. Gather feedback.
Consider what they like and what they
don’t like. Try and fix the things they don’t
like. Use their recommendations and con-
cerns to change your company’s tactics or
direction. Your customers will appreciate
it. — Aimee Woodall, The Black Sheep Agency
53 – Real Time Saves Real $$$$
Implementing real-time functions in your
agency saves time and money. A typical
agency with four CSRs each doing 15 trans-
actions per day via real time (versus a com-
pany website) will save 90 days of CSR time
and $14,400 annually, according to surveys.
— Real Time/Download Campaign co-chair
Stuart Durland, Seely & Durland Insurance
54 – Be Quick
Be quick and responsive to a client’s
need. When I get a referral or an Internet
lead, I try to make contact right away. —
Anonymous
55 – Soft Stalking
If a prospect is not responding, begin
following their company on Twitter and
Facebook and participate. It’s surprising
how many business-owners and CEOs
actually check to see their new likes and
followers. This is particularly true of small-
er companies. It’s just another way to get
your name in front of them without asking
to personally connect on social media with
someone you’ve never met, which can be
creepy. — Julie Tinney, Insurance Journal
56 – Virtual Connections
Use your existing technology to
give producers immediate system
access while they’re working
remotely. Two technologies built
into Windows make it as secure
to connect to the office server
from across the country as from
across the hallway: virtual private networks
(VPNs) and remote desktop protocol
(RDP). — Frank Sentner, Work At Home
Vintage Employees (WAHVE)
57 – Online Banking
Use online banking to streamline
processes. Sending and receiving funds
electronically, transferring funds between
accounts, scheduling direct deposit of pay-
roll, and creating wire transfers are all ways
to be more efficient as an agency. Bankers
familiar with insurance agencies can help
develop programs to create an efficient
process in managing agency funds and
accounts. — Mary Grazen, InsurBanc, a divi-
sion of Connecticut Community Bank N.A.
58 – Varied Methods
If you put all your time and energy into
social media, you may end up ignoring the
potential customers who aren’t on social
media. Embrace a variety of marketing
methods to succeed, including everything
from face-to-face interaction to grassroots
tactics. — Aimee Woodall, The Black
Sheep Agency
59 – Set Up Knowledge Transfer
Experienced workers are valuable sources
of insurance expertise. Before they retire
continued on next page

6. 40 | INSURANCE JOURNAL-NATIONAL August 19, 2013 www.insurancejournal.com
(and 10,000 Americans hit retirement age
every day) and take their institutional
knowledge with them, set them up as men-
tors for newer and younger producers and
employees in your agency. — Sharon Emek,
Ph.D., Work At Home Vintage
Employees (WAHVE)
60 – Real People
Delete your Facebook,
delete your Twitter,
meet real people,
sell insurance. — Josh
Carlson, Wells Media Group
61 – Listen Carefully
Listening to clients’
concerns and answering their
insurance questions thoroughly
is extremely important in
maintaining mutual trust. The
client trusts that you are looking out for
their best interests and that you are provid-
ing them with expert industry advice. —
Trident Insurance Agency
62 – Be the First to Know
If you are tired that your agency’s not
getting data before your customers do,
encourage your carriers to initiate activity/
notifications for real-time notifications
and policy data. — Real Time/Download
Campaign co-chair Joyce Sigler, Jones & Wenner
Insurance Agency
63 – Become an Expert
Encourage your producers to develop an
expertise on an industry group or techni-
cal niche, and become the go-to
person in the market- place.
Enhance the reputation by
participating in nation- al
events, publishing articles
and hosting seminars on
the subject. — Laura Sherman,
Baldwin Krystyn Sherman Partners
64 – Carrier Help
Ask your carriers for content to
use on your marketing materials,
website, blogs or social
media. They
have a wealth of information to share about
risk trends and industry changes, as well
as claim examples/scenarios. Also, follow
them on LinkedIn or Twitter, and you can
share or re-Tweet any relevant information.
— Valerie Foster, Monitor Liability Managers
65 – In-House Social Media
We have an in-house social marketing
consultant that stays up-to-date with our
blog and social media sites. They reach out
to local businesses and post useful insur-
ance tips that elicit calls to our agency for
quotes. — Trident Insurance Agency
66 – Amplify Success
Rather than trying to accomplish all
of your promotion goals at once, focus on
growing over time. Once you gain recog-
nition, whether it’s a mention from an
important influencer on social media or a
front-page story, you can use that to show
more potential audiences why your brand
matters. — Aimee Woodall, The Black Sheep
Agency
67 – ‘I Don’t Know’
Don’t be afraid to say: “I don’t know.” No
one expects you to know everything; plus
you now have the opportunity, and a rea-
son, to connect with the client or prospect
again. Not only will you know you have pro-
vided the correct information, you will have
built trust.” — Christopher J. Boggs, Academy
of Insurance, www.IJAcademy.com
68 – Keep Score
Become obsessed with being the best
through performance benchmarking
within your agency and within
the industry. Top performers
are motivated by winning.
Encouraging competition
internally creates a growth
culture that helps you com-
pete externally. — Tommy
McDonald, MarshBerry
69 – Get Out What
You Put In
Start small
and strengthen
over time. Put in
the hours to build relationships with the
media and your customers. Brand recog-
nition does not just happen overnight. —
Aimee Woodall, The Black Sheep Agency
70 – Hire, Hire, Hire
Predictable, sustainable growth is direct-
ly dependent on systematic reinvestment
within your production staff year-over-year.
— Tommy McDonald, MarshBerry
71 – Why Measure?
You don’t have time to spend on efforts
that don’t yield results. You have to illus-
trate how your efforts increase brand
awareness, create buzz and generate new
business; otherwise you’ll never know
what gets you noticed and what ends up
being overlooked. Demonstrate growth and
illustrate investment. — Aimee Woodall, The
Black Sheep Agency
72 – New Client Thank Yous
Every new client gets a personally writ-
ten thank you card with their agent’s infor-
mation and a note that says: “We love refer-
rals. Thank you for referring us.” — Trident
Insurance Agency
73 – Total
Agency
Sales
Culture
Producers
are the quar-
terbacks of
a growth team, but key technicians
and high-level servicers are your lineback-
ers. Employ quality people throughout the
entire organization, not just within your
sales staff. — Tommy McDonald, MarshBerry
74 – Make Your Value Proposition
Valuable
Track utilization on all value added
services, charge fees on top of commission,
and have a communication process through
stewardship reporting to ensure the client
knows your value. — Tommy McDonald,
MarshBerry
75 – Match Interests
Employees and producers have favorite
SPECIAL REPORT
continued from page 39

7. August 19, 2013 INSURANCE JOURNAL-NATIONAL | 41www.insurancejournal.com
charities to which they personally give
time and donations. Choose one of those
for your entire agency to contribute to
by volunteering and/or a fundraising. It’ll
build camaraderie, help the charity, and
make your brand a little better known in
the community. — Jill Bookman, American
Collectors Insurance
76 – Institutionalize Your
Relationships
Develop a long-term retention plan on
large-scale accounts by introducing key
agency executives to decision-makers.
Involve quality service, loss control, claims
advocates, and other value-added service
personnel during the prospecting process
to help diversify the relationship long term.
This practice allows for better delegation
of servicing responsibilities, sells the
team, and helps transition relationships
as employees move on or retire. — Tommy
McDonald, MarshBerry
77 – All Aspects of Life
The bottleneck for selling comes from
lack of activity. Turn your life gray and open
the opportunity of prospecting with every
part of your life. — Justin Berry, MarshBerry
78 – Take Chances
Someone will always say: “You can’t do
that!” Just because something hasn’t been
done before doesn’t mean it won’t work
or that it won’t make a huge impact. You
have to take chances to stand out. — Aimee
Woodall, The Black Sheep Agency
79– Understand Customers’ Business
Do your homework. When the customer
sees you’ve invested time into understand-
ing his business, there is a certain level of
trust established right away. — Sales and
marketing consultant Barry Farber, as quoted in
Entrepreneur magazine
80 – Be a Solution
Don’t sell product and features rather be
a solution and new business will come to
you — Justin Berry, MarshBerry
81 – You Can’t Do It All!
Social media and blogging are becom-
ing integral to a
growing agency’s
daily operations.
Consistency is crit-
ical. It may be time
to hire a part-time
or full-time employ-
ee to do this. —
Real Time/Download
Campaign co-chair
Stuart Durland, Seely
& Durland Insurance
82 – Expand Your
Virtual Reach
Try your ven-
dor’s web-based consumer self-serve
quoting functionality, so your clients can
serve themselves for quotes. — Real Time/
Download Campaign co-chair Joyce Sigler, Jones
& Wenner Insurance Agency
83 – Google+
Use Google+ for research and lead gen-
eration. With more than 100 million active
users on Google+, it is a great way to search
information. It’s a good tool for finding peo-
ple in a specific demographic, occupation,
employer, etc. — Valerie Foster, Monitor
Liability Managers
84 – Once is Enough
With the use of a comparative rater, you
can key once and realize multiple sales
opportunities. — Real Time/Download
Campaign co-chair Joyce Sigler, Jones & Wenner
Insurance Agency
85 – Ask for the Sale
No matter what else is recommended, a
salesperson ultimately must always ask for
the sale. — Chris Burand, Burand & Associates
LLC
86 – Free Content
Tap into the insurance content — news-
letters, emails, infographics and social net-
working shares — that carriers and whole-
salers provide. Share it with clients and
prospects on social networks like LinkedIn
and Facebook, and in your email newsletter
and on your agency website. This showcas-
es you and gives consumers relevant infor-
mation. — Laura Packard, American Collectors
Insurance
87 – Differentiate
Make building your book easier and use
your agency’s institutional and personal
differentiation to build partnerships of new
business. — Justin Berry, MarshBerry
88 – Set Aside an Employee Day
Pick a day once a year to honor and rec-
ognize your agency team with a surprise
lunch or other special event that focuses
just on them and the work
they do all year long.
Recognition works. —
Jill Bookman, American
Collectors Insurance
89 – Pop the
Question
It’s amazing what
people collect.
Ask your next 10
clients or pros-
pects: “Do you
keep anything of
special value or sig-
nificance in your home
or garage?” That opens up
a new line of conversation,
expands the relationship, opens
up a channel for cross-selling coverage for
collectibles or collector vehicles, and reduc-
es E&O risk. — Laura Packard, American
Collectors Insurance
continued on next page

8. 42 | INSURANCE JOURNAL-NATIONAL August 19, 2013 www.insurancejournal.com
SPECIAL REPORT
90 – In Their Words
Often, an individual can tell you what
their primary concerns are in simple con-
versation. Have broad, open conversations
with clients and prospect clients to learn
about where they are in life. As you review
their insurance needs, use that conversation
as the guide for what your clients value
most. — Laura Packard, American Collectors
Insurance
91 – Get the Experience of Partners
Ask for input from your business part-
ners. Most will gladly pass along solutions
that have worked for them in similar sit-
uations. It will expand your knowledge,
strengthen your relationship and may even
lead to additional opportunities. — Jill
Bookman, American Collectors Insurance
92 – Find a New Way to Keep in Touch
Client messages related to annual
reviews, policy anniversaries and birthday
are common. Also consider special com-
munications related to risks. For example,
send an email to clients with classic cars
or recreational vehicle coverage
in the spring when the
“toys” are coming
out of the
garage!
— Laura
Packard,
American
Collectors
Insurance
93 – ‘Sales’ Is Not a Bad Word
Sales is often seen in conflict with ser-
vice, but when this function is executed
properly, it’s really the essence of good ser-
vice. Proactive, attentive, needs-based sales
in an insurance environment means that
you are serving clients by looking out for
their best interests, educating them about
the need for coverage, and covering poten-
tial risk exposures. — Jill Bookman, American
Collectors Insurance
94 – Set Your Goals
Goals should be set at both an individ-
ual and company-wide level. Be realistic
continued from page 41 but ambitious. Be measured but strive
for the best. Your goals should be based
on where you’ve been, as well as where
you want to go. — Jill Bookman, American
Collectors Insurance
95 – Mine for Specialties
Mine your agency management system to
find out where you have a niche. If you have
three or four restaurant accounts, then you
have knowledge within your agency about
restaurants. Ask your current clients about
other restaurateurs who could use your
expertise. — Insurance Journal
96 – Document, Document, Document
Keep track of what you do and
what you tell clients. It pro-
vides seamless service when
a colleague follows up later
with a client at a moment
when you are not available
to answer questions. —
Maureen Boeing, Landmark
Insurance Agency and past chair,
ASCnet
97 – Multitasking Break
It is so easy to work on the computer
while simultaneously talking on the phone.
Stop. Commit yourself to focusing on the
needs of the client with whom you are
speaking. Dedicating that time to the con-
versation and lending full expertise to his
or her situation will build stronger relation-
ships and open the door to opportunities
you may not have caught otherwise. — Jill
Bookman, American Collectors Insurance
98 – Branch Out
Pick your best niche and expand it like
crazy. Keep nurturing your existing book
while you grow your new “branch.” A well-
picked and “niche-branch” can outperform
the entire agency. — Michael Jans, Agency
Revolution
99 – Budget, Schmudget
I wish more agencies would “act like
grownup” businesses and budget their
money. And then, I wish they’d know when
to throw that budget away. If you’re getting
a positive ROI on a marketing campaign
that is what every entrepreneur dreams of:
free money. Don’t let accountants
run your business. Good
marketing means that
the marketplace pays
for your marketing.
(Don’t let lawyers
run your business,
either!) — Michael
Jans, Agency Revolution
100 – Agency
Newsletters
A newsletter is an
excellent tool to help educate
customers on insurance issues, to make
customers believe that they’re getting some-
thing extra for their insurance dollars, and
to keep an agency’s name before its custom-
ers. — Mary Christiano, Professional Insurance
Agents associations of New York, New Jersey,
Connecticut and New Hampshire
101 – Don’t Use Complicated Diction
When pitching, do not use complicated
diction. Pride yourself on being
able to explain the concept as
quickly, clearly and simply
as possible. The biggest
problem in sales is client
confusion. Confusion does
not lead to a Yes. — Tom
Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle,
a N.J.-based “upcycling”
and manufacturing
firm, in a
commentary in The
New York Times