Over 25 years of experience working with recruiters and health, annuity and life insurance brokers, I’m still amazed. Too many people act like rookie insurance producers. They miss every opportunity to learn modern techniques, save time, and invest money in their success. MOST FAILURE: Many others make less than an experienced and knowledgeable agent.
This article aims to help insurance marketers become more successful. Without the support of others, it is difficult to move up in your career without guidance. This warning is important because I love to tell it as it is. At least nine of the key elements should be in your current grasp. Your chances of success in marketing or recruiting are slim.
The 12 KEYS Insurance Independent Marketing Organizations. State Managers. General Agents. Insurance Company Recruiters. Brokerage Directors. Independent Broker-Dealers. Insurance Company Regionals. Territorial Product Managers. MGA’s.
1. Analyzing Your Competitors Are they selling the same product as you or are they offering something different? Are they focusing on high commissions, superior product benefits, or exceptional customer service? It is important to know the number of competitors in your area, their prospecting methods, how many producers they have contracted and copies and brochures of their contracts.
2. Why Insurance marketers fail. As you may already know, 85 percent of life and medical insurance agents die within the first 18 months of their careers. The reasons for this include poor planning, ineffective prospecting and lack of management.
3. Total Insurance Base Very few marketers spend the time to determine how many agents are available in their area for life and health insurance. What percentage of these agents are new? What is the number of agents who have survived the first four years? A recruiter or marketer might be taking on too much. However, they must have enough agents available to take the bait.
4. Agents: What should you and shouldn’t focus on? This is what distinguishes the professionals from the old boys. Today, thousands of agent-recruiters aren’t focusing their efforts on target marketing. Fail to Face the Facts Your product may not be desired by every agent of life and health insurance. They are not all healthy and fit for your production force. There are four basic categories of life and health agents. Your target is within 45% of all licensed representatives.
5. Your Prospective Agent List is a top priority. Are you able to create a targeted list of prospective agents for your territory? You are among the few who have one. You are even smarter if your agent list closely matches those selling the same product as you. An experienced list compiler may be able to assist you. Insurance departments are rare.
6. Different types of prospecting. This is where marketers and recruiters often go wrong. There are many options: emailing, telemarketing and personal calling. You can also send direct mail letters or postcards. Attend association meetings. There are wide variations in costs and time spent, as well as legal requirements. A wrong phone call can result in a $11,200 fine.
7. The Best States to Recruit in This information is crucial for those whose territory covers a number of states or is national. Some states within your territory are 7 times more difficult for insurance marketers than others. The solicitation received by agents in your region is 10 times greater than that of other agents. Find out why it’s sometimes better to avoid big cities. To find out more about your area, you can test it or speak to an expert insurance recruiter.
8. Increase Income Techniques You will need to invest money and have a plan for continuous insurance marketing and recruitment. Many recruiters don’t know what ROI is or how to calculate it. For recruiting agents, a good ROI-Return On Investment (over three years) could be between 5 and 1, or even higher. An experienced insurance marketer will tell you that a producing broker/broker is worth at most $3,500. This amount is higher than the minimum 30% of self-considered recruiters spend on recruiting each year.
9. Prospecting techniques to reach willing agents. To develop an agent to write your products, you must have three things in place. These three things are nearly equal in importance. Your message must reach the right agent. Your product must be compelling enough to the agent to want it to sell. You must also reach the right agent with the right product at the right moment.
10. Tips and Tricks to Increase Response There are very few useful tips that you can get from your competitors. You may be able to stumble across some. The secrets of marketing success are closely guarded by marketing masters. Marketing experts know how to make your marketing shine with tips and tricks that are not used by others. One good tip can help increase your response rate by 40%. P.S. P.S.
11. How to word and design your insurance message. Over 80% of all insurance messages that are made available to agents through ALL prospecting methods will never be fully read. Many messages are filled with bait such as vacations, cruises and bonuses. Unfortunately, not many people realize that their product will benefit them.
12. Agent Recruiting Seminars. This seminar is a great way to get multiple agents to work for you in one meeting. You need to find out how many qualified agents you have within driving distance in order to pull this off. The next step is to create a plan of prospecting tricks and techniques that will get you the most traffic.
Insurance marketing success is an upward climb. It is not a point at which golden eggs will be produced.
