MANAGING AND MAXIMIZING PROSPECTIVE EXPIRATION DATES A.K.A. X-DATES
Over the years we have had many conversations with agents about their approach to managing X-Dates and, although there are many different strategies, methods, and technologies used, the one thing they all have in common is timing. Even if your agency owns or has access to thousands of X-Dates on businesses, only a very small percentage will materialize into sit-down meetings without persistence and proper follow up. Let’s assume for a minute that you have already implemented a solid approach to cultivate your X-Date/Leads into appointments, by effectively managing them with the help of a CRM and a finely tuned script. According to our internal metrics, we’re only seeing about a 17-20% conversion from X-Dates to Appointments when managed correctly. Based on that statement, there is very little room for a lack of well timed, consistent follow up calls throughout the year. When used with the correct technique, you can expect an average of 20 new appointments for every 100 X-Dates in your pipeline.
Now that you know how many X-Dates you need to secure an appointment, before investing important time and effort, you should look at your quote to close ratio to determine whether your plan for new business is even feasible. Typically, experienced agents are writing somewhere between 15-35% of their Appointments. Unless your closing ratio is much higher, you should only consider calling on accounts that have upwards of 5,000 in minimum all lines combined annual premium; anything less might not make 8.1.2018 2 | P a g e financial sense. There are exceptions i.e. accounts that offer higher retention/long term residual/bigger commissions should also be factored into your target size.
Your first step is to decide who makes the calls. Whether or not you do it yourself, utilize an assistant, CSR or to hire someone. Next comes scripting…generally as a rule of thumb, less is more. You want to capture immediate interest by stating something unique and beneficial about you and your agency. Business owners are continuously being called on by your competitors, usually several times a day. That being said, you want to quickly state their upcoming renewal and what differentiates you from other callers - this should create a window to further your dialogue.
Managing and timing your calls correctly is key. Taking advantage of a CRM/Contact Management System is the best way to do this. Renewals should be followed up in sequential order, usually 60-90 days prior depending on the size and nature of the risk. Most X-Dates will need multiple calls in order to reach the primary point of contact. We typically will call each X-Date up to 6 times before giving up. If you’re unable to make contact or a policy holder tells you they’re not interested, it should be refiled for the following year. Most X-Date pipelines, if continually updated, should have a shelf-life of several years or more. Keep track of your information and make sure you can run reports to get necessary information at all times, i.e. number of X-Dates for each month, project appointments, proposals and sales.
If you’re one of the few agencies who are not automated, make sure your using an accordion folder labeled January through December. Additionally, ask that you receive your X-Dates in a printer friendly format.
Piggy backing an email and/or mailing campaign in addition to calls has shown to increase appointment conversions by keeping your agency name in front of your prospects. Your primary objective with this type of marketing is to become your prospects first option when they feel the need to examine their business insurance.
Option1 Marketing offers free consultative advice and support for active customers. Call us to today and speak with one of highly trained new business specialist 866.584.8043.
TARGET MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS
4 Tips to Improve Your Marketing Results
1. Choosing the Right Criteria
Your Target Criteria is the foundation and can literally make or break your marketing program; because of this, we help guide our clients down a proven path to ensure we are able to meet and even exceed project goals and expectations. First and foremost, make sure the premium exists in the marketplace. Is it a realistic goal? A few reports from our list vendors will quickly tell us that. Calculate the total number of companies that meet your requirements, then calculate the average premium paid per account and voila! .
Focusing on the right business classes with accounts greater than 5,000 in annual business premiums will ensure your program reaches a ROI of 120-200% year one. Profits will begin to balloon years two and three.
Another key factor in your criteria is Geography, and unless your agency is looking for Phone Appointments, your areas should be within a comfortable driving distance from your home/office. Traffic, weather and accessibility should also be considered when mapping out your territory.
2. Helping Us Make Your Agency a Standout
Let’s face it, there is no shortage of insurance agents, and with over 1.1 million insurance agencies in the United States, you need to separate yourself from the wolf pack. The reality is businesses are constantly being solicited for new insurance, often several times a day from various outlets.
Even with all the resources, tricks of the trades and calling concepts we use to secure Appointments, it’s not always enough to create an opportunity. We need all the content we can get from our clients, and not just the basics like your address and number of years in business. We want to know the intricacies of your model / your methodologies / what makes you a superior insurance advisor. Having this information give us the ability to get further into our conversations, potentially uncover discomfort within their existing coverage and set appointments with the most advanced insurance buyers.
3. The Appointment Hand-Off
The process that happens after you receive an Appointment must be carried out correctly in order help meetings materialize and mitigate cancellations. That being said, let’s start with the most important: Response Time - when you receive a new Appointment Lead Sheet, it is critical that you email your prospect a letter of introduction as quickly as possible. Ideally your email should go out within a couple hours from the point it was received. We must keep your name and agency in front of the insured as much as possible, both during and after our conversation.
Your callers will always ask the prospect to have copies of their current insurance policies accessible during the meeting, however, adding a Checklist of items needed to your letter of introduction will help your prospect be more prepared for the appointment.
Skipping Steps: for most agents, it’s a natural tendency to receive a lead and feel the need to immediately reach out to gauge interest levels and start the quoting/sales process. However, this desire should almost always be tempered with these types of appointments. The reality is, most, if not all the businesses we contact have never heard of your agency prior to our call. Therefore, most prospects can be guarded with their policy information until you meet in person. Once that meeting takes place and you earn their trust, you shouldn’t have any difficulties gathering their pertinent policy information needed for an insurance quote.
The Courtesy Call is almost always requested by the insured, either a day prior or the morning of the Appointment. If you cannot reach your contact to confirm your meeting, you should immediately send it back so that we can confirm or possibly reschedule the Appointment for you. We do not want our clients to deal with the headache of chasing prospects down to confirm Appointments. That’s what we’re here for!
4. Managing Expectations
The truth is, it takes time to build an accurate pipeline of interested policies holders renewing throughout the year, this type of marketing does not happen overnight. Due to the 100% client exclusivity, our programs are built from the ground up, and X-Date pipelines usually take anywhere between 2-4 months to fully develop. And although Appointments will start to happen within just a few weeks, you will most likely not see the consistency from the appointment flow until your pipeline has been completed. Clients should expect to reach Appointment goals over a 12-15-month window.
Be patient, allow for an open flow of communication, follow protocols and you will see long-term success from your target marketing efforts.
Please call your new business specialist today and let’s discuss what makes you so unique!
Option1 Marketing Group - Celebrates 20 Years of Empowering Insurance Agents
Revolutionizing Insurance Prospecting Since 2004
Greetings from Option1!
As we celebrate our remarkable 20-year journey, we remain committed to our primary goal: to significantly decrease, if not eliminate altogether, the time producers spend cold calling and chasing down new business prospects. At Option1, we take pride in doing the heavy lifting, allowing you to focus on what you do best—meeting with decision-makers who seek more suitable insurance options.
Our Journey
Founded in 2004, Option1 Marketing quickly established itself as a leading marketing and sales consulting company with a strong emphasis on commercial insurance. Our expertise encompasses standard property/casualty, group health, workers' compensation, and various professional liability products, including E&O and D&O. From day one, our unique consulting approach has been laser-focused on achieving 100% client goals while implementing accurate and easy-to-use standards for measuring accountability.
Pay-Per-Appointment Programs
We understand that telemarketing programs can be expensive, often requiring substantial upfront payments. To address this, Option1 Marketing offers Pay-Per-Appointment programs designed to ease the cost of implementing effective telemarketing campaigns.
Empowering Insurance Agents
Our mission is to help insurance agents build a solid foundation and effective marketing strategy for success. We are dedicated to improving sales, productivity, and overall commercial growth. Discover how we can support your agency's growth today!
Why Choose Option1 Marketing?
Results-Driven: We are 100% results-driven, meaning you only pay for RESULTS, not hours.
Transparency: Review the work before payment. Our programs run on a no-contract, month-to-month basis.
Contact Us
Want to learn more about how Option1 Marketing can transform your insurance prospecting efforts? Reach out to us today:
Toll-Free: 866.584.8043
Email: info@option1marketing.com
HOW TO ORDER A PROPER BUSINESS LIST
I remember ordering my first commercial marketing list and how disappointing the results were. It seemed simple enough, after all that’s why I purchased a list rather than researching companies individually on my own. The ease of having someone else compile a list of “ideal prospects” fitted neatly into an electronic spreadsheet…what could possibly go wrong? Well as it turned out, almost everything.
Business lists are the definitive foundation for any given target marketing campaign and it’s important that you’re using the best resources out there. When it comes to ordering a professional business list, specifically for Commercial Insurance, there’s a few things you need to be aware of:
List Vendors – with so many to choose from, how do you pick one? Generally bigger is better when it comes to list companies. We find that larger, publicly traded companies have more accurate data and can effectively capture more records on average. Additionally, you want to use a vendor who offers a self-serv, online dashboard which will give you full access to your account along with the capability of ordering and revising lists on the fly, day or night.
Multiple Resources – we also recommend doubling or even tripling up on your list vendors. You will quickly find that different vendors have access to different businesses. Oftentimes you will need to utilize several companies in order to capture the number of records needed. This strategy can also be beneficial for agencies who are in an area with a lower population of eligible businesses.
Ultimately, if you’re still unsure which vendor(s) to use, seek a referral from a trusted source, friend or colleague. Or call our team of specialists – we offer free list research through no pressure consultations.
Business Classes – with carrier guidelines and restrictions, it’s crucial that you’re zeroing-in on the right risk. The easiest way to achieve this is with the use of either NAICS and/or SIC codes. Both have the same characteristics; 2, 4, 6 and 8 digits depending on how intricate the target. The 6th and 8th-digits are the most descriptive, giving you further insight as to the business operation. There are many free online publications to help you find the ones you’re looking for. Most vendors will either have a list to choose from and/or a field that will allow you to enter in the business description which will then populate a list of corresponding SIC/NAICS codes.
Secondary and Primary Industry - Here’s where you start to streamline the list and make sure you’re only paying for the businesses you need. Most, if not all list vendors sell their product on a price per record and are looking to sell you as many records as possible. With that said, it’s important that you’re trimming the fat and isolating just the businesses you’re looking for. One of the most effective ways to do this is by selecting the Primary Industry filter as most businesses will have both a Primary and Secondary Industry classification. If for example, Auto Repair is the target, the list company will also include New/Used Auto Dealers as most will have an onsite repair center which will pull up under their Secondary Industry. This search filter is almost always located in the Business Type section of the dashboard.
Location Information – Continuing from the strategy above, the objective is to populate nothing short of a viable list of businesses, and to do that you’ll need to make sure you’re only ordering Headquarters and Single Locations, otherwise your new list will be plagued with branches, subsidiaries and satellite offices. Only use the following filters: Privately Held Companies, Corporate HQ’s and Unknowns/Not Categorized.
Premium Ranges – Unfortunately, Premium Filters do not exist within the professional list space; therefore, you will need to fall back on Fulltime Employees and Annual Revenue. Generally, the rule of thumb is to use 1 fulltime employee = $1000 in combined annual premium in order to gauge the potential business premium/account. size. So, for example: if you’re looking for accounts that will yield between $20k-$50k in premium, you will need to be targeting companies who have 20-50 employees. Please note for Construction Risks use the following: 1 fulltime employee = $2000 in combined annual premium.
Option1 Marketing offers free consultative advice and support for active customers. Call us to today and speak with one of our highly trained new business specialists 866.584.8043.