More Selling Power for Producers

It’s well known today that an average agency’s book will completely turn over once every seven to 10 years and that top performing agencies generate 15% to 20% of their revenue from new business. Effective processes for managing sales pipelines are vital to agencies’ long-term financial health. With this in mind, there’s a clear disconnect that exists today between the heavy reliance by agencies to generate new business and the lack of operational support to enable producers to maximize their selling power. So how are agencies responding by supporting producers to succeed?

Let’s first look at how producers are working today. When it comes to technology and efficiency, producers are usually left to their personal devices for selling to be efficient. They rely on post-it notes, Outlook and Excel to keep track of prospects and follow-up because they don’t have access to a unified, agency-wide database and system that is specifically designed to help them manage their sales pipeline. And it goes without saying that none of these methods provides real-time tracking, accountability or visibility to agency management.

Additionally, when an agency’s sales pipeline is decentralized and disorganized, management and leadership can’t see a comprehensive picture of opportunities to use for forecasting and planning purposes as well as managing sales performance. Leaving agents to their own devices also causes inefficiencies through data loss as employees come and go, taking their contacts with them.

Because producers work both in and out of offices, helping them work as efficiently as possible while at their desks, including while managing their sales pipelines, is key. Customers feel more empowered than ever to buy insurance online, and automated sales technology can help producers get to know their customers, giving them a 360-degree view. Sales pipeline technology can give producers clear insights on how their offerings can resonate with their audiences.

Insurance agencies represent a heavily relationship-based industry, so producers need to have time to sell business out in the field. But how do producers remain effective, organized and focused while they are out with only a limited amount of time in the day at their desks? For agencies to grow, it is critical for producers to leverage technology in order to maximize efficiency.

Ample opportunity exists to implement more effective sales pipeline management processes, and technology is one solution. Though automated technology for managing sales pipelines has long been used in virtually every other industry, it has remained a significant unmet need for insurance agencies and producers. In recent years, many former mortgage brokers, who are familiar with automated sales technology, have migrated into the insurance industry as producers, and many of them have been surprised to find inefficient, decentralized sales pipelines in their new jobs.

In order to be effective and meet revenue goals, producers not only need more selling time in the field, but they also need the ability to cross-sell, efficiently manage leads and nurture opportunities. Ultimately, when a producer can do all of these things together, they can better maximize the potential of every client.

With potential customers researching both insurance agencies and carriers online, the winning new business is now more competitive than ever before. For producers to compete, they need to manage less, sell more and forecast accurately. An accurate pipeline of qualified opportunities offers the best insight into an agency’s future sales performance and can add value to an organization with immediate return on investment and increased sales. With all data in one place, intellectual property doesn’t disappear with employees. Leadership can efficiently and accurately use this data to forecast and plan for the agency’s future as a business. as well as view individual producers’ sales performances.

Today, many sales automation technologies exist, such as Salesforce.com, but most don’t account for the unique needs of the insurance industry—multiple lines of business and various carriers, among others. Vertafore kept this in mind when creating Pipeline Manager, a tool specific to insurance sales automation and focused on two key elements: managing prospects and closing business faster. Insurance agencies of the future will need to effectively manage their pipelines in order to maximize their bottom lines and edge out their competitors. Pipeline management is key to success in a changing business climate, which is increasingly reliant on automated technology to help manage relationships.

Paul Areida (www.vertafore.com) is vice president of California markets for Vertafore, and is responsible for sales and marketing strategy for rating and sales management solutions.