What If?

What would you do if all of a sudden your clients and prospects told you they didn’t like the way you communicated or sold and serviced them? Would you tell them: “tough luck, that’s the way we’ve always done business and that’s how we are going to do it going forward”? Probably not—you would adapt your model.

But what if you didn’t change, and after a few years you had only a small fraction of the clients you could have had because you were unwilling to evolve?

Well, that is exactly what many of us have been doing over the last several years when it comes to personal lines insurance. Across America, on average, independent agents only write about 33% of the available personal lines market. The remaining 67% is going to the direct writers and direct response companies. If we don’t choose to change and adapt to consumer demands, no one will do it for us. And there are now strong indications that small commercial lines business is primed to head in a similar direction.

Does that make you mad? Does it worry you? And does it make you want to do something about it?

Because you are a member of the Big “I,” you now have the tools to help us reclaim our personal lines market share and prevent erosion in the small commercial marketplace. The solutions are Project CAP (www.ProjectCapMarketing.com) and the new TrustedChoice.com.

The new TrustedChoice.com provides a value-added online resource for consumers. The best part is it will help consumers better understand and differentiate their insurance buying options by using a Trusted Choice independent insurance agent. Over time, our brand will become more recognizable as TrustedChoice.com becomes a site that:

• Offers tons of useful and candid content on buying insurance, choosing a Trusted Choice independent agent and the carriers we represent.
• Helps consumers understand the difference between buying insurance “direct” from an insurance company or through a “captive agent” vs. through an “independent agent.”
• Provides powerful agency locator services so consumers can find the right independent agent for them.
• Includes consumer-provided information such as consumer reviews and ratings of agencies and carriers, discussion threads, posts, testimonials and more.

Our goal is for our site to be so unique, helpful and valuable that visitors will refer their friends. The new TrustedChoice.com has now launched nationwide, and we need both agencies and carriers to step up and participate in the portal now. There is no advantage to waiting. Since its launch on July 1, nearly 50,000 insurance consumers have visited the new TrustedChoice.com in the first three months of operation! Don’t miss out.

The other side of Project CAP is Digital Marketing Services. Through the Digital Marketing Services division, Project CAP helps independent agents identify and successfully deploy an extensive variety of digital marketing tools, technology, training and services to help us attract and interact with today’s online consumer. These tools will help you drive new business to your agency and improve your bottom line.

It’s important that agencies and carriers claim their space on the TrustedChoice.com marketing platform and also engage Project CAP’s digital marketing services to bolster their ability to bring new consumers to their front (electronic) door. Signing up sooner rather than later is advantageous to agencies and carriers alike. Thousands of your fellow Big “I” members have registered and created their agency profiles on the portal. These agencies are live on the site today and are already enjoying the benefits of being listed. If you haven’t already done so, visit www.ProjectCapMarketing.com today and sign up to claim your rightful place on the TrustedChoice.com consumer portal.

—Tom Minkler, Big “I” Chairman