TriLines • A TriCounty Online Publication

There’s Gold in Them There Files!
Stephen Folan
President

How’s your agency doing? Soft commercial market, stiff underwriting guidelines, coastal property issues. Aren’t you glad you chose the insurance industry? Or in the case of many second generation agents, that it chose you? There are always obstacles in the insurance agency world. It’s what we do to get around them that make us better agents.

A while back, Dan King from the Travelers gave a presentation at a general meeting of TriCounty agents on how to grow your income using the business you already have. He explained that account rounding, upselling and cross selling are the easiest ways to increase sales without having to obtain new clients. Are you consistently performing these tasks? Do you have a way to track and quantify the results?

Recently, a CSR in my office received an account rounding bonus that increased her annual earnings by 6%. She asked clients about their homeowners when we only had the auto and vice versa. The more she did it, the easier it was to solicit the other business. We drafted letters to market personal umbrella policies and flood insurance. After Christmas we sent a letter to everyone reminding them to insure the valuable gifts they received for the holidays. It’s a proven fact that retention increases dramatically with each policy you add.

Has your agency done a good job upselling? When reviewing the auto renewals do you suggest increasing the uninsured motorist limits if they do not match the bodily injury limits? Do you increase the towing and rental coverages as the companies introduce new packages? Have you sent letters to clients advising them to increase their liability limits, especially those that bought minimum limits? On homeowners renewals do you offer identity theft coverage, water backup or the additional coverage endorsements offered by the companies? Have you encouraged your umbrella customers to increase their limits? Do you offer EPLI coverage to your commercial accounts? This all adds to your bottom line while filling coverage gaps for your clients.

Cross selling is probably the hardest of the three to do well because it usually involves more than one department getting involved. Your bookkeeper can notify the commercial department when a personal lines account is paid with a business check. Any applicant who answers “self-employed” when asked their occupation should be contacted as well. What about the life and health department? Do they get leads from the personal and commercial lines side? How often do you ask personal lines clients to review their life and disability insurance? What about long term care plans? Are the business accounts being approached for health insurance, group benefits and pension plans?

All of these practices require a plan in writing, and you must track the results to see which approaches work best. The staff has to realize that the entire organization has goals that need to be met. You can increase revenue without even getting new accounts. Someone is writing the other insurance for your clients; why not you? Don’t leave money in your files!