101 Sales, Marketing & Management Ideas

Fellow agents, Insurance Journal readers, experts, educators, marketing professionals, along with Theodore Roosevelt, Steve Jobs, Zig Ziglar, CNBC’s Kelly Evans, Harvard Business Review and Fortune magazine have been tapped for advice for this year’s list. There are big ideas and small ideas. The best idea is to find those that are right for your agency and try them. Enjoy and prosper.

1 Companies don’t buy, people do: Sales is not all about rational thinking and having the best value proposition. You also need to understand the psychological needs of your prospects. You want them to understand not only how your product will benefit their company but also how they will benefit, how it reinforces their own self-image. Will your brand boost their pride or help them win respect? —Harvard Business Review, June 2015, by CEB Marketing’s Brent Adamson, managing director of advisory services; Karl Schmidt, practice manager; and Anna Bird, director of strategic research

2 Former and failed: Get commercial referrals from former insureds and failed quotes. Ask for a “consolation prize” whenever a quality insured leaves you or a prospect turns down your proposal for valid business reasons. This request is an unexpected compliment to the non-buyer’s judgment and helps to keep the door open for next year. —Alan Shulman, www.agencyideas.com

3 Brand gap analysis: Ask if your brand the same and the perception of your brand the same in the C-suite through the rank-and-file employees and through the sales channel? —Jim Flynn, president, Hult Marketing, at IMCA 2015 Conference

4 Digital leader: The digital world is here to stay! Fight it and your agency will be left in the dust. Assign a digital leader in your organization. Be certain this person is a savvy communicator using digits tools and has digital experience. If you don’t have someone internally, then outsource. —Kim Fricke, Professional Concepts Insurance Agency

5 Inbound marketing: Have customers find you rather than you seeking out customers. Inbound marketing is a data-driven, holistic approach of taking total strangers and moving them to long-term customers who love your brand. —Dan Tyre, HubSpot, at IMCA 2015 Conference

6 Outbound engine: To help build current client relationships and generate new leads, we use a program called Outbound Engine. Outbound Engine sends out automated emails containing professional and relevant content, automates social media posts, and generates new leads through a referral program. —Mikelle Furman, Pinnacle Insurance Group

7 Stick to the plan: Every year we create business plans with much thought, research, and good intentions. However, throughout the course of the year it’s easy to get distracted with new leads and forget about executing the plan. Over a decade of experience proves that sticking to my plan produces success and enables me to accomplish the desired objectives. —Matt Hammer, Baldwin Krystyn Sherman Partners

8 Urgency with prospects: Get back to all potential customers who have contacted you within an hour of receiving their query. Firms that did this are nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead as those that tried to contact the customer even an hour later–and more than 60 times as likely as companies that waited 24 hours or longer. —Harvard Business Review, March 2011

9 Take a risk: “Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.” —Theodore Roosevelt

10 Simplify commercial: Simplify your commercial lines proposals. Pare your proposal document down to its most basic content. Customize it as much as reasonably possible so that it doesn’t look “canned.” Never fatten it up with meaningless content that distracts from the sale. Prominently feature selected proposal elements that add sales value, such as explanatory graphs, policy comparison tables, and brief, relevant testimonials. —Alan Shulman, www.agencyideas.com

11 Down with elevator speech: Drop the “elevator speech.” There’s nothing as deadly for killing sales than the vaunted “Elevator speech.” When we talk about what we do, we’re the only ones who care. It’s a turn off for others. —John Graham, GrahamComm

12 Stay small, go virtual: If a small, personal lines agency is what you want, embrace the newest technologies and operate without a physical office. If you have employees, have them work from their home. Or go it alone. Target a promising niche, trust technology, and keep overhead (and expectations) under control.

13 Structured sales effort: High-performing sales teams use structured rather than informal systems, are not afraid to stet “stretch” goals. They monitor and hold people accountable for results. —Harvard Business Review, July 2015, by Steve Martin, University of California Marshall School of Business

14 Adjacent products: Go beyond insurance by offering home security service, ID theft service, safe driving classes, webinars on work safety, dog training seminar, etc.

15 Treat every customer as an individual: Fight the commoditization of insurance products by tailoring coverages.

16 Wow your customers: In every interaction and transaction, big or small, exceed your customer’s expectations.

17 Be uncomfortable: Never get comfortable. Many salespeople get to the point where they feel they’ve “paid their dues” and have a right to such rewards as more pay with less work, access to prestigious accounts, little or no prospecting, and, of course, some sort of “special treatment.” Translated, this comes down to “the right to be comfortable” or “the right to coast.” —John Graham, GrahamComm

18 Content marketing buzz: Learn about content marketing. Visit redbull.com, the “World of Red Bull.” You’d be hard pressed to find anything about the energy drink. This is content marketing at its best. It’s so good, the company even separately licenses and makes money off its content marketing. —Kevin Brandt, director of operations, Trusted Choice, at IMCA 2015 Conference

19 Prospect with Twitter: Search Twitter for individuals and businesses you want to insure. If they have active Twitter accounts, see whom they follow and who follows them. Their associations can be revealing. This information, along with their tweets and retweets may help you to determine if further pursuit is worthwhile. —Alan Shulman, www.agencyideas.com

20 Loyalty appreciation program: Go out of your way to thank customers who have been loyal with event invitations, birthday and holiday greetings, gift certificates, recognition in agency newsletter, etc.

21 Customer-centric: “Customers are looking for an understanding of their personal situation when they’re having an event, and they’re looking for people to help them cope with it. They’re looking for that from their retailers, from their airlines, and from their insurers. They expect all of those people they have relationships with to be able to respond in the same way.” —Lynn Kesterson Townes, Worldwide Commerce Marketing Leader, IBM, at IMCA 2015 Conference

22 Choose the right agency: Producers who are committed to a career in insurance sales should be very careful where they build their book of business. Non-compete/non-solicitation agreements make it difficult for a producer to leave and start over. My advice: Chose a firm that has integrity, reputation, resources, support, and a compensation plan that will work for you 10 years from now and beyond. —Ed Kushlis Insurance Associates Inc.

23 Pick up the phone: Call clients just to say hello and thank them for their business, not to sell them anything. They will be awed.

24 Be a blogger: Content on your website is key to attracting people who are interested in what you are blogging about. If you or your staff can’t do it, get professional help. —Dan Tyre, HubSpot, at IMCA Annual Conference

25 Don’t be arrogant: Telling a customer, or an investor, that only you can do what you do or you don’t have any competitors is a red flag signaling that you really do not understand today’s business world. It implies there is no market for what you do. It says you think only you have the knowledge and skills needed, which is foolish. —Fortune magazine, August, 2015 Marty Zwilling, CEO & Founder of Startup Professionals Inc.

26 Social media photos: Include photos in social media posts to help increase engagement and tell your story. Here’s a handy cheat sheet to help with sizes: http://blogs.constantcontact.com/social-media-image-sizes

27 LinkedIn: Take advantage of LinkedIn’s publishing platform. It’s a great opportunity to expand your reach and gives analytics on views. Become a source to your industry and avoid pitching products or being “salesy.”

28 Learn why: Learn why a business contacted you for a quote. Check various sources in addition to directly asking the prospect. Ask fellow producers and search your agency’s management system and prospect database for the risk. Your office may have insured it years ago, perhaps under a different name or location. Also ask your carriers as your marketing reps or underwriters may be familiar with the firm. They may be contacting agents all over town or perhaps they’re habitual price shoppers. —Alan Shulman, www.agencyideas.com

29 Home inventory: Offer an online home and personal inventory service for customers.

30 Recordkeeping: Offer an online portal and app giving insureds access to all of their all insurance records, whether placed through your agency or others.

31 Guarding valuables: Arrange for storage units and deposit boxes for clients with high-valued items and/or who will be away from home for a period and want to keep valuables safe.

32 Offerpop: Our agency utilizes Offerpop, an engagement marketing platform that runs social media campaigns and/or contests. Our most successful engagement was a Halloween Pet Costume contest. —Mikelle Furman, Pinnacle Insurance Group

33 Comparative rating: If you haven’t already done so, sign up for a personal lines comparative rating service that allows you to provide multiple comparative quotes to customers in minutes. This is really what customers expect and what the independent agency promise is all about: choice.

34 Music maker: Create your own agency jingle for radio, TV and web ads.

35 Shut up and listen: A salesperson’s task is listening to someone else’s story. A much more effective approach is to say, “Hi, I’m Robert Gresham. What do you do?” We all like to talk about ourselves, so get the other person talking. You’ll have a willing listener– learn something that can be helpful in turning the person into a prospect. —John Graham, GrahamComm

36 Logomania: Have some fun. Have your company name and logo painted on your cars and/or on your body. Use our logo everywhere – you paid for it, so use it.

37 Expert network: Create or join a network of agencies focused on a particular niche market such as technology, marijuana, hospitality or other industry. Share expertise, markets, marketing and success.

38 Send a letter: Mail a unique and personalized letter so eye-catching you would open it. When crafting it, keep in mind most people are flooded with junk mail. Make it memorable. Take the time to write a brief message in pen at the bottom of all letters. People tend to read a hand-written P.S. note, and often times only read their name and the P.S. first, before reading the letter. —Michelle Couture, Baldwin Krystyn Sherman Partners

39 Treat clients like friends: Try to treat every customer as a friend and explain insurance terms in simple language. Not only are they comfortable and grateful, they will refer another friend and word-of-mouth is the best advertising you could ask for. —Brenda Ripple, Ripple and Associates

40 Mail testing: Don’t settle for just one marketing piece; try different versions. Tweak the offer, change the headlines, switch the colors, vary the times you send it. Track the response rates for each version. Try this when doing direct mail or email.

41 Testimonials: Display testimonials from firms that switched to you. Provide testimonials in written form or digital format to potential buyers. Add a cover note or email message that says something like, “Here’s what area firms wrote [said] to us after they moved their insurance to our office. You are invited to contact them directly to learn more about their experiences.” Get each client’s permission beforehand, of course. —Alan Shulman, www.agencyideas.com

42 Profiling top customers: Profile your top 10 best customers. Google them, check their LinkedIn page, check their web page, ask friends what they know. Find out everything you can about them. How they are similar? What traits do they have in common. Then go target prospects who share those traits.

43 Problem solver: Start by figuring out the problem. When a customer asks, “What can you do for us?” too many salespeople launch into a presentation about their company and how it solves problems. And that’s their mistake. “Right now, I don’t know, but I intend to explore your situation and determine the best way we can help” are the words that make the most sense to customers. —John Graham, GrahamComm

44 Ad audit: Have publications conduct an ad measurement study of your advertisements similar to what Insurance Journal has Signet Research do for its advertisers.

45 Print’s not dead: Local newspapers or magazines and trade publications are still important. Get to know the local and industry journalists who cover your company or your space. —CNBC’s Kelly Evans, CNBC, at IMCA 2015 Conference

46 Pizza and beer: Bring in pizza and beer for the agency staff every Friday afternoon. Or coffee and pastry every Monday morning. Share with customers, too, but don’t talk with your mouth full.

47 Competitive research: Google your competitors. Check out their websites. Read their employees’ bios. Note their list of carriers. Check out their advertising. See what they are doing in the community. Understanding your competitors can help you better position yourself to keep clients and win over new ones.

48 Skeptical consumers: Today’s customers are skeptics. They’ve learned from experience that many “solutions” are often overly simplistic, miss the mark, or are poorly conceived and fail to deliver on their promises. Don’t reinforce their skepticism. Prepare. —John Graham, GrahamComm

49 Be passionate: If you aren’t passionate about your agency, its work and its future, perhaps it’s time to do something else. To quote the late Steve Jobs, founder of Apple: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do… Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”

50 Personal touch, mechanical efficiency: Insurance is a people business. It’s full of good people who have the best interests of clients in mind. But it’s also a business with repeated processes — and for greater operational efficiency, these processes can be tracked and measured. In the world of operations management, there is a series of five steps to improve processes that are known by the acronym “DMAIC”– Define; Measure; Analyze; Improve; and Control. Once you define your processes, you can open your organization up to making them more efficient. —Sudhir Achar, Vantage Agora (VantageAgora.com)

51 People as brand: Remember that your employees are your brand. How they represent you determines your customer’s experience. They are more than your logo, or motto, or advertising, products or pricing. They have to believe in the brand. “We can develop the best campaigns in the world, but at the end of the day, they’re delivered by people.” —Jim Flynn, president, Hult Marketing, at IMCA 2015 Conference

52 Make it easy: Ask customers how you could make it easier for them to work with you. Even when you have a good working relationship with a customer, there still may be something that bothers them. Uncover any issues before they become problems. —John Graham, GrahamComm

53 Sundown rule: Implement a sundown rule where your employees always get back to clients the same day. —Laura Sherman, Baldwin Krystyn Sherman Partners

54 Profit sharing: Initiate a profit sharing program involving all employees, no matter how modest. It’s a motivator for many and an educational tool for everyone. Gets everyone thinking about revenues and expenses.

55 Back office matters: Firms that perform with better quality and efficiency in the back office are more likely to build on the important initial relationship with the client. If an agency makes fewer errors in its back-office, that means fewer bad outcomes (policy cancellations, complaints and E&O claims) and a better chance to build the client relationship for the future. —Sudhir Achar, Vantage Agora (VantageAgora.com)

56 Open space: Open your office space to community and neighborhood groups for meetings.

57 Hire a veteran: You won’t regret it.

58 Give sales a Sidekick: Sidekick is a program that tells you when people have opened your emails. That may signal it’s a good time to call that client. —Dan Tyre, HubSpot, at IMCA 2015 Conference

59 Employee training: Don’t skimp on coverage, agency systems or other continuing education for staff; it’ll pay big dividends in customer satisfaction and employee loyalty and help reduce errors and omissions.

60 MeetUp: Check out the online MeetUp.com groups near you. There is a group for every interest you can imagine, from sports and cooking to dog walking and antique cars. Or start one. The point is not to sell but to get to know people with shared interests. Build personal relationships that might be of business value later.

61 Course correction: Have every employee complete a minimum number of educational courses every year. Discourage them from taking courses just to fulfill continuing education requirements. Encourage courses that will challenge them and make a difference in their jobs ad careers.

62 Adopt a park: Many municipalities are strapped for resources and need help maintaining public spaces. Get your mowers, rakes and brooms and get to work. Erect a sign saying, “This Park Maintained by XYZ Agency…Because We Care.”

63 Water management: Every summer, before clients leave for that awesome family vacation, advise them to change their refrigerator water line. This will avoid getting home and finding their kitchen flooded. —Joshua Hyde, Farm Bureau Financial Services Agency Manager—Catalina Sunrise Agency Oro Valley, Arizona

64 Smile!: Be friendly, caring and confident and never forget to smile! I keep a mirror on my desk so whenever I answer the phone the first thing I see is my face. If I am not smiling, it reminds me. People on the other end of the phone can hear a smile. —Brandy Andrews, Nu-Trend Construction

65 Volunteer: Get out into the community and volunteer and sponsor events. During events we pass out water bottles that have been branded with our agency label. During our next event, we will hold an Instagram contest for the most likes featuring a picture of our water bottle. —Mikelle Furman, Pinnacle Insurance Group

66 Keep in touch: Contact customers when it isn’t necessary. Check in a week or so after doing a job for them. Don’t just ask for feedback on what your agency has done, but also pass along helpful information that’s not directly related to the customer’s work. It sends the message that you appreciate not only the work, but also the relationship. —John Graham, GrahamComm

67 Diversify staff: Diversity among employees promises new ideas, new energy, better customer and community relations.

68 Google help: Learn how to use Google Analytics and how to improve traffic to your website. While you’re at it, check out Google+ Hangouts for a simple way to use video conferencing.

69 True relationships: Establish a true relationship so clients enjoy working with you. Avoid being seen as “just an insurance salesperson” to clients and prospects. That just makes it easier for them to replace you with one of the other thousand advisors. Never forget people will work with those they genuinely like. —Michelle Couture, Baldwin Krystyn Sherman Partners

70 Cross-training: Not the physical endurance kind; the information-sharing kind. Set aside time each week for two employees to share what they do for their jobs and how they do it and ask each other for ideas on how to do their jobs better.

71 Brainstorming: Don’t leave brainstorming to chance; schedule a regular time for small groups of employees to share ideas. Employees are more likely to implement ideas they originate.

72 Collaborate and debate: By bouncing ideas and theories off those with differing perspectives (based on experience, industry, background), you’ll often times find ways to improve or fine-tune your work. —Delaney O’Brien, Topa Insurance Group

73 Market access: Use one or more online insurance markets like mynewmarkets.com to expand available coverage options.

74 Touch point analysis: Look at where your brand touches a stakeholder, internal or external, throughout the pre-purchase, purchase, or post-purchase cycle. Prioritize those instances and deliver action points around those. This helps build up the organization and get people on the same page. —Jim Flynn, president, Hult Marketing, at IMCA 2015 Conference

75 Be a mentor: Take a new producer under your wing–even if a competitor.

76 Find a mentor: Ask a fellow seasoned insurance professional you respect to be your mentor.

77 Act your part: Always look, dress and act like a successful professional – doing so will help you become and remain one.

78 Learn from rejection: Rejection is not fun but don’t let it ruin your day. Make it a learning opportunity by paying attention to what happened. Take a quick moment after hanging up to analyze the situation. Learn what not to say and when not to call. Find yourself saying, “Well, that didn’t work. What’s a better way to say it?” —Tom Hopkins, Entrepreneur.com

79 Role playing: Have employees enact various sales scenarios to test their customer and product knowledge and practice what to say, how to react, and when to close.

80 Restaurant scoring: Consider taking the local restaurant scores, which are published regularly in many areas, and writing a letter congratulating the highest ranking restaurants you seek to do business with. Follow up with a visit to congratulate in person. —Kevin Landers, Farmers Insurance, trainer and commercial specialist

81 Formal onboarding program: Don’t leave the process of bringing new employees onboard to chance. Employ checklists, technology, other employees, whatever it takes to make sure process is professional and thorough. Avoid misunderstandings around culture, procedures and expectations.

82 Open books: Educate employees on your agency’s financial statements and accounting. The more they know, the better they can contribute. But make sure they know to keep it all confidential.

83 Explore content marketing: Today’s consumers prefer to find content themselves. They’re going to find what they want, when they want it. They’re going to choose when to engage. So your content needs to provide relevance and a payoff for them. —Kevin Brandt, director of operations, Trusted Choice, at IMCA 2015 Conference

84 Admit mistakes: Nobody’s perfect, including you. So fess up to mistakes, do what needs to be done to correct the situation, communicate what you are doing, and move on. Others will respect you for it.

85 Needed coverage: Offer clients the coverages they need rather than only offering the coverages you think they’ll buy. —Chris Burand, Burand & Associates LLC

86 Agency partnerships: Smaller agencies may benefit from joining a cluster, network or other group that can help with markets, marketing and operations.

87 Audit your carriers: Do your carriers’ appetites and expertise align with your needs and strategy? Do you have too many or too few? Which are the good performers and which should you let go?

88 Free advisory services: We hired a safety consultant, allowed him to work, for free, for our current customers and utilized him in our agencies prospecting. After five years of fine-tuning this program, we have structured our agency’s entire sales effort around this value-add. We’ve gone on to add a claims advocate, benefits advisor, HR advisor(s). —Shawn Boyd, DFB Insurance Group

89 Emotional intelligence: Working on your emotional intelligence will positively impact your performance at work, your physical health, your mental health and all of your relationships. I recommend reading Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and using their action plan as a template to change your life. —Laura Sherman, Baldwin Krystyn Sherman Partners

90 Categorize correctly: Some retailers bring in garments under their own label/logo. Carriers might categorize them as manufacturers, which would affect their exposure and premiums. Clients might resist the categorization and product liability exposure, however, any claims might be declined by the carrier on a retailer-only policy. To protect their client and E&O, agents need to update their client’s coverage for that additional, and potentially large, exposure. —Warren Wettenstein, Wettenstein Insurance

91 Be responsive: Sometimes all your clients want to know is that they are recognized and being heard. If they email you or call and you can’t get the answer or solution right away, a quick response that you are working on it for them is all they need. Let them know you will get back in touch, and then set an expectation of time in getting back to them. This way they are not left wondering. —Florence Conlan, Baldwin Krystyn Sherman Partners

92 Sales mentality: Everyone in an agency should have a sales mentality. This, as Zig Ziglar explains, is about knowing how to deal with people: “I have always said that everyone is in sales. Maybe you don’t hold the title of salesperson, but if the business you are in requires you to deal with people, you, my friend, are in sales.”

93 Quick to fire: High performing sales teams, in addition to closely monitoring performance and holding people accountable against results, are not afraid to fire low performers. There is rarely any reason to wait longer than four quarters to decide whether to keep a new performer. —Harvard Business Review, July 2015, by Steve Martin, University of California Marshall School of Business

94 Round the account: A coverage checklist is the best account-rounding tool any agency will ever find. —Chris Burand, Burand & Associates LLC

95 Sell pet insurance: Veterinarian services are expensive and you know which clients have pets. Don’t overlook this growing market and the need.

96 Poll the public: Run an online poll to fund out what people are worried about in terms of safety in your community. Share the results with local media.

97 Move beyond geography: Local customers are fine but agencies must reach markets beyond their own neighborhoods to grow. Target business and customers based on interests or membership in affinity groups, etc. across regions or the country.

98 Reputation regulation: Monitor mentions about your company on the Internet. Check social media, public forums and peer review sites like Yelp to correct any misinformation and counter any negative comments about your firm–and to alert your customers should they be the target of online attacks. There are software applications that can help you do this monitoring.

99 Efficiency vs. optimization: Don’t confuse efficiency in sales operations with optimization. Boston Consulting Group says optimization such as targeting high-value customers and deploying sales resources with strategically-appropriate criteria, have more than three times the impact on revenue growth than efficiency initiatives like CRM, training an KPI dashboards. —Harvard Business Review, June 2015, by Frank Cespedes, senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and author of Aligning Strategy and Sales (Harvard Business Review Press), and Steve Maughan, CEO of Cozmix.

100 Informed shoppers: Remember today’s buyers don’t even talk to the seller until they’re ready to make the purchase. They’re going to look at the wealth of information available on the Internet that is published by someone other than the brand. They’ll visit, on average, 10 places online before they make their buying decision. When they make first contact with the seller, their decision to purchase has already been made. —Kevin Brandt, director of operations, Trusted Choice at IMCA 2015 Conference

101 Ask for the sale.—Chris Burand, Burand & Associates LLC