From time to time, Beyond Insurance likes to ask its readers: What challenges do you face as an insurance and risk management professional?
One recurring topic is the challenge of processing small accounts that generate minimal income and finding ways of increasing the revenue per account for larger clients. Although renewals are your agency’s bread and butter, do you frequently get caught up in the minutia of renewing smaller clients, leaving little precious time to prospect for new, larger ones? In order to free up time for these larger opportunities, we would like to offer a few recommendations:
- Turn the day-to-day service needs of your small accounts over to the CSRs in your agency. Stay in touch with these organizations via your firm’s e-newsletter, social media, telephone, and email. Keep personal visits to a minimum as they shrink the time you need to develop larger clients.
- Work with your CSRs to develop cross-sell strategies for your current small accounts. When you capture the P&C personal and commercial, employee benefits, and life/disability, the once-small account grows exponentially.
- Establish a networking system with your existing small accounts. Even though the income is minimal, these long-term clients are a great source of referrals and testimonials, and will connect you to larger prospective clients.
- Develop a compelling value proposition and unique process. Don’t forget to rehearse your value proposition until you have it down pat!
- Spend the vast majority of your time in face-to-face meetings with larger accounts. Focus on differentiating yourself through the use of a consultative, diagnostic process that uncovers the issues that impact your prospect’s bottom line.
- Each week, dedicate time to perform prospect research and qualification. Use a criteria filter to determine if the prospective client meets or falls below your standards. Your approach must be disciplined and strategic to eliminate wasted time on accounts that do not fit your wheelhouse.
By implementing the above recommendations, your average revenue per account and job satisfaction will improve substantially. What tips or strategies do you use to profitably handle smaller clients and secure larger opportunities?